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How Trendy Diets & Workouts Sabotage Your Weight-Loss Goals

Today I read “10 Essential Facts About Your Metabolism and Weight Loss” on Yahoo Health.  The article explains the scientifically proven relationship between metabolism and weight loss.  Specifically, raising one’s resting metabolic rate (RMR) makes it easier to lose excess weight and maintain a healthy weight.  Intermingled among the ten facts about metabolism outlined in the article are hints regarding what one can do to boost her metabolism.

Healthy

As I read, I realized there are a number of current fitness and diet fads that run contrary to what we know about boosting metabolism and its relationship to achieving weight loss goals.  Five in particular:

  1. Fact: Studies have shown that consuming protein boosts metabolism.

Opposing Trend: The Vegan Diet

Some people go on a vegan diet (consuming only plant-based products) believing it is healthier and will help them lose weight.  While there are plant-based proteins, very few of them have all the essential amino acids necessary to qualify as a complete protein.  And, even then, it’s extremely difficult to consume enough of these proteins to equal complete proteins from meat, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs consumed in the average Western diet. Which means Vegans are likely slowing their resting metabolic rates through their diets.

There are reasons besides weight loss for people to choose this diet.  Some believe it’s healthier to be on a mainly plant-based diet, reducing risks to certain diseases.  However, there are no conclusive clinical studies that bear this out.  Others avoid animal-based food for ethical reasons.  But, if you’re choosing plant-centric diets to lose weight, you probably are sabotaging your efforts by doing so.

2. Fact: Simple carbohydrates slow metabolism.

Opposing Trend: The Gluten-free Diet

Though food allergies and intolerances have become more prevalent in the United States in the last few decades, no food allergen has crept into the consciousness of the American diet quite like gluten has.  Somehow, even though a very small percentage of the population has a clinical intolerance to gluten, it has become a nutrient to be avoided by many in our society.  And, as such, as much as 30% of the population have self reported following a gluten-free diet for better health and weight loss.

Gluten is the protein that exists in several grains, including wheat.  Processed enriched wheat flour, and the gluten contained in it, is in nearly every processed food you can find on grocery store shelves.  Often, when people first give up gluten, they report feeling better because, by default, they are avoiding eating processed food and refined sugars.  So, what’s the problem?

The problem is gluten is also in many healthy, complex carbohydrate, nutrient-rich, minimally processed foods.  Giving up gluten means also giving up a major source of complex carbohydrates and the unique set of vitamins and minerals they contain.

To make matters worse, those who have chosen the gluten-free diet but don’t want to give up bread, pasta and other baked products completely, are consuming gluten-free versions of these foods.  Companies are substituting highly-processed items like rice flour, tapioca starch, corn flour and potato starch, not to mention other sugar-based additives, to mimic the taste and texture of the wheat-based versions.  These substitutes are all simple carbohydrates that slow metabolism.

It is far healthier to have a slice of 100% whole wheat bread than a slice of gluten-free bread.  And, while the whole wheat bread won’t slow your metabolism, the gluten-free one will.  Instead of avoiding gluten, choose to avoid highly processed, simple carbohydrate foods whether or not they contain gluten.

3. Fact: Recent studies indicate vitamin D is important for metabolism.

Opposing Trend: The Dairy-free Diet

Much like gluten-free, but to a lesser extent, dairy free has become a popular “healthy” weight-loss diet.  Like gluten, there is a small percentage of the population that is allergic to milk proteins such as whey and casein.  Still others are sensitive to the natural sugar in milk, known as lactose-intolerance.  But, unless one has such an intolerance or allergy specific to milk, it doesn’t make much sense to avoid it for health or weight loss.

The best way to get vitamin D is from the sun.  In reality, vitamin D is not really consumed as much as it is made by the body when exposed to sunlight.  But, with real concerns about the growing incidents of skin cancer, we aren’t getting significant doses of sunlight in order for our bodies to manufacture our own vitamin D.

The second way to get vitamin D is absorbtion through foods containing the nutrient.  But the body needs calcium to absorb the vitamin D supplement.  Cow’s milk, which naturally contains high amounts of calcium, has vitamin D added to it.  Drinking milk fortified with vitamin D remains the best dietary way to get the necessary amount of this vital nutrient for general health and to regulate metabolism.

4. Fact: Eating moderately and regularly throughout the day keeps the metabolic rate in check.

Opposing Trends: Fasting, Cleansing, Juicing and Meal-Replacements

The science is clear, going for long periods of time without consuming food greatly slows the metabolic rate.  Plus, fasting for long periods at a time or substituting a meal with juiced produce or processed shakes or bars leads to over-consumption later on.  The overall increased calorie intake plus a slower metabolism is a formula for weight gain – the complete opposite of the goal.

Three moderate meals and one or two snacks per day is a much better strategy to keep your metabolism revving.  Choose wisely – be sure each meal and snack includes a complete protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber and fats.  Yes, fats along with fiber help you feel satiated and stay that way until the next meal.  Most proteins contain some natural fats, so pick a protein that hasn’t had the fat removed.

5. Fact: Build muscle to boost metabolism.

Opposing Trends: Cardio-centric Workouts and Endurance Training

Cardio is great.  You won’t find me discouraging anyone from Zumba or Spin classes.  And I think it’s fantastic that more people than ever are entering endurance events like road races, marathons and triathlons.  Yet all of these things strengthen only one muscle in the body – the heart.  A worthy target, no doubt.

But if weight loss is your goal, cardio is not enough.  Strength training is what is needed to build muscle.  Build muscle and you’ll boost your metabolism.  Raise your metabolism and you’ll burn more calories even while you’re standing still.

When it comes to reaching and staying at a healthy weight, metabolism is king.  Before diving into the latest fitness or diet trend, ask yourself how it will affect metabolism.  If you’re not sure, do a little homework to find out.  The last thing you want to do is put a lot of pain, money and effort into something that can only sabotage your goals in the end.

 

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You Reached Your Goal! Now What?

If you’ve been following my blog, you know I recently completed a weight-loss plan and reached my goal.  While the process of losing weight is difficult, it is a short-term goal with an end point.  I knew I wouldn’t feel as hungry or deprived once the calorie restriction ceased.  Psychologically speaking, it was a powerful motivational tool I had at my disposal to get through the toughest days and weeks.

But, maintaining a healthy weight is a long-term goal. In fact, it’s a life-long goal with no end point.  I’m now a month and a half into my weight-maintenance plan to keep my weight exactly where it is.  Yes, this plan is clearly in it’s infancy and only time will tell if I’m successful.  But the plan, by design, will work.  I am the variable that matters.  If I stick to the plan, I will be successful.  If I don’t, anything can happen.  I shared with you the plan I utilized to lose the weight, today’s post gives you insight into my weight-maintenance plan.

First, there needs to be some thought given to how the weight-loss is achieved in the first place.  If the weight-loss plan involves cutting out entire foods, food groups or massive caloric restriction, you may reach your goal.  But, maintenance after that kind of diet will be nearly impossible to achieve.  The adage “diets don’t work” is only half true.  Any diet will work simply because all weight-loss diet plans restrict calories in some way.  If one follows the plan, one will lose weight.  The reason most diets don’t work is usually one of two things happens: either the person goes off the diet before reaching her goal or she goes off the diet once reaching her goal and, eventually, she puts the weight back on.  The more restrictive the diet, the more likely it won’t be sustained and the quicker the weight returns.  This is why I vehemently oppose highly restrictive diets for weight-loss.  I don’t believe they’re healthy and I don’t believe they work in the long run.  Low-carb, very low-fat, vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian, no sugar, no white foods, paleo – may fit the bill for people who are making lifestyle or ethical choices with their diets and some of these diets are essential for people with certain diseases, food allergies and intolerances.  But they aren’t good weight-loss diets for the average person who would otherwise happily consume these foods if given the option.

The simpler you keep your weight-loss plan, the easier it will be to maintain your weight beyond the plan.  There were no foods that were off-limits for me.  To be fair, I was already eating a mostly healthy diet – lean proteins, high quality fats, plenty of fruits and vegetables, minimally processed whole grains.  But I also allow myself treats like dark chocolate, ice cream, beer, wine, French fries and home-baked items.  And, though I try to minimize highly-processed foods, a peek through my cabinets will reveal items such as crackers and energy bars.  Still, these foods comprise less than 20% of my diet.  Knowing my diet was already 80-90% healthy foods, my plan was all about calories in versus calories out.  I kept careful track of what I ate and what I did for exercise through MyFitnessPal so that I could ensure I was running a daily calorie deficit at a rate that would yield an average weight-loss of one pound per week.  This meant most days I wouldn’t have any of my above-mentioned treats.  But, when I wanted to, I indulged and made up for those calories somewhere else in my day.  In short, I was eating exactly the same foods I was before I dieted, I simply ate less of them.

Fast-forward to weight maintenance.  The day after I reached my goal, I went into my MyFitnessPal account and changed my goal from weight loss to weight maintenance.  The program used all the parameters in my account to calculate the amount of calories I can consume each day to maintain my current weight.  For two weeks, I continued to log my daily food intake and exercise so I could learn how much I can eat to maintain my well-earned goal.  Now, I use that information to self-monitor food intake and I weigh myself about every-other-day.  So far, I’ve been able to maintain the weight.  The plan for when I weigh in at more than my current weight: I return to using MyFitnessPal to cut back on calories until I’m back to the goal.

I know I had several advantages: I was already eating healthfully, exercising 6 days a week and I only had 10 pounds to lose.  If I were to counsel a sedentary person with an unhealthy diet and a big weight-loss goal ahead of her, I would recommend one hurdle at a time, starting with the shortest hurdle.  Begin by changing your diet, swapping out unhealthy choices for healthy ones.  When you’re at the point where your food choices are 75% (or more) healthy, then you can begin exploring exercise options, the second hurdle.  Once you’re already making healthy food and exercise choices in your life, then it makes sense to start focusing on calorie deficits, such as the plan I used.  Most people put the hurdles in the opposite order, focusing on a restrictive diet first.  By the time you get to trying to incorporate exercise, you’re too hungry and discouraged to do it!  The result is unsustainable weight loss (if any) with zero health benefits.

If you put the hurdles in the right order by focusing on getting healthy first through quality food choices and exercise, you will begin to lose weight.  Then, as you focus on a more targeted weight-loss plan, you can do it without feeling the need to adopt drastic, unproductive, unhealthy, restrictive food diets.  This makes the last, life-long hurdle of maintaining your weight a breeze to clear.

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Goal!!

On March 11th, I embarked on a modest weight loss trek with the goal of losing 10 pounds at an average of 1 pound per week.   On May 10th, I achieved my goal.  I am proud and humbled at the same time.  (More on the latter later.)  I used MyFitnessPal to track daily calorie intake and output.  I’ll share with you my impressions of the tool, what it does right and what it doesn’t do well.  I’ll also share my list of Sobering Truths About Weight Loss.  Anyone who has ever endeavored on a weight-loss journey, whether modest or ambitious, (which is most of us) will recognize these.  And, in them, you realize why losing weight and keeping it off is so damn difficult to do.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal, a free app and companion website, has everything needed to calculate and track daily calorie intake.  When you begin, you enter height, weight, age, gender and daily activity level.  This information is used to estimate how many calories you burn in an average day.  Then you enter your goal – weight loss, maintenance or gain – and, in the case of weight loss or gain, how much you want to gain/lose per week.  The website uses this information to determine your daily calorie intake total.  Each day, you enter what you consume and any exercise you do and the app/website keeps a running total of calories consumed and how many calories (net of calories burned from exercise) you have available to you for the remainder of the day.  You are encouraged to weigh yourself periodically so you can track your progress toward your goals.

What I liked:

  • Entering calories consumed was quick, easy and user friendly.  Their database of foods (boasting well over 1 million) is vast and continues to grow from user input.
  • It has a tool that calculates how many calories per serving are in a recipe.  It just takes a few minutes for you to enter the ingredients or, if the recipe is available online, download the information automatically.
  • The program encourages exercise.  Any calories burned through exercise gets added to your calorie intake goal for the day, in essence, buying you more calories.
  • It’s free.  Yes, there are other devices that make tracking activity automatic and track more variables pertaining to fitness.  But they’re expensive and require one to wear a monitor twenty-four hours a day.  Plus, not all the tracking is automatic.  Some important information, such as food intake, must be entered manually.  Tracking calories in and out is all you need to reach or maintain a weight goal.  MyFitnessPal does that for free as long as you’re willing to invest a few minutes a day to enter the information.

What I didn’t like:

  • The exercise module is not as accurate and the database is tiny in comparison to the food module.  To be fair, it is extremely difficult to accurately estimate calories burned during exercise.  In fact, unless one is exercising in a lab hooked up to monitors, it is impossible to know exactly how many calories one has burned during exercise.  Even those previously mentioned expensive activity monitors are horribly inaccurate in terms of calories burned.  Plus, MyFitnessPal relies on user input to grow its database of food and exercise.  While everyone who uses the tool eats and enters food consumption, not everyone who uses MyFitnessPal exercises.  This makes the database smaller and less accurate.  There are websites with free online tools that help one estimate calorie burn for a given exercise.  This is what I used when I was unsure and I purposely underestimated calorie burn so I wouldn’t over-consume calories that day.
  • I’m not into the metric system, many Americans aren’t.  I can look at a serving of food or drink and accurately estimate how many tablespoons or cups it is but I have no clue how many grams or milliliters something might be.  A lot of the database is recorded only in metrics.  For example, type “homemade tossed salad” in the search and several options will come up.  You have to click on each one to see the serving size and nutrition information listing.  Often I would have to click through several before I could find tossed salad listed in cup measurements as opposed to grams.  I usually could find a listing that had measurements I could relate to and, if I couldn’t, I made a new entry myself and added it to the database.  But, this made the process more time consuming.
  • The MyFitnessPal app didn’t work on my smartphone.  I have no idea if this is an app or phone issue.  If I wanted to use the tool on my phone, I had to open up my phone’s browser and enter the information through the website.

Sobering Truths About Weight Loss

I was hungry – all the time.  There’s no way around it, the point of weight loss is to run a calorie deficit, day after day, until you’ve lost a predetermined number of pounds.  When you burn more calories in a day than you consume, you are going to be hungry.  Period.  Is it any wonder people give in and give up?  When I was about half-way to my goal, I often asked myself, “Do I really need to lose 5 more pounds?”  It is a constant mental, physical and emotional slog.

We are hard-wired not to lose weight.  Humankind is approximately 35,000 years old.  Yet the phenomenon of being chronically overweight as a population and, therefore, the concept of adjusting one’s diet to lose weight is less than 50 years old.  And, even then, the vast majority of our current worldwide population lives in impoverished countries where the chronically overweight don’t exist.  The human body is programmed to avoid weight loss for survival.  We are all here because our oldest ancestors had bodies that were most efficient at conserving calories and energy and, most importantly, the best at storing it and holding onto it.  I believe this fact is the reason behind the weight-loss plateaus that anyone who has ever lost weight is familiar with.  Even a small weight loss goal, like my 10 lbs, isn’t immune.  The first 6 pounds came off quickly.  The last pound, the 10th pound, took me 19 days.  Think about that… almost 3 weeks of hunger and diligent monitoring of every morsel and drop I consumed to lose one lousy pound.  Like I said, constant mental, physical and emotional slog.

Why I’m humbled.  In the end, my goal of 10 lbs in 10 weeks was realized.  But there was not a day in those 10 weeks that was easy.  There are many reading this who are probably thinking I don’t have a clue what it’s like to have to lose a significant amount of weight.  And they would be right.  I only know what it’s like to lose 10 lbs.  I only know how hard that was and how excruciatingly long those 10 weeks felt to me.  If you’ve ever lost over 20, 50 or OMG 100 pounds, I stand in complete awe of you.  If you are staring a huge weight loss goal in the face right now, I am rooting for you.  And I will freely admit, I only know a very tiny fraction of what you’re going through.  It is a constant mental, physical and emotional slog and you are an inspiration to your friends and family and all of us striving to become and stay fit.

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Confessions of a 40-Something Personal Trainer

I’m just going to put it out there.  My jeans are a bit too tight for my comfort and ego to accept.  And, truthfully, the scale is reflecting that reality as well.  Exercise isn’t the issue.  I’m doing some type of workout 6 days a week (a combination of cardio, strength and flexibility training) and three of those days would be classified as vigorous exercise.  My trainer colleagues would concur and add that if I added to my regimen, I would run the risk of muscle loss and over-training problems.  Nor is what I’m eating the problem.  I consume a very balanced, nutritionally dense diet consisting predominantly of lean proteins, whole grains and produce.

The problem is I’m not being careful about how much of the healthy foods I’m consuming and giving myself permission to have the occasional treat more than occasionally.  When this phenomenon occurred at twenty-something, I could cut back here or there and, thanks to the great metabolism and normally functioning hormones we tend to have at that age, I’d be back to breathing normally in my jeans in no time.   When one is forty plus, however, it takes more vigilance and time to combat the creeping weight gain.  I know this because I’ve been to this rodeo before.  About 5 years ago, when my youngest was a toddler, I realized losing those final pounds of baby weight wasn’t as easy as it was after I had my oldest.  I knew that I had to set goals and come up with a concrete plan to get there and, most importantly, have built in tracking and accountability.

For weight loss, one has to determine what her base daily calorie intake is.  That’s the daily amount of calories one needs to consume to maintain her current weight.  In other words, the base daily calorie intake is equal to the amount of calories burned throughout a day.  From that, you subtract a daily caloric deficit (how much less you will take in compared to what you burn), the result is your daily calorie consumption goal.  The formula is simple but finding the right numbers to plug in is tricky.

The base calorie intake is a complex number based on lots of variables (such as gender, age, occupation, resting metabolic rate, just to name a few) and is unique to each person.  The calorie deficit number is also difficult.  The higher the deficit number is, the more quickly the pounds will come off.  However, if one is too ambitious this will backfire.  In the short-term, one will become extremely hungry and the temptation to binge will be very strong.  Also, she may experience light-headedness and low energy, making her less likely to exercise thus reducing her caloric output.  In the long-term, the body goes into starvation mode.  In this state, the body will hold onto fat cells like they’re precious jewels and begin to burn proteins (lean mass) instead.  This leads to slower metabolism and a generally unhealthy state of affairs.  A safe and healthy daily caloric deficit is one that will yield a weight loss of no more than one pound per week.

Five years ago, this meant I needed to do a great deal of research with some serious guess-timations to determine my daily calorie consumption goal.  But that was quick and easy compared to the daily hand-written food consumption log and numerous calculations I had to do to make sure I was meeting my goal.  But, I did it.  I achieved my goal and purchased the pre-mentioned pair of jeans as a reward.

This time around, the goal-setting calculations and tracking are a lot easier, even if actually losing the weight isn’t.  Last Tuesday I downloaded the free app MyFitnessPal to my smartphone and created an account on myfitnesspal.com through my laptop.  All I needed to do was type in some basic info and the program calculated my daily calorie consumption goal.  The program boasts having calorie amounts for over a million items – including products by brand as well as restaurant meals.  So, from my smartphone or computer, I enter what and how much I ate.  As I input, the program calculates the amount of calories I consumed and will keep a running total for the day.  I always know exactly where I am in relation to my goal.

In addition, I can log my workouts.  The program adds those calories burned to my total.  For example, my daily calorie consumption goal is 1200.  If I’ve logged 200 calories burned in exercise today, the program will add the 200 calories to my goal, allowing me to consume 1400 calories today, if I wish, and still be on track.  From the perspective of a trainer, I love this feature because it’s a fabulous incentive to encourage exercise.  I’m keeping my account private because that’s my preference.  But, you can make it public or connect it to Facebook so that you can become part of a community that offers encouragement, tips and advice.

I am still able to get into said jeans, so my weight loss goal is very modest.  It’s the same goal I had five years ago and well within the healthy range on a BMI chart.  I could have kept my little secret but I thought sharing would be valuable for me and my readers.  For me, it adds another layer of accountability to stay on track and see this through to my goal.  For you, I hope it’s valuable to see that even a fit person, who is seemingly doing most things right when it comes to diet and exercise, can get off-track sometimes.  Yes, even a trainer puts on unwanted pounds.  Even someone who is fit can be fitter.  I’ll keep you posted on my quest to be fitter and happier.

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