How Every Single Fat Loss Diet Works

Does this sound familiar? You’re on a quest to find out which diet you should do for fat loss. Here’s what you find:

Some ‘Experts’ say you have to eliminate ALL carbs as they spike your insulin. Others say carbs are great, but STAY AWAY FROM FAT! Or that you need to skip breakfast to enter the ‘fat burning zone’. Some will even tell you that you need to take some blood tests to see which foods you don’t react well with, then eliminate those foods at ALL COSTS!

After a few hours you leave your quest feeling confused, unmotivated and sit back on the couch with your potato chips and ice-cream – It’s too difficult.

This blog has one purpose:

To teach you how your body loses weight and empower you to see through the bullsh*t and confidently decide which diet will work for you.

First we’re going to discuss the fundamental principal behind how your body loses weight. Then we’ll go into a couple examples of popular diets and how they use this principal to cause fat loss (keto, low carb, fasting etc).

To start, lets talk terminology. Just like Metres are a measure of distance, Calories are a measure of energy, which is important because losing and gaining weight is all about energy balance.

‘Calories in’

Represents all the calories that enter your mouth – Whether it’s a drink or food.

‘Calories out’

Represents the calories we burn. This is made up of:

- Calories burnt through exercise

- Calories burnt through day to day physical activity (eg steps per day, how active we are in our jobs)

- The thermic effect of food (the calories burnt to digest our food)

- Our base metabolic rate, i.e. The amount of calories our body would burn in a coma.

Second; a tiny bit of science. ‘The law of conservation of energy’ states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed – only converted from one form to another. Now, remembering calories are simply a measurement of energy, let’s apply this to our bodies.

Our body is constantly in 1 of the 3 following states:

1. Calorie Surplus

This is when you are eating/drinking MORE calories than you are burning. Remember because energy cannot be destroyed, the energy we don't use will be stored - Usually as fat. This is why you only want to be in this state if your goal is to gain weight.

2. Calorie Maintenance

This is when, on average your calories out are equal (or very similar) to your calories in. As suggested in the name, when in this state your weight will be maintained.

3. Calorie Deficit

This is when you are eating/drinking LESS calories than you are burning. Remember, energy cannot be created, so when you aren't eating enough energy your body uses the energy it already has - Existing fat and/or muscle. You guessed it – When you’re in this state, you will lose fat, muscle or a combination of both.

Anyone in the history of human kind who has lost weight has lost it because they have been in a calorie deficit. Yes, things like your hormones and different foods may affect your calories out (or your calories in), but the fundamental principal of energy balance and thermodynamics will still remain true.

As promised, here’s how a few of the popular diets create a calorie deficit:

Intermittent Fasting: When you skip a meal or increase the amount of time you don’t eat per day, you’ll usually decrease the amount of calories you consume, often putting you into a calorie deficit.

Low Carb: When you remove or minimize a food group, you end up eating less calories overall which can put you into a calorie deficit. This will work well if you often snack or binge on carbs.

Low Fat: As above – When you remove a food group (like fats), you end up eating less calories overall putting you in a calorie deficit. Also, a lot of foods that are delicious and easy to overeat are high in fat (chips, fries, fried foods).

The Good News:

You can lose weight doing any of these diets. Studies have shown that of those who lose weight and keep it off, the actual diet is not important. What’s important is their adherence to their diet. This means, the best diet for you is one that you can see yourself doing long term. You should be able to see yourself following your diet in a years’ time.

Every fad diet has success stories. There is not one diet that rules them all.

Instead try and decide which diet feels the LEAST restrictive for you – This will be the one you can most likely maintain long term and will be the most successful.

PS. Anyone ‘expert’ who tells you their diet is the ‘best’ diet, will often follow this up with a pitch to buy their product. There. Is. No. Best. Diet. Ignore these people at all costs.

#personaltrainers #thepridenz