Are you counting calories to lose weight?
Are you counting calories to lose weight?
If you are STOP IT RIGHT NOW!
Is your goal to lose weight or lose fat? Fat seems to be hard for people to say and come to terms with. Your body weight is not important, your body fat is!
So now you've stopped counting calories I want you to forget weighing yourself! "WHAT, STOP WEIGHING MYSELF" you shout out in your head as you read this. "how will I know if I'm losing weight?"
Remember we're not trying to lose 'weight', we're reducing body fat and there are far better ways to 'see' your results.
Your 'bodyweight' is made up of water, muscle, fat, bones, organs, food, fluids and more, and will fluctuate daily anyway. When I tell people to stop weighing themselves they look at me like I'm crazy! It can become an addiction in itself and hard to stop doing it. checking the scales to see if you're lighter and trust me in the early days I was there too! I wanted to lose 'weight' and dieted incorrectly and weighed myself sometimes twice a day, morning and night or even if I saw a set of scales I'd jump on! Sometimes I was happy, other times disappointed if it had gone up… and how could it when I'd been so strict on my 'diet' and exercise plan? If you've also done this you'll know how confusing this can be, and can leave you feeling down, and to the point where you want to give up!
I see and hear a lot of 'weight loss' advice which states you have to be in a calorie deficit to 'lose weight'. This basically means you have to work out your daily calorie requirement (this will vary a lot between people) and lower it by around 200 - 500 calories per day to lose 'weight'. Now, this is very basic and sounds good in theory and has been the base of many plans for years. In fact, a lot of the big companies are still promoting this today. And I'll explain why during this article
So if you eat less your body must use stored energy (fat) for fuel right? Wrong! Again this is a great theory, but the body is very clever and is designed for famine, which means it can survive for long periods of time without food
Weight loss this way will occur so you're probably thinking why I'm so against it. I'll prove this has absolutely no long term benefits, and will even incur greater fat STORAGE over time. Yes that's right you'll STORE more fat like this, and this is where I'll explain exactly what will happen to the body if you diet this way, and how the big 'weight loss' companies design their plans this way so you keep rebuying their plans! It's all money and sales to them, they do not care for your long term health. I do!
Let's have a look at Muscle, it's the most active tissue in the body, and requires lots of calories just to be maintained, and directly linked to the speed of your metabolism. This is the rate of which you burn through calories. If you have a fast metabolism you'll burn up calories for energy quickly and efficiently, and if it's a slow you'll store calories as fat instead. Now we all know someone who eats junk food non-stop and they never ever store fat. This person has a fast metabolism and they are burning through the calories as fast as they consume them. And we also know people that look at a chocolate bar and gain 2lbs! Sound familiar?
There are a few factors which will affect this but I want to keep this simple. Muscle is active tissue and requires lots of calories to be maintained. If you decide to reduce your calories guess what happens? You lose muscle tissue! The muscle will be starved and will start to break down, especially through extreme dieting. Muscle is the least important tissue in the body and will be sacrificed for calories if needed, especially if your protein intake is low or your other cells need energy, the muscle will break down and be converted to energy for that reason. Also if your protein is low your body will break down muscle tissue, convert it back into amino acids and use it to build and repair other cells in the body!
A lot of people still associate protein with huge muscles and even bodybuilding, but protein is the building blocks for all tissues in the body. Hair, skin, eyes, nails, bones, organs etc are made up of amino acids. Protein is digested and broken down into amino acids and then they bond with peptides to form proteins. They then go off to do their job of building and repairing cells.
Muscle has a weight to it, so when it is broken down for energy or its amino acids the body will weigh less on the scales. A lot of people on this diet will be happy at first, they are 'losing weight', but not from the fat stores, from muscle! Next, up your metabolic rate will start to slow down as the muscle you had has now gone. Remember muscle burns up calories and without it doing that, those excess calories will store as fat!
So dieting this way the 'weight' will come off, and 'weight loss' can occur quickly too! The target 'weight' on the scales will be achieved, and you'll look better in clothes, but what does the body look like without clothes on? It'll actually have a similar look to before as the body will be smaller now, but have almost exactly the same shape and still be fat, or skinny fat as we call it. The skin will be looser and sag as there is nothing to hold it in place, and this can also happen with rapid weight loss. Your body fat percentage will be roughly the same even if your body is smaller and still have all the health risks associated with high body fat.
Have you ever heard someone say "I've lost the weight and now I need to tone up". I bet you've heard this a lot, I've heard it a million times over the years. They have lost muscle weight, they are still holding fat, and they have soft sagging skin!
The goal should be to reduce body fat, increase lean muscle tissue, become healthy, have more energy and look amazing naked!
If your metabolism is now slower you'll have a much greater chance of eating food and storing it as fat instead of using it for cell repair and energy.
Eating less food isn't always sustainable, and feeling hungry and lacking energy just isn't fun. It's easy to slip back to old eating habits like this and guess what? You'll store fat even quicker than before and go back to your original weight! But look worse than before as you'll have still lost the muscle. You'll weigh the same as before but your body fat percentage will be even higher without the muscle tissue!!!
The big weight loss companies love this, they are designed to 'fail' as you'll lose muscle, lose weight, slow down your metabolism, reach your target weight, go back to old eating habits, regain the weight, look worse than before, go back to them as their 'diet' worked for you last time and this is called YO-YO dieting. This is bar far the best way to absolutely destroy your metabolism and slow it right down! But they'll make lots of money selling you plans again and again and again.
Does this sound familiar? "I lost weight with (insert big company name) last time, it worked for me, I'll go back to them again.'' Guess how many times I've heard this? Well I've actually lost count
So that is why 'weight loss' and reducing calories are not such a good thing. There are far better ways of burning off stored fats and keeping it off without damaging your metabolism. In fact, speeding up your metabolism is a far better way of burning through the calories which I teach my clients to do on my 8-week weight management plan. This educates people into using the right nutrients for long term fat loss or muscle gain goals. It's super-efficient and sustainable and can be easily adjusted as your body changes shape. Not only will you look fantastic, you'll have loads of energy, better focus and concentration, amazing health and a great overall feeling of well-being.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this and I've tried to make it easy to understand. If you have any questions please email me or DM me on my social sites.
"Weight loss plan" "Personal Trainer and Online Coaching"
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