Do NOT slash calories and eliminate fat to lose weight....

Today's Post: Monday, 1-10-2011

Many people realize that if they take in less calories than they use each week, they will lose weight.

So, since they want to lose most of their excess fat right away, they begin to eat a LOT less food.

And, since oils and fats have a bit more than double the calories per gram or per pound compared with protein and carbs, they do that in part by making their diet nonfat & eliminating ALL the fats and oils they were eating.

Do NOT slash calories and eliminate fat to lose weight, it is a sure way to fail at removing all your excess fat and keeping it off!

There are four reasons for this. (We also say what to do instead that DOES work.)

1. Suppose you are much fatter than you’d like and are taking in 2800 calories a day of food and drink. If you remove all the fats and oils and cut back to 800 calories a day, within less than three weeks, your body’s fail-safe famine protection will cut in!

You will be at least three times hungrier than you were before doing this. You will crave sugary and fatty foods even more. And, your body will slow your metabolism, shut off some systems, and will do what it can to hoard the fat you have. You will have far less energy because your body wants you to conserve it and move as little as possible. It’s wired to act as if your life is at stake otherwise.

Why? Most of us are descended from multiple generations of people who survived famines including some quite severe famines lasting many months.

It also doesn’t help that at 800 calories a day you are quite likely to become malnourished from lack of protein and many other nutrients.

But losing all your fat IS possible. How?

A. By eliminating foods and drinks that make you fat or make you sick over time if you consume them AND eating foods that support your health and turn off your hunger instead.

It also helps to cut things that make you MORE hungry instead of less. THAT would seem like a no brainer; but most people wanting to lose weight don’t know how or realize they are failing to do it.

Those are mostly bad carbs and bad fats and artificial sweeteners.

Bad carbs:

All soft drinks, all foods and drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup even if they call it corn sugar or with artificial sweeteners are in this group. So it includes ALL soft drinks. All foods made with refined grains or white rice or peeled potatoes are in this group. And, it helps to eat less than a fifth of the things the average person eats now that have real sugar. It even helps to eat
100 percent whole grain foods in strict moderation. Some people will even do better eating none.

Bad fats:

All foods or drinks that contain any hydrogenated oils or any listed amount of transfats greater than zero, are heart attack starter research has found. Worse, most of the foods and drinks that do contain these also contain bad carbs too! To lose fat and keep it off, ALWAYS read labels and avoid foods or drinks that you suspect contain this junk. It’s still in an astounding list of foods.

Dairy fat and fat in meat and poultry fed grains is also bad for you. Grain fed animals have MORE fat, more saturated fat, and dramatically more omega 6 oils. One solution is to eat less of these foods. Another is to eat almost all lean and fat reduced versions, skinless poultry, lean cuts of meat from which all the visible fat is removed, 1% or lowfat milk. Another is to get these foods from animals fed only grass or their natural foods and which are NOT penned up extra to fatten them. Such fats cause high LDL cholesterol and inflammation and often carry bioconcentrated pesticides and herbicides. If you eliminate or cut way back on these fats, you will be far healthier.

Vegetable oils with high omega 6 content are almost as bad. They cause high inflammation. These are corn, soy, canola, and safflower.

(The good news is that nuts, avocados, and extra virgin olive oil AND the fats and oils in wild caught fish and purified fish oil supplements ARE as good for you as the bad fats are bad. Those are health OK choices in moderation.)

2. Cutting out ALL fats and oils has been found to make people unhealthy AND worse, to sabotage fat loss. That’s in part because people who don’t know to avoid bad carbs then eat MORE of those. Yikes!

People who eat the health OK fats and oils in moderation every day have been shown to be MORE successful at losing fat and keeping it off than people who try to cut out ALL fats and oils.

b) You also need to cut back a bit on calories in a systematic and consistent way. Taking the step we just mentioned, does part of that for you.

In fact, many people taking in 2800 calories a day can cut back as much as 1,000 calories by removing bad carbs and bad fats. But that may actually be too much! So you need to add back more of some foods and drinks to keep from triggering your body’s famine response and to keep from getting too hungry. You may actually need to eat MORE of the health OK foods to solve this problem.

3. Slashing calories and fats and nothing else misses two of the key secrets to permanent fat loss!

Two categories off foods to eat MORE of are health OK protein foods and nonstarchy vegetables.

These two kinds of food turn off hunger very well. Health OK protein foods are not that high in calories while nonstarchy vegetables almost approach having zero calories. They are mostly nutrients, fiber, and water! Even better, we are beginning to find out many kinds of prevent or slow down or disarm or even kill cancer cells and more. (Tomorrow’s post will be about that.)

The more kinds of nonstarchy vegetables you know and eat each week, the less fat you will wear and the healthier you will be.

Health Ok proteins are beans and lentils; nuts; naturally fed meats and poultry and dairy; and wild caught fish from unpolluted waters. (Farmed fish are from extremely polluted waters often and are fed grains too. Take a pass on those!)

Eating them turns off your hunger well; keeps you in good health; and helps ensure the weight you lose is fat instead of muscle and other lean tissue you would be healthier and better looking if you keep!

4. An essential way to cut net calories without eating so much less you trigger your body’s famine response is to exercise regularly most days and every week.

That way the calories you burn allow you to cut back LESS on the calories you eat and still lose fat!

It also helps ensure the weight you lose is fat instead of muscle and other lean tissue you would be healthier and better looking if you keep!

Exercise does help to create effective fat loss and weight loss from the fat loss.

It’s simple really.

People who get several kinds of exercise both moderate and vigorous every week can eat more and still lose fat. That enables them to lose fat without being too hungry to continue which produces success.

People who gradually build up to over 2,000 calories a week in particular also find it dramatically easier to avoid gaining the fat and weight back. One study of people who lost over 30 pounds and kept it off found that they averaged something like 2900 calories of exercise a week.

But even going from no exercise to the 500 to 700 calorie a week range will help with fat loss and good health.

In fact, people who are too fat but who exercise are dramatically healthier than those who do not. And, the better health begins when the exercise does – well BEFORE all the fat comes off!