The Fat Loss Myth That Needs To Be Squashed NOW
Conventional wisdom isn’t always wise.
Fat loss is a relatively simple process.
Eat less, exercise more. — “They”
That‘s what they say. You know they — the fitness know-it-alls. Usually they use their own fit bodies as proof that they know what they’re talking about and how could you argue? Its conventional wisdom. Eating less and exercising more creates the caloric deficit needed in order to lose fat. Its simple logic to follow. So simple, in fact, if you still can’t lose the fat its simply your lack of restraint and discipline. Its all your fault.
NEW FLASH: No it isn’t!
Of course, your actions must align with your desires. If you want to get in shape you MUST do the work and make the sacrifices.
But when it comes to the “eat less, exercise more” model, you may just end up “happy less, fat more”. Here’s why:
Raging Hormones Aren’t Just For Teens
Burning belly fat requires two things: a caloric deficit and balanced hormones.
A disproportionate amount of time and energy is spent on the caloric deficit (burning more calories than you consume) compared to hormone balance. In fact, hormone balance is rarely mentioned at all.
“Eat Less, Exercise More” establishes the caloric deficit, true, and it can provide some short term fat loss, but in the long run it wreaks havoc on your hormones, causes junk food cravings, raises your stress levels, and eventually drives you into a stress induced food binge.
What Hormones Are We Talking About?
There are quite a few, but we’ll zero in on the main two: insulin and cortisol. Neither is inherently bad, but when they’re out of control, they become trouble.
Insulin’s normal action on fat metabolism is to increase the activity of LPL, the major fat-storing enzyme, and decrease the activity of HSL, the major fat-releasing enzyme.
This means insulin’s normal action on fat cells is to make them store and retain more fat.
Cortisol is quite tricky. It is both fat-releasing and fat-storing because it enhances the activity of both LPL and HSL. It can also drive you crazy with food cravings.
This is because cortisol impacts hormones in the brain that regulate apetite and too much cortisol drives people to eat more of the wrong foods more often, making it far more likely to achieve a caloric surplus and thus gain fat.
How active we are plays a big role in how many calories we need. The more active we are, the more calories we need to replenish our energy stores and sustain our activity level.
When we use more energy than we supply our bodies with, we put our bodies in a stressed state. We’re actually under-fueling ourselves and our bodies respond accordingly.
The reason why “eat less, exercise more” doesn’t work long-term is because it promotes an unhealthy energy balance that puts us in a stressed, or catabolic, state that destroys our metabolism.
Although human civilization has evolved dramatically over our 6 million year existence, our bodies are still very primal. When in this catabolic state, it thinks resources are low and thus we must hang on to everything we eat for dear life to maximize our chances of survival.
In other words, despite eating less and exercising more, you’re actually storing fat.
Lose The Fat Without Losing Your Mind
Discussing problems without offerring solutions is a waste of time. That’s why I’m going to lay out two alternatives to “Eat Less Exercise More” that will achieve the necessary caloric deficit while keeping your hormones in check.
Each one is slightly different in that one caters to the lightly active individual who may exercise only 1–3 times a week and the other leans more toward the moderate to heavily active individual who exercises 4–7 times a week.
Identifying Insulin and Cortisol
It may help to think of insulin as “starch and sugar” and cortisol as “sleep and stress”. This is an oversimplification of what insulin and cortisol actually are and do, but for practicality it serves the purpose.
The idea is to modify starch and sugar intake to provide energy and stabilize blood sugar while, at the same time, lowering insulin slowly over time and keeping cortisol stable.
The Light Exerciser’s Diet
Also known as the “3:2:1 plan”, this diet plan caters to the lightly active individual. If your exercise routine includes 1–2 weight lifting sessions per week alongside some walking or light jogging, this plan is for you.
The 3 represents 3 meals per day. The 2 means that 2 of those meals should be mostly protein and fiber with less starch. The 1 means that 1 meal per day should be heavier in starch. This meal is best kept for the post-workout meal when your body is in most need of the starch to refuel.
You can also visualize a plate where 3 parts are veggies, 2 parts are protein, and 1 part is starch. Healthy starch options include brown rice, quinoa, beans, sweet potatoes with the skin (the skin packs the fiber!) and oats.
The Gym Rat Diet
Do you do a lot of heavy weight lifting, run more than 7 miles a week, or play a lot of sports? If so, this diet plan is for you. It’s higher in starches to accommodate your high activity levels, higher in eating frequency to provide a readily available source of energy for workouts, and still contains adequate protein for muscle rebuilding. This is the “3:2:2 plan”.
The 3 is for 3 meals per day. The first 2 is for 2 snacks per day. The second 2 means double your starch intake. Per meal plate, this means 3 parts vegetables, 2 parts protein, and 2 parts starches.
It is a good idea to eat simple carbs/sugars before and after a workout to supply readily available energy you need during a workout and refuel after a workout. This is, of course, a simplistic view of pre/post-workout nutrition. For more detail on what to eat before and after a workout, take a look at this article —
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About The Author: I’m Zach Newman. I’m an ACE Certified Personal Trainer. Conversation is insanely important to me. Its why I love creating things because creation sparks discussion and discussion is the best way to learn from each other. Whether its about fitness and health, what books to read, or what’s going on in the world today, my goal is to build the best community around conversations that better the lives of everyone involved.
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