It’s January 2024, which means it’s “weight loss season”. A friend who knows of my preoccupation with fitness and nutrition asked me if I had any tips for him. I thought about it for a while and typed up the following stream of consciousness. This philosophy is what helped me lose weight about 5 years ago, and has helped me keep it off since. Hopefully it will be useful to you.
- There’s a saying: “Weight loss begins in the kitchen.” Exercise has its place, but it adds almost nothing to weight loss. You must change what you eat.
- Fat is “stored energy”, built up over time because you’ve eaten more energy than you used. Most people, even “skinny” people, have plenty of energy stored up. You won’t lose weight until you use more energy than you take in and start emptying those energy stores (fat). The easiest way to do that is to stop taking in (eating/drinking) energy.
- Carbs and fat are pretty much pure energy. Most people think of carbs as “sugar”, but carbs include bread, pasta, potatoes, beer, Gatorade, soda, high-sugar fruit, and – of course – sugar. Fat includes nuts, nut butter, and dairy (milk, cheese, butter, yogurt). If you can’t tell, carbs and fat are some of our favorite foods, which makes this really hard.
- Luckily, protein is your friend. Not only is it lower in potential energy than fat, but if you’re doing resistance training (RT) (weightlifting), the protein goes into building and maintaining your muscle and other tissues, essentially skipping the “energy” step. A bonus is that you actually burn calories (energy) when you’re digesting protein (which is why you get “meat sweats” after you eat a bunch of protein!). It also makes you feel “full” long after you eat it, whereas especially carbs make you hungry within an hour or two. So – bottom line – more protein is better.
For me, a typical breakfast is a boiled egg or two, a piece of meat (like rotisserie chicken, hamburger patty, salmon or ham), and a SMALL handful of nuts. That will easily last me until 12 or 1pm. Then, at “lunch” time, I drink a protein shake. My recipe for a protein shake is: half cup of no-fat yogurt, a scoop of protein, a pinch of salt, and two tablespoons of peanut butter with water (not milk) as a liquid for mixing. That’s something like 50 grams of protein when it’s said and done. After a shake I’ll be full until dinner time.
If I need a snack, it’s something like beef jerky, nonfat yogurt, or a few pieces of cheddar cheese or a handful of nuts. On average, though, you should resist the urge to snack. You need to take in less energy.
Warning: as you get started, you will find yourself “hungry” out of habit, rather than necessity. If you’re used to eating every two hours, your body will expect it whether you need it or not (you don’t). Ignore it. Beat the signal into submission. After a few days you’ll find that you won’t get the signal anymore.
- If you’re brave enough, once you find you’ve conquered that hunger signal, you might try to skip a meal or two during the day. Say, skip “breakfast” and wait to eat until 11 or 12. Or eat at your normal breakfast time, but don’t eat again until dinner time, or at least 2 or 3 pm for a snack. You’ll find it easier than you think.
- It’s a good exercise to check the serving size of your favorite foods, then weigh and measure them to see what you should be eating vs. what you actually eat. You’ll be shocked.
- Speaking of exercise… People are taught that if they want to lose weight they have to exercise like crazy. Not really. While you’re trying to lose weight, remember these two points in relation to exercise:
- Any time you lose “weight”, if you’re not careful, you’ll lose muscle, too. RT is the key to keeping the “good” weight. Lift weights at least 2-3 days / week to keep that muscle.
- The way to lose fat is not through super vigorous cardio. It’s through low impact, “Zone 2” cardio. This is done by something like jogging or biking at a steady pace for 30 minutes or more at a heart rate that is about 180 minus [your age] for a target heart rate. For instance, if you’re 28 years old, your target heart rate for 30 minutes is 180-28=152 beats per minute. You can use your Apple Watch to keep up with your heart rate during the exercise. Another way to measure your pace is to exercise such that you could carry on a conversation with another person, but it would be uncomfortable to do so. If it would be easy to have a conversation, then you aren’t working hard enough. If you’re huffing and puffing and unable to talk, then you’re working too hard. Fat is burned at that sweet spot in between.
- A final word on what you can / should eat during this time. You don’t have to do without good food. But you have to change your approach to what “good” means. Once you cut back on the sugary stuff, you’ll notice how sweet everything tastes when you do eat it. Cookies, sodas, cakes, donuts become almost inedible. You’ll also notice how much better you feel when you don’t eat the carbs. Carbs generally cause inflammation. When I eat a bunch of sugar now, I feel “old”. My joints hurt. My knuckles swell. My heart rate goes up. If you absolutely need something sweet, berries are a great option. Not apples, or oranges, or peaches: BERRIES. They are sweet tasting but super low carb. If you’re a chocoholic like me, really dark chocolate (80% or more) gives you that chocolate taste, but, surprisingly, you don’t need near as much to be satisfied: one or two squares generally does the trick. If you are in a situation where you really want something that’s “off limits”, just use self-control. Split the cookie / cupcake / pastry with someone rather than eat the whole thing yourself. Americans are infatuated with massive portions. You don’t need as much as they offer you. (Heck, I’d argue that you don’t need ¼ of what most restaurants offer!).
Whatever you do, don’t fall for what advertisers are selling you: If it says “natural”, “healthy”, “high protein”, “low carb” or “keto”, they’re lying. Anything can be considered “low carb” if the serving size is small enough or you stick enough fake sweetener in it. Just skip the “healthy” processed snacks altogether and eat whole foods.
I would add that this is easier with a partner. If you can get your wife or a friend on board and y’all do this together, you’ll have a better chance at success. Having an accountability / support person is so incredibly valuable.
BONUS CONTENT!
This is for the web only. I thought about this after I sent the list to my friend. My last tip would be to get plenty of good sleep. Bad things happen to your body when you don’t get enough sleep, and two relate directly to weight loss.
- You are generally hungrier and have less control over your appetite. I’m not sure anyone knows why, but it happens.
- Your body’s hormones go whacky in a way that causes you to be more insulin resistant. When insulin is out of whack, you tend to put on weight.
Bottom line, quit binging Netflix, put down your phone at 8pm, and go to bed!