The most common mistake people make when trying to lose weight

You enter the latest dance fashion, pedal, run, lift weights.

Or maybe all that.

Count the calories as an Enron auditor. Calories in and out. You can even use a BodyBugg or a Nike FuelBand to help you.

But your fat loss is minimal or zero. Or maybe you lost something initially and now the whole process has become neutral.

What's up with that?

You are making the same mistake that Weight Watchers finally admitted and changed.

Counting calories

This is what David Kirchoff, president and CEO of Weight Watchers International said:

"We needed a program that recognized that calories are definitely not the same.

We knew that counting, budgeting and planning still made fundamental sense, but we wanted a better and more accurate currency. We wanted a POINTS formula that was much more "stubborn" about food choices beyond calories. "

The problem

As Mr. Kirchoff pointed out, the calories are not the same. A Snickers bar (~ 270 calories) and an 8-ounce grilled chicken breast are almost the same calorie count. But Snickers has 28 grams of sugar (34 grams of total carbohydrates) and 4 grams of protein, while chicken breast has 0 sugar, 0 carbohydrates and 54 grams of protein.

These foods will have very different effects on your body due to their nutritional components.

The high sugar content of certain foods, such as a Snickers bar (and refined carbohydrates such as pasta, breads, cereals) increases blood sugar, causing an insulin release to carry the sugar content (more specifically glucose) of blood to normal by passing it through the liver and converting glucose into glycogen, something that muscle cells can use for energy, and then transporting glycogen to cells.

However, the problem is that many people lead a sedentary lifestyle (defined as less than 5000 steps per day) so that muscle cells have all the glycogen they need. Since there is no room for more glycogen, you have to go somewhere for your body to turn it into fat and then see it in your belly, thighs, buttocks or arms.

Contrast that scenario with what happens to the protein. Protein will also break down into glucose, but because it takes much longer and the end result is much less glucose (approximately 50% less), the impact on blood sugar is minimal1, the result is a much smaller increase in blood glucose and, therefore, much less insulin is needed. Of course, if you eat a whole cow, then for sure, your blood sugar level and insulin response will increase and you will increase the extra pounds.

It is not just the total calories you consume that creates unwanted body fat. It is the total calories and the type of calories.

Mathematics no longer work

Many people use this equation to lose weight (i.e. fat):
Calories IN – Calories OUT = Change in body mass

But it's not that simple.

I have covered the IN side of the equation, so let's go to the OUT side.

There are two parts to the expenditure of calories or energy (EE).

There is an activity in which it uses energy to produce, maintain or slow down the movement and there is internal energy produced in the form of heat in response to the activity.

That is why it is difficult to calculate exactly how many calories you burn with an activity

For example, suppose you spend thirty minutes on a bicycle or an elliptical machine doing "cardio." Maybe you are reading a magazine, talking on the phone. You think you are doing a real job. You are not. The caloric burn will perhaps be 250 calories, depending on your body weight. And when you get off, that's all.

Now, if you spend those same 30 minutes kicking your own butt with High Intensity Interval Training, you will increase the burn to approximately 350 and then add another 130 overnight. So that is now 480 calories.

Why is that?

Intense training creates a "subsequent burn" in part by the creation of a large oxygen debt and partly by a large increase in human growth hormone and testosterone. These two combined add to the EE of the activity itself. And that will not be collected on your Polar heart rate monitor.

But I can eat all the pasta I want and never gain weight

If it's you, you've been blessed. Most people cannot get away with it because the combination of a sedentary lifestyle with elevated blood glucose levels due to the endless attack of refined carbohydrates eventually creates something known as "insulin resistance." Your cells are less reactive to insulin, so your blood sugar level stays high, transports sugar to fat cells and has a hard time burning it.

But there are people who, either because of their genetic makeup or a lifestyle of what is sometimes known as "high energy flow" (think of Michael Phelps, Lance Armstrong, Usain Bolt) can handle higher levels of carbohydrates.

That is not me and probably not you either.

It is true that each person has a slightly different reaction to certain foods and that you may need to modify your fuel plan a bit to find what works for you. But once you do this and find the right combination, you can throw away the calculator and say goodbye to ENERGY IN – ENERGY OUT.

Bottom line

Worry less about calorie counting and more worried about the types of calories you eat. If you want to count calories, which is sometimes useful just to get an idea of ​​how much energy you consume, that's fine, but look at your fuel plan first.

Stop eating sugar (soda is number one on the list) and refined carbohydrates and increase your protein and fat intake. If after this you feel that you need to count calories to succeed, your chances will be better because at least you will count the calories from foods that do good things for you. Find the balance that works for you. Then, train intelligently. You will feel better and your efforts to lose fat will work.

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