Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Successful weight loss is a challenging journey, no doubt about it. In fact, it may be just as challenging as walking solo from New York to Los Angeles, and for many it may take even longer. Would you take either journey without having a clue how long it is going to take? Well, neither would I. So, let’s first analyze both walks with special attention on the journey to realistically lose the weight you seek.
The Long Walk …
- In perfect conditions – good weather, flat roads, comfortable shoes, and regular rests – you can easily walk for eight hours each day at a comfortable pace.
- According to Google Maps, the walking distance between New York and LA is around 2,800 miles.
- At three miles per hour, it will take you 933 hours of walking to cover this distance.
- With everything going absolutely right, you’ll get to LA in 116 days, or a few days short of four months. That is, if you don’t stop for a day.
Unlike this truly monumental, once-in-a-lifetime road trip, a rather ordinary weight loss journey from 175 to 125 lbs. is measured in fat loss per day rather than miles per hour. To begin, let’s switch over to the metric system first.
You’ll immediately feel better and lighter just by realizing that you are weighing half as much in kilos than in pounds. And losing 100 grams a day also feels like a much greater accomplishment than a mere three ounces. Also metrics will let you do the math without resorting to a calculator.
How long does ordinary weight loss to a normal weight really take?
- The “distance” between your current 80 kg (175 lbs.) and the target 57 kg (125 lbs.) from your youth is exactly 23 kg (50 lbs.).
- In the first two weeks of your reduced calorie diet, you’ll drop 15 lbs. (7 kg) of phantom weight (the subject of a prior post). That leaves you with 16 kg (35 lbs.) more to go…
- Let’s assume that you can stick with a 1,200-calorie diet for as long as it takes to lose 100 grams of fat per day. A total fast, on average, may yield 200 to 300 grams of daily weight loss with about half of it at the expense of body fat. So losing 100 grams daily while still on a modest diet is an excellent rate of fat loss.
- A simple division of 16 kg (1,600 g) by 100 grams results in 160 days.
As you can see, it takes slightly over five months of a rather restrictive dieting to lose 35 lbs. (16 kg) of fat for good. And that is, ideally, with no family to cook for, no parties to attend, a supportive spouse, decent digestive and endocrine health, good sleep, little stress, and an iron will to resist an occasional piece of dark chocolate or a glass of wine.
Let me repeat that: A healthy middle-aged person in a supportive environment may require at least 160 days for losing 35 lbs. of excess body fat on a strict 1,200 calorie diet.
That isn’t exactly what all of those famous diet books have been telling you all along, is it? What have they promised you? Two weeks? Four weeks? A few months? Yesterday? It’s total, complete bull my friends!
If, indeed, these authors were telling you the unvarnished truth the way I just laid it out, most people simply wouldn’t buy their books, take their classes, or eat their snacks and prepackaged meals. Just imagine a tagline on the cover of one of these diet books:
“Struggle through a 1,200 calorie diet for the next 160 days to rediscover the body of your youth!”
Would you? I doubt it. And if your environment isn’t supportive, or you aren’t exactly in perfect health, or you are well into menopause, or you lapse every so often into binge eating, or you can’t give up alcohol, or what have you, it may take even longer than 160 days, much, much longer…
Sorry for being a spoiler, but that’s, ladies and gentlemen, the hard truth of successful and permanent fat loss.
To fail – do as they say. To succeed – do it right!
So, let’s get brutally honest with ourselves and totally technical about the process. As I explained in the previous post, diet-related weight loss has two distinct stages: the loss of phantom weight first, and the actual loss of excess body fat second.
As you recall from that post, the loss of phantom weight lasts up to two weeks and is represented primarily by the reduction of undigested foods, fluids, and stools inside your gastrointestinal tract, but little or no actual body fat.
The resulting weight reduction is often quite profound – anywhere from 10 to 20 lbs., depending on your starting weight, diet, and colon health. This “magic,” however, is over as soon as your scale comes to a screeching halt, even though you are still consuming the exact same diet.
That is why the next stage – the permanent loss of body fat – is what you are re-e-e-a-l-ly after. Its duration depends on a multitude of factors, beginning with the amount of fat you need to lose and ending with your age, height, gender, ethnicity, occupation, rate of metabolism, personality type, the quality of sleep, physical activity, diet composition, climate, and some others.
Estimating the length of an effective weight loss diet isn’t rocket science, but rather elementary school arithmetic. It can be expressed in these three simple formulas:
Excess fat = Current weight — Desired weight — Phantom weight
Fat loss duration = Excess fat / Daily fat loss
Total diet duration = Fat loss duration + Two weeks
Let’s give definition and meaning to all of the above variables:
- Current weight. Purchase the best electronic self-adjustable scale that you can afford, set it to metric mode, and weight yourself first thing in the morning, with no clothes on and after urinating. I personally use the Omron HBF-514C scale because it has a resolution of 100 grams and is quite sturdy and professional looking. For consistency, always use the same scale.
- Desired weight is your target “normal” weight. If you weren’t overweight in your youth, the desired weight is usually your average weight between the ages of 18 and 25. If you were always overweight, the formula for determining your desired weight (in kilograms, not lbs.) is your height in centimeters minus 100 for men or 110 for women. This simplistic method does not account for body morphology and muscle strength, but it is close enough for these calculations. Keep in mind that in many instances your desired weight may be higher than your “normal” weight because a substantial weight loss in your later years may reveal the signs of premature aging, such as facial wrinkles, sunken eyes, shabby neck, or floppy love handles under the arms, so you may want to avoid turning one appearance-related concern into another. That’s why I used the word “normal” in quotes – what may be a norm at 20 may turn into a menace at 40.
- Phantom weight loss is determined during the first two weeks of your diet, as I already explained this phenomena earlier. As big as this figure may be, for all intents and purposes it is nearly meaningless to true weight (i.e., fat) loss, and incredibly self-deceptive to boot.
- Excess fat is the only realistic measure of your weight “problem.” That is what you want to lose, and losing it for good requires the most amount of time. Your excess fat is determined by deducting phantom weight losses and desired weight from your current weight.
- Fat loss duration is the number of days you must remain on a low (or very low) calorie diet until you attain your desired weight. That’s the number you are really after. If you come to this process with unrealistic expectations, you may quit your perfectly performing diet way before it has a chance to prove itself.
- Daily fat loss. To establish this number as accurately as possible, you’ll need to stay on a fat reduction diet (after completing your phantom weight loss, of course) for at least 15 to 20 days, or even longer. There are several reasons behind this requirement: (a) the low resolution of consumer weight scales; (b) day-to-day natural weight loss fluctuations; (c) the propensity of weight loss to slow down somewhat as your body adjusts to reduced calorie intake; and (d) inevitable lapses in your daily caloric intake. To properly estimate your daily fat loss, wait until your weight goes down at least 2 kg, and divide this number (i.e. 2 kg) by the number of days it took you to get there. If you do not observe any measurable weight reduction throughout this period, it means that your diet is too generous for your particular rate of metabolism, and you’ll need to reduce your caloric intake even more. Or you may need to increase your level of physical activity. Even better, do both (i.e., eat less and exercise more) until you observe sustainable weight loss. For as long as you consume less nutrients than your body expends for energy and structural metabolism, fat loss is just as assured as sunrise and sundown – no ifs, ends, or buts about it.
- Total diet duration. This number is self-explanatory. Just prepare yourself for the total diet duration being longer than your most conservative estimate because a real life throws its curve balls, diet or no diet. When it comes to safe and sustainable weight loss, being cautiously realistic always beats being hopelessly optimistic.
Can You Lose the Weight? Easy come isn’t always easy go, unless…
…unless you do it right. So let’s review a real-life example, using my own experience as a base. As you embark on your own weight loss journey, just replace my numbers with yours.
When my family immigrated into the United Sates at the end of 1978, I stood 5’7” and weighted 70 kg (154 lbs.) without an iota of visible flab on my taut body. Up until the very end of medical school, I was actively involved in boxing, bodybuilding, skiing, and hockey. Not surprisingly, throughout those years, I was wearing size 32 pants, 15.5” shirts, 38S jackets, and 9.5 shoes.
My weight and shape stayed the same until I quit smoking in 1984. Soon thereafter I developed constipation-dominant IBS (a pretty common side effect of smoking cessation) and started gaining weight. (Smoking cessation stimulates weight gain not because it may increase appetite in some people, but because it reduces the rate of energy metabolism through the improvements of the lung, heart, and liver functions, meaning these organs need to work less to accomplish the same output when no longer smoking.)
On the advice of my physician, I switched over to a high fiber, dairy-free diet, but it made matters worse. So I kept searching. In the summer of 1991, after reading “Fit for Life,” a vegetarian manifesto by Harvey and Marilyn Diamonds, longing to become as strong as an elephant (a vegetarian, of course) and as fit as Mr. Diamond, I embraced a vegan lifestyle. Guess what? By 1996, at age 42, I was still 5’7”, but now weighing 82 kg (181 lbs.) and wearing size 40 pants, 42S jackets, 17.5” shirts, and 10 EEE shoes. Yes, my feet got elephantine too.
From that point on, it took me four more years of trial and error with various diets to get down to my normal weight. If I had known then what I do know now, that journey would have been significantly safer for my overall health, and a lot shorter. I’ll address the safety aspects in future posts. Meanwhile, let’s concentrate on determining the total diet duration for someone in my predicament at that time, but based on my current knowledge:
To determine my phantom weight, I reduced my daily caloric intake to 1,400 calories. This number may or may not apply to you, and I am using it here for illustration only. I will address stage one and stage two diet composition and energy density in future posts.
At the end of the two week period, my weight dropped to 78 kg (172 lbs.). The loss wasn’t as dramatic because I wasn’t a prodigious eater to begin with. So I ended up with 4 kg (7 lbs) of phantom weight loss and was ready to calculate my excess fat:
82 kg (current weight) — 4 kg (phantom weight) — 70 kg (desired weight) = 8 kg (excess fat)
Not bad, actually. I only needed to lose eight more kilos of fat in order to get down to my lowest adult weight of 70 kg.
To determine the total diet duration, I continued with my 1,400 calorie protocol until I lost another 2 kg (4.4 lb). This stage took me 26 more days.
To determine my daily fat loss, I divided these 2 kg by 26 days (2,000 g / 26 = 77 g).
Now I know that for as long as I’ll be staying on a ~ 1400 calorie diet, I’ll be losing ~77 grams of fat each day, and this is going to take me ~103 days, or about three and a half months (~ symbol means approximately):
8,000 g (excess fat) / 77 g (daily fat loss) = 103 days (fat loss duration)
Please note that those 103 days already include the 26 days I spent on determining my daily fat loss number. So, in fact, I only needed to stick to my 1,400 calorie regimen for 77 more days. Not a problem – I can definitely do that, except I also knew that over the next three months I would be attending two birthdays, one wedding, and six business dinners. Since all of these events will blow my diet somewhat, I added three extra days for each of these nine events, or 28 total.
Thus, if everything went as planned, I’d be back to 70 kg in the next 105 days (77 + 28). Not bad, not bad at all, considering a fruitless struggle over the previous four years.
Even the right diets fail when smart people fail to do them right
So why did it take me almost four years to reach that goal back in 2000? Well, as I said before, I didn’t know anything about phantom weight loss, the slow rate of actual daily fat loss, or a number of other equally relevant issues. No wonder, then, that as soon as the dramatic – half a pound or more per day – weight loss was over, I was quitting without ever really starting.
Even more dispiriting and injurious was that with every failed attempt, I was gaining more and more fat because each unsuccessful dieting cycle reduced the rate of my energy and structural metabolism, which was the complete opposite of what I was trying to accomplish.
I am now a decade and a half wiser and more experienced. Depending on the time of year and the degree of my indiscretion with an occasional glass of sake or wine, my weight swings between 68 and 70 kg, less in the summer, more in the winter. This is normal and expected for anyone living a normal life.
These fluctuations don’t overly concern me because when the scale creeps past 70 kg, I know who to blame (myself, of course) and start adjusting my diet accordingly. And for as long as my weight stays in that narrow range – plus or minus 2 kg – I fit all my clothes and feel great about my appearance.
Ready to diet right? In the next post, “How to Prepare Yourself for Safe and Effective Weight Loss Diet,” I will explain how to drop your phantom weight along with a couple of sizes without encountering diet-crashing side effects such as hypoglycemia, constipation, dehydration, indigestion, hair loss, and many others.
Make sure that people with whom you share your meals review your plans too. This will ensure they do not sabotage your weight loss odyssey with their well-intended but often incorrect advice!
More Information on Weight Loss
The French Dukan Diet
Dieting with Coconut Oil
The Harcombe Diet Plan
Bone broth fasting
Raw milk diet
Reasons Not to Eat Paleo
Previous posts from the “Why Diets Fail” series:
1. The Real Reason Diets Fail and What You Can Do About It
For your health and safety, please read these important Weight Loss Common Sense Warnings and Disclaimers before commencing a reduced calorie diet.
Picture credit: © 2013 iStockPhoto LLP
Oh my. This series is a breath of fresh air. I call myself the “woman who knows too much” when it comes to food and dieting. I’ve always been active and had to work REALLY hard to maintain my weight: living on egg whites, spinach, and chicken breast. When I got pregnant 4 years ago, I lost the battle. We are now on a traditional diet and I’m enjoying all the wonderful fats I omitted for so long but I am also far from my pre-preggo weight. I’m sure if I tracked my intake I would find where my problem is but I’m so exhausted by all the tracking I used to do and what to track and what not to track that it’s just overwhelming at this point. At least I haven’t gained since we’ve changed our eating to increase healthy fats but I really would like to lose 30 or 40 lbs. SAVE ME FROM MY INFORMATION OVERLOAD! (With more information of course.) I’m wondering if you will be addressing things like how toxins, specifically mercury from amalgam fillings, affects the systems of the body and weight loss. I had 5 amalgams growing up into my mid 20s and they were all removed improperly. I spent 6 mos doing chelation recently (I’m 37) and started to see great gains in my health, sleep, energy, and mental well being then “oops” got pregnant and subsequently miscarried. My husband and I are taking a break from chelation and I really want to tackle the weight issue and prepare my body for a healthy second pregnancy.
Joanna,
I’ll do my best to help you and your husband prepare your body for a healthy pregnancy. I’ve done a ton of research on infertility (and miscarriages), and the common thread that emerges from this research points to obesity, particularly in women past 30, as a primary cause behind these conditions.
I’m in a grumpy mood this morning and have been battling excess weight since menopause. So, good article, just what I needed to read and reread. That said and nothing against the author but Two pop ups within 10 seconds of each other, it doesn’t add to the experience. Is there something you can do about this, Sarah?
Kate
Kate,
Please allow me to respond on Sarah’s behalf. This website is free to read, but it isn’t free to make, and neither of us has a stipend from Uncle Sam to live the lifestyle we believe we deserve in return for our hard work.
So, just like you tolerate those 30-second ads on your expensive cable box, and just like you tolerate full-page ads in your paid magazines, and just like you tolerate hour-long funding drives on public television, and what have you, please invest one second of your time to click off those pesky pop-ups so we can provide you with this valuable and free service.
Kate, I didn’t have any pop ups. There is ads on the side that don’t bother me. If you have excess pop up issues, you can instate anit pop ups blockers on your computer
I’ve been enjoying your posts and look forward to the whole series. My question is this: if weight loss is simply a caloric equation, how much does watching foods that spike your blood sugar matter? What about ketosis?
I went on your website last week and learned many things to help with my constipation. cutting out whole grain products started helping in just a few days. For better part of a decade I’ve been taking fiber to no avail. Thank you!
Rebecca,
Thank you for your kind words about my work, and the enjoyment is mutual!
> if weight loss is simply a caloric equation, how much does watching foods
> that spike your blood sugar matter? What about ketosis?
I am set to release at least 40 more posts addressing those very things. They all matter a great deal, and for some people they may matter an exceptionally great deal. That is also why this project is so expansive.
Marni, I think this is the sequel you were waiting for.
I am looking forward to reading the future posts in this series so I can demystify the weight loss dilemma so many of us face. In my 20’s I just wanted to lose 10 lb. Throughout the past thirty years I have dieted myself into needing to lose 50 lb. Yet when I look back at my pictures, I looked quite normal.
Also, Konstantin, I would love to see a picture of you smiling and not quite so serious!
Cindy,
Thank you very much, and I am looking forward to obliging your interest with all I know about this otherwise thankless subject — it’s one thing to know all about weight loss, and completely another to act on this knowledge. So when fat stays put after reading yet another diet manifesto, guess whose fault it is? (Hint: that crazy Russian who told me to eat less and move more, as if I didn’t know.)
Re: my “anal-retentive” portrait — no wonder I have turned myself into a world-renowned expert in constipation! You are absolutely right, I need to laugh more.
My wife hates that picture, so we are planning to take a new one soon. Thank you for making it happen sooner rather than later.
A bit confused by this line: “If you were always overweight, the formula for determining your desired weight is your height in centimeters minus 100 for men or 110 for women.” ‘
So say you’re a 5’5 woman…that would be 165 cm, and minus 110 would be 55 lbs. Doesn’t make much sense.
If you notice above, he’s doing his measurements in kg, not pounds, meaning the weight would be about 121 lbs.
That’s 55kg which is 121 lbs.
Amanda,
Sorry for not being clear enough — this would be 55 kg (121 lbs.), not 55 lbs. I’ll make a note of this in the post.
whew! thanks! I thought I must’ve done something wrong! my number was 52.5!
You’ve mentioned in each post the importance of cutting out alcohol. I’m curious as to why this is so important for the weight loss process.
Heidi,
I’ll discuss this subject at greater length while addressing diet spoilers. Meanwhile, here are the key reasons behind this recommendation:
1. Alcohol in spirits is metabolized by the body to the tune of 7 calories per gram of pure ethanol, and most of it is being converted directly into triglycerides, and dispatched right under your skin for “storage.” And this is before accounting for sugars in alcoholic beverages.
2. Alcohol stimulates appetite like no other food. That’s why it is called an aperitif — a drink taken before a meal to stimulate appetite. (Classical aperitifs such as vermouth, contain bitter herbs which also stimulate digestive functions.)
3. The effect of drunkenness is actually a manifestation of low blood sugar. This, in turn, stimulates a prodigious release of insulin, also an appetite-stimulating hormone. Both factors drive up sugar cravings, so we end up loading up with cakes, sodas, and candies.
4. Alcohol drops down your metabolic rate (energy burn) by lowering your body’s basal temperature and reducing your level of activity.
5. Alcohol causes sleep disorders by disrupting sleep states, sleep latency, and sleep duration. Low quality and duration of sleep affects energy and structural metabolism and causes weight gain.
6. Alcohol causes excessive urination, which affects the quality of sleep and contributes to dehydration. Many people prefer to rehydrate with sodas that are loaded with sugars.
7. Alcohol is a major fatigue-causing factor and depressant. These outcomes stimulate the overconsumption of caffeine, with an even worse impact on sleep, diuresis (urine production), and metabolism.
And when you are on a proper low-calorie diet, all of these factors are amplified by a significant margin because you are getting drunk on much less alcohol, and much faster.
So, if you want to lose weight and stay that way (beer belly, anyone?), alcoholic drinks of all kinds (except during communion) are a taboo…
Ohhh, this is the real toughy for me! I adore a glass of wine in the evening, but am cutting back to maybe 3 or 4 times a week. I know it has to be less. For some it is chocolate, or ice cream, or bread. For me, a glass of wine or very occasional ale. Please tell me I can still have it once in awhile!
Maureen,
Yes, you can have it for as long as your remember that a glass of wine (200 ml) contains 168 calories from alcohol alone (at 12%). This translates to an extra 18.7 grams of potential fat to deal with, along with all the other issues I’ve identified above.
With that in mind, a glass of warm water along with a brief meditation may have the exact same effect on you as a glass of wine sans the extra calories. On top of that, meditation and deep breathing will raise your metabolic rate (you’ll perceive it as “warmth”), so you can actually eat a bit more with no penalty.
Sharon Mann Pryor, this is the series I emailed you about. It’s very interesting!!
Thank you so much for what you are doing! I am a 5’10” 42yo female, and I am always told, “you’re tall…you can weigh more.” Like I need help rationalizing! I noticed my weight was affecting my lung capacity while singing, my stamina during hiking, etc., and I’m making changes. It’s hard though, when everyone around me is smiling and happily downing “diet shakes” full of soy and aspartame and losing weight without walking into a gym. I lost the first 11 pounds (phantom weight), started going to the gym, and without changing eating habits at all, promptly gained 6 pounds in one week. I just cried. My husband of course, has dropped 40 points of cholesterol (bad) and looks better. I eat at least one green salad a day, and am avoiding processed foods like the plague they are. Splurging to me is allowing an organic potato into a casserole or soup. Needless to say, I’m reading your articles with great anticipation and hope that someone can help! I even struggled with the Wilson’s Thyroid Syndrome stuff a while back, but that only lasts until life comes along and throws a curve. Gotta be able to live life! Not afraid of hard work, and can’t wait until we can get some veggies back in our northern garden. Thanks for all you do…I’m hungrily consuming all of your advice!
Jodie,
You are very welcome. Taller men and women have a huge weight loss advantage because of their inherently higher metabolic rate. It takes a great deal more energy to pump oxygen-rich blood to the more “distant” head and extremities, hence more energy is expended. Also, taller bodies require a great deal more nutrients for structural metabolism (i.e., cellular renewal).
So, on the right diet you’ll do well, and there is no need to cry or envy your husband. Envy is particularly noxious for successful weight loss because all forms of anger (which is what it is) stimulate appetite, and you don’t want that. Besides, he loves you for who you are, not for what you weigh.
In fact, men have a genetic predisposition toward well-endowed women because the more fat you carry, the more estrogen your body produces, and that makes your body more receptive to what men want most (after sports and foods, of course.)
You are so encouraging Konstantin; I am hopeful again. Like Jody, I am tall, but taller still at 6′. It is nice that with more height I have more space to distribute that extra weight, but none the less it is ugly! And having the added dilemma of hypothyroidism that we both have, this complicates things. I am also full throttle into menopause now, and would like your opinion on how much this complicates weight loss. My husband isn’t really buying it, and it is very disheartening when your otherwise kind and thoughtful spouse is turned off by the extra fat on his wife’s formerly lush and lovely body.
I don’t think my metabolic rate is very high, which hypothyroidism is likely responsible for. Likewise, years of up and down dieting and a former reckless life certainly contributed to (adrenal issues as well). My HT seemed to disappear a few years ago on the high protein/fat diet.
I am most appreciative of your articles Konstantin, and your encouragement-thank you!
Maureen,
Thank you very much for your kind comments about my work. Hopefully these materials will help you to reduce the impact of aging on your weight.
> And having the added dilemma of hypothyroidism
> that we both have, this complicates things.
Not as much as you think assuming you are not bed-bound with pernicious hypothyroidism. Experts in the field know well that there are just as many (if not more) overweight people with normal thyroid functioning as with hypothyroidism.
Yes, your body may be using less energy to keep itself warm (i.e., basal temperature), but not significantly less. So, in the end, it still boils down to your energy intake (i.e., foods) and expenditure (i.e., physical and intellectual activities).
And you must also realize one significant point: If you are gaining just 5 grams of fat (that’s only 45 calories) daily because your energy metabolism is 5% to 10% lower than among other women of your age, at the end of one year you will gain extra 1,825 grams (65 oz., 4 lbs.) of fat, and by the end of ten years this will come to 18.2 kg (40 lbs.).
Thus, the thrust of my program is to (a) stop this slow-go process, so you don’t gain those extra 5, 10, 20 grams and (b) reverse it temporarily, so you can burn that extra fat already under your skin at the whatever rate your body and lifestyle will allow.
And as much as I dislike taking drugs of any kind, I am okay with taking Levothyroxine (generic name for Synthroid-type medicines) as a form of hormone replacement therapy for people who can’t reverse hypothyrodism with natural means (supplemental iodine, essential fatty acids from liquid CLO, sublingual vitamin B-12, high-quality animal proteins [a source of essential amino acids], and vitamin C). But taking medication is a choice made between you and your internist, and isn’t a part of my program.
> I am also full throttle into menopause now,
> and would like your opinion on how much this complicates weight loss
Yes, that’s an issue, but it is similar in scope to an underactive thyroid. You must realize that as people age, they also reduce their levels of physical, intellectual, and sexual activity, so they begin to gain more weight a diet that was weight-neutral before.
Fortunately, it doesn’t take that much effort or that much sacrifice to reverse the process of gaining an extra 5 (10, 20) grams of fat per day — just eat 45 (90, 180) calories less, and move slightly more. Not a huge sacrifice, really…
Yes, it will take a lot more effort and sacrifice to lose 40-50 lbs. of preexisting fat simply because you can’t reverse 10-20 years worth of damage in two weeks or two month while also enjoying a “luxurious” diet. But if you can do it gradually in one or two years, you still have many years to live, and you might as well live them in the size and shape that you and your husband prefer.
This has been a long response to two simple questions, but this response, if you wish, is my weight loss manifesto, and it simply means, paraphrasing Napoleon Hill: “Think and Grow Thin,” or, at the very least, “Think and Don’t Get Fat!”
That isn’t something that the weight loss industry wants you to do (i.e., think on your own), because once you start thinking in these very simple terms (i.e., 5 grams of fat or 45 calories at a time), you’ll be forever lost to them as a recurring client.
Again, this isn’t the most popular (or profitable) position to take, but this isn’t a popularity contest. If I wanted to be popular, I would be writing for Weight Watchers or Atkins Nutritionals, and not for The Healthy Home Economist.
And, believe me, with my level of expertise in this subject and background in business management, marketing, and information technology, I can land a top level executive position (CEO, President, SVP of Marketing) at either company if I really wanted to, except I don’t because doing any of these jobs right (i.e., honestly) would bankrupt both companies in a very short time.
Thank you so much for this series. I am very much looking forward to reading more as the weeks continue. It is very refreshing to have an accurate and genuine account of the how-to for weight loss.
Is it possible for people with chronic illness (eg: fibromyalgia) to lose weight? I have about 7 kg I would like to lose. My main goal is, of course, to be healthier but I feel that losing this excess weight would assist in this due to less inflammation.
Thank you again.
Sure it is! Any form of aerobic exercise (i.e. something that gets your heart rate up), like fast walking will diminish your perception of pain.
Renee,
You are very welcome. Fibromialgia happens to be one of the nastiest side effects of reduced-calorie dieting, and I’ll be addressing this condition in the future.
Before commencing any kind of weight reduction diet, please read Sarah’s new book and follow its recommendations. It is the best thing you can do to resolve fibromyalgia, assuming it isn’t related to the side effects of statins, sugar reducers, antacids, blood pressure reducers, or some others drugs.