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The 3 Types of Weight Loss
I had a couple of new clients start this week with my Personal Training here in Battersea. One of the first things I like to get across is the mechanics of losing body fat. Like everything to do with personal training, nutrition and fitness there is contradiction lurking around every corner. There are three types of biochemistry and thus ways to lose fat.
Pure Calories – For certain people their body has a good underlying metabolism and thus their fat loss journey is simply calories in verses calories out. Eat less than you need, even if comprised of junk food while moving more and you will lose body fat.
Calories Plus Calorie Sources – For many people when they cut calories the body does not make up the difference solely by using its fat stores but instead down regulates metabolism to match the new calorie intake. In these circumstances the sources of the calories must be considered and thus “healthy” eating must play an equal role to amounts consumed. This leads to the concept of heavy calories – certain calories that produce far more damage than you would expect for the amount eaten.
Blocking Factors – The final approach is for people who have a very weakened metabolism. Despite eating right the body continues to hold onto its fat stores. The difference between the metabolism down regulation point and the fat storing threshold have become very narrow. This makes getting results a difficult process.
In this approach different techniques are used to build and charge metabolism so that when a calorie deficit is established body fat losses occur easily. Building metabolism has many possible factors to consider. Progress when this model is present can be slow but in my experience with time the battle can be won.
The real world
In the real world most people simply fail to create a consistent routine of diet and exercise to be able to identify which of the three methods is most applicable to your metabolism right now.
The average person has no idea of what is in food. In addition they do not know how much to have per meal to control cravings nor how the overall daily amount affects results. Combine this with the vast over estimation of how much exercise “burns” and it is understandable why most people struggle.
The “healthy” person paradox
While the average person is what I described in the last paragraph the average health focused person goes the other way. Through focusing on calorie sparse food they actually greatly under eat. This leads to an inevitable binge of overeating or an inability to follow the diet for any prolonged period of time. During the good eating they are actually impairing metabolism (as not eating enough) and during the bad eating obviously not helping the body neither. The result is impaired thyroid function and it makes fat loss a stubborn issue.
Health vs Body Fat
Body fat is a health trait just like asthma, headaches or skin vitality. At the same time certain issues impact body fat more than other health issues.
As most people want to feel good and look good they need to build health to lose body fat and thus the approach is the same for both. The main different being learning where your optimal health calorie intake lies and where your optimal body fat losing threshold lies. These are two different points. It is important therefore to monitor not just fat levels but also health traits to develop both along the your journey of getting in shape.
A note on Calories
As discussed in my book and on this website weight loss is more than a simple game of maths involving calories. However, as mentioned above it is still a measure that if tweaked can be used to good effect.
To lose fat, build health and look great consider my Personal Training in Clapham / Battersea or as a Nutritionist London zones 1 & 2.
For those further a field check out my on line options.
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