“Caloric acrobatics” & other uncommonly sensible weight-loss tips.
Who is this article for?
Answer: Anyone who wants some no-nonsense tips that will make managing their body weight — specifically, body fat — easier.
A Bit About Me
My obsession with understanding how diet and exercise affect the body began when I was 16. A few years later, I was reading scientific studies, corresponding with scientists around the world and writing for fitness magazines. Little did I know it would lead to a career in the sports nutrition industry. Beginning in the early 1990s, I climbed my way up to become one of the top brand and product development consultants. I’ve largely left that world behind, but I still workout like my muscles depend on it, which they do.
I’m known for being a straight shooter — rare in the supplement industry — and having a knack for deconstructing complex (e.g. scientific) concepts and reframing them in fresh and easy-to-understand terms. Below, I’ve used these talents to distill my 34 years of research and personal experimentation into 12 tips for sensible weight management. Please clap and share if you like them.
1. It’s the fat, stupid.
First, let’s talk about what we’re really talking about: Fat.
When most of us say we’re struggling to “lose weight,” “control our weight,” etc., what we’re really talking about is body fat. You know, the soft, jiggly stuff that can hide your rock-hard 6-pack and make your upper arm swing like a pendulum when you wave your hand.
Muscle, the tissue buried beneath the fat, actually makes a much larger contribution to your body weight than the latter. It keeps us strong and gives our body shape and tone. We’ll talk more about it later.
Words matter. As I’m fond of tweeting, they grease the wheels for action, for better and for worse. So let’s stop using “weight” when we really mean “fat.”
2. Calories rule.
When it comes to managing your body fat, calories rule. Not carbs. Not macros. Calories. Don’t eat too many of them most of the time, and you’ll be fine.
Said another way, “If It Fits Your Macros” (IIFYM), but it doesn’t fit your calories, your pants eventually won’t fit, either.
#IfItFitsYourCalories #IIFYC
3. Don’t be a slave to your diet.
We’ve all witnessed those people who try to lose body fat by doing endless hours of cardio, yet somehow always look the same. The somehow: Overeating.
Fun fact: Exercising allows you to eat more. Not-so-fun fact: If you eat too much more, you’ll have to exercise even more. Even-less-fun fact: On the pleasure scale, eating generally ranks a lot higher than exercise, which is why it’s all too easy to become one of “those people” who is a slave to their diet.
Make life easier for yourself. Eat only what you’ve earned.
4. Leave food processing to your stomach.
For the good of the planet, you should avoid or minimize food packaging whenever possible. For the good of your body, you should do the same with food processing. (To a large extent, they go hand-in-hand.)
The healthiest foods are always the least processed. Full stop. Get most of your calories from them. Think fresh fruits (vs. canned, dehydrated or juices), vegetables (ditto), meats (e.g. fresh steak or chicken breast vs. canned or cold cuts), fish, eggs and whole grains.
Your body was designed to process foods for you. It’s called the digestive system. Let it do its thing. It needs exercise just like the rest of your body.
5. Don’t fill the tank.
In other words, leave your stomach less than full at the end of every meal. This makes it much harder to gain body fat and much easier to lose it, among other healthy perks.
6. Everything in moderation, including moderation.
Donuts are okay, just not every day.
I’ll go a step further by saying that anyone who says donuts are never okay may not be okay themselves.
Okay?
7. Be a caloric acrobat.
When it comes to balancing our calories, most of us aren’t flexible enough. For instance, if we overdo it at one meal, we tell ourselves, “Well, this day’s screwed! I might as well pig out and get back on the wagon tomorrow.” That’s dumb talk. Your body doesn’t think in “days”; only your mind does.
Be a caloric acrobat: If you overdo it at one meal, simply underdo it at the next. This kind of practical flexibility will allow you to avoid many unwanted inches and pounds of body fat, not to mention a lot of grief.
Here’s a personal example. Every Sunday, I have breakfast. At home, it usually consists of 5 waffles and 3 fried eggs. Occasionally, if I’m feeling crispy, I have some bacon. (Tip #6, remember?)
Sometimes my wife and I will opt to go out for Sunday breakfast. In that case, I’m definitely ordering the French toast. If the Cookie Monster had a Parisian friend with a penchant for French toast — I know, it’s not really French — well, that’s me.
French toast can pack a lot of calories. C’est la vie! Cheesecake Factory’s Bruléed French Toast has 1980 calories, roughly 400 less than I might eat in a single day. If I’m done eating breakfast by, say, 11 AM, I’m too full to eat another morsel for 6 or more hours. When I do have dinner, it will be a light one. If I overdo it at one meal, I underdo it at the next. This is a function of both being a caloric acrobat and listening to my body.
8. Your metabolism isn’t “slow”; it’s underemployed.
Michael Phelps’s biggest body-fat-management secret isn’t that he was born with a “fast” metabolism. He just makes it run faster by performing hours and hours of strenuous exercise.
If you have more body fat than you want, don’t blame your parents for cursing you with a “slow” metabolism. That’s not the problem. If you want it to run faster, you need to give it more work to do. That means increasing your physical activity. You can’t sit your way to a better body.
9. Put your muscles on spin cycle.
Speaking of work, a washing machine’s spin cycles (there’s more than one) consume a lot of energy. A good, hard iron-pumping (resistance exercise) session puts your muscles on “spin cycle” at a number of biochemical levels for 24–48 hours or longer. (I won’t bore you with the details here.) Doing resistance exercise on the regular essentially keeps them on spin cycle. This has the effect of helping you burn calories faster and making your muscles stronger, more toned and all sexy-like.
Indeed, lifting weights can truly transform your body into a “physique.” That’s largely why I don’t do nearly as much cardio as weights. (The other reason is that I live by Tip #3.)
10. The only two “supplements” you need are sensible eating and exercise habits.
Take it from someone who spent decades working behind-the-scenes in the industry: Weight-loss supplements, a.k.a. “fat burners” are a case of selling “hope in a bottle.” Save your money.
11. Protein frequently.
Whether you want your muscles to pop like Popeye’s or you just want them to be a bit more toned, they won’t get bigger for the fun of it. It’s a lot of work for them, which means it consumes a lot of energy. It also requires a fair bit of protein, though not as much as some companies selling protein supplements would like you to think.
Ten thousand or so years ago, we didn’t have a constant supply of protein like we do now. With bigger muscles being costly to build (gain) and maintain, it makes sense that the human body might have evolved to require a strong signal — a flashing “green light” — before it undertakes the challenge.
Essentially, that signal serves to convince your muscles that (a) getting bigger is really necessary and (b) you’re going to be able to supply them with enough protein to maintain the extra muscle once it’s built. Indeed, with gaining comes maintaining.
If you train your muscles hard enough at the gym, that will take care of (a). If you protein frequently enough, that will help with (b). (You may have noticed that I’m using “protein” as a verb. :) )
I don’t have clinical studies to prove my theory, but in my 34 years of trial and error, I’ve found that eating a given amount of protein in a smaller number of larger meals during the day just doesn’t work as well as eating the same (or even less) protein spread across a larger number of smaller meals. Again, I can only speak for myself, but when I do too much of the former, the muscle kind of fall offs of me. (I can hear my wife now: “You gotta eat something.”)
In practice, this means eating 4–5 smaller protein-bearing meals is better than 2–3 larger ones. Try it for yourself and see what works for you.
NOTE: Protein supplements are completely unnecessary. Remember Tip #4 and get your protein from whole, i.e. unprocessed foods.
12. Move your feet before you eat.
We call it “breakfast” because it’s the first meal of the day and it “breaks” your overnight fast. But most of us don’t spend all day doing heavy labor on the farm any more. So eating doesn’t need to be at the top of the list of priorities upon waking up. That’s so 1700s.
If there’s any fast most people need to “break” when they get out of bed, it’s an exercise fast. Before your first meal of the day, have a workout. If AM gym time isn’t your thing, at least take your muscles for a brisk walk around the block. Do. Some. Thing. Earn your calories.
Sleeping? Yeah, that doesn’t count.
BONUS: The best scale or measuring tape is the mirror.
I saved this for last because it answers one of the most important questions of all, “How will I know if any of these tips are actually working?”
Call it “vane” — in many cases, you’d be correct — but the best barometer of your success in managing your weight is the reflection staring back at you in the mirror each day.
Don’t weigh. Don’t measure. Just look.
