But Calories IN < Calories Out = weight loss is not accurate! (What? Are you sure, everyone says so?!)
It MUST be combined with fasting, it's a natural thing to do, and we've forgotten all about it!
Why? The reason is hormones. (more specifically, Insulin!)
If you eat, the hormones in your body give it a signal that it is feeding time (insulin levels are high), and it will take nutrients from the food that comes in from that food.
If food comes in, the body will not touch it’s energy reserves stored in the form of fat. If you eat (and snack) too much, some of the food is converted into more fat and stored (= weight/fat gain).
The more you eat, or the longer the period each day that you feed yourself (including in between snacks etc), the less the body will access fat reserves, and that's because the insulin levels haven't dropped sufficiently yet.
Even if you decide to eat less, if you don’t take long enough breaks between eating, your insulin levels will not change enough to get the signal to look for alternative energy sources (your body fat), and you will maintain weight. In fact, when decreasing your food / calory intake below your basal metabolic rate, but you keep snacking throughout the day your body will respond by lowering your metabolism, as insulin levels are still high (we're still telling our body that there's food on the way!). This, in turn makes you feel tired, restless, low energy levels, sleep bad. Your body never reaches the ‘fasting’ stage.
However, if you have a long enough break between meals, your body will switch from feeding to fasting mode and start sourcing food from elsewhere as the hormones/insulin activated by eating (however little that was) will now not be as prevalent/subside. Now you will burn these fat reserves.
So the answer to successful weight loss is to eat healthy (real) foods, during a shorter time window, do not snack during the fasting period (as it will activate hormones that stop the fat burning process) or in between meals, and ensure quantity of food is also calory controlled, do not over eat! Water, black coffee/tea (or even a very small amount of cream/milk) is OK during the fast, until you eat the first meal, which for a reason is called ‘break fast’….
Easiest is intermittent Fasting where you prolong the period of not eating in a 24 period. Very popular is 16-8 (16 hours of not eating between dinner and your first meal the following day, and eat properly between that first and last meal (dinner) in an 8 hour window). Eating properly means you won’t feel hungry as quickly and you’ll be able to resist the urge to snack in between, just do not over eat, but eat enough to feed your life style and in a slight deficit to ensure you burn fat and not pile it back on (more on food later).
Fasting will make me feel hungry!
Ride the hunger waves: Feeling a bit hungry is very normal! Even our ancestors did and was a signal to go out on a hunt or forage for food. But have you ever seen a fat caveman? No, due to the periods without food, they were naturally fasting! Yet they were not feeling tired, lethargic etc. In fact, hunger raises your metabolic rate (by taking energy from storage!) to give you the energy to go on and find food! It’s a simple built in mechanism we are not using (enough) in our modern lifestyles. But even a few generations ago, when we didn’t have as much food available all the time (We didn’t have fridges/freezers etc) we did all the time! (look at an older photo, how many overweight or obese people can you identify?).
But dealing with hunger is easy nowadays. In our case we can easily deal with it by spending at least half of our fast period asleep, and drink water/black coffee etc. and keep ourselves busy before it’s time to eat.
Myth: Fasting or diets will make me burn muscle!
Fasting will not burn muscle! Again, think of Mr Caveman, if he were to burn up his own muscle due to not having food, he would not have the strength and energy to go out on a hunt, it would make no sense! Our bodies are not designed like that.
Muscles mostly shrink if you do not use them! Use them and they maintain themselves, and if you want to grow them, then use them more! (and for that you need food too).
Once you get to a situation where you can’t access foods for longer, you start to starve, now your body will go in decline and start to eat itself to sustain life for as long as possible, fasting is not starving!
Quality Foods:
This, is another incredibly important factor, that deserves a good long hard look!
In our modern lives, we are overwhelmed by choices, and many foods we now eat regularly are promoted to us by decades of very clever marketing, but many of these foods are not real! At least in part they are factory processed. I mentioned fridges/freezers earlier, but before these were common place, we used other methods to preserve our foods (think pickling,curing,fermenting etc.) We then started to see if we could do so differently. The common term is ‘ultra processed’ (UPF). They’ve gone through some kind of factory process.
Look at the ingredients. (example butter: If the ‘butter’ you use contains emulsifiers, Xanthem gum, and lots of other exotic ingredients you wouldn’t normally find in your kitchen cupboards, then it’s likely not ‘real’ food . Take Butter: butter should just consist of diary (or plant based) ingredients, nothing more). Your body won’t know what to do with these ‘artificial’ ingredients. It will partly store it as fat, in many cases it will just pass through, make you feel hungry sooner (so you eat more still, there is no real nutritional factor to it).
Although studies are not complete and many researchers are only just in the last decade or so starting to put two and two together, early indications are that our consumption of Ultra Processed foods, appear to go hand in hand with the obesity crisis, and general public health (cancers, diabetics etc.). Many of these are to do with what we (don’t) do and what we eat.
The reason for these UPF ingredients is mostly: It began with a quest to help preserve the food longer, but the industry and economic factors have started to play a bigger role, it had to be cheap to manufacture, and nowadays in some cases make you feel hungry sooner (lower real nutritional content). With a growing population it also helps manage the available food resources. But in our western world : Cheap manufacturing and the hunger factor (= increased consumption) = PROFIT, for the producers, not you!
We are a consumer society now, and the producers know this all too well and adjust their products and marketing campaigns accordingly, even labeling some as healthy, low calorie etc. (I challenge you to look at a supermarket health food (protein fruit bar, how much real fruit is in it? I bet it's less than 10%) and see how much 'real' food is in it? what else is in that bar, do you have any of it in your kitchen/fridge/freezer? Look at 0% greek yogurt, or any 'low calorie' foods, the list goes on...)
Where you can afford it, eat as much fresh food as part of your diet. Eat real foods may look more expensive and it may be to an extent (in the UK a tub of ‘UPF’ butter is around 2,- or less, real butter at least double that) eat a bit less. So rather than eat (lots of) 'low calorie foods (which is lacking in food and full of substitutes, either to simulate taste or texture, or both etc.) you can eat smaller portions of real food (and thus eat less calories in that manner) and not feel the need to snack in between so there are savings on that side of the coin.
Exercise:
To exercise / lead a more active lifestyle is to help you offset the calories you eat so more of it is used to feed your activity and less of it is used to go to ‘storage’.
Exercise for weightloss should not be your only goal. You also do it to improve your cardiovascular health, endurance, strength and flexibility, all functions that help you to maintain your overall health!
Exercising raises your metabolic rate temporarily helping you burn fat, but be aware: don’t think that exercising and eating a calory controlled diet alone is helping you lose weight. It firstly consumes 'energy' you've taken in from foods, not the stored fats as long as your body is not in a fasting state, so for the most part, it slows down the process of storing additional fats for most people. But once your body is out of energy sources and not in a fasted state yet, it will slow donw your metabolic rate (it's a built in energy preservation system)
Also keep in mind that as you lose weight, your basal metabolic rate will also drop. (It’s easy to see why, if you weigh less, your muscles don’t have to work as hard to keep you functioning compared to when you carry extra weight!)
So if you find your plateau and if you want to continue lose weight, you also have to keep adjusting your food intake slightly, but also keep exercising to retain an elevated metabolic rate for longer.
So as you can see, if you exercise in a fasted state, it may be more effective, but that's not always practical for many people (unless you are able to do so first thing in the morning before breakfast (although prolonged exercise on an empty stomach is'nt great either and you won't produce your best efforts, for that some additional fuel is needed!)) which leads me to the following topic, Life style.
Life style:
Your lifestyle is largely dictated by your personal circumstances. Your work and work schedule, family etc.etc.
Therefore Fasting, Exercise, Food types you eat are often influenced by these factors.
Weight loss plans often fail because they are not sustainable, by either of these or combination of factors so be realistic.
You may not be able to choose what and when you eat dinner (together as a family) but often the easiest to control are your breakfast/lunch time. You may be able to skip breakfast on work days (but take a bigger lunch to compensate) and have dinner with your family (usually between 6-7pm).
You may not be able to exercise as regularly as you’d like. Exercise when you can (maybe just once per week? It’s more than you may currently be doing so it’s a win!) and make other choices.
Exercise doesn’t mean you have to join a gym! There are other daily changes that may be available to you. Maybe you can walk or cycle more? Use the stairs instead of the lift? Take the dog out for longer walks etc. There are many things you can do very easily that add up.
If you have a very social life that involves (weekend) meetings for drinks / food etc, then so be it, enjoy yourself on the weekend, but get back on track during the week. Diets fail if you can’t enjoy life, if they don’t fit with your life, if you can't enjoy the process, if you fail to see results!
But on the flip side, if you don’t like the current state of affairs, you need to look long and hard where you can make some sustainable changes, so some sacrifices may be needed (drink a little less, eat smaller meals (not 3 courses all the time when out) and try to eat well when you do so you resist the urge for snacks longer)).
So while the fitness industry is partly right when they state that weightloss is a combination of exercise and a good diet (what and how much), they don't (yet) focus on when to eat, and largely focus on calorie in = calorie out (or rather calorie in < calorie out= weightloss (which is not entirely accurate)).
Weight loss is not the same formula for everyone and you may need to experiment for a while to find the best approach for you, but as long as you can commit to regular fasting periods, eat good foods (and not snack!), limit your alcohol intake and exercise a bit more, then long term you’ll start to see changes. Depending on what you are able/willing to do, the weight loss will vary. From just a few pounds per month, to several per week!
Once you hit your desired weight (better term is 'physique' ) , try and find the correct balance to prevent further weight loss or gain.
So if you are familiar with the Tao of Jeet Kune Do, then the following sentence will make sense.
'The key to a succesful 'dieter' , is not only knowing What to eat, but understand the why and when'!
I hope this article has helped you to gain an understanding of the processes involved, and at least get you start to think about how you will approach your weight loss.
Note: So as the title suggests, it's not weight, realistically it’s fat loss you’re after, weight may not drop if you also engage in strength training as muscle mass is heavier than the same volume of fat. What most are after is a lean physique, look slim, fit, healthy. Therefore, weight alone is not a good indicator. Whilst inaccurate, smart scales can give you a bit of an indication about your body composition, but the mirror, tape measures (and the sizes of clothes you wear) and how you feel (energetic/lathargic) are your best indicator!
Further reading on the above topics (particularly on fasting and good foods) I recommend the following books:
A short explanation about fasting (and mistakes) can be found here:
Not in control of your foods:
Walk On!
