One gram of fat is indisputably one gram of fat, but analyzing nine calories in the same gram – not so simple. Ditto for proteins and carbohydrates. This ambiguity in the relative role of calories in weight loss (or weight gain) explains why even siblings consuming similar diets may respond to them differently, let alone people of different age, shape, gender, and lifestyle.
Total ignorance of this indelible fact of nature – that one calorie for you may mean more or less than one calorie for someone else – is a primary reason why past and present one-diet-fits-all fads may have failed you before and will fail again (and again, and again).
So don’t look with envy at your sibling, spouse, or friend who is losing weight faster than you on the exact same diet. When it comes to safe, effective, and permanent weight loss, YOU are the only ONE who matters, and even more so if you are a woman.
Sadly, you’ll find little to no discussion of gender-specific influences on weight loss rates in popular diet books and programs. This is an embarrassing oversight because gender impacts weight loss (and weight gain) in countless ways, so much so that I believe diet books should have be written separately for men and women.
So here we go:
AGE DIFFERENCE. You are not your 20-something daughter. She is at the peak of her procreation mission with a metabolism to match. She is still learning about the world around her and has an incredibly busy brain, the largest consumer of glucose. Her body may still be growing. She is definitely healthier. She may be taller. Her body has more muscle, even if she is the exact same size and shape as you are. She has only half of your genes; the other half is from her father. She is more active simply because she can be. She doesn’t need the gym (yet). She sleeps better than you, even if she sleeps less. She is luckier simply because she is younger.
THE TAKEAWAY: Younger women of the exact same shape, weight, height, and even genetic background will always lose weight faster on the exact same diet as older women. So if you are still eating just like your adult daughter, don’t be surprised that you are getting fatter than her or not losing weight just as fast. If you still would like to trade clothes with her, join the gym, eat less, or, even better, do both.
SMALLER MUSCLE MASS. The female body contains significantly less muscle than males of similar shape and weight. Women experience faster loss of muscle throughout pregnancy, breastfeeding, and natural aging. Since muscles are one of the most demanding users of energy, their age-related loss reduces the rate of energy uptake, and, correspondingly, increases the gain of body fat.
THE TAKEAWAY: Accept your innate difference with men and younger women, and eat less than your husband, boyfriend, or muscular girlfriend. Even better, join the gym and build your muscles from the ground up so you can enjoy heartier meals and the occasional glass of wine with impunity.
GLUCOSE UPTAKE BY MUSCLES. Along with the brain, central nervous system, and blood, muscles are the most prolific consumers of glucose. That is why most men on a low-carb diet lose weight faster than women and don’t gain it as quickly with a larger intake of carbohydrates.
THE TAKEAWAY: Women require fewer carbohydrates than men, yet at the same time improperly structured ultra-low-carbohydrate (a.k.a. ketogenic) diets (with not enough high-quality protein and too many fats) may not be appropriate for older women because the diets may accelerate muscle wasting. Fool me once, Dr. Atkins, shame on you. Fool me twice – fat on me. (I will discuss a muscle-sparing low-calorie diet in future posts.)
GREATER FAT MASS. Women have a higher ratio of body fat to total body weight than men. Body fat is essential for reproductive functions, healthy pregnancy, and nursing. As body fat falls below a certain level – around 10% to 15% – infertility and amenorrhea (the absence of a period) set in.
THE TAKEAWAY: Because body fat plays such an essential role in female reproductive and overall health, women gain fat faster than men on similar or smaller amounts of foods. Don’t eat as much as your male partner of similar proportions, unless you don’t mind gaining weight.
THERMOS EFFECT. As you gain fat, your body lowers the internal rate of energy metabolism (i.e., produces less heat) because your internal organs are cuddled in the warm blanket of your own fat, or, as doctors would say, adipose tissue. That is why overweight people are far less sensitive to cold than skinny ones. Inversely, the thermos effect may cause a rapid overheating of internal organs in a hot environment. For this reason heat strokes represent a significant hazard for obese individuals.
Unfortunately, this thermos effect (my term) has a profoundly negative impact on your ability to lose weight because your rate of metabolism is so much lower, and this has little or nothing to do with your thyroid or adrenal glands that you may think are “underactive.”
THE TAKEAWAY: If it is too late for you, do everything you can to prevent your daughters and younger sisters from gaining weight. Expect a longer journey toward your own normal weight. Increase your level of physical exercise to increase your metabolic rate. Keep the thermostat up so your body isn’t spooked into hibernation mode (more on this later) when it is cold inside (from central air) and out.
HEIGHT. A person’s height is an important factor in energy metabolism and, correspondingly, in obesity and weight loss. All other things being equal, taller people lose weight faster because their “lengthier” bodies expend more energy to support cardiovascular, respiratory, and thermogenic (keeping itself warm) functions.
This doesn’t mean that tall people don’t become overweight or obese – of course they do. Still, on the exact same diet they will be losing weight faster and gaining it slower. This observation may not seem particularly earth-shattering in itself, but it becomes important when determining portion sizes.
When foods are plentiful, satiety is portion-oriented, not need-oriented. In other words, we don’t eat as much as we need, but we eat as much as we want.
Moreover, portions nowadays are designed to accommodate an “average” person’s capacity to ingest foods until his or her stomach is loaded to the gills. Thus, when there are more tall/large/overweight people in society with larger stomachs, short/small/skinny people inevitably overeat. Adding insult to injury, their smaller stomachs stretch out gradually to accommodate the corresponding amount of food on their plates. Guess what happens next…
THE TAKEAWAY: The shorter you are, regardless of gender, the more attention you must pay to portion sizes. You will also face the greatest difficulty during weight loss because your stretched out stomach and mental perception of satiety are preconditioned to eating larger portions of foods for longer. It is quite hard to eat little and leave the dinner table earlier when you are accustomed to huge portions and long, leisurely dinners. Fortunately, stomachs do shrink back to their original capacities. After successfully completing a properly structured weight loss diet, overeating again will be just as uncomfortable as when you were young and normal weight.
INNATE RESPONSE TO REDUCED CALORIE INTAKE. Your body doesn’t really know the difference between weight loss and starvation. All it knows is that it is under duress from undernutrition and facing extinction. That is why a scarcity of nutrients during weight loss diets, or even from poor nutrition, instantly lowers your energy and structural metabolism, throttles down weight loss, and speeds up the accumulation of body fat, all to protect your reproductive health and milk supply for potential offspring from the possibility of starvation-related death.
THE TAKEAWAY: Ultra-low-carbohydrate (a.k.a. ketogenic) diets (espoused by the bodybuilders whose ultimate goal is to lose every iota of body fat, literal paleo-freaks [i.e. nothing but unrestricted lean protein], and the aficionados of original Atkins diet with unlimited fats) are not only counterproductive for women but also the primary reason for near-instant weight rebound and ensuing obesity.
That doesn’t mean that ketogenics diets are unnatural, harmful, or ineffective – not at all. I just wish to convey that this particular weight loss technique must be applied along with a properly balanced low-calorie diet; with a good deal of attention to one’s ability to digest and assimilate natural proteins in order to spare muscles from wasting and prevent gastric disorders; and with equal respect to one’s age, health, and a number of others factors that I’ll be addressing in future posts.
ENERGY REQUIREMENTS. With all other things being equal – ambient temperature, level of activity, age, height, and weight – the female body has a lower demand for energy from proteins, fats, and carbohydrates than the male’s, due to not only substantially less muscle but also smaller lungs and a smaller heart, less blood volume, and an inherently less physically demanding response – flight instead of fight – to external stress. This difference is particularly significant in the reduced uptake of energy from glucose by the blood, muscles, and central nervous system.
THE TAKEAWAY: It is worthwhile to repeat that an identical piece of cake for one person may represent twice as many relative calories to another, similarly shaped person. In other words, when my wife eats cake, her body uses a portion of its calories for energy, and the balance goes right into making body fat, while my body uses the entire allotment of calories from the exact same cake exclusively for making energy, with nothing left for fat.
The same can be said about fats and proteins, though the difference may be not as drastic as with carbohydrates because a larger portion of these nutrients is used for structural metabolism. The demands of structural metabolism in women may be greater than in men (with all other things being equal) because female reproductive functions demand a greater deal of nutrients.
To summarize, if you are a woman, your dietary requirements for energy, particularly from carbohydrates, are substantially less than a man’s. As trivial as this statement is, girls and women rarely consume portions adjusted to their particular needs and end up paying a price for it later in life with (a) earlier obesity, (b) higher rates of obesity, (c) and greater morbidity (the rate of incidence of a disease) related to obesity.
When it comes to losing weight, the situation is also stacked against women, who need to decrease their caloric intake considerably more than men to accomplish the same amount of weight loss in the same span of time.
REPRODUCTIVE HORMONES. In middle-aged women, the reduction of estrogen related to age, pregnancy, lactation, stress, undernutrition, and contraceptives may lead to gradual weight gain and a diminished rate of weight loss. Since adipose tissue (i.e., body fat) produces estrogen in parallel with the ovaries, I believe the female body compensates for the age-related decrease of ovarian estrogen by lowering the rate of energy metabolism in order to accumulate more fat, thereby allowing it to produce more estrogen.
THE TAKEAWAY: Real foods in a traditional diet will help you maintain a high level of sex hormones all the way into menopause. Post-menopausal weight gain is a natural process. Closer to menopause, adjust your diet and exercise accordingly to prevent fat gain. By maintaining strong, supple, and busy muscles, you’ll be able to eat more without gaining weight. Age-appropriate diet and exercise are far better options than cancer-prone hormone replacement therapies, unless absolutely medically indicated.
OVULATION. Ovulation raises body temperature, a well-known fact that has been used for millennia to determine a natural algorithm for birth control, also known as the “natural family planning” or “periodic abstinence” technique. The hormonal activity and physiological metamorphosis during ovulation stimulates energy metabolism, hence the rise in temperature and appetite to keep the “burner” going.
THE TAKEAWAY: Use this natural phenomenon to burn fat by reducing carbohydrates rather than feeding the “burner” with loads of them. If you are prone to weight gain, avoid hormonal contraceptives that interfere with ovulation because they will inevitably slow down your metabolic rate.
MENSTRUATION. The period represents a particular challenge for weight loss because, as during ovulation, the body goes into overdrive and requires more energy and nutrients for rebuilding and restoration (plastic needs), including micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and microelements. During ovulation and period, the body specifically demands extra proteins and essential fatty acids to synthesize hormones and other fertility-specific substances. All of these factors and corresponding mood swings may stimulate a voracious appetite that’s often satisfied with useless (nutritionally speaking) carbohydrates rather than essential fats and proteins. This unbalanced consumption of nutrients during periods leads to the gradual loss of muscle mass and the accumulation of fat.
THE TAKEAWAY: Pay particular attention to your nutrition before and during your period. Overeating is a habit, not a necessity. If you overeat junk food, your body still isn’t getting what it wants and will stimulate hanger, appetite, and cravings even more. A traditional diet with real foods is the best way to preempt period-related binges. Intense, overpowering food cravings during periods and ovulation may be the symptoms of borderline undernutrition. In this case, use professional-grade supplements for a short while to boost up your body’s stores until real foods will be able to satisfy all of your requirements on their own.
PREGNANCY. Women are programmed by nature to accumulate body fat during pregnancy. These extra stores are essential for the substantial energy and structural needs related to pregnancy and not-so-distant breastfeeding, and provide as well an extra blanket of warmth for the fetus.
THE TAKEAWAY: Bring the thermostat up – way up. 76º to 78º F (24º to 26º C) is the optimal temperature for preventing the slowdown of your metabolic rate in order to conserve energy. High temperatures also prevent fat accumulation, your body’s method of protecting your internal organs (particularly the uterus and ovaries) from the cold. If your workplace is a freezer and you can’t change it, file a complaint with a labor board, union, health department, or whoever else will listen and has a leverage to change it. As far as I am concerned, cold offices are a form of discrimination against women.
BREASTFEEDING. Failure to breastfeed is a primary cause behind postpartum weight retention (i.e., getting fatter and fatter after each baby). Long-term milk production burns fat deposits far more efficiently than any form of non-extreme exercise. Besides, breast milk fertilizes the healthiest, happiest, and chubbiest babies. Intentionally using formula – the very first processed (i.e. factory-made) product in your baby’s life – instead of breastfeeding is a major contributor to obesity among American women with children, and, of course, their children in the not-so-distant future.
THE TAKEAWAY: Breastfeeding facilitates weight loss for you and healthy development for your baby like no other diet. To produce an average of 700 ml of breast milk daily, healthy women expend approximately 490 calories that are derived from 7 grams of protein, 31 grams of fat, and 48 grams of milk sugars, primarily lactose. Thus, on a weight-neutral diet, the extra fat in milk comes right from body fat. At 31 grams per day you may lose at least 11.3 kg (25 lbs.) of fat simply by breastfeeding while still enjoying a normal diet. This example, of course, is a gross oversimplification, but it is still pretty close to reality.
So plan to breastfeed for as long as you can, or at the very least until your baby grows teeth and can chew solid food. Giving a toothless child solid food is a health and development hazard because her body won’t make gastric acid and enzymes until she can thoroughly chew and masticate (mix with saliva) the chunks of solid foods.
Finally, extended breastfeeding suppresses menstruation in many women all the way until weaning. This pause defrays the onset of menopause by a similar length because the natural absence of a period preserves ovarian follicles and defers menopause until well into one’s fifties.
ANTHROPOLOGY. Ancestry plays a significant role in weight gain and resistance to weight loss, particularly for women whose roots are in regions with cyclical climates. Because of climate-dependent food supply patterns, such women are genetically predisposed to rapid weight gain during the summer and autumn in order to survive less plentiful seasons or outright starvation, as well as to continue breastfeeding their offspring without interruption. This phenomenon is apparent from exceptionally high rates of obesity among African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and persons of South-Pacific ancestry. Omnipresent air conditioning tricks their bodies into hibernation-like state in anticipation of the colder season, while a limitless availability of carbohydrate-rich food facilitates rapid weight gain.
THE TAKEAWAY: If you or your children have a genetic predisposition to gaining weight, watch out for ambient temperature at home and in the office, and adjust your year-round diet to levels that allow you to maintain steady weight.
EATING OUT. Short of Nieman Marcus’s café-cum-bistro spa menu intended for predominantly slim, well-heeled patronesses, I’ve yet to see a restaurant that provides a gender-specific menu. Hence, identical steaks are smacked in front of a petite woman and an oversized, bodybuilding man as a matter of course. Women, who dine out often, must be mindful of this aberration and demand half portions or split main courses with their companions.
THE TAKEAWAY: Insist that restaurants serve you half portions “due to dietary restrictions.” Don’t be shy to request it. It isn’t embarrassing, but rather a sign of class and wealth. Call the restaurant in advance to find out if half portions (or “spa-size”) are available upon request. If they refuse to accommodate you, just don’t go there and post a negative review on Yelp, Zagat, OpenTable, Fodor’s, or any other online restaurant guide. Punish them with your dollars and reviews. Complain to your local department of health. This is the only way change will come to this male-dominated industry, which is extremely hostile to women and weight-conscious men alike because they aren’t as profitable to serve.
CHRONIC DIETER SYNDROME. Women have a propensity for recurrent dieting. Each consecutive diet cycle, especially one low in fat and protein, compromises the body’s essential endocrine functions, slows the rates of metabolism, and stimulates the over-consumption of carbohydrates, which leads to the accumulation of more fat and reductions of muscle and bone mass (the key factor behind osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, periodontal disease, and eventual tooth loss). Each consecutive weight loss cycle results in more and more fat stores and a corresponding decline in overall health. This results in even more weight gain.
THE TAKEAWAY: A weight loss diet is like an antibiotic. If you start taking one, you need to finish the full course; otherwise, you create antibiotic-resistant bacteria that may harm you later. The more you diet halfway, the more resistant your body becomes to weight loss and more accommodating to weight gain. So if you start a diet, do it right, do it for as long as it takes, and once you’re there, don’t return to the diet that made you overweight in the first place. That – helping you reach the finish line with your health and sanity intact – is the goal of this project.
FOOD PREPARATION. Fair or not, women spend more time in the kitchen while cooking for their families. Unfortunately, the continuous exposure to food comes with an increase in appetite, hunger, cravings, and, in many cases, inevitable overeating.
THE TAKEAWAY: Food preparation is a definite obesity hazard. Structuring low-calorie diets while still having to cook for family (or professionally) is hard, but not impossible. I will address this particular challenge in later posts.
As you can see from all of the above, if you happen to be a man, praise the Lord for your innate ability to eat more without gaining weight or lose more weight on the exact same diet as your wife or girlfriend.
Sure, there are black swans in our midst, just like my lucky wife who can eat most anything she likes with impunity, but if you aren’t one of them, accept your differences and eat accordingly.
That’s why when it comes to the particulars of my weight loss program, “one diet fits all” approach does not apply. More on this in the next and future posts.
Previous posts from the “Why Diets Fail?” series:
1. The Real Reason Diets Fail and What You Can Do About It
2. How Long Will It Take Me to Lose the Weight?
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
I remember when I was 17 or 18 eating a meal at a friend’s grandmother’s home with that friend and two others. I mentioned that as I’m small, I can’t eat as much as everyone else. Everyone there told me how silly that was and that it couldn’t be true! It was only common sense to me.
Bear in mind I am VERY small and all my friends were substantially taller than me (one was 5’7″, another 5’8″ and the other 5’9″… while I am only 4’11”!!).
I initially started putting on weight when I started dating my husband. We’d cook a meal and serve it pretty much 50/50… ridiculous considering he’s 6’0″!! It’s no wonder I put on so much weight so fast!
I also had arguments with my husband over the role of exercise in weight loss. He would tell me “you just need to exercise more to lose weight”, but that had NEVER helped me. I knew that the ONLY way I could lose weight was from exercising more AND eating less!! Just because he was able to be thin simply through exercise, didn’t mean the same was true for me. It used to frustrate me so much!!
It’s also so true that members of the same family can be different. I know one guy who is very skinny and can’t put on weight no matter how hard he tries… and yet his half brother is several years younger and morbidly obese (weighs more than twice what he does). My sister is also more prone to weight gain than I am, and my oldest son is the same way compared to his siblings and parents. While I do struggle with my weight, and am somewhat overweight, my sister is morbidly obese (and I’m really struggling to help my son who is also obese as a teen, despite always trying to be aware of what he’s doing and how much he eats). We don’t have much junk in the house (if the kids want treats they bake them themselves!) and rarely eat out.
Fiona,
Your account eloquently confirms the essence of my post — one calorie for you is like two or even three calories for someone else. I am guessing (since you didn’t mention it) your husband is still at his normal weight.
Regarding exercise: It helps in more ways than one, and I highly encourage it. Unfortunately, moderate exercise alone is not sufficient for most people to attain permanent weight loss without a matching reduced calorie diet.
Realistically, becoming a gym jockey in the style of Jane Fonda or Jack Lalanne is just too darn late for most overweight people because of age, preexisting medical conditions, time constraints, and safety reasons.
This position is well supported by mainstream experts in this field:
“In general, exercise by itself is pretty useless for weight loss,” says Eric Ravussin, a professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., and an expert on weight loss. “It‘s especially useless because people often end up consuming more calories when they exercise.” [New York Times, http://goo.gl/x3ioc ]
For these reasons my program does not expect exercise to materially contribute to your weight loss, unless, of course, you can enroll yourself in the “Biggest Loser.” Life being life, weight loss made for TV and weight loss for the rest of us are two different animals.
Hi Konstantin,
I am enjoying your posts and am waiting with baited breath for the next one, I am in my mid 30’s and am overweight, I a have a 20month old who I still breast feed, I thought I would lose weight, my disappointment has been a little overwhelming at times. However I still continue on and think of all the good things my body is holding onto and giving to my little girl. There are little light bulb moments in your blogs: e.g.. I have now realised that portions are important, and how I eat as much as a tall person, and probably not what I eat (I eat a traditional diet), to a point. So keep it coming, I am excited and encouraged….thanks
Elisabeth
Elisabeth,
Thank you very much. You shouldn’t consider reduced calorie diets while you are still breastfeeding. Hopefully by the time you wean off your daughter this project will be completed, and you’ll be able to do so safely.
Konstantin,
Thankfully I have never eaten a calorie reduced diet while pregnant or breastfeeding! I have a very rich traditional diet and love it! But thanks for the advice, I guess I realised about the smaller sized person and taller person physiologically having bigger organs etc. I do before pregnancy I guess I have always eaten ‘normal’ sized portions and never thought about it, I am 5ft 2″…..and probably need to eat my sized portions not anyone else’s….I am weaning little one now and I guess need to get ready for the next baby, so that I don’t start off at a larger size only to get larger! Can you hurry up the blogs….haaahhaa
Thanks
Elisabet
Elisabeth,
Believe it or not, I am writing each post “from scratch” and without a detailed outline. Closer to the end I will concentrate on very specific side effects of low calorie diets — about thirty of them, but at this point I am still building up the case for my program, and this build-up is based on the feedback that I am getting here.
Please don’t read into this that I don’t know what I am doing — I do, but there is a substantial chasm between knowing what to do and distilling this rather immense knowledge into a reasonably sized book that is also easy to read and follow.
Ebony,
The best way to gain weight is to follow Sarah’s recommendations to consume real foods. All along, hit the gym, so your body will start building up muscles and appetite. Also, keep in mind that your inability to gain weight isn’t a disease, but a genetic predisposition. So you need to work around it, and the combination of traditional diet with weight-bearing exercises is best. Also, you MUST read Sarah’s new book about fats, and follow its recommendations. The link is right on top of this page.
Thank you for the response
This post has been seriously bothering me all day. To tell an overweight woman, “So if you start a diet, do it right, do it for as long as it takes, and once you’re there, don’t return to the diet that made you overweight in the first place,” is ludicrous!! Countless women have restricted calories and over-exercised to get to their goal weight, only to run right back up the scale (and then some) … not necessarily because they return to a junk food diet, but because they’ve completely trashed their metabolism.
Sara, I have a lot of respect for you, and gratitude for your generosity in helping so many understand and benefit from a nourishing, traditional diet, but I don’t see the value in this series. It’s a blessing that you’ve never had a weight problem, but as one who has, let me tell you that the approach and tone of this gentleman is not helpful.
After a lifetime of fast food and junk food, and many diets, I was rescued by a simultaneous discovery of Nina Plank’s Real Food: What to Eat and Why, and Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions. But it’s not enough to know about real food, you also need to know about brain chemistry, and why an overeater is driven to eat certain foods.
The best resource on this is Julia Ross’ The Diet Cure. You really don’t need a guest blogger trying out his schtick in this space, when you can confidently refer people to Julia’s many years of research and success in helping people overcome food addictions, and heal their bodies and minds with nutrient-dense food. Her book teaches us how to nourish our bodies according to the Weston A Price principles, and help to quickly heal our cravings and brain chemistry with amino acids. It really is the missing link.
I wish you well, and thank you for your commitment and service to nourishing traditions.
Kelly,
First, congratulation on your rescue. I encourage everybody to read Real Food and Nourishing Traditions. Sally Fallon is my hero and mentor. She catapulted my writing career by inviting me to present my “crazy” research about fiber [being a menace] back in 2007. I know and admire Nina Plank via email exchanges, and she knows me. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with The Diet Cure, but if it cured you, I encourage everybody else to read it as well.
Second, my forthcoming book is entitled “Why Diets Fail?” It is a technical guide for people (there are men too, you know), who were not able to lose weight on exact same diets that were so helpful for luckier people just like you.
I realize why my somewhat “boot camp,” “down to the core,” “no nonsense” style and approach may bother you so much — it isn’t pleasant to hear or do what you may not want to hear or do. At the same time, there are people who actually want to hear and do what I have to say, and, judging by other commentaries on this forum, the ratio of “tell me more” to “go to hell” is at least 5 to 1.
So, I hope you’ll continue reading my future posts, and will eventually come around. Please, don’t do it for me or Sarah, do it for your friends who have read “The Diet Cure,” but haven’t been cured yet. Perhaps they will find something of value in my work, and will be grateful to you for being so concerned and open minded.
Stay slim!
Kelly,
I appreciate that you found everything you were looking for in what appears to be exactly three books. I’ve read dozens, including Julia Ross’ The Diet Cure. I am not an overeater driven to eat certain foods; I gained all of my weight when I began eating a traditional diet. I appreciate this series more than I can express. For me, it holds a LOT of value. If Sarah had confidently referred me to Julia’s research, it would not have helped me, and her confidence would be very misplaced.
If what you’ve taken from this series is that he is saying all a person wishing to lose weight should do is start a low calorie diet, stick with it as long as it takes, and not return to their weight promoting diet then you obviously have not been actively reading his posts and comments.
“‘So if you start a diet, do it right, do it for as long as it takes, and once you’re there, don’t return to the diet that made you overweight in the first place,’ is ludicrous!!”. Really? What should he tell her instead? To cheat as long as she doesn’t get caught? To give up halfway through? To go back to doing what made her gain weight in the first place? THOSE would be ludicrous! Now if he’d said something like, “Don’t think of it as a diet, think of it as a lifestyle change”, would you have felt so “bothered”? It’s basically saying the same thing except he’s being more specific for those of us who aren’t so worried about being offended as about being overweight. I appreciate his straightforward style. I like how he’s spelling out for me EXACTLY the information I need (don’t eat the same way that made you fat) instead of some sugar coated, meaningless, feel good statement (lifestyle change).
Not to mention the fact that this is the third post out of around 40. Three posts out of 40, and you’ve already decided that this series is not helpful! So unhelpful, that you felt it necessary to post in the comments! Oh wait, it’s just his approach and tone, not the actual information.
Seriously, these “ludicrous” comments are starting to give me an unpleasant attitude.
Trudy,
Thank you so much for highlighting the practice of sugarcoating the hardships of the real weight loss. This particular approach isn’t a part of my personality. Since it is no longer in my cards to become a Marine drill sergeant, I’ll use these character traits to write a helpful book.
To my shame, I must admit that the “lifestyle” theme is present in my work, and it is the very last step of my program, as in this sentence:
“Having a normal weight throughout your life isn’t a function of a one-off diet, but a life-long lifestyle. In other words, it must become a habit, not a chore. By the time you complete all of the previous steps [to attain normal weight], this habit will be well imprinted in your conscious and subconscious mind, and will, indeed, turn into a lifestyle of health and happiness.”
Konstantin,
Lol. Well, after an entire book of not sugarcoating the hardships of real weight loss, you are allowed to end with a feel good statement. I suppose we will need some inspiring words to help us dry our tears.
I was thin all my life until having children. Since then, it has been a struggle for me to lose weight, albeit a struggle I am willing to do in the interest of good health and longevity. That said, I have some questions. These will probably be answered in the future but I thought I’d ask. 🙂
First of all, you talk about calorie restriction leading to weight loss. This is, of course mathematically provable. However, is there a point at which women are more prone to “starvation mode”? (I think that is what it is called – where calories are stored instead of used, even when good diet and exercise are in place.)
Second, if a woman is already following a proper diet with appropriate portion sizes and exercises frequently and still does not lose weight what would you recommend for them?
(I should probably mention that our diet is primarily vegetarian. We eat meat two or three times a week most weeks, and the rest of our protein is from eggs, legumes, and raw dairy. Meat is too expensive where we live to eat it daily. Our fruits and veggies are organic.)
Anna,
You just need to eat less… There is no other way around it. Unfortunately, vegetarian diets aren’t my cup of tea, so I can’t guide you on that.
But how does this work for people who want to gain weight in a healthy way? I’ve been working out to gain weight since I am one of those people who can eat anything and never gain a lb. Does this mean I should be eating more carbohydrates?
thanks for your response
I’ve never dieted in my life so I don’t endorse anything but nutrient dense traditional diet but for some who come to Traditional Diet with a lot of weight to lose, additional steps may be needed.
just curious, do you endorse the 1400cal/day diet yourself?
Loriann,
No, I don’t endorse 1,400 calorie diet. That was a random number that I used to illustrate the point, nothing more, nothing less. As this post illustrated, the right number of calories will depend on your age, shape, height, occupation, climate, genetics, and others factors discussed there.
You can easily find out what is the right caloric threshold for you by gradually reducing the amount of calories in your diet. The composition of your diet is also important, not just its “net” caloric value. I will discuss all of these considerations in future posts.
Getting defensive inhibits progress unfortunately. Best to examine new info with an open mind .. it might actually be a game changer for the positive!