Losing Weight is Not all About Eating Less and doing Exercise
74Eat Less; Lose Weight? Not Necessarily!
The amount of articles, books and blogs I've read that seem to think you can lose weight if you eat less because it's all about calories in and calories burned is mind boggling. Are they wrong? No, not always but they're not right all the time either. People torture themselves about how much they eat, how much they exercise and so on, but for some people that's not the 'problem. Who am I to say this? Well, let me give you an example of my situation. I've struggled with weight loss for years and I've tried the standard approach (go for a run, eat a salad etc.) and it doesn't work for me. I've tried not drinking alcohol, no change, tried exercise, no change, I've even tried not eating lunch for two weeks and my weight didn't shift at all. Now, some of you may think that makes me a freak and that's what I was beginning to think too, but then I decided to take a full medical.
Running on Adrenaline
What I discovered was that the way I was living my life was sending conflicting signals to my body. I filled out a food diary which showed I was eating less than my required daily calorie intake and that was contributing to weight gain. Because my body didn't have enough food, or enough of the right food it was compensating by forcing my liver to produce glucose, my adrenal glands to produce adrenaline and my pancreas to pump out insulin (which ultimately causes your body to store fat and not burn it) just to keep me going. why? Because I wasn't eating breakfast, because I was eating too much sugar and not enough carbohydrate, Also by eating large meals in the evening and then sleeping I was not allowing time to burn the food up, instead I was sleeping with a gut full of food just sitting there not being burned. I wasn't sleeping enough either, so my body was tired all the time causing me to reach for sugary snacks or endless cups of latte to wake myself up. The result of this was sugar spikes in my blood-sugar level for which my body would have to compensate in order to try and even out the glucose in my blood.
So It's Just Me Then?
Perhaps, but I hope anyone reading this who has struggled to lose weight by conventional methods can see what I'm getting at. Eating and exercise are just a part of the story. If you run yourself down then your body will always be fighting to stay on an even keel. In order to do that it will produce survival chemicals which were originally designed for an animal with a totally different diet and lifestyle to the one we live today. By trying to help you it will actually force you to gain weight or not lose any.
Can I Eat What I Want and Be Lazy Then?
The answer is, no of course not, you have to eat healthily, not for your weight but so that you get a balanced diet of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins and so on. That's not about weight, that's about maintaining normal healthy bodily function. In fact I'd go a step further to say that you should eat less processed food, simply because you've got more chance of knowing what's actually going into your body. If you eat a fatty pork chop, you know what you've got there, but if you eat a processed meat microwave dinner you might as well go to the medicine cabinet blindfolded and start taking random pills. You're putting cocktails of chemicals into your system in quantities that are quite staggering. For example, my son ate a breakfast cereal the other day that had 11.6 grams of sugar per 40gram serving ... that's more than a quatre of it! I couldn't believe it. And if you eat cheap meat like non-free range chicken, you might even be consuming steroids which can cause premature ageing in children amongst other things!
Exercise is important too. By making your heart work and growing muscle your body will become more efficient and burn calories better.
However...both of these things will only work if you eat a proper breakfast, get enough sleep, cut down on caffeine and sugar and take time every day to relax your mind. If you find yourself up till 2am every other day under a bright light, staring at a TV or computer screen, then you're working against your body.
The Modern Lifestyle is a big part of it!
In today's world there is little time for relaxation, an early night, staying awake without coffee and so on. If you've got kids you'll know that once they're in bed and you've had dinner it's probably 9 or 10pm and that's when your life starts. You stay up late trying to work and don't go to bed early enough. You're up at six with the kids (or half the night) and then it's straight to work where the lack of choice or free time means that you end up eating a snack full of sugar, salt, fat and other things that you don't really need, and probably wouldn't eat at home. We're under pressure to make money, become successful, be good parents, achieve as much as we can in a short time ... and our bodies still live in the stone age. It's just common sense really.
I'm not a dietitian or a fitness instructor, but I've battled with my own body for long enough to realised that it's not just food and exercise that effect your weight ... its the mistakes you don't know that you're making which cause at least as much if not more damage.
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I take your point Tom and ultimately yes it is about calories, but if you eat less you won't necessarily lose weight because your body may (certainly in my case) begin to store fat as a response. The same goes for exercise, your body will doubtless gain from it but if the rest of your life is a mess then you're fighting an up hill battle. And of course it's the type of food too, sugar verses natural slow burning complex carbohydrates. You put the food in but your body decides what to do with it!
I used to think that too, but it is not true.
Regardless of how your body chooses to treat nutrients, fat cannot be stored if you are in a caloric deficit.
I am not sure what you mean about exercise, because it is one of the best tools to fight stress, lose weight, and determine body composition.
If you thought you were eating less and gaining fat, then in reality, you were not eating less.
Did not mean to hijack your quality hub, apologies.
That's okay Tom, the reason I wrote the hub was to open up the debate. We'll have to agree to differ because ultimately you can only speak up for the things you've seen and if exercise and eating less have worked for you then that's great. Personally, my body just doesn't seem to obey those rules. For me it's about changeing the levels of things I eat, particuarlily sugar and processed foods, getting more sleep, taking time to relax and yes, do some exercise in conjunction with those changes.
I do respect your opinion.
I want to urge you to consider that this is not a matter of opinion, but rather a matter of science. There are been many peer-reviewed studies on this subject.
Here is one of many randomized controlled trials for your reading pleasure: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15181047 : Comparison of a low-fat diet to a low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss, body composition, and risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in free-living, overweight men and women.
"These data suggest that energy restriction achieved by a very LC diet is equally effective as a LF diet strategy for weight loss and decreasing body fat in overweight and obese adults."
The reality is that there is so much misleading information out there (as you suggested), but the only real place to turn is science. Weight loss is much simpler than people think. For example, and by no means am I encouraging this, you can eat fast food and lose weight every day as long as you're in a caloric deficit.
Cheers.
I'm not desputing any of these results. I'm saying that I didn't eat lunch or breakfast for two weeks (at least 700 calories less per day) and it had no effect whatsoever on my weight. I also went to the gym twice a week for three months and it had almost no effect on my weight. I'm saying that I'm the exception rather than the rule, but no amount of data is going to change my mind, I have my own experience to draw from and that's all the data I need. The reason for this hub is to explain that there are some people who find it much harder to lose weight than others, and this is for them.
Hi Tom. Not eating breakfast is bad enough in itself, but skipping lunch too tells your body via your brain that it needs to store everything possible from your evening meal.
Changing your dietary habits and exercising more will work over time, if you stick to your guns. If you exercise more you will need to eat more, but more of the right stuff.
I stopped eating all sweet things at christmas because i had to have a knee op' and would be inactive for a few weeks. I didn't put any weight on and found the change much easier than i had expected. I still don't eat 'any' sweet things and am back playing indoor soccer at fifty nine. If you want to lose weight a gym may not help as much as walking every other day. Twice a week at a gym isn't enough really. It's hard if you have a sedentary job, but your healthy diet needs to match your output. There's no such thing as an expert, but that's my opinion. Cheers and good luck. PS have dinner earlier, somehow!
Thank you for the response attemptedhumour.
Unfortunately the points you are making about breakfast are myths. Your body won't suddenly store more fat if you skip breakfast. It can only store fat if you eat excess calories.
I suggest you look up a style of dieting called intermittent fasting. Many studies are now done on this showing the effectiveness of less frequent meals.
Tom, I think you underestimate how much "change" in weight is supposed to occur from a 700 calorie deficit. Especially if you were going to the gym. You're entitled to your opinion but I strongly urge that you reconsider. Once you realize how simple all this works and that most information out there is total crap, eating and losing weight becomes so easy.
Only people with unique medical conditions are exceptions. Don't make yourself believe something that's not true!
Some more studies:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921964
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21410865?dopt=A
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7470437
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17413096
Enjoy!
Goodness! A lot of info, yes I'll take a look. Thanks for your comments attemptathumour, always valid, I've been forcing myself to eat porridge for breakfast and now I'm starting to enjoy that.
We have a walking machine in the back shed, but it's winter here in Oz, so we're moving it into the spare bedroom so my wife and younger daughter can use it. Time management is the tough part, especially with a growing family. My wife rides to work, and it takes her about the same time as driving. A great time management exercise, if you'll excuse the crappy pun. It's 80% diet in my opinion. There's enough healthy food out there, but many unhealthy temptations. Good luck though.
That first paragraph was the story of my life. I have been trying to lose weight since I had my son... he's almost 2. The problem is my body doesn't like change. If I am skinny... it likes to stay skinny... If I am fat... it likes to stay fat.
Since February I have been exercising and eating healthy... I lost a total of 5 pounds. Devestating when you have a high goal. I will have to go back and check the good ole food diary thing. I got to take a good look at what is goign wrong.
Great hub!
Thank barbegirl, yes my body seems to think the same thing...i wonder if it's just happy the way it is and I just need to listen to it! I'm only about 24 pounds over, I ride to work every day, I eat pretty healthily and drink much less than I used to... but your body finds it harder to shift weight as you get older, well, I'm only 38 but it's still older than it was. My wife winges about putting on weight but she'll never be more than five pounds over, just the way she's built. My father on the other hand has spent the years 40-present day resembling a large Avacado with a gut you could park a lexus in! Perhaps I'm just fighting genetics... did people care about this stuff in the past?
Great hub, eye opning for those who don't know about that. I definitely know that I need to stop craving those hours after the kids go to bed to do all the things I can't in the day, that is when the milk coffee and the slice of bread (whole wheat still!) come crashing my diet!
O know a few things we need to keep an healthy wight and a good health:
- 8 to 10 hours of sleep
- healthy food
- healthy snacks
- drink at least 1,5 liter of water a day
- balance in our lives (yes, stress triggers a lot of things, so, avoiding it helps a lot)
- adapting all the above to ourselves, we have different bodies and metabolisms!
Of course, talking about our plan to our doctor and a dietician is a very good idea
I keep eating less and less and not losing weight, so then I increase a little what I eat and gain a little weight, so then I drop back to eating less again - very frustrated.
Don't drink alcohol, soft drinks, juices, only drink water, tea, coffee, herbal.
Don't eat biscuits, cakes, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, cereal or fast food.
Don't use hydrogenated fats.
Usually only have one or sometimes two small meals a day. Drink lots of water.
I love fruit, and eat a little fish, meat, eggs, vegetables.
Tom - I think I know how you feel - frustrated, and yes 'stress' does change your metabolism and makes your body do things that it is not supposed to do.
Fitness Tom - the law of thermodynamics makes a lot of sense in principal, yet in practice it just does not work for everyone.
barbergirl28 - spot on, your body doesn't like change, and yes it wants to stay the way it is. Unfortunately that makes it frustrating for those who want to lose weight.
I keep losing the fat, but unfortunately, it keeps finding me! What works for one person, does not necessarily work for another, as we are all different, and hormones come in to play in this equation also. This is a very good Hub Tom.
Hey Fitness Tom.. do you know anything at all about hormonal imbalances and weight loss ?
FitnessTom 11 months ago
Interesting hub, but saying that it doesn't come down to calories in calories out is a violation of the laws of thermodynamics.