Weight loss: Why we're all expert enough
Unhelpful complications abound, muddying the mind and draining our wallets. Your body doesn't break fundamental universal laws. Move more, eat less. It really is that simple.
I’ve got a bee in my bonnet. Everyone seems to be on a diet, all the time, yet nobody seems to be losing any weight. Excuses and overcomplications abound but, in reality, weight loss is one of the simplest things you can do. After all, nobody ever starved to death overweight.
I’m going to say this again, not because I’m being trite, but because it is an extremely important fact in a discussion that is brimming with bespoke bullshit. Nobody ever starved to death overweight.
The diet industry is massive and absolutely brimming with people trying to sell you things. eBooks, webinars, fancy new diets designed by PhDs, subscription or weigh-in services. This entire industry is built on the idea that there are experts who know how to diet and if you only spend some cash they’ll impart their great wisdom upon you. You’ll make a single purchase and then you’ll do what they say and lose weight, right?...Right?
Wrong. If the diet industry wanted to solve obesity it wouldn’t be obfuscating the facts with nonsense, pretending that it’s complicated and upselling you on the next piece of key knowledge that will surely work this time. That other stuff they told you, it wasn’t quite right, but this new stuff, it’s legit and for only £15/month you can learn all about it.
They don’t want to solve your dieting issues. They want repeat customers.
“But what about genes and hormones?” I hear you say. “Some people have fast metabolisms don’t they? Maybe I’m just someone with a slow one?”
All of these things do have an effect on weight loss. Of course they do, but the kind of pen you use also affects your handwriting, and the type of shoes you wear also changes how fast you walk…a bit. These are the obfuscating over-complications of current diet discourse, fuelling the next round of sales as people offer bespoke diets for different body types and constitutions. Great! But while you’re playing around with factors that, at best, have a 10% impact on overall weight loss, you’re ignoring the one thing you need to do to ensure you lose weight, regardless of your individual situation.
Eat less.
There’s something even more powerful than the effects of genes and hormones combined. Indeed, it is something fundamental to the interactions of everything in the universe.
The Law of Conservation of Energy
There’s only one thing you need to be an “expert” in to diet successfully, and it’s something you either learned in GCSE Physics, or you’ll learn from this article. Either way, you’re either already expert enough or you’re about to be (and this is free, by the way!).
Energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. It can only be converted from one form to another.
Simple. But what does it mean?
Well, unless your body is some sort of medical marvel, or indeed more spectacularly, a phenomenon that’s about to demolish our core understanding of how the universe works, your diet is failing because you’re eating too much and moving too little. No more, no less.
Put it this way. Roger’s got 20L of diesel in his car. If he fills it up with 10L every day but only burns 5L of fuel, his tank will fill up by 5L every day. Slowly, his 20L becomes 25L then 30L and so on. Roger is desperate to reduce the amount of fuel in his tank (weird analogy, I know).
Imagine, after a month of driving around, trying to reduce the amount of fuel in his car, he turns to you and says,
“I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been adding only 7L a day and I’ve been using 20L a day driving about. It doesn’t make any sense, my fuel gage keeps going up!”
What you wouldn’t conclude, I suspect, is that he is in fact driving in a car that is capable of running without fuel. As described, he’d be running on empty very soon indeed. And yet, somehow his car keeps running. I guess it must be its genes.
No. Just like Roger’s car, if you’re exercising and eating less and still gaining weight, it’s because you’re still eating too much and moving too little. Simple. Your body cannot function without fuel. It just can’t. If you were in a calorie deficit (burning more fuel than you take in) your fuel tank would slowly empty. To imply otherwise is to suggest that your body somehow breaks the law of conservation of energy. Your body cannot make its own energy, whatever unfortunate genetic or metabolic situation you find yourself in.
So, now you know the most important fact in weight loss. It’s so simple and yet so many diets fail, even when people understand this fact. What’s going on?
Why diets fail?
1. Focusing on overcomplicated concepts
It may not be a balanced diet, but you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight. The key principle here is amount. At the time of writing, Sean Casey, a social media fitness content creator is currently running a demonstration of this principle in his three wraps a day “The wrap challenge” diet.
A calorie is a calorie, regardless where it comes from. You could get all your calories from cheesecake and still lose weight. You just won’t be eating that much cheesecake.
Don’t waste your brain focusing on all of the overcomplicated nonsense. 90% of weight loss is eating less and moving more. Don’t mess with the remaining 10% until you’ve cracked the simple stuff.
2. Spiralling after bad weigh ins
Body weight fluctuates surprisingly on a day-to-day basis. Again, see Sean Casey’s videos on his Wrap Challenge for a great explanation and example of this. Whatever you do, do not give up. If you are actually in a calorie deficit it will work. It must, or you’ve broken the universe and can collect your Nobel Prize.
3. Inaccurate calorie calculations
Smart watches often give calorie expenditure estimates based on physical activity. These vary significantly brand-to-brand and should be taken with a ladle-full of salt. I’d say, to be safe, assume it is overestimating by a half. That is, if it says you’ve burned 300 calories, it’s safe to assume you’ve burned 150. If you decide to eat those extra 300 calories, you’re likely to overeat and lose motivation when it seems like your diet and exercise plan isn’t working.
4. Calories from drinks
Don’t underestimate the calorie content of drinks. Alcoholic beverages, fizzy drinks…these will ruin your diet and undo your progress at an alarming rate. And are they even really worth it?
What should you do then?
1. Calculate your base metabolic rate (BMR)
This is the amount of calories that your body burns through just to keep you alive. If you sat and did nothing all day, this is what your body would burn. It is an estimate, but a good place to start.
Based on your sex, age, height and current bodyweight it will come up with a figure, most likely between 1200-1800. A quick Google search will quickly yield several useful results.
If you eat this many calories per day, your weight will stay the same. This is your maintenance intake.
2. 3500 calories per pound
Losing a pound of body weight each week is a sustainable goal. No crash dieting here. One pound of bodyweight equates approximately to 3500 calories and so, over the seven day week, you’ll need to cut on average 500 calories a day to achieve this.
So, if your BMR is 1600 and you burn another 600 calories as you go about your day, then you’ll need to eat 2200-500 calories a day, so 1700.
Likewise, it is worth noting that even if you accidentally binge and eat a load of chocolate, the damage will likely be minimal. Did you eat 3500 calories of chocolate? Not likely! You might have eaten an extra 1000 calories. So what? That’s less than a third of a pound. Don’t let this derail your progress.
3. Eat food that you like
Dieting doesn’t need to be a Herculean trial, and it certainly doesn’t mean you have to eat godawful salads all the time. Eat your favourite foods but make sure you know how many calories you’re eating. That’s what matters. As above, if you want to live off cheesecake, go for it. Just make sure you’re only eating 1700 calories of cheesecake a day.
Eating food that you like will help you stick with it. After all, it doesn’t matter how great a diet plan is if you don’t follow it.
4. Be patient
Don’t rush. This is about lifestyle change rather than crash dieting. A small, slow change is much more likely to stick than a harsh, sudden one. There’s no need to abuse yourself. Give yourself time to get used to it, to build good habits.
It doesn’t take an expert to diet effectively, and you don’t need to spend money. Wash your hands of the charlatans and salesmen. You can this without their “help”. I’m not a nutrition expert, and neither are you, and that’s ok. You are expert enough to do what needs to be done. If you want to be a high-performance athlete, that’s a different story. If you want to shed a few pounds, you’re all set.
Just to be clear. I’m not saying you should diet. Do what you want. Love yourself as you are. The bee in my bonnet is those individuals who claim to have tried every diet and then whine that they just don’t work. No, they aren’t exceptions to the laws of the universe. The diets are fine. They’re just doing it wrong.
Dieting is easy, everyone can do it and it shouldn’t cost you anything. In fact, you should save money. Focus on simplicity, be compassionate with yourself when you eat too much, and most importantly, don’t give in. It is working, you will get there.
Thanks for reading! As ever, I’d love to hear your thoughts, be they in agreement or abject disagreement.
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Have a great day