Call For a Re-Count
Weight loss and becoming healthier are the most popular New Years resolution… year after year most people get it wrong. I have just seen an advert for a Body Transformation Challenge, beginning this month, here in Saigon. Unfortunately, it seems to be focused on all the wrong things. It is very important to understand that a healthy diet does not necessarily equal a fat loss diet.
The emphasis on calories in verse calories out just doesn’t want to die! Calories are apart of the picture but the conventional weight loss idea puts way too much emphasis on the importance of energy and an incorrect method of measuring energy (or calories).
When I assess peoples lifestyles and nutrition I often find that they are vitamin and mineral deficient… their body is in a state of crisis, they are loaded with toxins, suffer hormonal imbalances and they have ground their metabolisms down. We should be focusing on consuming a nutrient rich diet, changing habits to foster ‘fat burning’ and forget about counting energy (calories) because if your body is healthy and in balance you will naturally release stored energy, feel full and not over consume.
The Calorie Math:
The calorie theory states that one pound of fat contains 3500kcal of energy. Therefore, to lose a pound of fat you simply need to eat 3,500 fewer calories than your body needs to lose 1lbs of fat. Full stop.
First, calories are not an exact number. These are general values express across entire food groups. Second, and more importantly, human basal metabolic rates (calorie expenditures) are all predictions. The only way to measure exact BMR is with a gas analysis machine. To use a weight and height formula to accurately estimate the energy output of a humans cell is never going to be exact. Two people could be the same height and weight but a totally different composition and extremely different metabolisms.
If calories are so important, then tell me how many calories does sleep have? Research shows that people who do not get enough sleep are fatter than those that do. How many calories does stress have? Research also correlates a relationship between stress and being over-weight. How many calories does the speed you eat have? Studies strongly link speed of eating with body composition. How many calories does mineral deficiency have? Not consuming adequate vitamins and minerals can seriously affect fat loss.
Lets face it the whole premise of counting calories is to reduce consumption by a few hundred calories to loss weight… what if the formula produces a number that is a few hundred calories incorrect?
The Human Biology:
Lets forget about these blaring issues regarding energy values and look at how the body responds to a reduced calorie intake. Your body doesn’t know that you have read a diet book. It thinks you have been stranded in a remote area and have been forced into a life threatening starvation situation and it tries to look after you – to survive.
Your body is in survival mode when you work in a calorie deficit, so it needs to ‘dump’ the part of you that uses the most energy. This is the lean muscle. Your body hangs on to the fat a) because it uses up less energy and b) because it is going to be a valuable reserve if you are ‘stranded’ for a long time.
Our bodies are programmed for survival. Weight can reduce quite rapidly to start with, but then our bodies adjust to the food deprivation and having fewer calories. We then lose lean muscle, store fat and our metabolism will slow down dramatically. Our body’s ability to survive will always win through.
Next month I will discuss the calorie theory with specific research and show there is no evidence behind the calorie theory… stay tuned. The true key to successful health and fat loss lies in hormone balance.
1 – Call for a Re-Count – Part Two
2 – House of Hormones – controlling hormones is the real key to both health and effortless fat loss
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