How Do You Lose Weight?

It’s the magic question. The question I’m asked all the time. The question that seems unanswerable to a population where two-thirds of the people are overweight or obese.

 

How do you lose weight?

 

I always wonder when I’m asked this, does the person want the real answer or are they looking for a shortcut? Doesn’t matter… I’ll give you both.

 

 

As much as we’d like to deny or ignore it, our bodies gain weight or lose weight based on the amount of calories we take in versus the amount of calories we burn. Calories are simply a measure of energy. So if you consume food that contains 2000 calories and your body only burns 1500 calories through the day, you have an energy surplus of 500 calories for the day. If you do that for the whole week, you will gain a pound of body fat (a pound of fat is 3500 calories.)

 

If you want to lose weight, create a calorie deficit rather than a calorie surplus. That forces your body to tap into its fat stores to make up the difference. So if you consume 1500 calories in a day, but you burn 2000 calories by adding some exercise to your routine, your body will dig into 500 calories worth of fat. You do this for a week and you will lose a pound of pure body fat.

 

Simple right? It should be. Your body was created by elegant design and when you feed it quality, calorie-appropriate food and you move it the way it was designed to move, you have harmony.

 

The problem is, we impatient Americans don’t want lasting weight loss and harmony. We want to fit into our skinny jeans by next week. So we devise short cuts and quick fixes, with disastrous results.

 

We decide that if a 500-calorie-a-day deficit will create a one-pound-a-week weight loss, then a 1000-calorie-a-day deficit will be twice as good, and a 1500-calorie-a-day deficit will be even better! Why lose only one pound a week if you can lose three?

 

The problems begin with something called a resting metabolic rate (RMR). This is the amount of calories your body burns at complete rest. It is the amount of calories you need for your brain to function properly and for your body not to cannibalize itself (eat its own muscles) to provide the energy it needs. That RMR for most people is between 1000 and 1800 calories.

 

When you drop below your RMR, your body can still function, but it does so by tearing down healthy tissues. The body believes its starving to death so it begins to pull energy from anywhere it can.

 

And most people can’t drop their calories below their RMR by themselves. Nature intended this as a protective measure. So they use dangerous diet drugs or other foreign substances to help them.

 

For this intended “short-cut,” you are ingesting dangerous substances, even if a doctor gives them to you (the FDA just asked Abbott Labs to remove Meridia from pharmacies because of the increased risk of heart attack and stroke it causes.) You are also cutting your calories way below what your body needs to survive, forcing your body to go into starvation mode, eating both fat and muscle… and sometimes even shutting down organs.

 

You will definitely lose weight on the quick fix diet. And yes, friends and coworker will comment on how great you look. A loss of 30 pounds or more, especially in a month, is tough not to notice. But what happens when you begin eating like a healthy human again? You spent a month convincing your body you were starving, and now your body is primed to store fat, and your RMR is now much lower than it was before – because your amazing body adapts! So now, if you eat any realistic amount of calories, your body will instantly store it as pure fat! This is called yo-yo dieting and it is the result of almost any drastic, quick fix diet. Your 30-pound weight loss turns into a 50-pound weight gain two months after you complete the diet.

 

We see this all the time in our studio. In fact, a client just started with us, after a local doctor had prescribed a drug, she lost weight, had heart problems, and gained back twice as much weight just two months after her “successful” weight loss! She wants real, lasting weight loss this time. Unfortunately, since the quick fix diet damaged her metabolism, she’ll have to work even harder.

 

So, that’s how you lose weight: 1. Reduce your calories by no more than 25% through daily exercise and sensible eating so that your weight loss is permanent or 2. Create a radical calorie deficit, ingest dangerous drugs to do so, lose lots of weight and gain it all back plus 20 pounds in two months.