Whatever method one chooses
as a “Diet”…

including Diets that are called:

• “Way-of-Eating”,
  
• “Lifestyle-change”, or 
  
• “Non-Diet”

… this Truth always remains.



 When a body with excess fat consistently takes in LESS food
(meaning: calories within one or more of the three macronutrients)
THAN IT USES as energy, that body will access stored fat for energy.

The process of losing excess fat takes a long time.

Weight-loss diets ultimately fail approximately 95% of the time.  This means that most people fail to lose very much weight on any type of diet, and very few manage to maintain any long-term weight loss.

Losing weight and losing fat isn’t exactly the same thing. However most doctors, nutritionists, dietitians ... and the people who follow their advice ... don’t clearly distinguish the process of reducing body fat from the process of reducing body weight.

Most people sort of KNOW that body weight and body fat are different, and vaguely understand that the scale can register body weight higher due to “water gain”.

 To understand the difference between these two things, it is important to understand that there are two principal components of body weight. We can label these two: constant weight and variable weight.

• The variable weight is a sum of all the digestive fluids inside the GI tract, the undigested foods already in the stomach and the small intestine, the stools inside the large intestine, and water, which can be safely lost with sweat, urine, and perspiration. These variable components of body weight normally represent between 7 and 30 pounds, depending on one’s original diet, one’s current weight, and one’s digestive health.
  
  
• The constant weight is everything else — the remaining fluids, such as the blood plasma and lymph, the weight of one’s skin, bones, internal organs, muscles, and adipose tissue, or body fat. Of course, body fat is actually the only substance in the body one actually wants to get rid of.
  
  
• Variable weight swings from day to day depending on the amount of foods and fluids one consumes and expels, workload, and environment. A day on the beach, an hour in the hot tub, or an intense workout in a sweat suit, for example, can reduce one’s body weight by several pounds simply from sweating.
  
  
• Constant weight remains stable for longer stretches of time because loss of body fat is quite slow on any diet, and requires a considerable time to produce measurable and permanent results.
  
  
• In practical terms, when anyone starts a weight loss program, the first 7 to 20 pounds of weight reduction are almost exclusively made up from the following components:
  
  (a) A reduction in the total weight of foods that have been consumed over the past few days.
  
  (b) A reduction in digestive fluids. As soon as one starts eating less, the body reduces the amount of saliva, gastric, and pancreatic juices involved in digestion. This amount can range from 5 to 7 quarts per day, and may be halved by the reduced calorie diet.
  
  (c) A loss of water throughout the body, particularly with urine. This happens because reduced calorie diets have a pronounced diuretic and dehydration effect.
  
  (d) Loss of stools from the bowels. As one reduces food intake, particularly fiber, the total volume of stools inside the large intestine may drop three to five times.

  The total of all of the above can be termed a phantom weight loss.

While the covers of diet books, magazines, and diet plans tend to ignore this fact of human physiology, it is actually the BASIS of their promises of quick weight-loss from to seven to twenty pounds.

The loss of phantom weight during the first two weeks or so of any dietary change, also explains why so many people yo-yo back to their original weight as soon as they stop dieting … the cumulative weight of foods, digestive juices, water, and stools start coming back the moment one returns to one’s regular diet.

Even a quick reduction of the waistline is a popular diet hoax: because as one’s stomach, intestines, and bowels clear out their respective contents, the waistline around them can then shrink down a few sizes, even though practically all the body fat remains exactly where it was before commencing the diet.

That claim of a weight loss plateau is another gimmick intended to absolve weight loss counselors from any responsibility for their advice, and to blame us and our metabolisms for an inability to lose weight. The simple truth is … if or when … after months of dieting effort … a person simply cannot overcome a weight loss plateau that seems to have started after the first few weeks of losing weight, … it means that person has lost the initial phantom weight, but not body fat. This is happening because their food intake (whatever it may be) is providing them with the exact amount of energy that their body requires to be that body size.

 In Summary:

• Anyone commencing a reduced calorie diet will demonstrate an appreciable loss of weight, but this is not a loss of actual body fat, but a loss of phantom weight related to the much smaller intake of foods and fluids.
  
  
• Weight loss diets that have a pronounced diuretic and dehydrating effect may demonstrate an even larger phantom weight loss at the expense of body fluids. One can accomplish pretty much the exact same effect by restricting fluid intake or sweating out in a sauna.
  
  
• Reaching a weight loss plateau normally means simply that one has lost only phantom weight, but has not lost and won’t lose any body fat…without additional restrictions on their food intake.
  
  
• A rapid weight rebound shortly after resuming a regular diet simply means that one has simply restored the weight of fluids, undigested foods, and stools in one’s body back to their original volume.

 So, why don’t all those diet books talk about this?

Probably two reasons. First, their authors simply may not know or may not want to know about this unwanted phenomenon. Second, telling readers the truth — that it actually takes a LOT of time and a LOT of effort to lose body fat — gets in the way of selling no-sacrifice diet books, cookbooks, classes, tests, diet-branded foods and snacks.

However, here’s the hard truth: If one is thinking of losing weight, the lost weight needs to be the fat under the skin, not undigested foods, fluids, and stools inside the gut. Losing actual body fat takes time, because even on a very low calorie diet the best almost anyone can count on is losing just a very few fat ounces (under 60 to 90 grams) daily.

 The next natural questions are:

1. How long does it take to lose real body fat?
2. How much Effort is required to do that?
   

 The Simple answers to these questions are:

1. A long time.
2. A whole lot.
   

 AND, In order to KEEP that fat from returning,
it will take a similar amount of Effort, … FOREVER.
 

Note: Originally posted on April 3, 2013.  Bumped up for new viewers.

The Best Online
Calorie Calculator,
According to Science.
But it might not work for you.

Another free online calorie calculator, the Body Weight Planner, is now available to the public after several years of being used as a research tool for scientists at the National Institutes of Health. This one is noteworthy because its algorithms were validated in several controlled weight loss studies in human beings, and because it takes into account a person's slowing metabolism.
 
Kevin Hall, a scientist at the NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, created the tool.

Dr. Hall says the 3,500-calorie rule is accurate only if a pound of human fat is burned in a lab.  However, unlike a lab, the body is not a static environment, and instead adapts when a person changes their diet and exercise.

As a person diets and loses weight, the body slows the metabolism in an effort to conserve energy. As a result, eating 500 fewer calories a day leads to slightly less weight loss as time goes on.

Instead of 3,500 fewer calories, over 12 months, a person will need to eat 7,000 fewer calories to burn a pound of fat.

Dr. Hall said that the biggest flaw with the 3,500-calorie-rule is that it assumes weight loss will continue in a linear fashion over time. "That's not the way the body responds. The body is a very dynamic system, and a change in one part of the system always produces changes in other parts.”

He admits that dieters may be “bummed out” by news that they must double their efforts at reducing calories. “But we believe it's better to have an accurate assessment of what you might lose, that way you don't feel like a failure if you don't reach your goal.”

Dr. Hall added that very few people seem to be able to keep losing weight after 12 months.

The BWP calculates how many calories a day a person should eat to achieve their weight loss goals in a certain time (for example, to lose 10 lbs within a year).  The link can always be found here in DietHobby, under RESOURCES, Links, Body weight Calculator - NIH (Timeline Projections).

The NIH bills the planner as a cutting-edge tool that will empower people to take their health into their own hands, but research on the success of such calculators and trackers is mixed.  Although the federal government is to be praised for its official nod toward the utility of trackers and calculators,  human beings themselves are not “simple machines” who operate on a calories in, calories out basis.
 
The assumption is that calories in and calories out are independent of each other.  That is, if you reduce Calories in,  Calories out are not affected.  However, this is untrue.  

DietHobby contains many posts talking about how hard it is to get an accurate ongoing count of  “Calories in”, but getting an accurate ongoing count of “Calories out” is far more difficult.  Most everyone makes an erroneous assumption that the “Calories out” number stays constant.

“Calories out” is not under our conscious control.  There are many metabolically active tissues, including brain, kidneys, heart, liver, etc whose activity is very difficult to measure. There are numerous hormones and enzymes and genetics involved in our individual metabolic processes…and some of these are still undiscovered. 

We make the incorrect assumption that our only variable that changes is the energy we spend in voluntary exercise or activity.  This is also not true.  Basal Energy Expenditure is not stable and can change up or down 50%.  Reducing Calories In reduces Calories Out. They are not independent of each other.

This isn’t news to anyone who has ever seriously tried to lose and maintain weight. A London research study released in July 2015 that tracked 278,982 participants, using electronic health records from 2004 to 2014 estimated that for people with a 30-35 BMI (Stage 1= obesity), an obese man’s chances of reaching a normal body weight (<25 BMI) were 1 in 210 for men, and 1 in 124 for women. For the severely obese-people with a 40+ BMI (Stage 2+ =severe obesity+), only about 8 percent of obese men and 10 percent of obese women were able to lose five percent of their body weights.  Almost all of the participants who achieved weight loss regained it within five years. 

At my highest weight, 24 years ago at age 47, my personal BMI was 52.9  (Stage 4=super-obesity). I have been at-or-near a "normal" BMI for the past 10 years. See ABOUT ME.
 
Calculators can't provide prescriptions for weight loss or protections against regain. They don’t apply equally to every single individual, and are merely averages ... standardized guidelines. The problem is that not all metabolisms, circumstances and eating habits are standardized.
 
For example, if a professional athlete walked at 3 miles per hour speed for a half hour, that athlete would burn calories totally differently than an average non-athlete who was the same exact weight.
 
Many factors are at play when it comes to how people consume and burn calories. Environment matters, for example. Also, everything from stress, to genetics, to cultural influences plus more, can affect an individual’s dietary habits and exercise levels.
 
Emerging research shows that even gut bacteria affects a person's ability to absorb calories. For instance, food may be absorbed as three calories in a lean person and seven calories in an obese person simply because of differences in how gut bacteria breaks down the meal.
Therefore, it is unreasonable to expect ANY calculator to give everyone a full and accurate game plan.

In the video below, Dr. Hall demonstrates how the calculator works by using his own weight loss goals as an example:

Hall, a 44-year-old man who wants to lose 20 pounds off his 5’10, 180-pound frame, is going to have to eat about 2,300 calories per day, provided he sticks to his resolution to walk his dog in the mornings three times a week. Once he reaches his goal weight, he’s going to have to maintain that weight loss by keeping up his dog-walking activity level and eating about 2,600 calories a day.

NOTE: originally posted on 12/1/2015.  Bumped up for new viewers.

Endurance is the ability to do something difficult for a long time.
                Lie: A diet is temporary
Believing this lie is the biggest mistake that obese people make.

Obese people convince themselves that they will change their eating BEHAVIORS for a relatively short period of time, … until they see the weight RESULTS they want.  The truth is that changing one’s diet must be a permanent and ongoing activity. It takes just as much, or more, effort to keep lost weight off, as it does to lose that weight initially.

A Marathon isn’t just a 26 mile race.  The definition of “Marathon” includes ANY endurance contest, ANY activity that is characterized by great length or concentrated effort. The length of a diet Marathon is “for the rest of one’s life”.

The dieting Marathon doesn’t end when one reaches “goal” weight, because as soon as the desired weight-goal number appears, the task of maintenance begins. Maintenance of weight-loss requires continual, permanent, ongoing effort.  The “Finish Line” is crossed at death.

The “health and wellness” marketing industry publicizes the Lie, and actively works to conceal this unpopular truth.  However, that Truth continues to exist, and it is visible to anyone who chooses to look beyond the B.S. mirage and examine the actual facts that exist in reality.

For a better understanding, see: Running Down the Up Escalator.

What did

one skeleton

say to

the other?

Congratulations!

You

reached

the

Finish

Line

For obese or reduced-obese people, weight-loss or maintenance of weight-loss takes an ongoing Awareness of their eating Behaviors and the Results of those eating Behaviors.

It requires consistently following SOME METHOD of conscious eating Behavior that restricts calories to an amount which is the same-or-less as the amount used by that individual body....

....Together with a consistent and precise METHOD of measuring the ongoing weight Results of that eating Behavior. 

Here, the “rose” represents a thin or normal-sized body.

The “thorn” is restricted calorie eating (Behavior),
and a scale or other measuring tool (Result).

Obese or reduced-obese people who are not courageous enough to “grasp the thorn” need to abandon their desire for the “rose”, which is a thin or normal-sized body.

Reality, take it or leave it,

But I won’t be joining those who choose to spend their lives in the Forest waiting for the Unicorns to appear.

When we talk about plateaus we are talking about lack of WEIGHT loss, but the goal is really FAT loss.  Unfortunately, weight and fat loss don't coincide, especially at the beginning of a diet when the body’s water balance is altered by the smaller amounts of food or new foods that you are eating.

During the first few weeks of losing weight, a rapid drop is normal. In part, this is because when you cut calories, the body gets needed energy initially by releasing its stores of glycogen, a type of carbohydrate found in the muscles and liver. Glycogen is partly made of water, so when glycogen is burned for energy, it releases water, resulting in weight loss that's mostly water. This effect is only temporary.

Everyone wants, and hopes for, fast weight-loss. Unscrupulous “experts” … in books and advertising ... promise dieters more weight-loss than is possible.  It is only possible for the human body to lose a certain limited average amount of fat per week. 

Also the sharp decrease in weight that often happens during the first week or two of dieting raises false and unrealistic expectations that this fast initial weight-loss rate will continue throughout the following weeks.

It’s an unfortunate fact that the bodies of most women max out at an average of about 2 pounds of fat loss a week, and even this only happens with very active dieting. 

Below are calculator chart examples demonstrating this fact. So if you have 20 pounds of real fat to get rid of,  it will probably take at least 10 weeks, and it often takes 20 or 30 weeks for even a very successful dieter to lose 20 pounds of fat.

After dieting for a while, a woman’s weight can go up and down by 3 pounds between one day and the next ... because of changes in hydration and water balance, ... and for some women, menstrual cycle hormones make water change weight even more than this.

This daily change in water weight makes it genuinely hard to see the comparatively small loss of an ongoing one or two pounds of fat loss per week. 

There are many of methods of dieting … including low-calorie, low-fat, low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic, intermittent fasting (i.e. everything from fasting between meals to long-term fasting), whole foods, unprocessed foods, food exchanges, portion control etc. 

However, cutting calories is the basis for every effective weight-loss diet because the only way to lose actual fat is to consistently get one’s calorie intake lower than one’s calorie expenditure.

So for weight-loss the average daily calorie number is the bottom line.

After weight-loss stalls, in order to continue losing weight, one must create a consistent calorie deficit until reaching desired goal. This means one needs to start paying attention to how many calories are consumed and how many are burned.

The best way to begin figuring out how many calories your body is burning is to use an online calorie calculator that gives you the average calorie burn for someone your age and size.  

These calculators are based on mathematical formulas, and a mathematical formula will not necessarily provide an accurate calorie number result for an individual ..... because that number is always the result of AVERAGING. 

It is very common for people of the same size, age, and activity level to be up to 15% lower or higher than the stated averaged number, and some people will have even a larger percentage of deviation up or down.

Mifflin is currently considered to be the most accurate of these formulas, and that is the one I normally use to run calorie burn numbers.

Here’s a link to a Mifflin online calorie calculator. 

For more Accuracy,
 ....  when I use a calculator to run the Mifflin formula calorie numbers ...
I always enter a person’s activity level as “Sedentary” because using the inexact numbers provided as "Activity calories" greatly increases the chances of an incorrect result.

Exercise has many benefits, but recent research has proven that, despite the marketing claims by the fitness industry, weight-loss usually isn’t one of them.

It is an unfortunate mistake to over-estimate one’s activity level when calculating one’s calories, because while being guided by a calorie number that is too low could result in additional weight LOSS, ... being guided by a calorie number that is too high can result in actual weight GAIN.

Getting an individual calorie burn number from an online calculator is a good place to START, but it is always important to recognize and remember that YOUR own personal calorie burn could be a lot lower than the number given.

Earlier in this article, I stated that that the bodies of most woman max out at an average of about 2 pounds of fat loss per week, and even this only happens with very active dieting.  People who dispute this unpopular truth aren’t doing the math.



 

The pictured charts above show calorie calculations for a 50 year old female, 5’4” tall.  These calculations show her Maximum Average Weekly weight-loss potential:

At 170 pounds.......
..........eat only 651 calories daily to lose 2 lbs per week

At 150 pounds……
..........eat only 542 calories daily to lose 2 lbs per week

At 130 pounds….
.........eat only 434 calories daily to lose 2 lbs per week.

Remember, all of these calorie numbers are Averages, in that some women of that age and size will have numbers that are Lower or Higher.  Unfortunately, the burn rate numbers of most dieters tend to be either average or lower than average.   This is because most women with a higher burn rate have bodies that are better able to maintain a “normal” weight without dieting.

The term “plateau” is commonly used to describe the fact that weight loss has come to a halt before it was intended.

Sometimes this happens because people forget to adjust their caloric intake down as they lose weight, or they don’t adjust it down enough. People also generally get some muscle loss along with fat loss, which makes their metabolic rate a bit less than they expected it to be.

Sometimes after having some weight-loss success people get a bit more relaxed with the way they track their food intake. They don’t notice some of the things they eat; or they begin to guess at their portion sizes instead of measuring them ... which leads to additional food eaten and a higher calorie intake.

Also, illness, injury or medications can sometimes have an effect on the way someone does or doesn’t lose weight.

An ongoing calorie deficit will always cause fat loss in every human body… eventually. 

Obesity expert, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, M.D. says that physiologically, “Plateaus” don’t actually exist.   He says that although it is common for people to experience several weeks, or even a month or more without seeing weight-loss, …. that “unless it is a temporary trick of the scale, …. if you’re not losing, either you’re burning fewer calories than you think; you’re eating more than you think; or some combination thereof”.

The way to track your calorie intake is to accurately count the calories in every bite of your food intake.

Until you get into the habit of doing this, it can seem time-consuming and tedious, but research studies have shown that the more regularly a dieter keeps a food log, the more weight they lose.