How to Lose Weight
Key points:
- Drastically reduce or eliminate carbohydrates from your diet altogether. Sugar, grain, cereal, rice, pasta, flour, fruit and starchy vegetables in excess make us fat(especially the refined, fake stuff!).
- Saturated fat, sodium and protein are good for you, even in excess. There has been no credible scientific data to suggest they are harmful in anyway to the average consumer.
- Exercising for weight loss is not worth it. Exercise will only make you hungry. If you exercise and eat the wrong things, you will continue to have difficulty losing weight or even gain weight.
- Exercise is not going to help you lose weight, but it still has a number of amazing benefits. Resistance training accompanied by a protein dense diet and adequate rest will breed superior results.
- Calories don’t matter. Your body will match energy-out by the amount of energy coming in. Eat too little food, you have too little energy through out the day.
Losing weight has been so frustrating for so many people for so long. How do we lose weight? Well, the answer is simple. Reduce carbohydrates in your diet (grains, sugar, candy, starch, even fruits). Our fat cells are regulated by a hormone called insulin. When blood sugar spikes, our bodies have to lower it because elevated blood sugar is dangerous. So what does our body do with the excess sugar?
Our pancreas releases insulin and insulin stores the sugar in our fat cells and in the long run makes us fat. Protein and fat (yes, saturated fat!) doesn’t cause an insulin response by our body. Therefore, eating a lot of meat, dairy and fat don’t leave the body in fat storage mode.
The less sugar and carbs we eat, the less insulin we have floating around in our system. When our insulin levels are low, the fat is released from the fat cells and our body begins burning it for energy. If we are eating a lot of sugar and carbs, our body still has high insulin levels, so our body isn’t releasing the extra energy from our fat cells!
Sugar crash? We have all heard of a mid-day crash or the “itis” after a big meal, but what causes this? Sugar, soda, breads, pasta, fruit(in high quantities), flour and grains are fast digesting. When we eat these, they digest quickly and spike our blood sugar. Our body responds by releasing insulin to store it away quickly. Insulin doesn’t allow energy to be released because its job is to store energy. Since insulin is storing sugar in the fat cells for energy and there are high levels of insulin in our body, our fat cells don’t release the energy.
So what ends up happening is we eat carbs, our body digests them quickly, insulin stores it and we crash. We don’t have any energy being released, so our body asks us for more energy and we eat more and the same thing happens. So if you realize what’s happening, it’s scary. Our body is storing more energy than its releasing. And that is how we get fat and never see a flat belly.
To avoid gaining weight and being sick, avoid the USDA food pyramid. Eat foods high in fat and protein. Complex carbs like green leafy vegetables and thick fiber dense vegetables (asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, mushrooms, etc) are also good. Eat lots of meat, dairy and fish when you can. Butter, lard, coconut oil and the rest of those ‘bad’ fats are good for you(1)!
The Exercise Part of the Story
Now reducing carbs alone will not get you a flat belly or a 12 pack. Exercise plays an important role in the maintenance of lean body mass and helps tone the body. Your diet will be responsible for reducing body fat, but exercise will be responsible for maintaining lean body mass. Exercise alone won’t do a damn thing for weight loss, BUT, without it, aesthetically, you’ll just be a skinny, flabby person. Nothing wrong with that if that’s what you want, but I know most people want more. Exercise is the greatest thing in the world and I think EVERYONE should be doing a form of resistance training at least twice a week. But if you’re exercising strictly for weight loss, think again.
Exercise boosts your metabolism and makes your body crave more energy (food!). So you’re basically working up an appetite when you hit the gym. What you eat afterwards is going to decide what happens to you. Eat lots of rice, pasta, grains, bread, cereal and you get a spike in blood sugar and a huge insulin response. No weight loss.Eat tons of fat, protein and some complex carbs(veggies, limited fruit) and the body will continue to be in fat burning mode. Eat nothing after the gym and your body starves. You are not giving it the energy it needs.
So what happens? You fall asleep. When a cell phone is on low battery, the screen usually dims automatically to save power. Our bodies have that same automatic response. Your body reduces its energy expenditure to match the energy levels coming in. We feel tired when we are running on low fuel simply because our body is saving energy. In other words, the calories coming in effect the calories going out. Not the other way around!
The Inconvenient Truth
The answer to weight loss is really easy, but the paradigm shift is not. From growing up on Special K and low-fat milk, to Dr. Oz and Weight Watchers, we have been conditioned to believe a low-fat, high-carb diet is good. It’s the easiest thing in the world to conveniently accept that saturated fat, red meat and sodium are bad for you when the majority is against it. Doing so doesn’t mean you’re “stupid” or “gullible” or even “naive”. It just means you trust those who are suppose to figure this stuff out, to do their jobs responsibly.
Unfortunately, there is a conflict of interest. Money= survival/success and survival is the most important thing to anyone. The only problem is that when pharmaceutical companies thrive, it means there are more sick people. The public interest is to stay healthy and the pharmaceutical companies, doctors and hospitals interest is to stay in business. Our current economic paradigm is a little deranged, but that’s for a different discussion. One thing to remember is that monetary gain triumphs human value in our current economic paradigm, so we always have to keep that in mind.
Once careers are established around a certain paradigm, they are fought for. After all, their careers are on the line.
Trixiesticks says
Saw your introductory post on “marksdailyapple.com” and decided to check out your blog. You do a good job of explaining these things simply and quickly. I’ve went primal a few weeks ago (I still ate pretty well before that) and feel great. Today I had my first “cheat” when I ate some rice flour & tapioca flour swedish pancakes at a restaurant with lingonberry jam. Not such a bad cheat I guess. Congrats on losing weight. I don’t know if I’m losing weight but I’ve lost inches for sure in just a month. Luckily I don’t have much to lose. 🙂
The Master says
Hey! Thanks for checking out my blog! Yeah, my main goal is to explain things as simply as I can so new comers or curious people don’t get warded away with all the science. I’m glad to hear you’re eating yourself to a healthier life! Haha, cheats happen 😛 That sounds like a damn good cheat meal though. Thanks. Yeah, that happens a lot. Inches will be lost, but no fluctuation in weight. I would recommend taking pictures and measurements. Thanks again and I hope to hear from you soon!
Madonna says
I am doing couple of dnreeffit types of abdominal exercises for fat loss, i have worked out completely one month with abdominal crunches and cardio but my body result is very slow in burn fat at abs. I am sticked on fat loss diet structure. Here my question is,there is any great exercise for FAST fat loss at belly and effective to turn my body into six pack ripped with in short period of time?
The Master says
Hi. For FAST fat loss, I would suggest going on a ketogenic diet, if you don’t mind going that extreme. Fat loss is more about the body’s hormonal response to food than it is exercise. Exercise is definitely helpful for strength and muscle definition. I would suggest doing compund leg and core exercises like squats and deadlifts while on a ketogenic diet. That would be my best recipe. Give yourself between 2-4 weeks to get keto-adapted before considering heavy lifting if you’re going to go with ketosis.
Best of luck
Dijana says
I heard there were like 4 different ones and each vareis upon the person. Thyroid Gland, Parathyroid Gland, Pituitary Gland, and Liver. These are the main organs responsible for fat loss. If you can find out which organ stimulates your fat loss personally, you’ve succeded at burning fat. Is this true? I believe mine is the thyroid gland, so what factors stimulte the thyroid Calcium, Protein, Carbohyrdates, etc. What?
The Master says
From the research that I’ve done. I would say carbs are the culprit here. Try reducing high GI carbs and see if that helps.
Karima says
Hi, I have a question.Let’s say today is my rtnuioe for Bicep and Back.So which part do i have to workout first?As if i do my back workout first i can’t concentrate 100% on my Bicep as my target is to get Bigger ARMS.. =)So do i have to workout my Back exercise or my Bicep exercise in order to gain my target?
The Master says
I would suggest doing your back exercise first. The bicep is only a secondary muscle in any back exercise. That means it won’t exhaust completely. After the back is completely worked out, now you can exhaust your biceps.
Kalyb says
I am going to start going to the gym after a year of absence, and I want to lose the whgiet I gained fast. I’ll buy supplements like proteins, vitamins etc. I’ll also buy fat loss supplements, but as I’ve never bought these before, I don’t know which ones to get.I’ve heard that the ones with Ephedra are quite harmful if you have heart condition.
Kandra says
I’ve been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this website. Thank you, I will try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your site?
The Master says
Hi Kandra. I appreciate the love! I try to at least update it three times a week.
PiSo says
Insulin shots do not hurt. Once in a while they sting for less than 20 seconds.There is no huge pnaufil shot coming.She is a normal person.Too bad her family can’t realize that.Your Aunt has no idea how to care for her daughter.She needs to become educated on this. Call her back and ask HER to bring a dessert she feels is appropriate.Your cousin can eat anything she wants as long as she takes insulin to cover her carbs.This is how the most modern diabetes care works.Sounds like she isn’t working with a pediatric endocrinologist and has not been to a dietitian.That is sad.Do not use any artificial chocolate.It often has the same carbs as the regular and gives us the runs.
Mphoza says
I want to lose fat around my belly and thghis a little on my arms and calfs. Im 5ft 9 inches and i wear 190. I want to lose fat i dont care about how much i weigh i just want to look good. Its just that i dont have a high metabolisim. So i have aout 2 hours a day that i could use to workout.but i cant go to the gym i have an ellipitical at home and i have weights.
The Master says
Think about your diet first before you consider exercising. I would suggest going very low carb and marking your progress 🙂