Why Your Not Losing Fat!

by: Robbie Durand

Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. One-size-fits-all diets tacitly encourage people to do exactly that: follow the same plan, lose weight, gain it all back, then try again. For most people, this process becomes a lifelong struggle. Most eventually quit altogether because they always feel hungry, have no energy, are plagued by boredom, feel unwell and never address the lifestyle challenges that contributed to their weight gain in the first place.

The prevalence of obesity is increasing at an alarming rate. Many Americans are chronic yo-yo dieters. They go on a severely restricted, ultra low-calorie diet to reach a weight loss goal. Once that goal has been achieved, they quickly tire of being on such a limited diet. So, they go back to their old habits and regain the weight that they lost. Unfortunately, frustration and weight regain are not the only results of frequent yo-yo dieting. A new study from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that yo-yo dieting can alter the way the body responds to stress. This study found that yo-yo dieting actually caused permanent changes to genes that control how the body handles stress. The end result being that those with a history of yo-yo dieting will eat more as a reaction to stressful situations than who do not yo-yo diet.

An earlier study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center reported that yo-yo dieting can permanently damage the immune system as well. One of the biggest obstacles to adhering to any diet is to control your appetite. One of the most interesting studies published to date reported appetite control is the biggest predictor of weight loss. In that study, subjects were examined after a six month weight loss protocol. Decreased hunger was the strongest predictor of weight loss in the intervention with relatively high weight loss. Further studies are needed to confirm the central role of hunger management in successful weight loss. Another interesting fact is an previous study reported that the leaner you become, the hungrier you will become. It’s as if Mother Nature is out to ruin your chances of trying to get a six pack.

Most dietitians will recommend taking the stairs or maybe parking your car further away to help achieve healthy weight loss, but that’s more than likely not going to work. Look at the reasons why:

• You burn 19.7 calories when climbing 11 floors of stairs. That means if you climb 29 floors of stairs every day, you burn off 1 small apple worth of energy. The energy expenditure of descending stairs is less than half of that.
• If you park your car a mile away from work (1.6 km), you burn 80 calories to walk to work. Less than in a banana.

In a perfect world, people on diets would be taking the stairs and walking to work but that’s not what happens. In fact, when people are dieting, researchers found that the dieters actually moved around less. Researchers examined 48 overweight participants that were randomized to four groups for 6-months; Control: energy intake at 100% of energy requirements; CR: 25% calorie restriction; CR+EX: 12.5% CR plus 12.5% increase in energy expenditure by structured exercise; LCD: low calorie diet (890 kcal/d) until 15% weight reduction followed by weight maintenance. Body composition (DXA) and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) over 14-days by doubly labeled water (DLW) and activity related energy activity (AREE) were measured after 3 (M3) and 6 (M6) months of intervention.

At the end of the study, this is the first study to show that in free-living conditions, caloric restriction resulted in a decreased metabolic adaptation and a behavioral adaptation with decreased physical activity levels. The subjects that were dieting, basically moved around less when they were in a calorie restricted diet.

Your cardio Sucks!

Cardio exercise has tons of amazing benefits for your health. A common mistake is making cardio is the only form of exercise in which you partake, you are really missing out. You may even be at risk for what many people fear: becoming “skinny fat.” Many people think of cardio as the key to fat-burning, and it is important. But strength training is, too. More muscle helps boost your metabolism so you burn more calories all day—and during every cardio session. Further, on a weight-loss program, you will lose muscle mass as you lose weight (not a good thing), but regular strength training will help you minimize that muscle loss. In my expert opinion, regular strength training is just as important in a fitness and weight-loss program as cardio. Pick up the weights and watch the scale go down. Here are some of the things why its essential to include high intensity resistance exercise in your program:

• High Intensity Exercise preserves muscle mass while dieting.
• The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn at rest. One study investigating the metabolic rate of bodybuilders compared to regular people found that bodybuilders had a 14% higher resting metabolic rate. When both groups were inactive all day, the bodybuilders burned 354 more calories because of their increased level of muscle mass.
• One study reported that those who had the smallest waist circumference, did the most resistance exercise. Among various activities, weight training had the strongest association with less waist circumference increase.

The short-term benefit of burning a few extra calories with cardio does not weigh up against the long-term benefits of increasing your metabolism with high-intensity exercise.

Eat More and Lose Weight

The key to any diet is to control your appetite. A very interesting study found that subjects could eat less and feel more satisfied while eating whatever they wanted. Researchers has 29 subjects randomized to eat whatever they wanted on a Paleolithic diet based on lean meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, root vegetables, eggs, and nuts, or a Mediterranean-like diet based on whole grains, low-fat dairy products, vegetables, fruit, fish, and oils and margarines during 12 weeks. In parallel with a four day weighed food record the participants recorded their subjective rating of satiety. Satiety Quotients were calculated, as the intra-meal quotient of change in satiety during meal and consumed energy or weight of food and drink for that specific meal.

The Paleolithic group were as satiated as the Mediterranean group but consumed less energy per day. Consequently, the quotients of mean change in satiety during meal and mean consumed energy from food and drink were higher in the Paleolithic group. Thus, the Paleolithic diet was apparently more satiating per calorie than the Mediterranean.

Only one in six overweight and obese adults in a nationwide survey reports ever having maintained a 10 percent weight loss for at least a year. In studies by Dr. Rudolph L. Leibel of Columbia and colleagues, when lean and obese research subjects were underfed in order to make them lose 10 to 20 percent of their weight, their hunger increased and metabolism plummeted. Conversely, overfeeding sped up metabolism. In the long run, most people fail at dieting not because they have lack of willpower, its just that they have not structured their diet accordingly to maximize nutrient density and not consuming foods that are satisfying. Nutrient dense foods provide a high amount of nutrients (fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals) for a relatively low amount of calories.

Eating a diet high in nutrient dense foods is associated with many health benefits, and it can provide sources for nutrients that are commonly low in a typical Western diet.

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