The Weight Loss Enigma

The U.S. weight loss industry generates more than $50,000,000,000 in sales yearly. (That's $50 Billion fully spelled out!)

Books, diets, drugs, exercise programs, fat burners, forbidden nutrients, formulas, meal plans, supplements, videos...that list could go on awhile.

And yet, every year, a larger percentage of the population ends up past the "overweight" threshold. How is that possible?

How is it that such a well-researched topic continues to puzzle so many?

Never before, so many people have been interested in figuring out how to shed weight.

Now, it would be easy to offer yet another miracle solution.

It would also be easy to declare "eat less, exercise more" and call the problem inexistent or solved.

Similarly, it would be trivial to blame the problem on those who so obviously lack willpower.

I will do none of that in this text.

I won't tell you to abandon your bacon, your beer, your candy or your other sugary treats. I won't call our primal ancestors to the rescue or invoke the powers of biochemistry.

I will not lecture you about what you are doing wrong or imply there is one true way to lose weight or lead a happy life.

There are already too many experts and gurus out there to deliver that type of "advice."

On the contrary, I will leave you with one simple message:

"Know what you want and commit to doing what it takes to achieve it."

That, in fact, is rule #1 and maybe the only rule that matters.

So, consider the question: Do you and should you want to lose weight?

I am sure that many around you have already extolled the virtues of carrying less body weight.

• "You will have more energy."
• "You will be less susceptible to various diseases."
• "You will be able to keep up with your children."
• "You will enjoy a greater overall quality of life."
• "You will sleep better."
• "You will breathe better."
• "You will live better."
• "You will most likely be more attractive and look younger."
• "You will attain a level of greater mental clarity."

Some of these claims are somewhat silly or vain, but there is truth in them.

Now, there is that, and there is Happiness.

Does one have to be light to be happy?

Probably not, "being happy" is an attitude more than anything else.

And indeed, I know a great many overweight, happy-as-can-be people.

So, ponder the questions: Do I want to lose weight? Is it something I care enough about to invest energy and time to give myself a fair chance of success?

You should pause right now and maybe postpone reading the rest of this article until you have reached a firm answer.

All right, what now?

Well, if you want to lose weight, here is what you need to know. I am sorry I could not market this as one of the thousands of products out there that claim to reveal great secrets, but I have no secrets, and it would be a shame to claim there are any weight loss secrets.

I am not going to bore you with empty calories, energy expenditure vs. energy consumption, whether low-fat diets are better than low-carb diets, and a million other things that often clutter the road to weight loss. If you are interested in such justifications of one belief versus another, you can probably grab a book at random and have all that and more laid over you.

I also wanted to avoid making a list, but lists are useful summary tools, so here is a list:

1. Rediscover hunger.
2. Consume natural foods when hungry.
3. Develop or preserve your muscle mass at all costs.
4. Exercise moderately, with small doses of high-intensity exercise.
5. Let your body rest when your body needs rest.

On the face of it, this reads a bit like a list of gobbledygook.

So, let's go through each point in more details.

1. Rediscover hunger.

Apparently, abundance in modern societies created a dangerous habit: The habit of eating without hunger.

"It's lunch time, let's eat."

"It's dinner time, let's eat."

"My neighbor is having a snack; I should have a snack."

"I found some yummy food in the fridge; I should have it."

"What's this shelf loaded with 1,001 candy bars? Oh, I never tried that one; I might never see it again; I'll try it now."

"Ouch, my favorite football team is getting worked; I should have something to eat to give them strength."

In a world driven and possessed by advertising and marketing, your environment is not your friend, and your impulses are not your own.

You must be aware of your surroundings and you must re-learn how to listen to your body.

Hunger is a well-tuned device the human species has developed over the course of eons. It tells you when to eat. Darn, ingenious!

There is a small problem, though, and you are not going to like it.

If you have fallen prey to the habit of consuming, energy-dense, highly processed foods, it is possible that your appestat may no longer accurately tell you when to eat.

What appestat!?

Your appestat is the region of your brain that controls your appetite for food.

Even though I previously said I would not focus on any particular right or wrong foods, sugar and simple carbohydrates have a tendency to wreck havoc with your appestat. 

Before long, your appestat will incorrectly tell you to seek sugar and simple carbohydrates as soon as your blood chemistry returns to what would otherwise be considered a reasonable state.

What does it mean to you?

Well, if you are prey to the habit of consuming sugar and simple carbohydrates, you may feel hungry for those foods, even though your energy intake is already more than sufficient to lead the life of an Olympic athlete.

Are you doomed?

No, not at all. You just need to go through a period of weaning.

For two weeks, satisfy your energy needs by consuming lean meats, fish, and green vegetables.

After two weeks, your appestat should be better able to signal hunger when your body requires more energy.

From that point on, stop being a slave to custom or habit. It may be noon or 6 PM, but if you are not hungry, do not eat. The feeling of hunger will come to you soon enough, and you will then enjoy your food intake knowing that you are providing your body with what it needs.

2. Consume natural foods when hungry.

What are natural foods? Aren't foods I find in the grocery store natural? Is "fast food" natural?

I am not going to call Grok to the rescue here. Truthfully, I have no idea what our ancestors ate when they didn't starve. But, I think the evidence is clear that our ancestors spent a lot more time dying of hunger and running for their lives than they did nursing overfed stomachs.

Nevertheless, natural foods are easy enough to identify. Pick up any food product and ask yourself: Could I make this at home using ingredients I would find near my town?

Twinkies? No, not really. Nobody knows how Twinkies come to be.

Chicken breast? Closer to natural.

To lose weight, most experts will tell you to eat:

1. Lean fish and meats.
2. Green leafy vegetables.

But, if you eat natural, minimally processed foods, you will already make a lot of progress.

3. Develop or preserve your muscle mass at all costs.

First off, no, you do not need to become a muscle-bound bodybuilder.

We all have a muscle mass.

Babies are born with muscles.

Teenage girls who do nothing else but go to school have muscles.

Office workers have muscles.

Elderly parents and grandparents have muscles as well.

Your muscle mass, whatever it is and however underdeveloped it may be, should be critical to you.

First, it is good to be strong. Second, your muscle mass helps you regulate your body weight.

Now, when you eat less or cut your energy intake too aggressively, you may lose muscle mass. Not a good thing.

So, any weight loss effort should include some form of resistance training.

You don't have to train with weights, and you don't have to move your belongings into the gym, but you should spend some time training your body to build stronger muscle, or, at the very least, keep the muscle mass you already have.

4. Exercise moderately, with small doses of high-intensity exercise.

Here again, let's clear the air quickly: You cannot outrun bad eating habits.

I assure you, you could gain weight, even if you ran 100 miles a week.

You will surely gain weight if you lift heavy weights and eat a lot of protein. (Note, however, that nobody seems to mind so much being heavy if they end up looking sculpted like Greek Gods and Goddesses.)

The sad truth is that you could lose weight eating Twinkies. 1 Twinkie a day for a week and you will lose weight. You will feel hungry the whole way, and you will eventually become sickly, but you will lose weight, while on your couch, licking the long gone Twinkie sugar off your fingertips.

But exercise helps. In fact, it is almost certainly better than any medicine your local pharmacy will ever dispense.

Exercise moderately. What does that mean?

Most of your exercise should be comfortable and enjoyable.

Then, from time to time, you should exert yourself intensely.

What is intense for you may be easy for someone else, so there is no fast rule here.

In short, get yourself out of breadth 20% of the time and enjoy moderate exercise 80% of the time.

5. Let your body rest when your body needs rest.

Life puts a lot of stress on us.

To the human body, most life events are either "stress" or "recovery."

Attempting to lose weight will count as an additional stress your body will have to handle.

As such, rest is imperative when trying to lose weight. In particular, sleep is of crucial importance.

You should do your best to get as close to 8 hours of sleep every night. You won't always be able to afford that, but it should be your goal.

And so, there you have it: The end of The Weight Loss Enigma.

It's easy to make simple concepts appear very complicated, but it's never useful or wise.