Calories IN Calories OUT. WTF is the Truth?

Calories IN Calories OUT. WTF is the Truth? 

WTF is a calorie?   Simply put . . . it is the amount of heat required to raise 1 kilogram of water one degree celcius.  Geez, thanks Coach Clarence I am good now,  watch the weight fall off (eye roll ensues).

Energy is heat production.  Whenever muscle contracts to initiate movement, heat is being generated, thus calories are being burned. If you were to measure your temperature right now, you would probably be in the vicinity of 98.6 degrees. Your body maintains heat on an ongoing basis, and since a calorie is a measure of heat production, it correlates to the amount of energy a food provides. I know you are thinking what does that mean to me? 

When the number of calories that you take in equals the number of calories that you expend in energy, you are maintaining an energy balance and your weight will not fluctuate very much. Conventional "diet wisdom" (a contradiction in terms) dictates that if you cut back on calories, you will be at an energy deficit, thus you will lose weight.  Unfortunately, if long-term weight loss is the goal, it is not quite that simple. SOOOOOOO, let me explain.

A woman goes into the gym.  She has seen the ads. "Lose 30 pounds in 21 days."  "Lose weight, lose inches."  "Results are typical"?  She is ready. She rushes through the door. Within a few minutes, a "Certified Personal Trainer approaches her and begins the typical physical activity readiness assessment, then moving onto what diet protocol she’s following. "It appears as if you're taking in 3000 calories a day.  We will cut you back 2000, sell you these supplements, and voila! … you'll lose weight!"

A week later the woman returns to the diet center after following "the program" and the first thing they do is direct her to the scale.  She is thrilled!  She lost five pounds!  In a week!  She ecstatic, a week later the scale tells her she is dropped yet another two pounds!  A funny thing happens in the fifth week.  She gets on the scale, just as she has every week prior, but on this day the scale is no longer her friend.  She has not moved the scale since last week!  She weighs the same amount she weighed the week before!  She begins to panic, but the seasoned Trainer is ready.  "Don't worry, you just hit (wait for it) . . . the Plateau!  We will just cut you back to 1500 calories. 

Sure enough, the woman begins to lose weight again.  The only problem is this time the weight loss is accompanied by this little voice inside her head that says things . . . like . . . "cheesecake."  "Ice cream."  She is getting cravings and she begins to question her own willpower.  After a few days of fighting those little voices, she gets back on the scale and realizes she has hit the second plateau.  Her disappointment leads to submission. She gives in to the voices, and while at first, she intends to have just a few spoonfuls of ice cream, she finds herself caught up in an all-out binge!  All the weight comes back!  Here is the worst part.  She questions her own willpower. She blames herself!

The voices in her head had nothing to do with willpower.  They were in fact the ganging up of these little chemical messengers in her brain (neurotransmitters) with little enzymes trying to drive her to that which she needs to survive.  Food!  Her body, in its attempts to protect her from starvation, does not understand she is dieting to lose weight.  It is trying to save her life; thus, those built-in protective mechanisms drive her the nutrient she can survive off the longest . . . namely fat . . . and that substance that will provide the quickest energy . . . sugar.  Once she gives in to the cravings, her blood sugar skyrockets, her pancreas begins kicking out massive levels of insulin, and her body hormonally shifts into the "binge" state.  The binge was not only inevitable but it was also CAUSED BY THE DIET!

There is something else the Personal Trainer did not tell her. When she was losing weight, she was losing three other things.  Firstly, she was losing water weight. That is meaningless in the quest for long-term weight reduction, but a great trick for most gyms out there. They can put you on the scale after only a week and lead you to believe the “program is working”."  Sure, she is losing a little bit of fat, but, real talk, she is losing muscle tissue! The diet is leading to her body cannibalizing her own muscle tissue.  Muscle is metabolically active tissue. Fat is not.  That means muscle burns calories and fat does not. When you sacrifice muscle, you in turn slow your metabolism!  Muscle is also the site on your body where fat is burned. Starvation-induced muscle loss reduced the body's momentary fat-burning ability. The result of a program based upon calorie deprivation is a slower metabolism, and an unsupportive shift in hormonally induced appetite, a reduction in fat burning capacity, and an inevitable accumulation of fat. When you embark upon a diet, you are literally programming your body to get good at accumulating fat in the future!

While knowing the number of calories you need to support your current goals and activities is important, blindly cutting calories is not a successful path to losing the weight you desire. A more effective measure is to figure out your daily activity, then the amount of food to support that, then cut small amounts out of that, weigh yourself only once a week and make the appropriate adjustments with the help of a professional who is coaching you. Just crash dieting without strength training to develop your muscles (which is one of the ways you create a deficit) is a recipe for failure.

Also, remember there is no such thing as a "One size fits all approach” so having a private consultation is my recommendation.

Coach Clarence