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.
First of all I want to thank you for this post and tell you that I am very much looking forward to the next one.
What a great explanation. Maybe others know this (like you said, and maybe it is explained somewhere and I just haven’t stumbled upon it), and just aren’t sharing it with the general public but I have never actually read something that explained what I in my layman ways have learned..but was unable to put into words quite eloquently as you. Thank you for that!
I just have one question..is there any way you can maybe write a post on weight gain? Is it really true what common wisdom suggests..3500 calories = 1 lb of fat? How does fat really form in our bodies? Does it even matter if you’re eating too much sugar, or grains, fat, veggies..etc. Does fiber help you digest all that and maybe get rid of it, before it turns into fat? I’m just interested in learning about the weight gain as well. I may not be asking the right questions, but whatever you can share with me would be greatly appreciated. Maybe some of it will be explained in your post on how to lose fat, and I’m jumping the gun..but you can see I am very excited to learn more.
SKN,
You are very welcome, and thank you for reading and participating in this discussion.
You’ll be surprised to learn that I am getting just as many questions about gaining weight as about losing weight. And, yes, eventually I am going to write about this “paradox.” It affects about 20% of men and women, and it is just as emotionally bothersome for many of them as being overweight for the remaining 80%.
Just like weight loss, weight gain has components related to age, genetics, body morphology, personality, environment, nutrition, occupation, gender, and overall health. It is just as challenging to attain and sustain as weight loss, particularly for people with certain health issues.
In the most general terms, a weight-bearing exercise program along with a balanced traditional diet is the best and most effective option for gaining and keeping weight.
One thing that really helps is the total elimination of anything and everything with a sweet taste, because sweetness stimulates the release of insulin, which begins (in susceptible individuals) the “burning” of exogenous (external) and endogenous (internal) sources of carbohydrates (glucose, glycogen), proteins (from foods and muscle tissues), and fats (dietary and subcutaneous). That is why a properly balanced diet is so important.
Alcohol of any kind is also a taboo because it drives up the level of insulin and other stress hormones even more so than sweets, with similar outcomes.
Other things that help are stress management (through meditation), high-quality sleep, and targeted supplements to address metabolic, skeletomuscular, endocrine, and neurological disorders that are often present in underweight people.
As you can see from this brief explanation, weight gain involves a far more complex strategy than the brute approach of eating more.
Fascinating. I know someone who has always been thin and unable to gain weight. I look forward to more info on this.
DANG! Don’t leave me hanging like that!!! Can’t wait for the next post! 😀
Mindy, hang on — it’s going to be a long ride, but that’s not bad for weight loss, actually….
Konstantin, I am fascinated by the information here, and I am looking forward to following the posts in the upcoming months.
Thank you and Sara so much for taking on such a project.
Kathy
Thank you, Kathy Lynn, for your kind words. I am also grateful to Sarah for building up her amazing blog and entrusting me to share my expertise in this subject with her loyal readers and followers!
I’ve recently lost about 14 lbs by exercising, choosing healthier foods, and counting calories, but the scale has been stuck for about two weeks now. I was kind of depressed to realize that I probably had just lost phantom weight. I can’t wait for your next post, because I’m becoming very frustrated…usually this is the phase where I give up counting my calories and working out, but I don’t want to do that this time. Your next post can’t come soon enough!
Leanne,
Don’t get depressed or frustrated. You are are healthy and close to your goal, and that’s what really counts. In fact, depression and frustration raise the rate of circulating stress hormones, which in turn stimulate appetite and the retention of fat to conserve energy — a typical reaction to sustained high stress.
My next post will not necessarily resolve all of your concerns, but by the time we reach the last post, you’ll definitely be there, and much happier to boot.
I have been on this real food journey now for 18 months or so and saw some immediate weight reduction in the beginning as I cut out processed foods, artificial sweeteners, and added coconut oil and raw dairy to my diet. But now my weight has stayed constant, despite my desire to lose another 15-20 pounds, for a year. But 2 things have come up over the last few months. 1) I am learning more about our pH and how toxins back up into our fat cells, making it harder to burn the fat that is in them. I am in the early stages of learning about that but now, after hearing about if from several completely different sources, I am intrigued. And 2) realizing that it is many women’s (and men’s, likely) DESIRE to lose that last 10-20 lbs. But I have started to wonder, is this a plateau, or is this where my body wants to be? I don’t know the answer to that, but I find myself wondering how much media and the world has influenced my view of what I WANT my weight to be, and whether that is as messed up from bad information thru my life as what foods are truly good for us. So, I am hoping you might touch on either or both of those!! Can’t wait to read it!
Colleen,
Yes, this is definitely a plateau, and I’ll address this conundrum in the next post.
Just keep in mind that after a certain age, you should concentrate on getting down to “optimal weight” rather than your “lowest adult weight.” Otherwise, your appearance may suffer from sagging skin, wrinkles, hair loss, hormonal disturbances, and some other undesirable aftereffects.
Konstantin, I would be curious to know your thoughts on adding coconut oil into the diet, especially prior to meals, to boost satiety, curb appetite and provide energy from the unique medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil.
Beth,
Dietary fat is a principal agent of satiety and appetite suppression. That’s why we crave fatty foods, and why they are so much more satisfying.
The goal, however, is to pick the right kind of fats, so I suggest that you read Sarah’s new book, “Get Your Fats Straight”. It provides a detailed road map for selecting the right kind of fats and explains their role and function in health and nutrition. It is exceptionally well written and provides clear and unambiguous instructions.
Yes, eating coconut oil (or raw/free range butter) before meals will provide greater appetite suppression than when consumed with other foods because the appetite suppressing effects of fats kick in inside the duodenum — the section of the small intestine that follows the stomach. The fats are likely to reach the duodenum faster when the stomach isn’t yet loaded with undigested foods.
Keep in mind that “healthy fats” doesn’t mean “unlimited fats,” and particularly so when commencing a weight loss (low calorie) diet. When it comes to sustained and permanent weight loss, a calorie is still a calorie regardless of its source, expect that healthy fats are significantly less “fattening” than junk fats because a larger share of them is used for your body’s own biochemistry and cellular renewal (i.e., structural metabolism).
This article really caught my attention. I have been on the path of working towards traditional foods, but I was wondering how I was going to lose weight. I am about 50 pounds overweight by my standards. If we look at the BMI chart I am more like 90 pounds over. I have done diets before, mostly weight watchers. In fact I did it for a short time in January and lost eight pounds. Of course it came back. Now I know why. I don’t want to be different from what the rest of my family is eating. One, I like food. Two, I am the one who prepares it, I want some too. Three, I have a daughter and I don’t want her to see me being critical of my body or always being on a diet. So, I am convinced Traditional Foods is the way to go, low fat is out, and have been working on that for almost a year. I really would like to read part 2 right now, but I will have patience. And it sounds like I will need patience to lose this weight, but if I will be healthy and weight stable for life it will be worth it. So no questions here, just thanks, and I’m interested for part 2.
Rebecca,
You are absolutely right — traditional foods are the way to go because eating them is the best way to attain permanent weight loss without failure and severe side effects. That said, traditional foods require moderation just as much as “untraditional foods,” and especially so for people with preexisting weight issues.
I’ll be following your future installments. I have been off of gluten for a few years now, lost about 20lbs, quite naturally and gradually during the first 6 months after I went off of gluten. Eventually about 10 pounds of it had crept back on. Since then I’ve lost a bit here and there on HCG, on a 15 day juice fast, on a 5 day water fast and on GAPS. There is always some rebound weight gain even in situations where I remain on the program (or a reasonable maintenance program after a fast) with no cheating. It is almost never an immediate weight gain as many people describe. Nevertheless, I am about 55-60 pounds down from my high point weight and trying to persevere with a mixture of GAPS and some raw milk fasting. It is such a journey. And quite painful to realize I will probably never be anywhere near where I want to be and my twenties and thirties are gone and will never return no matter how much health I regain. So I spend a good bit of energy trying to educate others in hopes that they will make fewer mistakes that I have made, such as my low-fat years, “diet” sodas, etc.
Sheril,
Don’t despair…if you can gain weight, you can also lose it. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Just be patient and allow me to “give birth” to all of the ensuing posts. In the greater scheme of things, another 30-40 weeks isn’t that long.
I’ve never been overweight, but from what I understand in order to lose weight you need to focus on the source of calories not the amount of calories. Sure a potato contains a ton of calories though its still a natural food unlike processed chemical-laden potato chips.
Kelli,
By the time your digestive enzymes break potato starch into glucose, fructose, and galactose, and these three basic building blocks of all digestible carbohydrates are assimilated into your blood stream, your liver will not know the difference between a potato and a potato chip. As a result, it will keep converting all of the excess nutrients into fat. Thus, for anyone wishing to shed pounds, a presumably healthy food can be just as fattening as overprocessed junk foods.
Can you use body fat percentage over a period of time to determine if your weight loss is in fact fat loss?
Mandy, yes, you absolutely can. However, determining the real percentage of body fat is exceedingly difficult unless you have access to a $30,000+ device specifically built for this purpose.
Typical body fat monitors or scales like Omron or Tanita are using a computer algorithm to calculate an approximate fat ratio based on your age, height, weight, and gender. Their measurement is just an approximation relative to other people with similar weights and heights in your age and gender group.