Low quality foods such as soft drinks containing sugar are empty calories meaning they possess no nutritional content other than energy. Overconsumption of such foods is the cause of weight gain, and no strategy for fat loss can be successful in the long term without total restriction of these foods.
Weight gain and obesity is a common problem and so at any one time most people know someone who is trying to lose weight. Having a casual conversation with such individuals is interesting because it can give an insight into the reason for the high failure rates of commercial mainstream dieting practices. Most people have little idea about what has caused them to gain weight, and this is the reason that so few are successful in the long term to cause meaningful and healthy fat loss. When pressed on the issue most will state that they think they have gained weight because they have eaten too much food and performed too little exercise. This mistake belief is ingrained in most people, although it is supported by little in the way of hard scientific evidence. Based on this assumption, most people decide that to reverse their problem a course of increased physical activity in combination with energy restriction is required. Often dietary supplements that purport to cause weight loss are then taken concomitantly.
The combination of exercise, dieting and a ‘fat burner’ or similar supplement is a common strategy for those that want to lose weight. The main problem with this strategy is that it will likely cause some weight loss in the short term, and this convinces the individual that they strategy can be ultimately successful. Losing a few pounds in the first week of such a regimen lulls the individual into the misguided belief that their understanding of the cause of their weight gain is correct, and that their chosen strategy is destined to succeed. Once some initial weight has been lost it becomes very difficult to convince such individuals that they are mistaken about their understanding of weight gain and weight loss. Afterall, they can see the results of their endeavours in the bathroom scales and this is all the proof that they need. In fact the mainstream dieting companies rely on this initial weight loss to convince the individual that their diets work. When the weight loss stops or is regained, the individual is blamed for a lack of effort.
Assessing successful fat loss is not possible with the bathroom scale. The emphasis should be on the improvement of body composition, not on the weight of the individual. Adding high quality muscle to the frame can increase weight but significantly improve both health and body composition. Adding skeletal muscle is especially important for the elderly and for those with previous cycles of dieting.
It is the ability to understand the cause and effect during any weight loss strategy, the ability to apply discernment to the programme, that will ultimately allow the individual to improve their knowledge and increase their chances of future success. However, this discernment is often lacking, and like a moth to the hot bulb, the individual is destined to return to strategies that simply return the same lacklustre results time and again. In particular, initial weight loss on such weight loss plans is not beneficial to long term health and the reason for its occurrence are not understood. Reducing energy intake and performing physical activity will likely cause a significant loss of skeletal muscle mass. This in turn will damage their resting metabolic rate and make future weight regain highly likely. Identifying these detrimental changes and being beneficial in the early stages of a fat loss programme can be highly counterproductive for the reasons already stated, and such thinking should be discouraged.
Showing discernment when assessing fat loss strategies is pivotal to success.
A small number of individuals will however succeed with such a programme of energy restriction and increased physical activity. Such individuals are highly dangerous because they plant the seed of confirmation in those who have not been successful, that the programme works, but they have failed as individuals. This can be not only psychologically damaging, but it traps others in the false dichotomy of energy restriction and physical activity. However, in nearly every such successful case, the individual will also have made improvements to the quality of their diet, and this will be the real reason for success. Despite this, it will be the other aspects of the strategy, the energy restriction, the exercise and perhaps the ‘fat burner’ supplement that will be touted as the reason for the success. Forced energy restriction, exercise and ‘fat burning’ supplements do not cause successful long term fat loss. Exchanging poor food choices for good food choices and reversing the metabolic damage caused by low quality food causes fat loss. Understanding true cause and effect is therefore pivotal to long term fat loss success.
RdB
