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The Theory of Weight Loss

Good morning my friends. Today is Thursday, 10 February 2023, here in sunny Queensland, Australia. It is day 19 of my 60 day quest to lose 17.5kg.

Here are this morning’s Tanita results:

Weight 98.8 kg (down 300g; over all down 3.7kg)
Body fat percentage 29.8% (down up 0.6%; over all down 4%)
Body fat mass 29.4 kg (up by 500g; over all down by 4.2kg)
Visceral fat 15 (1 down)
Body water percentage 48.8% (down by 0.3%; over all up by 0.4%)
Muscle mass 65.9 kg (down by 800g; over all up by 400g)
Metabolic age 68 (same)

As most of you know, I am slightly behind schedule. 🙂 I needed to lose an average of 2.19kg a week in order to achieve this goal. Only 292g a day. Sounds easy, right? Well, the body is an interesting beast, let me tell you.

To lose weight you simply need to consume less calories per day than your body burns for that day. Easy.

To lose weight in a healthy manner, you need to consume less calories per day than your body burns for that day, whilst at the same time feeding your body cells all the nutrition it need to be healthy and to function at their optimum levels. Not so easy. For this, you need to supplement with supplements high in nutrients and low in calories. (Sourcing all the nutrients your body needs via normal foods in today’s world, is a near impossibility.)

Now, if you add exercise, you assist the body in burning more calories for the day, than it otherwise would.

Most people who want to or need to lose weight, usually opt for the easy method. They go on crazy low calorie diets, literally cutting the calories they eat by virtually eating very little food. On top of that, they might add the exercise to try and lose weight even faster.

Why is this “easy” way also very very bad for you?

It’s not sustainable.
The food you eat already do not have all the nutrients in before you start cutting back on your calories. Now you cut back on this food and your body gets even less nutrition in.
You literally starve your body of nutrients.
Your muscles will break down, as your body will go take the amino acids it needs on a daily basis from your existing muscles if you do not consume enough of it during the day. If you exercise on top of that, this will happen even faster.
You will lack energy. You will become more and more tired day by day.
Moodiness and crankiness will creep in.
If you succeed in losing weight, you will look thin but terrible. Sagging (unhealthy) skin is a great example.
When you look at a person who lost weight like this, do they look healthy? Nope. They look tired, older, wrinkly and if they lost a lot of weight, they are stuck with lose skin.
Because the cells are starved of nutrition, the cravings for what it need will become unbearable, and most people will “cheat”, or quit the diet in order to satisfy those cravings, which is actually a blessing in disguise, because they were heading for disaster.
Eating all the nutrients they were cutting out, will obviously allow their bodies to rebuild the muscle back up again and they will gain weight on the scales, which will motivate them to start their crazy diet again. Hence the yo-yo effect. You know the “yo-yo” effect, right? People who go for the easy method end up yo-yo dieting all their life, causing a lot of harm to their bodies.

Most of the experts say healthy weight loss is achieved by 80% nutrition (what you eat and don’t eat) and 20% exercise.

In the end, the not so easy method for losing weight, is the best long term solution. Why?

you keep feeding your body cells the nutrition it need every day
as you progress, your body will become more healthy and vibrant
you keep your energy levels up
your body burns fat and build muscle
you cultivate a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable
this inevitably leaves you in a better mood

What have I learned so far?

If you follow a healthy balanced diet that cuts your daily calorie intake, whilst at the same time giving your body cells the nutrition it need, you will prime your body for weight loss. How much weight you will lose; how much fat you will burn and how much muscle you will build, will depend on your further actions.

If you add proper daily exercise, you will help your body to maximise it’s fat burning potential and it’s muscle building potential. Refueling your body with nutrients shortly after vigorous exercise is imperative.

Repeat the process daily and over time you will reshape your body in a healthy, sustainable manner, have lots of energy, whilst enjoying balanced nutrition and a healthy active lifestyle.

Building the necessary skills to lose weight in a healthy manner like this, and to cultivate a healthy lifestyle like this, takes daily disciplines.

A friend of mine reminded me of this quote: