The scientific truth of “calories in = calories out” for fat loss.
The Poor, Misunderstood Calorie book review.
I took an unplanned break from writing — my computer broke, move to LA didn’t quite work out, had to change apartments, injured my back lightly with too much enthusiasm about squatting — somebody might get discouraged, but I, instead, learned a lot and got a very positive attitude towards life in general and my work in this world. And I learned to stop worrying about things, that were out of my control and totally and entirely focus on things, that I can do for a desired outcome, and yes, life will never work as I want or plan, but ANY goal is possible as long as you don’t stop, and with no loss of enthusiasm keep trying things, doing different things, reaching out to people, acting on your ideas — eventually you get it, whatever it is.
Plus, I needed a new computer anyway, a break from writing and other content creation for new ideas to flow in. I needed to learn how to keep working, when nothing works to make it work anyway, not because everything goes my way, but because NOTHING goes my way — free will to have, what we want is earned, when despite what the world offers you — you take ownership of what you got and make it happen anyway.
Back to writing, back to content creation, back to learning more and serving people and you, dear reader, better with more passion — I so missed writing! Now its time to make it shine!
Speaking of content — long-overdue review of one of the best books out there on dieting. It’s actually about calories.
The Poor Misunderstood Calorie by William Lagakos PhD
“What is the general theme underlying all of these findings? A calorie is not a calorie because energy balance doesn’t matter. You can get fatter without eating more; you can even get fatter by eating less.”
This is the main thought I want you to ponder upon, when it comes to calories, dieting, eating for fat loss and weight loss.
Calorie is a measure of energy required to heat up 1L of water 1 degree Celsius.
Calories in food are measured in an oven, or a burner, where you through different kinds of foods, and the amount of heat, that is produced, equals the mount of calories in that food.
But, of course, our body in not a burning machine, and even though energy produced by our body after eating food matters, energy balance matters for fat loss at the end of the day, how our body creates that energy balance is completely different from how bomb calorimeter, that oven we talked about, works.
What does it all mean to you?
Well, it means, that ultimately, how many calories the food contains, if it were to be burned in a machine, has little to no value to you.
What matters to your body much more: the kinds of foods, how they are digested, when they are consumed, in what form, what are the macros (fats, protein and carbohydrates) of what kinds (Is it fiber? Is it sugar? Is it a protein shake? Is it a walnut? Or some butter?) Micros matter a lot too — all those vitamins and minerals — they influence your digestion as well! How many calories YOUR body gets from those foods matters, and what your body does after — your lifestyle and biochemistry at the moment of eating and around it — that will define, whether you will use the fuel towards muscle recovery or towards fat accumulation. Will you waste muscles and get fatter? Or build muscles burning fat for fuel?
“timing. Simply drinking the protein shake at a different time of the day caused the calories to be diverted away from fat tissue and toward building muscle mass. It’s possible to alter body composition while in energy balance by changing not only what you eat, but when you eat it.”
I’m getting really good at the science of fat loss. I’m getting really good at building muscles and burning fat at the same time using all the science and data from studies and trials, putting it all into practice for myself and for my clients.
It’s not even that difficult, once you understand and respect your body’s biochemistry, instead of trying to treat your body like a calorie burning machine — that our body is obviously not. Over-simplification in this case causes unnecessary suffering and very often health problems and weight gain instead of successful fat loss and increased health and fitness.
There is a reason, why you see bodybuilders, drinking their shakes during, after and before workouts, not before going to bed or whenever — from the very early days of old bodybuilding and fitness modeling industry, those people through trial and error figured out, what gives the most results, and now science starts to confirm what’s already been confirmed by thousands of physique athletes. And even though not everyone aspires to become a physique athlete, I’m sure many of us could use some more lean muscle and some less fat, right?
“Exercise is one of the top two things people think of when the topic of weight loss comes up. Exercise increases overall fitness, improves cardiovascular health, and promotes a more positive well-being. One thing that exercise does not do, however, and this may come as a surprise, is cause weight loss. To be more specific, when someone initiates an exercise regimen, without a specific dietary intervention, long-term weight loss fails to occur in the majority of people. In brief, this is because the calorie deficit produced by exercising is too easily off-set by increased food intake. Sound familiar? Yes, this is very similar to what happens on a low calorie diet. Regardless of whether a calorie deficit is induced by exercise or a low fat diet, the body responds with increased hunger. So when a new exercise routine is begun, in the absence of a dietary intervention, this added hunger results in increased food intake, effectively negating the calorie deficit produced by exercise. Homeostasis.”
Good nutrition plan, that changes your satiety and hunger levels, that changes hormones, that basically makes you want to eat less and increases your metabolic rate and energy expenditure (low carb, higher protein diets with good amount of healthy fats) — that will cause you to lose the most fat and keep it off long term — not some crazy exercise program.
You know what also often blows my mind?
Creating a fat loss, weight loss plan, many people forget, that they will take themselves, that flawed human being we all are, on that journey, following that plan. And I hate to disappoint you guys, but if you decide to follow some plan, that sabotages all your health functions, your brain, your hormones — everything you are as a human being — your body and brain will fight back and you will not be the one celebrating victory. So all those dumb starvation diets with extreme exercise plans — not gonna work for you. The focus should always be on working WITH your biology and your brain NOT AGAINST IT!
That’s why it’s important to read books, like this one, and actually have an idea, how YOU work on body/brain level, how food and exercise work for your body.
We are lucky to live in this era, when we actually have an idea what works and what doesn’t, based on data, and you should totally take advantage of it … or keep your belly fat forever with inflammation, fat around your internal organs, fatigue, diabetes and heart disease and God knows what else.
Few interesting things I want you to think about from the book are below. But let me tell you one thing — this is the best book on how the food works in our body and how you can design nutrition and exercise plan using calories and macros (fats, proteins and carbs), micros, plan, that, works and respects your body and humanity, developed over billions of years of evolution.
“2. To prepare the French delicacy foie gras (literally “fatty liver”), ducks are fed a very high-carbohydrate diet which increases fat deposition everywhere (especially in the liver). 3. Cattle are switched to a carb-rich diet of grains to increase the marbling (adipose) in their muscles. Overeating carbohydrates (which is relatively easy to do), in the absence of inactivity or laziness, is sufficient to induce obesity. Insulin, insulin resistance, and many of the usual suspects are probably involved (processed foods containing industrial trans fats, fructose, etc.). Thus, a poor diet is the cause of obesity. And a good diet can cure it. Furthermore, the caloric expenditure of exercise is often overestimated.”
“Anaerobic, or “strength training” increases skeletal muscle mass. This directly improves strength, coordination, and quality of life. More importantly, having more skeletal muscle increases fat oxidation capacity. One reason for this is that having stronger muscles makes all activities easier, or lower intensity. Lower intensity favors fat oxidation. In other words, to optimize the effects of exercise on fat burning, hit the weights.”
“Conclusion: Lift heavy weights daily and take a few brisk walks or jogs every week. If there is a history of heart disease, low-intensity aerobic exercise should be performed every day or as much as possible. If you have any conditions associated with elevated blood glucose (hyperglycemia, pre-diabetes, type II diabetes mellitus, etc.), perform some sort of physical activity after each meal.”
“The calorie restricted mice lost lean mass and put on fat mass. In other words, the mice got fatter without a positive energy balance. How could this happen? For starters, lean mass (muscle) was lost. This might be explained by the reduction in food intake. Muscle is the major contributor to energy expenditure. If food intake declines, and muscle is lost in order to reduce energy expenditure, energy balance could be maintained. The only strange part of that conclusion is that it implies that muscle was lost in order to reduce energy expenditure.”
“Nowadays, we are well-fed and stressed out. The physiological manifestations of chronic stress are of longer duration and lesser magnitude than those of acute stress. Cortisol, a major mediator in the acute stress response, is not markedly elevated in chronic stress compared to acute stress, but instead is ‘out of balance.’ Dysregulated cortisol is bad news. It causes muscle wasting and visceral fat accumulation. Muscle wasting has devastating effects on energy balance, body composition, and quality of life. And in combination with “comfort foods,” is a recipe for disaster.”
“In other words, nutritionally, carbohydrates can be divided into two, not three, subclasses: fibres and sugars.”
“Protein is used for a variety of purposes in your body, but in a weight loss scenario, it is very important due to its ability to support lean mass. When dieting, the goal is to reduce body fat while maintaining or increasing lean mass (skeletal muscle). Increased dietary protein can accomplish this while also tempering the increased appetite that accompanies many weight loss diets.”
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