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Why Can't I Lose Weight?????

ORIGINAL POST
Posted by Ed 5 yrs ago
So you are pounding away on the treadmill...  and you think you are following a reasonable diet eating complex carbs including lots of whole grains, drinking pure fruit juice, substituting honey for sugar etc....  
 
Yet the pounds are not coming off. 
 
If so, I highly recommend the book Go Wild. 

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COMMENTS
bananaq 5 yrs ago
start doing IF and keto diet

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Ed 5 yrs ago
Here's a quick summary of 'Go Wild' 
 
Up until humans transitioned to farming (from hunting and gathering lifestyles), we did not consume large amounts of carbohydrates.   
 
No bread... no pasta...  certainly no fast or processed foods...  next to no sugar (only what you get from fruits)....
 
Fast forward to modern times ---  most people take huge 'hits' of carbs throughout the day --- a couple of toast for breakfast, pancakes .. a large glass of juice...  perhaps a bowl of pasta or a heaping helping of rice with lunch....  2 maybe 3 soft drinks ....  a pizza for dinner....   maybe a burger... 
 
All these carbs are not needed by our bodies so they get converted into fat...  the author also argues that the body can react badly to these inputs --- there is a case study detailing how one very sick person recovered after cutting most carbs out of her diet (you can get all the carbs your body needs without  consuming foods that are high carb...
 
As the saying goes - you cannot outwork a bad diet --- if you are taking in loads of carbs, unless you are training at the level of a performance athlete, you will not burn them off - so you will not lose weight. 
 
The book is well worth reading as it can inspire you to lead a more health life...  but the author does a quick summary of recommendations:
 
- avoid sugar of any kind including honey - it is all equally bad
 
- avoid all processed foods 
 
- avoid bread, rice and pasta (including whole grain stuff)
 
- avoid all soft drinks and fruit juice 
 
- limit your alcohol intake 
 
- eat a wide variety of foods to obtain a wide range of nutrients
 
- vegetables, nuts, limited amounts of meat, dairy (if you are not intolerant) and fruit are recommended
 
- exercise regularly (group classes are recommended - check out the Les Mills options such as Body Pump and Grit)  
 
 
Our gym has regular 21 day nutrition challenge seminars.    The challenge is to go cold turkey --- absolutely no rubbish for 3 weeks.   You are not even meant to have milk or sugar with your coffee...
 
What this does is break your addiction to unhealthy foods (people with really poor diets often get physically sick for the first week) --- once you have done that you start to feel better with more energy and a positive outlook -- you will also lose weight....  (motivating!)
 
The other take away is that you then understand which foods are the villains... and you know to avoid them.  For instance - some people believe drinking juice is healthy --- even fresh squeezed is full of sugar....
 
Essentially the goal is not to 'go on a diet' ... it's to change your eating habits permanently... once you have done that then a cheat here and there is not a big issue...  you can have a pizza once in awhile without worrying about gaining all the weight back. 

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Ed 5 yrs ago
 
James Wilks travels the world on a quest for the truth about meat, protein, and strength.
 
Showcasing elite athletes, special ops soldiers, and visionary scientists to change the way people eat and live.

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Ed 5 yrs ago
'Can we resolve the saturated fat question...?' 
 
Dr Simon Thornley is an epidemiologist, lecturer, researcher and Public Health Physician working at the University of Auckland in the section of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
 
After training in medicine, Simon worked as a junior doctor in all three large hospitals in the Auckland region, as well as in the Hunter Valley region in New South Wales, Australia.
 

Since then, Dr. Thornley retrained in public health medicine and has been working in academia and the health sector in epidemiological and public health roles. His research interests include tobacco dependence, food addiction and obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, psychiatric disease, injury and environmental epidemiology.
 
He has an interest in the health effects of sugar and low carb lifestyles.
 
 
https://youtu.be/9FROFwHjEms?si=wuQhehV1TIiL2mAz 

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Ed 3 yrs ago
fat to skinny with healthy diet weight lossHow to lose weight rapidly
Over the last year I’ve written several articles about how to lose weight, what the studies show works and what they show doesn’t work. I figured it was time to put all that content together in to a single article that makes clear actionable recommendations. First, let’s just get one thing straight – the most commonly offered advice, to eat less and exercise more, doesn’t work. At least not for the vast majority of people.
 

When people begin the “eat less, exercise more” diet they quickly start to feel like they’re starving to death. At the same time, their metabolism slows to a crawl, which results in much less weight loss than would be predicted based on how much less they’re eating. It’s only a matter of time before they break down, and when they do, they’re likely to end up weighing even more than they did to begin with.

A successful weight loss diet isn’t one where you’re consciously counting calories and just eating less of the things you were eating before. It’s one where you completely overhaul what you’re eating. There are two different ways in which this can be done, both of which work. The first is to significantly increase protein intake. The second is to significantly increase fibre intake. Both work. If I wanted to lose weight rapidly, I’d do both simultaneously.

Earlier this year I decided to do a personal experiment with switching from the paleo-ish diet that I normally follow to the pure animal product carnivore diet, just to see what would happen. What this meant in practice was cutting down dietary fibre from around 50 grams per day to less than 10 grams per day (by getting rid of all the berries, nuts, and vegetables I was eating), while increasing protein from around 17% of total calories to 30% (by eating more meat). What happened?

Actually, I rapidly gained weight, from 73 kilograms to start to 80 kg around a month later, which is more than I’ve ever weighed (although still within the limits of what would be considered “normal weight”). Considering that I’m normally stable at 73 kilograms with little variation up or down, this was a pretty profound change and could only be explained by the change in diet. The weight remained stable at 80 kg for a few months, until I reintroduced fibre, at which point it dropped down again.

That is of course entirely anecdotal evidence from my self-experimentation, so the findings should be taken with a grain of salt, but it showed me how much of an impact fibre has on body weight, which would explain why people in cultures with traditionally very low intakes of protein, such as the people of Okinawa and the Kitavans, can still be slim. It suggested to me that fibre might actually be the more powerful of the two levers to pull on. That would be an interesting topic for future research.

That being said, there is no reason to do just one or the other when you can do both at the same time (unless you have some gastrointestinal issue and aren’t able to tolerate high fibre foods, or you’re vegan, say, and therefore can’t access the densest sources of protein – in that case it should be perfectly possible to achieve success by just doing one or the other, it might just take a little longer to get where you’re going).

So anyway, there are two levers you can pull on if you’re overweight and your goal is to lose weight. Most people in the western world have a low protein intake, at around 12 to 14% of total calories. They simultaneously have a low fibre intake, at around 15 to 20 grams per day. If you’re currently normal weight and you want to avoid gaining weight over time then you can probably get away with going low on one, but you can’t go low on both.

People with functioning kidneys can safely get as much as 30-40% of total calories from protein, which if you’re overweight will result in rapid weight loss. The average person can also easily increase fibre intake to 50 grams per day without negative consequences, although the fibre intake should be increased gradually, over the course of a few weeks, or there is likely to be some stomach pain and diarrhoea while the body adjusts to the increased fibre.

There is one class of food that is particularly detrimental to body weight, and that is refined carbohydrates. Refined carbohydrates are low in both protein and fibre, and they are therefore optimally designed to make you gain weight. Pure fats, such as butter and oils, are also low in both protein and fibre, and intake of them should therefore also be kept to a minimum.

Note that I’m not saying you should necessarily eat a low fat diet. What I’m saying is that you should limit intake of pure fats if your goal is to lose weight rapidly. A little butter in the frying pan is fine, but eating a stick of butter isn’t.

In light of all of this, an optimal weight loss plan has three pillars.

  1. Increase protein intake to 30-40% of total calories.
  2. Increase dietary fibre to at least 50 grams per day.
  3. Avoid refined carbohydrates and pure fats.

If you’re overweight and you do all these three things, then the excess weight will rapidly come off. You don’t have to feel like you’re starving. And you don’t have to count calories. You just have to make sure you’re getting sufficient protein and fibre.

Here are some examples of foods that are high in protein:

Tuna (85% of calories)
Chicken breast (75% of calories)
Cottage cheese (70% of calories)
Low-fat Greek yogurt (70% of calories)
Beef steak (50% of calories)
Soybean (50% of calories)
Pork chop (45% of calories)

And here are some examples of foods that are high in fibre:

Cauliflower (16 grams per 100 calories)
Raspberries (13 grams per 100 calories)
Broccoli (12 grams per 100 calories)
Spinach (10 grams per 100 calories)
Asparagus (9 grams per 100 calories)
Cabbage (8 grams per 100 calories)
Strawberries (6 grams per 100 calories)
Chickpeas (5 grams per 100 calories)
Kiwi (5 grams per 100 calories)
Avocado (5 grams per 100 calories)
Blueberries (4 grams per 100 calories)
Sweet potato (4 grams per 100 calories)

And here’s a list of foods that should be avoided like the plague if your goal is to lose weight rapidly:

Candy
Soft drinks
Juice
Alcoholic drinks
Ice cream
Cake
Bread
Pasta
Rice
Corn (maize)
Biscuits
Crisps
Anything with added sugar

There are many different ways you can eat that will accomplish the dietary goals of getting at least 30% of calories from protein and at least 50 grams of fibre. If you, for example, get 50% of calories from high protein foods and 50% of calories from high fibre foods, then both goals should be fulfilled without too much difficulty. Here’s just one example of what a daily meal plan might look like:

Breakfast: Low fat Greek yogurt with blueberries and raspberries

Snack: Kiwi

Lunch: Chicken breast, sweet potato, and broccoli

Snack: Cottage cheese

Dinner: Steak, sweet potato, and asparagus

(I hope you like sweet potato!)

Don’t attempt to limit overall portion size. Eat as much as you need to in order to feel satisfied at each meal.

Just as a final clarification, if you’re already at your ideal weight, then you don’t need to go up as high as 30% of total calories from protein or 50 grams of fibre. You can get away with less of both without gaining weight. This is for people who are overweight and want to lose weight rapidly.

That’s it. No need to read anything further on the topic of weight loss. Just follow this advice. I hope this is helpful to people. If you decide to try part or all of this, then let me know how it goes!

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Ed 3 yrs ago
The low carb cure, with Dr. David Unwin
 

David Unwin is a primary care physician in the UK. For the last eight years he’s been running a long term cohort study in his clinic, in which he treats his diabetic patients with a low carb diet. The study has generated massive amounts of useful data on what happens when patients with type 2 diabetes switch to a low carb diet.

And the results have been pretty astounding, with patients going in to complete remission from their diabetes (something which was previously thought to be virtually impossible), lowering their blood pressure, improving their cholesterol levels, losing weight, improving their liver and kidney function, and being able to go off drugs that they would otherwise likely have had to stay on for the rest of their lives.
 

In this podcast, I talk to David about how the study came about and what the low carb intervention that he gives his patients consists of more specifically. We then discuss some of the common criticisms of the low carb diet and why they really aren’t supported by the scientific evidence, and end with a discussion of what doctors and other clinicians who are interested in implementing a low carb diet with their patients can do to make it happen.

I enjoyed this conversation a lot and I hope you will too.
 

You can watch the interview here.

 

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Ed 3 yrs ago
Why we get fat, with David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson
 

David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson are biologists who have dedicated their careers to trying to understand how animals decide how much to eat and what to eat. They started with insects, and then moved on to small mammals, and ended up looking at humans, and they’ve chronicled their research in their book “Eat like the animals”.

What they’ve discovered is that most animals, including humans, have five different appetites – for protein, carbohydrate, fat, sodium, and calcium. One of these five, the appetite for protein, is however dominant, and is the prime determinant of how much we eat.

What that means is that when we’re in a dietary environment where the foods we’re eating are low in protein, then we’ll overeat and consequently gain weight. That is why modern humans, living in a food environment rich in processed foods that are particularly low in protein, are so prone to becoming obese.

In this interview, I talk to David and Stephen about their research findings, and get their opinion on what people should do if they want to lose weight, and also on what societies should do in order to create healthier populations.

In the extended version of the interview that’s only available to patrons, we also discuss some experiments that David and Stephen have done that suggest that a diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates, while optimal as a treatment for obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, isn’t optimal from the perspective of maximising longevity in people who aren’t metabolically unhealthy.

 
This creates a difficult balancing act, especially from the perspective of public health policy, where one recommendation appears to be optimal for the metabolically unhealthy, while a different recommendation is optimal for those who are already healthy and want to maximize their longevity.
 
https://sebastianrushworth.com/2022/02/28/why-we-get-fat-with-david-raubenheimer-and-stephen-simpson/ 

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Ed 2 yrs ago
Is a high protein diet effective for weight loss?
 

I’ve discussed in a previous article how studies on multiple different species of animal show that protein is the primary factor determining body weight. Put a mouse, a cockroach, or a monkey on a high protein diet (i.e. one where a high percentage of calories comes from protein), and it becomes lean. Switch it to a low protein diet, and it becomes obese.

Since this pattern is seen so clearly in widely varying species, it seems reasonable to think that it would also apply to humans. But what we really want is to confirm that hypothesis with randomised trials that put people on either a high protein or a low protein diet, and then follow them over time to see what happens to their body weight.

There are actually lots of trials that have tested a high protein diet on humans. Unfortunately, almost all of them are crap, so flawed in their design or execution that they can’t actually tell us anything useful. Two major flaws stick out in almost all of these studies, immediately invalidating them. The first is that they restrict calorie intake, usually in both the high protein group and the control group, but sometimes just in the control group.

Why is this a problem? Because the whole theory behind a high protein diet is that it works by reducing our appetite and thus our calorie intake. Basically, the thinking goes that protein is the most satiating food substance, so a higher protein content in the diet means less calories eaten overall. If you consciously restrict calories then you’re accomplishing the same result (less calorie intake), but through a different means (i.e. starvation).

It’s been shown many times over that a calorie reduced diet is effective over the short term, regardless of what the diet consists of. People are able to starve themselves temporarily, and thus lose weight, regardless of whether their diet consists entirely of red meat or vegetables or Doritos. But starvation doesn’t work long term (at least not if you’re living in a first world country with easy access to food). People can only consciously starve themselves for so long. Then they give up. And when they do, the weight rapidly piles back. That’s why conscious calorie restriction isn’t an effective long term diet.

A high protein diet isn’t magical. If it works, then it works by reducing appetite, which reduces calorie intake. In other words, it causes unconscious calorie restriction. That is why it shouldn’t just work short term, it should also work long term – it’s easy to maintain.

https://sebastianrushworth.com/2022/07/08/is-a-high-protein-diet-effective-for-weight-loss/

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Ed 23 mths ago
Well Being: Anti-Obesity Strategies and Memory
 
If this essay doesn't motivate you to lose weight, I don't know what will.

Robert W Malone MD, MS
 
My health has really taken a beating in the last two years. As many know, I suffered adverse events after my two jabs in April 2021. Since then, it has been one thing after another - and of course, the intense stress has literally been killing me.
 

I recently switched doctors, and my friend and colleague Dr. Brooke Miller is now also my physician. Having someone I know and trust as a physician is such a treat. Long story short, Dr. Miller convinced me that I needed to make radical changes in my diet.
 

So, for the past three weeks, I have been following a low carbohydrate, modified ketogenic diet with some intermittent fasting.
 


For me, this has not been an easy change. Giving up grains and carbs is not easy! But I went cold-turkey and wham! The effects were immediate. I dropped weight and my energy levels increased dramatically. My blood pressure is getting in better control, and I am looking forward to seeing the effects on lipid profiles and pre-diabetic markers in my next blood draw.
 

So, today I am just going to highly a couple of important new papers that confirm some of the positive effects of this diet.
 
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/well-being-anti-obesity-strategies
 
 
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F36fdbaea-85dd-4971-b83b-b97cffffcbdc_908x932.png 

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Ed 19 mths ago
Diet, Food Cravings and Weight Loss
 
Universal Principles
 
Presently, I believe there are a few dietary facts you can state with relative certainty:
 

•Regularly eating high fructose corn syrup will cause you to gain weight.
 

•The less processed foods you eat, the healthier you will be.
 

•Foods grown on remineralized soil, while difficult to find, are much better for restoring vitality. A case can be made that the demineralization of our soil is a primary cause of the loss of vitality that has occurred in our species over the last 150 years. To a lesser extent, a case can also be made that restoring the soil's microbiome significantly increases the quality of food grown on it.
 

•Quality of ingredients matters, and you should shoot for fresher foods that are produced in a healthy way (i.e., as naturally as possible). This is especially important for animal products (e.g., eat wild-caught fish and grass-fed meat and avoid anything that has received antibiotics or hormones, which are commonly administered to the animals we eat).
 

Likewise, a surprising number of adulterated and spoiled products are on the market. For example, according to one report, the vast majority of commercially available avocado oils labeled as "extra virgin" and "refined" were, in fact, adulterated and of poor quality, and 82% were found to have gone rancid before their expiration date.
 

•Properly purified water is essential for health and well-being (I personally endorse reverse osmosis water filtration).
 

•It is essential to eat in a non-stressful environment and if possible, to be focused on eating rather than some intellectual task. I originally heard about this idea from Chinese medicine (it relates to their conception of the spleen's functions) and have repeatedly seen it hold true. Additionally, spending adequate time chewing improves the digestion (and absorption) of nutrients as saliva disgests food and also decreases the need to overeat.
 

•Many digestive and nutritional issues (especially as you age) arise from deficient stomach acid and sometimes deficient digestive enzymes.
 

•Once you have had enough not longer to feel hungry, don't eat more (unless you are already malnourished). Avoiding over-ordering, avoiding grocery shopping when you are hungry, and trying to recognize when you are eating for emotional reasons can help to avoid creating this dilemma.
 

•Low glycemic index foods (carbohydrates that don't rapidly dump sugar into your bloodstream) are better for you.
 

•Avoid eating before bed. Eating before bed can increase the amount of time you need to sleep and the likelihood of gaining weight from eating. Extending this to intermittent fasting (e.g., one meal per day) typically provides additional benefits.
 

•Having a diet that does not impair zeta potential (which is necessary to prevent clotting and allow the free movement of fluids throughout the body) in most cases is more important than almost anything else. Since this is a lengthy subject, it is covered in a separate article.
 

However, to again allude to the wide variability in the human species, while each of these is true, the extent to which they adversely affect people varies greatly. For example, some fairly healthy people eat nothing but processed foods, and I also know people who can't function for a week after they eat a single processed meal.
 
 
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-diet-food-cravings-and 

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Ed 19 mths ago
Why Do Foods Make Us Gain Weight and Where Do Food Cravings Come From?
 
Exploring The Forgotten Side of Weight Loss
 
Fundamentally, I believe that the existing notion that weight is simply a product of how many calories you consume and how many you expend is not correct (although I will also admit I know a few people who have lost significant weight just by following a prolonged calorie restriction diet). Instead, various factors play a pivotal role in whether a calorie will or will not become fat.
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/why-do-foods-make-us-gain-weight 
 

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Ed 18 mths ago
The 21 Day Dietary Challenge Read More

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Ed 16 mths ago
The Case Against Sugar
 

From the best-selling author of Why We Get Fat, a groundbreaking, eye-opening exposé that makes the convincing case that sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium: backed by powerful lobbies, entrenched in our lives, and making us very sick.

Among Americans, diabetes is more prevalent today than ever; obesity is at epidemic proportions; nearly 10 percent of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And sugar is at the root of these, and other, critical society-wide, health-related problems. With his signature command of both science and straight talk, Gary Taubes delves into Americans' history with sugar: its uses as a preservative, as an additive in cigarettes, the contemporary overuse of high-fructose corn syrup.

He explains what research has shown about our addiction to sweets. He clarifies the arguments against sugar, corrects misconceptions about the relationship between sugar and weight loss, and provides the perspective necessary to make informed decisions about sugar as individuals and as a society.
 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29874881-the-case-against-sugar 

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Ed 14 mths ago
Check out these sugar-related facts before you take one more bite of that chocolate bar:
 

1. Fructose can make your organs fat – wait, what?! Did you even know that was a “thing”? It triggers your liver to store more fat around the outside of the organ, which, left unchecked over time, could lead to non-alcohol related fatty liver syndrome.
 

2. Sugar can lead to diabetes – “A PLoS One study found that for every extra 150 calories from sugar available per person each day, diabetes prevalence rises by 1.1%”.
 

3. Sugar can lead to heart disease and stroke – as a side effect of long term diabetes, excess sugar in your bloodstream leads to a hardening of the muscles around your blood vessels.
 

4. The Journal of the American Medical Association released a study that found a link between sugar increasing the liver’s storage of fat AND a decrease in the body’s ability to get rid of it.
 

5. Sugar can cause addiction – Just like a street drug, the more you have, the more you want.
 

6. Sugar makes you ravenous – It messes with your ability to tell when you are hungry or full.
 

7. Sugar highs make for huge sugar crashes – it takes less than 30 minutes for your body to crash after a quick burst of energy from sugar.
 

8. Sugar can lead to depression – researchers have found a link between diets high in sugar content and depression.

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Ed 13 mths ago
High Fructose Corn Syrup Ruins Your Health
 
In the late 1960s, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan discovered an enzyme that effectively and easily converted cornstarch into fructose. This technology was ultimately sold to American companies, and in 1983, the Food and Drug Administration approved high fructose corn syrup as safe for consumption.
 
In short order, the food industry took advantage of this cheap, new form of sweetener in extraordinary amounts. Supply of this ersatz sugar became abundant. The market, as you would expect, used this opportunity to undercut the historically high prices of sugar generated by the aforementioned tariff.
 
To fully understand how governmental policies lead to adverse health effects, it is important to understand how the human body metabolizes different types of sugar. The most abundant sugar on earth is glucose, a six-carbon hexagonal sugar, which has been what our bodies have mainly adapted to and utilized for energy production.
 
Fructose, a five-carbon pentagon, is another sugar found in nature, natural to many foods and another source of energy for the body. Similarly, both glucose and fructose are broken down in the body during metabolism by a biochemical pathway called glycolysis.
 

However, due to its shape, fructose happens to bypass a key early enzyme in the biochemical pathway that can serve as a check on energy production. Therefore, a fructose molecule entering glycolysis becomes metabolized and stored faster and easier than glucose. Overall, excess fructose ingestion leads to excess fat in the body.

That is precisely what we have seen scaled up from the molecular level all the way to the population level: soaring rates of obesity driven primarily by excessive sugar consumption.
 
Today, Americans consume an average of 130 pounds of added sugar per year, much of that coming by way of fructose. This is a sharp uptick from the 1970s, when average yearly consumption was closer to eighty pounds.
 
 Likewise, obesity has skyrocketed since the 1970s. The obesity epidemic continues to worsen, quickly approaching a 50 percent prevalence in the country.
 
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/america-obese-how-taxpayers-are-forced-ruin-their-health 
 

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Ed 12 mths ago
How to Quit Sugar
 
From 2005 to 2009, at least 74 percent of packaged or processed foods contained added sugars. Even if you don’t have the habit of eating sweets, you may unintentionally consume sugar in excess. For instance, added sugars have dozens of names, so you might not even know you are eating them despite reading ingredient labels.
Nevertheless, quitting sugar is not an impossible mission. Many people face challenges not because they cannot quit but because they don’t know how or they set overly ambitious goals.
You can break it down into steps: First reduce sugar, then quit altogether, and eventually overcome sugar cravings.
 
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/ultimate-way-cut-out-sugar

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Ed 7 mths ago
Mediterranean Diet Tied to 23% Lower Risk of Death in Landmark 25-Year Study  https://scitechdaily.com/mediterranean-diet-tied-to-23-lower-risk-of-death-in-landmark-25-year-study/

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Ed 3 mths ago

Fat Loss vs. Weight Loss 

There are so many products and gimmicks out there that promise quick weight loss. It’s been a buzz word for more years than I can count! If you’re unhappy with the way you look, your first thought is “I need to lose weight”, but what if I told you that may not be the right answer. Today, I would like to explain to you the difference between weight loss and fat loss to help you gain a better foundation to set achievable health and fitness goals.

So, really…What’s the difference?

Like many health-related terms, people get confused when it comes to weight loss and fat loss and tend to use them interchangeably. When you step on a scale, the number reflects the sum weight of your bones, muscles, organs and body fat. In terms of weight loss, you are trying to lower that total sum. When you talk about fat loss, your end goal is to lower your percentage of body fat, the amount of fat your body carries.

Generally speaking, there are few people who actually need to lose “weight”, namely athletes before a competition. But, for the rest of us, our target should be the loss of body fat. The problem with weight loss is that it’s an unreliable measure of health. Your weight can fluctuate daily due to water loss or retention, whether you have just eaten, bladder content, muscle loss or gain and many other factors. It’s really difficult to point to a single thing that could increase or decrease your weight from day to day. Additionally, an individual with very little body fat, who is for all intents and purposes in great shape can weigh more than someone of the same size that is clearly out of shape. A typical bathroom scale does not take into account these differences. So, it’s important not to fixate on a number.

So, what should you do to lose fat while building muscle?

The number one thing you should remember when you start on your fat loss journey is that you need to change your diet – you can’t lose as much body fat with exercise alone. Eat whole foods, protein and vegetables and avoid processed foods as much as you are able. Secondly, and we touched on this in the past, start strength training. It builds muscle and helps you burn fat.

Checkpoint Motivation

It’s very difficult to see results quickly, but it’s not difficult to track your progress. Utilise the Fit3D scan or manually take measurements before you begin your fat loss journey. Measurements from the Fit3d or manual measure will need to be of your arms, chest, waist, hips and legs. Take measurements weekly and keep a journal of your losses. Take full body pictures every two weeks to give yourself a true view of the progress you are making. Keep a journal of your meals to keep yourself accountable for making healthy choices. Make sure you are logging your workouts – again for accountability, but also to have written evidence of the strength you are building!



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Ed 2 mths ago

If you type the word “fat” into your search bar, you will pull up literally thousands of articles dedicated to the dreaded word. Generally speaking, fat is a fitness, nutrition and medical world buzz word that elicits a strong negative response. You need to lose fat! Stop eating so many fatty foods! Well, wouldn’t it make sense that to truly be on the healthy path of life, you should just eliminate fat altogether? The truth is, our body actually NEEDS fat to survive.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines since 2005 have recommended that adults get 20%-35% of their calories from fats. While that sounds doable, the issue is that the typical westerner actually consumes between 34%-40% of their calories from fat!
 
Unfortunately, most of that fat comes from dangerous sources that lead to obesity and heart disease.

Strangely enough, fats comprise part of a healthy diet! They supply your body with energy, help keep your skin soft and smooth, help in the absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K and are instrumental in blood clotting and muscle movement. So, why, then, has fat become such a bad word in the English language? The problem is that there are different types of fats – some good; some bad, and without a little education, it’s tough to know the difference. There are two main categories of fats – saturated fats, or the bad ones, and unsaturated fats, the good fats.

Let’s get the bad fats out of the way first: the dreaded trans and saturated fats. I know you’ve heard this word trans fat or trans fatty acid in the news, from friends, or doctors and trainers. But, do you know what it is or where it came from? “Trans fat is a byproduct of a process called hydrogenation that is used to turn healthy oils into solids and to prevent them from becoming rancid. When vegetable oil is heated in the presence of hydrogen and a heavy-metal catalyst such as palladium, hydrogen atoms are added to the carbon chain.

This turns oils into solids. It also makes healthy vegetable oils more like not-so-healthy saturated fats. On food label ingredient lists, this manufactured substance is typically listed as partially hydrogenated oil.”(2) Food manufacturers jumped on the trans fat bandwagon to increase the shelf life of their products and to save money. While a natural amount of trans fat exists in some foods like dairy, it’s the processed trans fats found in junk foods that we need to watch out for because hydrogenated oils can affect heart health because they increase “bad” (LDL) cholesterol and lower “good” (HDL) cholesterol.

Walking up and down the aisles of your local grocery store, you would be surprised at how many products actually have trans fat as a main ingredient hidden under the guise of its partially hydrogenated oil name. Here are a few products to avoid that are nearly always made with partially hydrogenated oil: Hot chips, margarine, pre-made cake and muffin mixes, frosting, frozen meals, crackers, peanut butter, cocoa mix, and microwave popcorn. Here are a few others that have a high probability of including trans fats: breads, pasta, breakfast cereals, frozen snack foods and low fat ice creams. Chances are, you have eaten at least one of the items on this list in the past few months.

Health advocates strongly encourage you to begin reading labels before purchasing goods to avoid the hidden dangers of trans fats. It is advisable to read the label carefully, all the way through the ingredient list! There is literally zero health benefit from eating trans fats, and luckily, the public has spoken and trans fats are slowly starting to be taken out of the food supply.

Saturated fats are another “iffy” fat to avoid as much as possible. These fats are found in animal products (meat, poultry skin, high-fat dairy, and eggs) and in vegetable fats that are liquid at room temperature, such as coconut and palm oils. The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fats to no more than 7% of your daily intake of calories because an abundance of saturated fats in your diet can lead heart disease and some studies indicate a link between these fats and colon cancer risk.

Ok, so now that you know about what fats to watch out for…which fats are actually good for you and where can you find them? There are two main categories for “good” fats and these include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. When used in moderation, these fats can be instrumental in lowering both LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides. (2)

Found mostly in vegetable oils, polyunsaturated fats are essential fatty acids. This means that our bodies can not produce it, but it is required for normal body; hence, our need to get them from our food choices. “There are two main types of polyunsaturated fats: omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids.”(2) Found primarily in fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines, flaxseeds, walnuts, canola oil, and unhydrogenated soybean oil, omega-3 fatty acids are credited with increasing heart health as well as decreasing the risk of stroke.

Monounsaturated fats, on the other hand, are found in olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil, avocados, most nuts, safflower and sunflower oils. A primary component of the “Mediterranean Diet”, studies have shown that people who eat these foods regularly have a low rate of heart disease. It’s especially helpful when used in place of saturated and trans fat-laden foods.

Replacing even a fraction of your “bad” fat food intake with “good” fat food intake can make a huge difference in your overall health. Start taking the time to read ingredient labels on foods you purchase and make a conscious effort to avoid the bad fat to help you stay on the road to a healthy life.


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