The Science Behind Weight Loss - Simple Explanation To Help You Lose Weight and Keep it OFF!
When it comes to losing weight, many of us often feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the science behind it. But the truth is that anyone can understand how losing weight works with a bit of research and determination. In this article, we will delve deep into the science of weight loss to understand what is required from a caloric standpoint, what macronutrient distribution is required for optimal weight loss, and what happens on a cellular level when you are in a caloric deficit!
What is the main prerequisite for losing weight?
The human body needs to use more energy than it consumes to lose weight, creating a calorie deficit. If you consistently consume fewer calories than your body needs, you will lose scale weight. During a weight loss phase, the objective is to lose the most fat and preserve as much muscle tissue as possible!
How to lose weight while preserving muscle tissue?
We have already established that for weight loss to occur, you need a caloric deficit, however. To preserve muscle, you must consume enough protein and have a balance between other macronutrients while ensuring that your caloric deficit is not too extreme!
Protein is the critical macronutrient needed for muscle preservation, as it helps your body recover from workouts, build/maintain lean tissue, and provide satiety. However, both carbs and fats have roles in the human body's normal functioning and the preservation of muscle tissue!
Fat contributes to muscle preservation by helping you maintain your anabolic hormone levels, which are essential for muscle growth. When you cut your calories, it is expected that your anabolic hormones like Testosterone and Growth Hormone decrease, which makes it harder to maintain your muscle. However, by consuming enough fat, you can prevent or at least slow down the rate at which the production of these essential hormones slows down.
Carbohydrates also play an essential role in weight loss and muscle preservation. They provide energy to fuel your workouts so that you can maximize the effort of each session and give the muscles the necessary stimulus, which will help preserve muscle tissue or at least slow down the rate of muscle loss during a prolonged dieting phase.
By now, we have also established that resistance training is a crucial element that will help you preserve muscle tissue during a caloric deficit.
A short summary of what sustainable weight loss should consist off:
To lose weight efficiently while preserving as much muscle tissue, you need to be in a modest caloric deficit, have a balanced diet filled with the proper macronutrient ratios, and include daily activities, predominantly resistance training with some cardiovascular activity!
What physiological processes occur when you are in a caloric deficit?
When you're in a calorie deficit, your body starts breaking down fat cells into fatty acids that can be used as fuel. During this process, your body releases glycogen and glucose stored in the muscle cells and organs such as the liver and kidneys.
At the same time, your body also starts breaking down muscle tissue to provide energy for daily activities. However, this is not that significant if you ensure that you are consuming adequate protein and have an exercise program.
A more in-depth explanation of weight loss from a physiological standpoint!
Let's look with more detail what physiological processes occur during weight loss. When caloric intake is lower than caloric expenditure, the body enters a state of negative energy balance, which initiates the breakdown of stored fats or triglycerides in fat tissue (adipose tissue). This process is called lipolysis, and it is stimulated by insulin, glucagon, epinephrine, and growth hormone. The triglycerides get converted into glycerol and free fatty acids, which then circulate in the bloodstream for energy by various tissues, including muscle cells.
On the other side, the body also begins catabolizing, or breaking down, muscle protein to be used as an energy source when in a caloric deficit. This process, known as muscle protein breakdown (MPB), is primarily driven by the hormone cortisol which increases as a result of increased stress put on the body during a calorie deficit. However, the rate of MPB can be mitigated by consuming sufficient dietary protein and engaging in resistance training exercises.
From a hormonal perspective, a caloric deficit may lead to reduced levels of leptin, a hormone that regulates energy balance and is responsible for inhibiting hunger. These decreased leptin levels can increase hunger and food cravings, making it harder to maintain a calorie deficit.
In conclusion, weight loss is a complex process that involves several physiological mechanisms. Understanding these can help develop effective weight-loss strategies and can ensure the preservation and reduction of muscle loss while losing fat. It's all about creating a balanced and sustainable approach that blends diet, exercise, and a solid understanding of your body’s inner workings.
General recommendations for sustainable weight loss
Step 1 - Calculate your basal metabolic rate!
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) represents the number of calories your body burns at rest!
Step 2 - Add the calories you burn through your activities (walking, exercising) to your BMR to estimate daily calories!
Important note - To be safe and ensure that you are in a caloric deficit, I would only add 50% of calories from whatever the tracker shows you. Example: If your app or watch tells you that you burned 300 calories in a resistance-based workout, only add 150 calories to your BMR to get the total calories you burn in a day!
Step 3 - Depending on the weekly weight loss rate you aim for, deduct a certain amount daily from the total calories to ensure a caloric deficit.
Important note - bigger individuals, overweight and obese males, might be able to go for a more significant deficit and sustain a 700-1000gm weekly weight loss rate for a 10-15 week period, however with most petite females, a weekly weight loss rate of 200-300gm is as good as it gets, unless the activity levels are pushed through the roof!
500 calorie daily deficit will result in about 300-350gm of lost scale weight per week.
Step 4 - Sustain your deficit for a 10-15 week period followed by a diet break which can be done as:
1-2 weeks of intuitive eating, complete rest from calorie counting or following a meal plan before going to a new phase designed for weight loss
1-2 weeks of structured reverse diet that will include calorie counting/meal plan with the purpose of increasing calories and increasing the metabolic rate before going for a new phase designed for weight loss.
Elements that are crucial for a successful weight loss journey!
Knowing exactly how many calories you are eating in a day!
Whether it is a meal plan delivery service or you prep your own food know that it is the only way to ensure progress over a extended period of time! Losing weight is a difficult process especially for people that have to lose a significant amount of weight. That process will take time, it will affect the hunger hormone production and it will lead to a slow down in your basal metabolic rate and intuitive eating just won't cut it for most people!
Having a set long term plan with a good exit strategy!
If your objective is to lose more than 10 kilograms in a sustainable way and avoid weight gain you will need one or perhaps even two 10-14 week dieting cycles with a diet break in between and you for sure have to have a exit strategy if you don't want all your weight loss efforts to go to waste! That means that once your weight loss journey is completed you need to ensure a modest progressive increase in the daily caloric intake to promote adaptation and preserve or further increase your metabolic rate, this is called a reverse diet.
Having an exercise program!
Lifting weights has multiple benefits including improved metabolism, muscle mass preservation during periods of caloric deficits and increased physical performance. As mentioned before if you want to maintain or build some muscle tissue while in a calorie deficit you have to ensure that you have an exercise program. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just a simple 3 day split with basic compound exercises will do the job for most people! If you are looking for something more personalized check out our Premium Body Transformation Program!
Consume adequate protein!
As we discussed before the muscle tissue has a higher metabolic cost than fat tissue and when in a calorie deficit it is important to take steps to mitigate muscle loss. One of the main strategies is to make sure you consume adequate protein!
Consume at least 1.6-2 g/kg body weight in protein, spread over 3-4 meals a day and you should be good to go!
Elements that are non essential for a successful weight loss journey + things that you should not be worrying about!
Removing all processed foods from your diet
This kind of ultimatum approach is just not necessary and in most cases does more harm than good! We can conclude that its best to reduce processed foods simply due to its high calorie content and low nutrient density but it's not something that should be the main focus in a weight loss journey as long as you are able to sustain the caloric deficit you can indulge in some of your favorite processed food form time to time!
Worrying about high protein intake related to blood and other biological markers!
You should not worry about a modest increase in protein intake and a potential increase in Uric Acid or other markers like BUN or Creatinine, Cholesterol or High Blood Pressure as a result of an increased intake in specific macronutrients as all of the above markers will significantly decrease as a result of a successful weight loss journey!
Simply drop 20 kilograms and watch how your blood work and lipid panel dramatically improves!
Restricting food groups like carbs or fat!
The only thing that should be restricted is the total caloric intake and the amount of processed foods in your diet, everything else should not be restricted if you want to maintain a balanced approach while losing weight. Removing all your carbs simply because you are insulin resistant is not the solution. Guess what is the solution? Losing weight! You need all 3 macronutrients to function optimally and as long as you are in a caloric deficit and you implement a good exercise routine your blood sugar regulation will improve with every kilogram of weight that you drop!
Applying a specific type of diet!
There are many diets out there, vegan, carnivore, mediterranean diet and the list goes on, however let's keep things simple and focus on one thing - caloric deficit! The diet you chose should be something that you can sustain for 10-15 weeks with a diet break in between cycles. Make sure it's something that is not extremely restrictive as it will lead to burn out. Yes certain dieting approaches might have a great effect simply due to the simplicity of its utilization like diets that are restrictive and give you just a few options to choose from but in the long run restrictive diets rarely work!
The bottom line is that you should focus on what really matters and forget about the rest! The only thing that will guarantee success if a caloric deficit combined with an adequate exercise program. There are plenty of things like good hydration, supplementation, intermittent fasting or utilizing a specific dieting approach for a shorter period of time based on your current health status (blood sugar regulation etc.) that can help you optimize your results while in a caloric deficit but these are the things simply represent the cherry on top of the cake and are non essentials!
Mindful eating
Don't get me wrong mindful eating should be our daily thing, but it never got anyone to lose a significant amount of weight. When you are stressed out, hungry or have some bad influence pushing you to have a drink or eat your favorite foods mindful eating won't get you far! What will get you far is commitment to a plan that is structured! Now that might sound a bit harsh, but it is what it is, we have seen it with our clients for the past 12 years! Those that have a structured plan are the ones that achieve the best results! And lets be honest what is mindful eating if its not eating for a specific goal?
Supplements!
In a weight loss journey supplements should always be the last thing that you worry about! We can all agree that certain supplements can have some positive effects related to fat metabolism and muscle preservation while in a caloric deficit, however there is no evidence whatsoever that any of these products will get you results on its own, they are simply a tool that can be used to optimize the results you get from following a proper weight loss program. So before you go out and spend hundreds of dollars on supplements make sure you have all the basics covered!
Let's give an example of BCAA and Amino Acids. Scientifically it is proven that these kind of supplements only help muscle preservation and the slowdown of muscle loss when your total protein intake is below 1.2g/kg of bodyweight and you are in a caloric deficit, so if you are a 60 kilogram female you should consume under 72gm of protein daily for the above supplements to have some effect.
To sum it up, supplements while on weight loss journey should always be seen as an optimization tool that can help you achieve better results with less struggle, never as the main driver for your success!
Blaming lack of sleep for poor outcomes!
Unless there is a proper sleep deprivation happening like for instance not sleeping more than 4-5 hours on a daily basis, lack of sleep simply cannot be blamed for poor outcomes! Of course there are some extra benefits to have 8 hours of quality sleep as this will lead to better recovery and improved athletic performance but judging from the results that we have seen throughout our years of practice, lack of sleep is never the main driver when it comes to fat loss, rather it is the lack of commitment and structure in ones approach!
Article Summary
In this article we have discussed various topics related to weight loss, such as caloric deficit, food groups, dieting approaches and supplementation. We also looked at common misconceptions like worrying about protein intake or blaming lack of sleep for poor results! The bottom line is that in order to achieve success in a weight loss journey one should stick to the basics and focus on creating a well-structured plan that includes proper nutrition, exercise, adequate rest and recovery!
Although supplements can be used as an optimization tool to help achieve better results while losing weight, they should never be seen as the main driver for any type of fat loss! Mindful eating is also essential for reaching a healthy weight but it should be secondary to following a structured approach and in order to achieve the best outcomes one should always focus on calorie deficit as this is the only way to ensure sustainable long term results!
