Tag Archive: fat loss

Is BMI and accurate way to assess your health?

I’ve often been heard bemoaning the use of “BMI” (body mass index) to quantify health for people, and I get asked why. After all, doctors use BMI to determine health of children and adults alike. It’s including in scientific studies about obesity and overall health. How bad can it be?

Really, really bad.

First, let’s look at how you calculate your BMI. Find a happy little calculator and input your height and weight (sometimes age and gender) and it will spit out a number. You then compare this number to a pre-set list of other numbers that tell you if you’re underweight, just right, overweight or obese.

The calculator did not take into account: body fat percentage, lung capacity, VO2 max, etc.

You see where I’m going with this? Let me use some great examples.

This website lists people at all heights, genders and weights with their pictures. Browse around. Look at someone your height and weight – do any of them look anything alike? Nope. Do they look like you? Nope. So, if people of the same height and weight look drastically different, how can a calculator using only these two figures determine health?

It can’t.

 At my lowest weight my BMI put me at “healthy,” despite eating every other day or eating 500 calories a day. My highest weight puts me near the overweight category, despite having run a few 5k’s and being able to squat almost twice my body weight. BMI is a horrible indicator of anything – health, weight loss, fitness, life, etc.

July 4, 2012 Fat Loss, Myths, Read more >

When losing weight, what food groups should you avoid?

I get this question a fair amount, so I thought I’d do a lovely post on what foods one should ABSOLUTELY avoid when trying to lose weight. I’m talking about the type of food that can single handedly sabotage your diet, make you pack on the pounds and set back all the progress you’ve made.

Ready for it?

They don’t exist.

There is no one food (peaches, candies, steak, cake) or one type of food (alcohol, dairy, meat) that will cause any sort of setback in your diet.

Why? Because food is not the enemy. Treating food items or food groups as horrible fiends that trick you into craving them with their addictive additives and their easy accessibility gives them way too much power. It’s an item, composed of macro and micro nutrients, with assorted tastes, flavors and sensations. That’s all. Some are enjoyable, some aren’t.

Furthermore, eating fruit or not eating fruit isn’t going to make or break your diet. Weight loss, specifically fat loss, comes down to energy balance. If you put yourself into a deficit (either by diet or by exercise) you will lose fat. If you put yourself into a surplus (either by diet or lack of exercise/activity) you will gain fat (and/or muscle, depending). That’s it. If a food has 200 calories it has 200 calories. Done. There’s no further discussion from a weight loss point. (Before I get 1,000 asks talking about how 200 calories of veggies and 200 calories of cake are not the same, save it. For weight loss they are, for health they’re not. Go away. You’re annoying and redundant and clearly can’t read.)

Let’s set up a scenario. Say that your TDEE (the amount of calories you burn a day as an active human being) is 2,100. Maybe you’re trying to lose weight, so you put yourself at a 300 calorie deficit every day and eat 1,800 calories a day. Awesome. It’s about 5pm and you’ve had your meals for the day but there’s something extra you’re craving – like a piece of cake. You’ve got about 350 calories left for the day and your mom just brought home a delicious cake – Cheesecake. Your favorite. Turns out the calories for the entire piece add up to 400 calories and she wants to split it right down the middle.

But cake! That’s bad food! It’s always listed on that “DO NOT EAT” diet sheet! Guess what – you’ve got plenty of room to eat that cake. And you know what? It’s your favorite. You’ve worked hard. You have the space for it in your meal plan. You’re still hungry and you WANT this cake.

So eat it. Those 200 calories you just ate of cheesecake isn’t going to suddenly morph into 800 calories in your stomach, then grow to 3,500 calories in your intestines and set back all that great progress!

Say you don’t have any extra calories left for the day but you want the cake and you eat it. You’ve eaten 2,000 calories that day. 2,100 calories will keep your weight. 3,500 calories + 2,100 calories will make you gain a pound.

Take this same advice with any food. No, adding milk to your cereal isn’t going to make you gain weight. Adding milk to every item you eat all day, causing you to go over your calorie limit, will. See how that works?

Instead of obsessing over “good food” and “bad food” focus on how food makes you feel. If you really love a type of food, find a way to incorporate it into your diet in a healthy way. Find recipes that make a smaller serving size so you aren’t plagued with an entire cheesecake going bad in your house. Split desserts with your friends, get rid of the “bad food/good food” dilemma. Food is food.

What you shouldn’t focus on is the food, but the feeling. Do you find that chicken makes you feel full longer without putting you into a food coma? Does too much dairy make you gassy and uncomfortable? Do certain carbs make you retain water like crazy? Are you highly reactive to sodium or cholesterol? These cues are SO much more important than the good food/bad food dichotomy because these experiences are highly personal and can’t be generalized like this.

My take? There’s no such thing as bad food, but there is such a thing as too much food. Moderation moderation moderation!

July 4, 2012 Fat Loss, Myths, Nutrition, , Read more >

The Math Behind Weight Loss: Caloric Deficit explained

Losing weight comes down to creating a “caloric deficit.” That is, burning more calories a day than you eat.This takes into account more than your BMR.

BMR = basal metabolic rate. This is how many calories you burn from existing. If you sat around all day and did absolutely NOTHING your body would burn this many calories just to exist.

TDEE = BMR + activity level, or “total daily energy expenditure”. Since the average person doesn’t sit around on the couch and not move at all, this takes into account other things. For example, a sedentary person (who works a desk job and doesn’t exercise) may have a TDEE slightly above their BMR. Someone who is very active (their job is manual labor, or they lift very heavy multiple times a week) may have a TDEE almost twice their BMR.

How do you calculate your BMR or TDEE? Let’s cut the math – here is my favorite calculator. You input your gender, age, weight, body fat % and “activity level” and it will tell you how many calories you need to maintain, lose weight, etc.

So what is a caloric deficit?

Let’s use a real life example. My BMR is 1550 calories a day, my maintenance is 2,100 calories a day. Based on how often I exercise, how I spend my day, etc. I need to eat 2,100 calories to maintain my weight. If I want to lose weight I need to eat less than 2,100 calories a day. What’s important to note about this number, my maintenance number, is that it takes my TDEE into consideration. I don’t subtract the amount of calories I burn from exercise, that’s already taken into consideration. That’s the definition of TDEE – total daily energy expenditure. It’s already taking into account that I exercise as much as I do, or I’m as active as I am at my job.

If one pound = 3,500 calories, to lose one pound a week I need to have a deficit of 3,500 calories that week. Divided over 7 days, that’s a 500 calorie deficit a day. That means eating 1,600 calories a day for me. It’s also important to remember that your body takes an average. 24 hours is a human invention, as long as you have -3,500 calories a week it doesn’t matter what your day to day intake is. It doesn’t matter if these calories are eaten at 5pm, 6am or 12am.

What is NOT a caloric deficit?

When I was sick I used to think that a caloric deficit meant my total numbers for the day were a negative. Basically, I would eat 600 calories a day and then exercise off 1,000 calories and think that I was in a 400 calorie deficit. What I didn’t realize is that my body requires a certain amount of calories to exist that’s independent of how many calories I eat a day – that’s my BMR.

The BMR Trap

People who don’t understand what BMR is believe they need to eat less than their BMR. What they’re forgetting is that they do more than sit around all day. Yes, some people live very sedentary lives – they work at a computer desk, only get up to use the bathroom, go home and eat dinner in front of the TV. These people may need to eat at their BMR because they don’t move enough to create a TDEE much higher than their BMR. Others – people who walk from class to class, go to the gym a few times a week, have a job where they’re on their feet all day at a restaurant or as a nurse – these people have a TDEE higher than their BMR. If they eat at their BMR they will find themselves energy deprived, sluggish, and fall into the trap of binging to compensate for their low energy.

July 4, 2012 Fat Loss, Read more >

Where does fat go when you lose it?

What is fat?

Fat is extra energy that we store on our bodies. Any time you eat more than your body burns, that excess energy is converted into a storage form and placed various places in your body. The most problematic of these aesthetically (and health wise) is in fat cells, which translate to the padding you carry on your body. Some body fat is healthy and necessary – women require a certain amount in order to produce hormones necessary to maintain their period and become pregnant. Too much fat can be detrimental to our health.

Fat cells

Fat cells are located throughout our body and increase or decrease in size. The average human has 10 billion to 30 billion fat cells located around their body. An obese person can have up to 100 billion. Usually, fatty acids are stored inside these fat cells, making them increase in size. This tends to be genetic – certain people gain and lose fat in certain areas preferentially over others. It’s possible for your body to increase the number of fat cells on their body when they become obese. However, there is no way to “lose” fat cells. When you lose fat off your body, you’re shrinking the size of the fat cells, not getting rid of them.

How do you get rid of fat cells?

Liposuction is the only way to actually remove the fat cells. Otherwise, they remain deflated throughout your body.

So what happens when you lose fat?

Like I said above, the fat cells shrink. If you create a caloric deficit your body pulls energy from these storage forms of fat and uses that. As it pulls the energy out of the fat cells they shrink. That fat is used for energy, and the byproducts are excreted in your urine or feces.

Can the fat cells increase in size again?

Yes. If you start consuming more energy than your body can burn your fat cells will increase in size as that extra energy is stored in them.

July 4, 2012 Exercise, Fat Loss, , Read more >

Weight Loss 101: Everything you ever needed to know about losing weight

Since we all get this question a lot, I thought I’d create the long, arduous, all-inclusive guide to weight loss, starting at the very beginning.

Weight loss = calories in vs calories out. To lose weight you must create a calorie deficit. How do you do this?

1. BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate

Your BMR (or basal metabolic rate) is the amount of calories it takes for your body to run if you were in a coma. It’s the basic amount of calories your body requires to breathe, process life, etc. How do you find our your BMR? There are some online calculators, but most of them suck because they don’t take into account body fat %. For every pound of lean body fat you have you burn more calories than for every pound of fat you have. Click here for my favorite BMR calculator. This calculator also shows you how many calories to eat to lose weight based on the average of three separate BMR calculations. It also helps determine how much fat/protein/etc. you need. Tip: Use one activity level below what you think you actually are.

Why can’t I just eat my BMR?

If you don’t exercise and live a very sedentary lifestyle you always could just eat at your BMR. But if you’re an active person who exercises a lot, or just is always on the go, eating at your BMR is likely not going to give you enough energy to get through your day. Best bet is to use the calculator above and go from there.

What about BMI?

BMI is not a reliable indicator of health or weight. All it takes into consideration is height, weight, gender and age. Someone who is 5’4 and 145 pounds of muscle has the same BMI as someone who is 5’4 and weighs 145 pounds of mostly fat. Ignore it.

2. Counting Calories

Counting calories is not necessary for weight loss. Some people simply watch their portions, sugar, macros, etc. Some people just do what they want and lose weight or maintain. Good for them! They’re probably not reading this article because this is weight loss 101 for people who have trouble with this. Here are some great sites to help you count calories…

My Fitness Pal

Spark People

Calorie King

LoseIt

A lot of these also have apps for Android and iPhone.

Measure/weigh your food

A lot of people UNDERESTIMATE the amount of food they eat. For this reason I suggest not eyeballing your portion sizes until you understand what 100 calories of oatmeal looks like.

Gaining pounds

Give this process time. Say you start tracking your calories and you see that after a week you’ve gained a pound. Well, first of all, the scale is kind of a big lying loser. Second of all, the scale weighs everything. It weighs the water you drank, undigested food, that you’re wearing a padded bra today, etc. However, the scale can be helpful in tracking if your calorie count is optimal. If you’re gaining weight you may need to lower your calories, measure your food more precisely, or start exercising. Also, eating a high carb meal causes water retention. There are a lot of factors around why you may not be losing weight. If it is continually a problem, see a doctor, not Tumblr.

3,500 = one pound

Eating 3,500 calories in one day will not make you gain a pound. Eating 3,500 calories OVER your maintenance calories in one day will make you gain a pound. This means if your maintenance is 2,000 calories you’d need to eat 5,500 calories in one day to gain a pound.

Diet is the #1 reason behind weight gain/weight loss. 

Eating “clean” to lose weight

Like I said, calories are all that matters when it comes to losing weight. When people tell you the reason you’re not losing weight is because you’re not “eating clean” they’ve been brainwashed by the new face of the diet industry. Fact of the matter is that you can gain weight eating “clean” and you can lose weight by eating “dirty.” What you should focus on is how food makes you feel. Don’t eat food that makes you feel bloated, sick, run down, tired, etc. Eat food that makes you feel satisfied but not sick, energetic, efficient and happy. These foods mean different things for different people. Find what works for you and don’t let anyone talk you out of it.

Myths

You don’t need to eat every 3-4 hours, that’s a myth

“Starvation mode” doesn’t exist like we think it does

You don’t need to eat breakfast if you’re not hungry, and skipping meals doesn’t make your metabolism crash

If you eat into a deficit your body will burn fat, not muscle

Don’t restrict types of food for the sake of weight loss, you’ll eat them anyway

3. Exercise

Exercise is not necessary for weight loss, or fat loss. Exercise is necessary for muscle gain and getting away from the “skinny fat” a lot of people worry about. Exercise will help build muscle mass, which increases your BMR. Also, since muscle is more dense than fat, you can weigh more but look skinnier. Muscle is pretty bad ass.

Exercising Away the Calories

This is a slippery slope as most people tend to OVERESTIMATE the amount of calories they burn from exercise. Doing so can set back a lot of progress. On the other hand, people who run 12 miles every morning should eat more to make up for their long run. Find a good balance. Is it the afternoon after a long run and you’re ravenous but almost up on calories? You need to make up for the energy expended. Running one or two miles every day is not sufficient to eat 500 calories back. Likewise, if you just PRed your squat, deadlift and bench press today you may need to eat a bit more than usual. 1 hour pilates class? Probably not so much. You know your body best – if it’s tired, feed it.

Type of Exercise

The type of exercise you do should make you happy. That is all. Forcing yourself to lift/run/cycle/zumba/etc. when you hate it will make you resent exercise. For basic weight loss you can do pretty much anything that gets you moving and invigorated and be just fine.

I want to lose weight here…

You can’t spot reduce, but you can spot train. Increasing your heart rate = all over fat burn. Exercising a specific area = increased muscle mass. Super easy. Also, as a woman it’s nearly impossible to look like the Hulk. Women can, and should, strength train.

Always have a plan

Working out without a plan is appropriately titled “Fuckaroundits.” Having a plan ensures that you’re getting the most out of your workout. Work smart, not hard. If you’re a newbie to the gym, here’s a list of plans to help get you started.

4. Plateaus

Plateaus can happen for a number of reasons. Make sure you re-read the above advice if you’re in a plateau. Due to an increase/decrease in weight/muscle/etc. you may need to refigure your daily caloric needs. Additionally, if you’ve suddenly given up/taken up a new form of exercise your diet may need to be tailed appropriately.

Are you measuring your food so you’re not underestimating calories?

Are you tracking your heart rate so you’re not overestimating calories burned?

Are you sticking to your meal plans/portion sizes/etc?

Is your goal realistic (i.e. 5’4 and 56 pounds may not be a realistic goal)

Do you have fat to lose?

Have you tried upping your intensity/decreasing your calories?

If you’ve done all of the above then this is what you must do: see a doctor. Or a nutritionist. Bring your meal plan, exercise diary, etc. If you have these problems you need to see a professional, not a person on Tumblr. Also remember that you are only as accountable as you hold yourself to. Not counting your snacks, rounding up miles run/set complete, etc. only hurts yourself in the end.

5. Why lose weight?

This is a very important question to ask yourself. Why are you losing weight? Is it to get healthy? Is it because you’re genuinely concerned about your body? Is it so that you’ll get on a team/have a boy/girl like you, etc? Think of the following things…

1. Why am I losing weight?

2. Are my goals realistic?

3. Am I losing weight for myself, or am I losing weight for someone else?

4. If it’s for someone else, why? What makes them so important? Will they always be this important to you?

Make sure you fully understand WHY you want to lose weight. This way if you ever find yourself losing motivation or having a hard time you can focus on this. Remembering why you’re going down this path is just as important as remembering what the path is.

That’s it. That’s all you need for weight loss.

May 4, 2012 Exercise, Fat Loss, , Read more >