Below is an article written by David Tolson about some of the basics of Fat Loss. While this is not intended to cover all of the topic of Fat Loss, I think it gives a good starting point and might provide some quality discussion.
CONTINUED!
Fat Loss Basics
By David Tolson
Introduction
Like many other things in life, losing weight is easier said than done. In this case, much easier. While people can read books and books on how to do it, the constant dedication it takes seems to be too high a price for many. This would indicate that the problem is not a lack of information, but a lack of motivation – which, coupled with the easy access to calorie dense foods and the sedentary lifestyle of modern humans, can make losing weight seem to be a next to impossible task.
Many commercial entities – publishing companies, supplement companies, and too many others to name – take advantage of this situation. They tell you that they have dieting secrets that make weight loss easy and comfortable. However, even the most potent dieting drugs, and the best thought-out diets, are still uncomfortable (or, in the case of drugs, often unsafe). This isn't to say that there are ways to make it easier and more comfortable. But under any circumstances, it takes an extraordinary amount of willpower.
With that said, if you follow a few simple rules, you can lose fat. The rules are easy to learn, but following them is the hard part. This article offers the basics in terms of diet, exercise, and supplementation. Note that this is geared more towards those who are at average weight or slightly overweight and looking to get leaner, and much of the information in this article may not apply as well to the overweight and obese. However, unless otherwise specified, it applies to bodybuilders, athletes, and people just generally looking to lose fat alike.
1. Diet
Count calories.
This is what will make or break you. The majority of popular diets make the primary issue which foods you eat, and not how much. If and when these diets work, it is because they make you have a consistent reduction in calories some other way – for example, only meals that only have a certain number of calories each are listed as approved meals. Many think that losing weight is as simple as "eating right" or "watching what you eat," but it is far more complex – although this is a good cornerstone of weight maintenance, your body does not automarically lose weight even on a healthy diet. The fact of the matter is, you can eat only pizza and donuts and lose weight, so long as you are only eating 1000 calories a day (not to say that this is a good idea - see the following sections). On the other hand, you can live on a 4500 calorie diet of tuna and lettuce and conceivably gain weight. In other words, if you aren't following this rule, you will have a very difficult time losing weight or fat – especially since people almost always estimate their caloric intake to be much lower than it actually is, unless they are actually keeping records (even then, it tends to be underestimated).
The misconception that which foods are consumed should be the number one focus of weight loss seems to be promoted by the mass media, one example being their focus on the "low carb" versus "low fat" debate. In scientific circles, this debate never really existed – there was never strong evidence for low fat diets to begin with. But with any type of diet you follow, it's not going to work unless it's low calorie. Eating fat (or carbs) does not make you fat per se, eating too many calories does. In any case, it would be more appropriate to avoid certain types of fat, as some types will send nutrient signals that reduce body fat. The issues concerning which types and amounts of macronutrients are ideal are complex, and although they shouldn't be completely ignored, they shouldn't obscure the fact that reducing total caloric intake is the number one priority.
Another misconception is that if you reduce your calories by a certain number daily, you will accordingly lose weight. For example, if you are on a 3000 calorie diet, and drop to 2500, you will steadily lose a pound of fat per week, or adjust to a new bodyfat set point. This is not how it works – the body rapidly adjusts metabolism to maintain weight. You will only lose weight consistently once you place a severe enough demand on the body (called a "caloric deficit"), and until then it will generally stay where it is at.
A common question is, "What formula should I use to determine how many calories I should eat daily to lose weight?" There is no formula, for many reasons. Obviously, no two individuals are alike, but that isn't a reason you can't make a few generalizations. The real reason is, such a formula must include activity level, what foods you are eating, body type, how long you have been dieting and at how many calories, and many other factors. Almost every person finds that if they count calories, and reduce them weekly, there will be a certain point at which they consistently lose weight (commonly in the 1500-2000 range for men, lower for women). But even then, after a while, weight loss will halt. This is due to a variety of factors, including reduced body weight (thus less caloric expenditure) and reduced metabolism. This is the point at which you reduce calories further. Most will find that once a certain bodyfat point is reached, no amount of calories seems to get over the "starvation response," and weight loss is near-impossible – we will get into that more below.
Follow a cyclic diet.
There are tons of these out there – CKD, carb cycling, any diet that employs refeeds, even diets with "cheat meals allowed" – with any of these, you will be better off than if you eat the same amount of calories day in and day out. To explain it simply, the reason is that once you've been eating less than what your body sees as required to maintain body weight for a while, the positive hormonal response to food becomes quite amplified – levels of leptin, thyroid, sex hormones, and many other hormones will shoot up, leading to an increased metabolic rate and sense of well-being. The key is similar to that described above with caloric reduction – find a specific cyclic diet that causes a consistent reduction in bodyweight. If you are starving yourself, but eating too much (or more appropriately, the problem is usually "too often" or "too long") during your refeeds, high carb days, cheat meals, or whatever you call it, you are defeating the purpose entirely. And it is important to understand that although these techniques can help immensely, they are still not going to make dieting easy.
Regarding "cheat meals," my suggestion is that if you are going to do it anyway, try to make it beneficial, while at the same time not trying to make it perfect. In my opinion, if you have to eat a certain food every now and then, but that food does not fall into the parameters of your refeed, then do it – just only do it on certain occasions. The most important note to make is that one meal will rarely cause the sort of hormonal response we are looking for – you need a few hours of high calorie feeding at the very least (I say six hours minimum), and high glycemic carbohydrates are optimal.
By David Tolson
Introduction
Like many other things in life, losing weight is easier said than done. In this case, much easier. While people can read books and books on how to do it, the constant dedication it takes seems to be too high a price for many. This would indicate that the problem is not a lack of information, but a lack of motivation – which, coupled with the easy access to calorie dense foods and the sedentary lifestyle of modern humans, can make losing weight seem to be a next to impossible task.
Many commercial entities – publishing companies, supplement companies, and too many others to name – take advantage of this situation. They tell you that they have dieting secrets that make weight loss easy and comfortable. However, even the most potent dieting drugs, and the best thought-out diets, are still uncomfortable (or, in the case of drugs, often unsafe). This isn't to say that there are ways to make it easier and more comfortable. But under any circumstances, it takes an extraordinary amount of willpower.
With that said, if you follow a few simple rules, you can lose fat. The rules are easy to learn, but following them is the hard part. This article offers the basics in terms of diet, exercise, and supplementation. Note that this is geared more towards those who are at average weight or slightly overweight and looking to get leaner, and much of the information in this article may not apply as well to the overweight and obese. However, unless otherwise specified, it applies to bodybuilders, athletes, and people just generally looking to lose fat alike.
1. Diet
Count calories.
This is what will make or break you. The majority of popular diets make the primary issue which foods you eat, and not how much. If and when these diets work, it is because they make you have a consistent reduction in calories some other way – for example, only meals that only have a certain number of calories each are listed as approved meals. Many think that losing weight is as simple as "eating right" or "watching what you eat," but it is far more complex – although this is a good cornerstone of weight maintenance, your body does not automarically lose weight even on a healthy diet. The fact of the matter is, you can eat only pizza and donuts and lose weight, so long as you are only eating 1000 calories a day (not to say that this is a good idea - see the following sections). On the other hand, you can live on a 4500 calorie diet of tuna and lettuce and conceivably gain weight. In other words, if you aren't following this rule, you will have a very difficult time losing weight or fat – especially since people almost always estimate their caloric intake to be much lower than it actually is, unless they are actually keeping records (even then, it tends to be underestimated).
The misconception that which foods are consumed should be the number one focus of weight loss seems to be promoted by the mass media, one example being their focus on the "low carb" versus "low fat" debate. In scientific circles, this debate never really existed – there was never strong evidence for low fat diets to begin with. But with any type of diet you follow, it's not going to work unless it's low calorie. Eating fat (or carbs) does not make you fat per se, eating too many calories does. In any case, it would be more appropriate to avoid certain types of fat, as some types will send nutrient signals that reduce body fat. The issues concerning which types and amounts of macronutrients are ideal are complex, and although they shouldn't be completely ignored, they shouldn't obscure the fact that reducing total caloric intake is the number one priority.
Another misconception is that if you reduce your calories by a certain number daily, you will accordingly lose weight. For example, if you are on a 3000 calorie diet, and drop to 2500, you will steadily lose a pound of fat per week, or adjust to a new bodyfat set point. This is not how it works – the body rapidly adjusts metabolism to maintain weight. You will only lose weight consistently once you place a severe enough demand on the body (called a "caloric deficit"), and until then it will generally stay where it is at.
A common question is, "What formula should I use to determine how many calories I should eat daily to lose weight?" There is no formula, for many reasons. Obviously, no two individuals are alike, but that isn't a reason you can't make a few generalizations. The real reason is, such a formula must include activity level, what foods you are eating, body type, how long you have been dieting and at how many calories, and many other factors. Almost every person finds that if they count calories, and reduce them weekly, there will be a certain point at which they consistently lose weight (commonly in the 1500-2000 range for men, lower for women). But even then, after a while, weight loss will halt. This is due to a variety of factors, including reduced body weight (thus less caloric expenditure) and reduced metabolism. This is the point at which you reduce calories further. Most will find that once a certain bodyfat point is reached, no amount of calories seems to get over the "starvation response," and weight loss is near-impossible – we will get into that more below.
Follow a cyclic diet.
There are tons of these out there – CKD, carb cycling, any diet that employs refeeds, even diets with "cheat meals allowed" – with any of these, you will be better off than if you eat the same amount of calories day in and day out. To explain it simply, the reason is that once you've been eating less than what your body sees as required to maintain body weight for a while, the positive hormonal response to food becomes quite amplified – levels of leptin, thyroid, sex hormones, and many other hormones will shoot up, leading to an increased metabolic rate and sense of well-being. The key is similar to that described above with caloric reduction – find a specific cyclic diet that causes a consistent reduction in bodyweight. If you are starving yourself, but eating too much (or more appropriately, the problem is usually "too often" or "too long") during your refeeds, high carb days, cheat meals, or whatever you call it, you are defeating the purpose entirely. And it is important to understand that although these techniques can help immensely, they are still not going to make dieting easy.
Regarding "cheat meals," my suggestion is that if you are going to do it anyway, try to make it beneficial, while at the same time not trying to make it perfect. In my opinion, if you have to eat a certain food every now and then, but that food does not fall into the parameters of your refeed, then do it – just only do it on certain occasions. The most important note to make is that one meal will rarely cause the sort of hormonal response we are looking for – you need a few hours of high calorie feeding at the very least (I say six hours minimum), and high glycemic carbohydrates are optimal.
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