Editor’s Note: Konstantin will be answering questions in the comments section at the end of this post so feel free to chime in with your thoughts and questions to keep the weight loss discussion going.  Konstantin will be posting a column on The Healthy Home Economist for the next few weeks.  If you haven’t been able to attain your dream weight no matter how hard you’ve tried, these posts will help transform your understanding of how to best attain your optimal weight using Traditional Diet  – without failure and side effects – for life!
Statistically speaking, losing weight and keeping it off permanently is just as challenging as becoming a millionaire, perhaps even more. I discovered the core reason behind this enigma while investigating the weight loss plateau phenomenon of low carbohydrate diets. This finding has helped me to cross the last nine yards toward attaining normal weight, and remaining that way for the past twelve years.
As all serendipitous discoveries go, this one was remarkably simple: weight loss diets fail because doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, and celebrities who promote them (and people who follow their advice) do not make a distinction between the reduction of body weight and the reduction of body fat. In other words, losing weight and losing fat isn’t exactly the same thing!
To understand what the distinction between the body’s fat and weight means in real life, let’s review the most basic physiology of weight loss:
- There are two principal components of body weight — constant weight and variable weight.
- The variable weight is a sum of all the digestive fluids inside your GI tract, the undigested foods already in your stomach and the small intestine, the stools inside your large intestine, and water, which can be safely lost with sweat, urine, and perspiration. These variable components of your body weight represent between 15 and 30 pounds, depending on your original diet, your current weight, and your digestive health.
- The constant weight is everything else – the remaining fluids, such as the blood plasma and lymph, the weight of your skin, bones, internal organs, muscles, and adipose tissue, or body fat – the sole substance you actually want to get rid of.
- Variable weight swings from day to day depending on the amount of foods and fluids you consume and expel, workload, and environment. A day on the beach, an hour in the hot tub, or an intense workout in a sweat suit, for example, can reduce your body weight by several pounds simply from sweating.
- Constant weight remains stable for longer stretches of time because loss of body fat is quite slow on any diet, and requires a considerable time to produce measurable and permanent results.
In practical terms, when you start a weight loss program, the first 10 to 20 pounds of weight reduction are almost exclusively made up from the following components:
(a) A reduction in the total weight of foods that you have consumed over the past few days. It may be considerable, especially if you love to eat.
(b) A reduction in digestive fluids. As soon as you start eating less, your body reduces the amount of saliva, gastric, and pancreatic juices involved in digestion. This amount ranges from 6 to 7 quarts per day, and may be halved by the reduced calorie diet.
(c) A loss of water throughout your body, particularly with urine. This happens because reduced calorie diets have a pronounced diuretic and dehydration effect.
(d) Loss of stools from your bowels. As you reduce food intake, particularly fiber, the total volume of stools inside the large intestine may drop three to five times.
I refer to the total of all of the above as a phantom weight loss. This universally ignored fact of human physiology is behind the ubiquitous promise of the near instant weight loss of 10 to 20 pounds on the covers of diet books, supermarket tabloids, and diet plans.
The precipitous – two weeks or less – loss of phantom weight also explains why so many people yo-yo back to their original weight as soon as they stop dieting – the cumulative weight of foods, digestive juices, water, and stools starts to come back the moment you return to your regular diet.
A quick reduction of the waistline is also a popular diet hoax: as your stomach, intestines, and bowel clear out their respective contents, the waistline around them shrinks down a few sizes, even though practically all the body fat remains exactly where it was before commencing the diet.
The proverbial weight loss plateau is another gimmick intended to absolve weight loss counselors from any responsibility for their advice, and to blame you and your metabolism for an inability to lose weight. The truth is – when you can’t overcome weight loss plateau, it simply means that you have lost only phantom weight, but not an ounce of body fat, and, quite possibly, you have gained even more!
So, let’s summarize what I have just described:
- Anyone commencing a reduced calorie diet will demonstrate an appreciable loss of weight, but this is not a loss of actual body fat, but a loss of phantom weight related to the much smaller intake of foods and fluids.
- Weight loss diets that have a pronounced diuretic and dehydrating effect may demonstrate an even larger phantom weight loss at the expense of body fluids. You can accomplish pretty much the exact same effect by restricting fluid intake or sweating out in a sauna.
- Reaching a weight loss plateau simply means that you have lost only phantom weight, but have not lost and won’t lose any body fat.
- A rapid weight rebound shortly after resuming a regular diet simply means that you’ve simply restored the weight of fluids, undigested foods, and stools in your body back to their original volume.
At this point you may be asking yourself a rightfully indignant question: why have all those diet books I’ve been reading for so long not been telling me about this?
Two reasons, I believe. First, their authors simply may not know or may not want to know about this unsavory phenomenon. Second, telling readers the truth — that it actually takes a LOT of time and a LOT of effort to lose body fat — gets in the way of selling no-sacrifice diet books, cookbooks, classes, tests, and diet-branded foods and snacks.
Since I am not constrained by similar goals, I can tell you the hard truth as it is: If you are contemplating losing weight, it must the fat under your skin, not undigested foods, fluids, and stools inside your gut. Losing actual body fat takes time, because even on a very low calorie diet you can (at best) count on losing just a few ounces (under 60 to 90 grams) daily.
So, the next natural question then is: how long does it take to lose real body fat, and how much effort is involved? Well, that is exactly what I am going to explain in the next post: How Long Will it Take You to Lose the Weight?
Once you realize and appreciate the difference between the loss of fat and the loss of mere phantom weight, you will have a much easier time managing the actual process of weight loss (not the make-believe one), and attaining your desired weight and size.
For your health and safety, please read these important Weight Loss Common Sense Warnings and Disclaimers before commencing a reduced calorie diet.
As someone who grew up thin and then gained 60 pounds due to a medication I was taking but lost all the weight after switching medications (with healthy eating and hard work, too), I can understand the “plateau” at the beginning of a diet program. But how does that explain that plateau that many people hit after working out and eating right and losing weight for a longer period of time? I lost 45 pounds over a period of just over a year – 60 in total – but after I hit that 45 pound mark, I just stopped losing. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to lose any more weight. I was only 2 pounds from the top mark of my goal range at that point, so I wasn’t obsessive about it, but it was still upsetting. Obviously I ended up beating it, but it took a major dietary change (not weight-loss related) to do it.
so doing a raw milk fast would be phantom weight loss, correct?
If i drink raw milk but balance it by adding more fat (coconut oil), so that my blood sugar stays stable, would i only lose phantom weight?
Heidi,
The raw milk “fast” is a very efficient diet regiment because (a) it provides you with water; (b) it provides you with essential fats (absolutely critical for side-effect-free weight loss); (c) it provides you with highly digestible proteins; (d) it provides with beneficial bacteria to prevent constipation; and (e) raw milk is less likely to cause lactose intolerance because innate bacteria continue fermenting lactose inside your small intestine (lactose is a good source of carbs needed for your brain and central nervous system).
Yes, past the “phantom stage” you can lose real fat on a raw milk diet, assuming your total calorie intake will remain consistently lower than your body requires for energy and structural metabolism. However, I can’t tell you what that threshold is (of how much milk to drink) since this amount differs for each individual. If you are planning to stay on that regiment for a long time, I suggest that you add 500 to 1000 mg of vitamin C and 1000 UI of vitamin D3 because raw milk, particularly in the winter, isn’t particularly rich in these nutrients. Or you can substitute vitamin D with liquid cod liver oil, as recommended in Sarah’s book.
Low carb always, always, always, drops my basal temps by up to 2 degrees, and my energy leaves just as fast.
Yes, I’m curious about this as well. I’ve been trying to lose 25-30 lbs since the birth of my last child. At the beginning, I went very low carb and also did hcg. I believe both diets left me in worse shape than before. I finally found an integrative physician that diagnosed me with low thyroid and adrenal fatigue. I really want to lose this weight, but I know that low carb can lower my thyroid. I also know that low calorie diets can reduce seratonin and I’ve struggled with depression since giving birth. I feel stuck, not knowing how to lose this weight safely without messing up the other systems of my body. I dare say, I’d rather be fat than depressed or without energy, but I’d rather be healthy all around. I should mention, I’m gluten and mostly dairy-free, walk 4-5 miles daily, and follow a traditional foods diet. I’m currently counting calories (about 1400 a day), and I’m seeing the same five phantom pounds going up and down.
Paula,
I’ll address this occurrence (I don’t want to say “problem” because this is a normal reaction of your body to reduced caloric intake) in future posts.
What about pregnancy. My doctor told me to watch my weight it was getting yo high, but I have ten more weeks to go. And he won’t really tell me how to do that. I have not been eating processed foods or sugar much at all. I feel like I have been eating very healthy. Do you have any suggestions?
I am not a doctor. However, if you are taking care of your body and eating healthily, just let your body do it’s thing. My doctor at my first baby was amazing at making me nervous to even be weighed at his office, because he would tell me things like I could only gain 10 more pounds. And here I am growing a baby, and he is telling me this while he is overweight himself. I never gained more than 30 pounds in a pregnancy anyway. The second baby I had a midwife and she believed that the body knows what to do and how much weight it needs to gain to take care of and grow a baby. I felt so much better in that environment. So if you are doing your part by eating right and doing appropriate exercises, I say don’t worry about it.
Thank you so much for your post Konstantin! This makes things so clear for me. I gained 30 pounds within 2-3 months of giving birth! I was fine during pregnancy… I think the weight gain after might have been a combination of going on birth control, stress, and lack of sleep combined. Over these past three years I have been desperately trying to lose this weight, but as soon as I lose it, I would gain it back within a couple of months. Most of those diets were crazy low calorie diets and working out up to two hours a day. Recently, I decided to only run ever day and cut out sugar/sweets. First month I gained one pound! Second month I lost 9 pounds. I am on my third month and have yet to weigh myself.
Thank you so much for this post!!
I realized a few years ago that the few pounds I could lose were variable weight. I’ve struggled to lose weight since my last baby was born, almost 5years ago. Part of the problem was my thyroid, but I’ve spent a lot of time getting it to work properly again. It’s been hard for me to jump back on the weight loss bandwagon again though. Not knowing the best way to move past the variable weight loss into fat loss has kept me from trying something that would likely fail. Instead I’ve focused on moving my family to a traditional diet, hoping it would help.
I really look forward to the next posts in this series. I will be hanging on every word 🙂
I have been following a low carb traditional diet for years now – I have found that I am serotonin deficient – Don’t I need carbs to produce serotonin – I don’t know how to eat carbs without putting on weight – I am 55yrs old and have had a very difficult menopause – I don’t want to take hormones as I had breast cancer 6 yrs ago.
Ive been thin all my life…so, weight loss is something Ive never had to struggle with.. However, I eat the way I was raised. Meat, starch, and a veggie at the table. Dont like the feeling of being full so when my stomach seems satisfied , I stop. To me its pretty simple. Dont eat fast food, ugh!..Stop drinking all soda. Anything thats not all natural it garbage!..Yes, its hard as heck to find food thats not altered but it can be done. Oh, here’s another “issue” that most people ignore. Stop watching TV!!!…seriously?..what is there to watch thats more important than the world that surrounds you?..take a walk, hey, here’s another idea…try actually cooking your meals from scratch..people say they dont have time but make the time to sit and watch hours of TV a night…well, if you absolutely have to have the TV on then turn on a cooking program and LEARN something….sorry, Im getting on my soapbox here..lol…Just tired of hearing people blah, blah, blah about their weight and shove a burger in their mouth while doing so. Self control peeps,,,,,self control….my thoughts….:)
If only it was that simple. I gained 30 pounds after giving birth, not during, maybe from BC, stress, and lack of sleep. IDK. But we don’t watch TV, I run everyday, haven’t had a soda or stepped into a fast food “restuarant” in over 4 years, rarely eat out for that matter (once a month, if that) cook all meals at home. Been switching from an organic diet to traditional slowly this past year… My sister on the other hand eats out all the time, fridge is full of frozen/processed foods, she always have candy in her purse, yet she never goes over 120 pounds, she’s 5’4!
I understand what your saying and agree with you about all those things! Get rid of tv and quit eating junk… but those things don’t always equal a thin person. I’m not obese, just slightly overweight, but you can imagine how judged I feel around my skinny family. Just remember some of us are TRYING and not shoving burgers down our mouths 🙂
Mary, not all overweight people sit around eating hamburgers and watching tv. I’m happy for you that your body functions correctly and that you have a balanced diet and get exercise, but don’t assume others are lazy or that they eat garbage just because they aren’t thin. There are so many variables that can cause weight gain, like genetics and environment. Ask yourself this: would you still be thin if your body wasn’t able to signal you when it had enough food? If there was never a “feeling of being full?” That is just one difficulty some people have to overcome.
Being judgmental of those who are “too fat” or “too thin” helps no one. The people who are reading this article are not, generally, going to be the type that you described. We are here, reading this, because we care about our health and are looking for answers. Advising “self control” to a group of people who have been trying everything under the sun to figure out how to lose weight is really quite rude.
Less Judgement, Mary, more compassion.
mary….have you ever heard of cushings disease? or pcos?
i do believe they affect close to 10% of the population, and make you gain weight uncontrollably. what I mean by uncontrollably is, you grow up eating the way they tell you to in the doctors office and at school, and you have a hormonal balance or tumor on the pituitary gland which makes you gain weight easily. when you have these problems you become addicted to sugar. addicted like a crack addict. literally.
my weight gain was also mostly from having babies and sitting around taking care of them afterward. no nanny or whatever to watch the baby (who was tethered to an oxygen tank) while I went out and jogged. I am quite put off by Mary’s comments. I guess this post isn’t for her so hopefully she won’t comment anymore.
Mary, boy did u hit the nail on its head! U explained the total problem with childhood obesity too which includes feeding them junk. At the end of a busy day, i find my self gravitating to the sofa. If i sit down, thats it for me for the day. It takes real willpower to go for a walk or finish up house work etc. we all need self control in all areas of our life.
These FB comments are getting posted over on Konstantin’s post so be sure to pop over as he is answering everyone’s questions personally.
Can you please post the link to Konstantins post where the answers are – Thanks
Excellent article. So much of our society is obsessed with achieving things as easily and quickly as possible with little diligence around understanding health impacts and long-term effects. I don’t believe in diets, but I believe in having a good diet; there’s a world of difference between those two in my opinion.
If a person wants to lose weight, I believe they’re best off to evaluate the health of their current diet and work to refine what and how much they eat for the long-term. If “a diet” is only a temporary fix, it’s guaranteed to fail.
Thank you, Anthony. You are right on all points. Please continue to contribute to this discussion!