Day 7: Being a Healthier Author

Okay, today will be the final post for about a week. Depending on comments I receive I will try to write a blog addressing them.

Because this is the final blog for a bit, I want to talk about some of the pitfalls that we can fall into. Whenever I talk to friends about trying to lose weight, usually the first thing I hear about is a diet that worked for them. Some of these diets are actually great; sadly many of them will cause problems in the long run. I always hold my tongue when someone tells me about how this new fad diet worked. I keep quiet because it worked for them, and I am genuinely happy they have succeeded. Then when I get home I look up these diets. Sometimes what I find isn't good. So, today, I am going to address some of those diets in broad strokes.

So when we diet, the goal is usually to lose weight. Correct? Once we have lost that weight, many of us want to go back to eating normally. Here lies the problem with many of these diets. They will help us lose weight, certainly, but we will lose MUSCLE and FAT in equal parts. Some of these diets are not nutritionally sound or attempt to put the weight off too fast. So, if we're going to start a new diet, we need to do our research and be wary of anything that is shedding five pounds or more in a week.

Hopefully, that last statement highlighted the problem. But if it didn't; here is why losing muscle is a huge problem. We've established activity makes you healthier. This is because moving around uses your muscles, which then require energy. That energy is converted from the calories we eat and the muscles in our bodies are the primary burners of those calories. In short, the more muscle, and the healthier the muscle; the more calories we can consume without gaining weight. So, losing some of that muscle during a weight loss journey is extremely detrimental. Unfortunately, it only shows up after we have put off the weight and return to our normal scheduled programming. Many fitness professionals call this ballooning. We drop a bunch of weight and begin eating normally again. And the weight comes back faster than before because we aren't burning calories like we used to. Now, this isn't saying you need to go lift weights and build muscle to be healthier.

Will lifting weights help you on a weight loss journey? Absolutely, and I will cover this in a later blog.

Is it necessary? No.

Just let's make sure we aren't losing muscle alongside fat because we're eating poorly.

The right way:

Okay, so we've touched on some diets being dangerous. Let's talk about one method that is tried and true; Small caloric deficits paired with activity. If the diet we're reading about talks about deficits then it's probably somewhat sound. To understand deficits, though, let's start with Surplus eating.

Surplus eating is probably what got us here in the first place. It's having calories above and beyond what the body needs. Those excess calories are converted to fat stores. Going over the number of calories your body needs continuously will cause weight gain.

Quite often we don't actually change the amount of food we are eating so much as the amount of activity. This has the same effect. As an example, let's say we used to burn five hundred calories a day from walking. Suddenly, we haven't been walking because the COVID commute is from our bed to our couch. Yet, we keep eating the same amount. Suddenly, we have a consistent surplus of nearly five hundred calories a day. Boom not only are our muscles getting unhealthier, but we're also gaining weight.

Now to talk about Caloric Deficits. To slowly lose fat while maintaining muscle; deficits is one of the safest ways to go. Instead, of going on a strict one-version-fits-all diet that says eat exactly these foods in these quantities. It's best to figure out what caloric number our body needs and eat just under that each day. This ensures that our body is getting the nutrients it needs to maintain muscle while also burning fat consistently to make up that SMALL difference. This method has the added benefit of allowing us to eat the foods we've been eating already with small changes.

Why don't people do it all the time then? It takes some patience and tracking of our food. Some weighing, and a lot of discipline. Unfortunately, many of us give up when we see the mountain in front of us.

However, if you want to try it, my suggestion is to start with a 100 calorie deficit, or less even. First, we need to figure out what our body needs based on current weight, height, age, and activity level is important. Check a few websites and average them out. Also, check the previous blog about nutrition basics for some help understanding calories and macros.

To be clear. I am not saying all diets are bad. I'm only hoping that people will approach diets with a bit more knowledge now.

If you are thinking of trying a new diet, do your research. AND shoot me a message if you're still not sure. I'm by no means an expert but I can probably try to help.