Personal Note: Weight Loss Journey (Part 2)

I’m down 15 lbs since January 1, 2010.  WooHoo!  That means I only have 35 lbs to go to reach my first goal of 225 by my birthday, June 4th, and 60 lbs to reach my ultimate goal of 200 by the end of the year.  It has been relatively easy thus far but I know from personal experience that the weight loss will slow and it will get harder as I go along.

Nevertheless, I am encouraged.  Very encouraged.  This weight loss journey has been much easier and more enjoyable (if dieting can be called enjoyable) than any previous time before.  In the intervening years between my two great efforts to lose a lot of weight, I’ve learned a great deal and have attempted to use this knowledge to make my weight loss easier. So far, so good.

That being said, I thought I would share with you some of the things I’ve learned and am using to make this journey easier.  You might find some of this information counter intuitive, but that’s just the point.  Much of what we’ve been taught about weight loss and which passes for conventional wisdom is just plain wrong.  I’m hoping you’ll find at least some of these suggestions helpful.

Nine Fat Loss Tips (This is the first of three posts)

1.  Eat only when hungry: Most diet books recommend you eat 5 to 6 meals/snacks a day, (300 calories per meal) – “grazing” they call it.  They reason that anything less than this will slow down your metabolism and cause you to stop burning fat.  This has been proven not to be true.  (See my post on Intermittent Fasting)  Missing a meal or two is not the train wreck it’s been made out to be.  In fact, missing a few meals a couple times a week has been proven to have healthful benefits including an increase: (a)  in the production of  human growth hormones, (b) insulin sensitivity, and (c) fat loss.  Most of us can live on far less food than we think.

Most of the time, we eat out of habit and often (especially if you are eating a lot of carbs), the more you eat the more hungry you get.  I’ve found that when I get hungry, if I eat just a small amount to satisfy my hunger and then quit, I can go much longer and feel less hungry than the “eat every three hours crowd” would have you believe.  I do have certain times I like to eat, 6 PM supper when I’m watching the news and 9 PM protein shake, but the rest of the day I only eat when I feel “true” hunger.

2.  Carbs make you hungry: Everyone knows that there are three macronutriets (Carbohydrates, Protein, Fat).  Our diet consists of some combination of these three.  Some diets suggest we eat lots of carbs and very little fat (think Dean Ornish – Low Fat Diet).  They labor under the mistaken belief that “dietary fat” – the fat we eat – turns into body fat.  This long held belief has been thoroughly debunked over the past several years but it is so entrenched in the modern American psychic that many of us, including myself, feel guilty if we overindulge in fats.

The truth is “dietary fat” is not only good for you it reduces your hunger significantly.  Did you hear that?  Dietary fat – things like nuts, avocados, coconut, eggs, butter, olive oil, animal fats, milk, cheese, cream, the list is a long one – is healthy and it makes you less hungry.

I don’t have the time or space to recount the entire story (you can read about it here), but two definitive studies were done to better understand the effects of starvation where the participants were fed a diet of approximately 1560 calories a day for up to six months.  The only difference was that one group was fed a HIGH CARB – LOW FAT DIET (225 grams of carbs and 30 grams of fat) each day while the other group was fed a LOW CARB – HIGH FAT DIET (67 grams of carbs and 105 grams of fat – almost the reverse).

The results were stunning.  Those participants on the HIGH CARB DIET starved, were lethargic, depressed and obsessed over food continually, while those on the LOW CARB DIET thrived and felt an increased sense of well-being.  Both consumed roughly the same number of calories.  The difference was in the amount of carb vs fat they ate.

Think about it for just a minute:  when you eat lots of carbs, doesn’t it just make you hungrier?  Sometimes when I go on a carb binge, I just can’t stop myself.  I’ll start out eating a single cookie, or one piece of pie, or just a slice of pizza, or a handful of M&Ms and before I know it, I can’t stop. I pig out on carbs.  The more I eat the hungrier (for carbs) I get until finally stuffed and guilt ridden I stop my binge.  It’s a vicious cycle that is unhealthy.

Even those people who don’t binge on carbs, find living on a diet high in carbs and low in fat leaves them hungry all the time – think Chinese food, you’re hungry 30 minutes after you’ve eaten.  So, do yourself a favor and cut the carbs.  Eat more dietary fat and protein and you will find yourself more satisfied, less hungry, and will lose weight (fat) to boot.  Sounds like a Win-Win to me.

3.  Rest more, Exercise less: This is probably one of the most counter intuitive statements you will ever read on dieting.   It has been proven repeatedly that the more you exercise, the hungrier you get and thus (despite your best intentions) the more you eat.  TOO MUCH EXERCISE CAN SABOTAGE YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM!

I know, I know, it sounds crazy but it’s true.  Notice, I said “too much exercise.”  Don’t get me wrong, you need to exercise.  You must exercise to be fit.  But too much exercise breaks down the body and eventually causes you to give up dieting and exercise altogether.  Too much exercise makes you feel crappy –  sore and tired and hungry all the time.

You need to go to the gym (or the park or the beach or whatever you do for exercise), and you need to do resistance training (machines, free weights, or bodyweight exercises) but you don’t need to do it every day for hours on end.  Three to four days a week, 60 minutes a day.  Add a brisk (3.5-4.0 mph) walk every day, maybe 10 minutes of interval training (wind sprints, spinning, elliptical) twice a week for your cardio and you are done.

Hitting the gym everyday for 60-90 minute cardio sessions is crazy and counter productive.  In fact, it’s destructive.  You’re body can’t handle it and it will rebel leading to injury or exhaustion.  More importantly, you don’t need to do it to lose weight.  Remember:  80% of weight loss has to do with what you eat.  Think about that for a moment.  Your diet is far more important to your weight loss than exercise.  You exercise to retain/build muscle.  You diet to lose fat.

And when you’re not exercising, you rest.  Quality rest – like 7-8 hours of sleep at night, cat naps throughout the day, taking it easy – is one of the little secrets most diet/fitness gurus don’t emphasize enough.  It is vital to your success.

Just by way of personal experience:  when I take a day off from the gym, I always have more energy for my exercises, lift more weight, and have a better workout than if I train everyday.  This translates into more muscle growth and less fatigue over the long haul.  So eat right, exercise hard, and spend more time in that easy chair.  You won’t regret it.

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Personal Note: Weight Loss Journey (Part 1)

I’m down 10 lbs from the first of the year.

I know these first few weeks always result in fast weight loss so I am not overly impressed with these results but I am encouraged that my diet/fitness regime is working.

Just for the record:

I weighed in at 275 on January 1, 2010.

My goal is to lose 50 lbs by my birthday, June 4th – just in case you have forgotten! – with most of that being FAT LOSS.

My ultimate goal is to get down to around 200 lbs with 10-12% BF.

I’m presently on a LOW CARB diet, eating lots of fruit, vegetables, and lean meat.  I have introduced INTERMITTENT FASTING (IF) twice a week and go to the gym 5 to 6 times a week doing mostly resistance training (weight lifting) and restricting my cardio to only 10 minutes a day on the elliptical machine.  I do try to walk 30 minutes a day since I spend most of the day in my recliner reading and researching.

One of the things I am trying to do this time around (I been down this road before having lost 100 lbs a few years ago but gaining most/not all back), is create a  life-long diet and fitness routine with which I can live.

One thing I did wrong last time was to over train.  I was following a particular fitness routine which suggested that to create a calorie deficit you need to add lots of cardio.  As my weight loss stalled, I upped my cardio until I was doing at least 2 hours a day – one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening – in addition to the 60-90 minutes of weight training.  I lost the weight but I was exhausted and hungry all the time.  I finally reached the point where I could add no more cardio, stalled in my weight loss and started to drift backward regaining much of the weight I had lost.

After a great deal of reading and research, I am trying a different approach.  Instead of relying on a CALORIE IN – CALORIE OUT approach which promotes a calorie deficit by restricting caloric intake (cut down on eating) and increasing caloric output (do more cardio), I am approaching my weight loss (fat loss is a better phrase) as a bio-chemical and hormonal process (eat fewer carbs and thereby reduce insulin, a hormone which promotes fat storage).  Only time will tell if this approach will work successfully and if I can live with it for the long-term, but I know now that the other approach did not work for me as something with which I could live the rest of my life.

I’ll keep you informed of my progress and impressions of this diet/fitness program.  So far, I am encouraged.

If you’re interested in following a Carb Restricted Diet or Intermittent Fasting, check out these videos for an introduction and follow the suggested links to learn more.

An ABC 20/20 Report:  A Great Introduction to Low Carb Dieting Just for your information: the video talks a great deal about a High Fat Diet rather than a Low Carb Diet.  They are one and the same.  If you think about it, there are three macro nutrients (Protein, Fat, Carbohydrate).  Most people tend to eat a similar amount of protein regardless of what diet they are on (although Atkins encourages you to eat more than normal).  That being said, if you cut the amount of carbs you eat, you generally tend to make up the decrease in calories by eating more fat – which as it turns out in a good thing, not the bad thing we were previously taught.  At any rate, a High Fat Diet is the same as a Low Carb Diet just not as politically (or nutrinally) correct.

A Charlie Rose Report on the Benefits of Calorie Restriction: This is really a basis for Intermittent Fasting which if practiced properly (twice a week) can reduce your calorie intake by 20%  and achieve most of the benefits outlined in this report.  A great place to learn about Intermittent Fasting is to read Brad Pilon’s blog. I will write about it in subsequent posts so you don’t need to buy his book (I’ve already read it and will give you the highlights).  For now, focus on some of the health benefits you will find in this report.  This is the first of five videos in the Charlie Rose series.  Definitely worth watching.  (Click here to see the remaining videos.)

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