One – Counting Calories
Calories are not a measure of weight
or fat. Calories are a measure of
potential energy. If you reduce your
calories it will likely result in low
energy levels and fatigue rather than
fat loss. In addition, any weight you
do lose will be muscle and water, not
fat. Losing muscle and water will lower
your metabolic rate and make you
more prone to weight gain at a later
date. This is known as “yo-yo-ing”, you lose some weight, you gain more
weight, you lose some weight again,
you gain back even more weight… and
on and on. Sound familiar?
Most people are not over-fat because
they eat vast amounts of calories,
quite the contrary, most people are
over-fat because they eat the wrong
kind of calories by eating foods which cause the body to store those
calories into fat cells. Foods such as
sugars, processed dairy, grains and
soft drinks are at the root of this
problem. If calories consumed were
the cause of our weight problems we
would expect to see calories steadily
increasing as obesity levels increased.
However, according to the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries & Food
(MAFF), Family Food Survey (FSS),
Department for Environment Food &
Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Food Standard
Agency (FSA) and the British Heart
Foundation, calories consumed have
been declining since the 1970’s
If you are trying to lose weight and
body fat you should pay attention
to the
of calories you are
consuming, not the
.
Two – Eating ‘Low Fat’
Low fat means high sugar. High
sugar means fat storage. Fat
storage means you get fatter and usually heavier. The idea that low fat
foods are good for us is based on
the outdated and incorrect idea that
fat makes us fat and that we can eat
whatever we like as long as it doesn’t
have any fat in. This notion has led to
an epidemic of obesity and diabetes.
Why? Because low fat foods are
loaded with sugar to make them taste
good and foods loaded with sugar
cause obesity and diabetes. Often,
with low fat foods, the good fats are
removed or destroyed and sugar
is loaded into the food in place of
the fats.
A good example of this is skimmed
and semi skimmed milk. Once again,
if fat were the cause of our weight problems we would expect to see
a rise in the consumption of fats
as obesity increased. However, the
National Food Survey 1974-2000
shows that fat consumption has
declined from 51.7g per person per
day in 1974 to 28.1 in 1999.
During the same period, sugar
and grain consumption have risen
drastically by around 45% with the
average Britain now consuming 1150
calories of flour and sugar per day
(Flour Advisory Board and World
Health Organisation). In the same
period, consumption of soft drinks has
increased five fold.
If you want to get fatter and heavier,
eat low-fat foods. If you don’t want
fat storage and weight gain, avoid
low-fat foods like the plague!
Three – Eating Grains
There are two main reasons
why, despite being vehemently
promoted as healthy, grains are very likely making you fat, tired
and unhealthy.
Grains break down into sugars very
quickly and illicit the same kind of
insulin response (the fat storage
hormone) as sugar. The difference is
that most people consume grains in a
far higher volume than they consume
sugar. You may well only sprinkle a
small amount of sugar on your cereal
but your cereal already contains
around 40% sugar, on average, and
the other 60% or so breaks down
into sugar very rapidly, so you are
essentially eating a big bowl of sugar,
with a little sugar sprinkled on top.
This is also true for other grain based
foods. Especially those made with
refined grains such as bread, pasta and flour based products. Grains
equals sugar and sugar equals fat.
In the last 10 years, our understanding
of grain related auto immune
dysfunction has increased
dramatically. Grains, and the proteins
they contain such as gliadin, avenin
and wheat germ agglutinin, have a profound and detrimental effect
on our immune systems, causing
inflammation of the gut (bloating),
IBS, chronic fatigue, skin rashes,
fibromyalgia, leaky gut and a whole
host of other ailments.
There are now over 200 different
ailments linked to grain consumption,
all of which add up to inflammation
and stress. Grains equal stress and
stress equals fat.
“Grains are the root of all evil”
Mike Boyle, Strength Coach
Four – Drinking ‘Diet’ Soft Drinks
In studies, mostly conducted by soft
drinks companies themselves, the
consumption of artificial sweeteners led to an increase in cravings for, and
subsequent consumption of, sugary
foods, resulting in an overall increase
in fat storage and weight gain.
When you consume sweeteners the
brain tastes sugar and expects sugar
but it does not get sugar so to fulfil
that expectation it starts craving,
and you start eating, even more
sugary foods, resulting in increased
fat storage.
Low calorie sodas also contain
phosphoric acid which causes leaching
of iodine. Iodine is needed for healthy
thyroid function. The thyroid regulates
metabolism so if iodine is leached from the thyroid, your metabolism can
slow down dramatically. As a result the
body’s ability to burn fat is reduced,
whilst fat storage is increased.
A final consideration with diet soda’s
is what psychologists call “risk
homeostasis”. This refers to the natural
tendency of humans to offset the
“savings” of certain risk reductions, say
drinking low calorie soda instead of
regular soda, by incurring greater risks
elsewhere, say by eating a piece of
cake with their coffee or an extra glass
of wine at dinner, as if by drinking diet soft drinks they have somehow
“earned” that extra treat.
The net result is usually more fat
storage rather than less.
Five – Doing Aerobic Exercise
Whilst aerobic exercise has some
benefits for certain populations,
the notion that aerobic exercise, such as long distance endurance training,
is a good way to lose fat is based
almost entirely on the fundamentally
flawed “calorie in – calorie out“ theory.
In reality, aerobic exercise presents far
more problems than it solves.
Aerobic exercise raises cortisol
and causes the release of catabolic
hormones which break down muscle
and increase fat storage. With aerobic
exercise, unlike strength training, there
is no release of anabolic hormones
which reduce those negative effects
of inflammation and encourage the
body to grow lean muscle and reduce
fat storage.
Aerobic exercise leads to chronic
inflammation which is linked to tissue
damage, fat gain, heart disease, insulin
resistance, diabetes, cancer, asthma, arthritis and a host of serious ailments.
The high levels of oxygen intake
associated with aerobic exercise leads
to increased free radicals which attack
the body at a cellular level, causing
inflammation and tissue damage.
The higher the levels of oxidative
stress and inflammation, the more
likely it is that the body will store fat.
Long term aerobic exercise effects
gastric function by slowing peristalsis
(movement of food through the gut). For the body to absorb and
utilise nutrients efficiently so they
are used for beneficial growth and
development, the gastric system must
function correctly.
If nutrients are not absorbed efficiently
it can lead to bloating, inflammation,
weakened immune system, fat storage
and weight gain.
Six – Weighing Yourself
When people talk about weight
loss, what they are really talking
about is fat loss. If you are over weight it is very likely that the excess weight
is fat and so it is fat which you need
to lose, not weight. Because body
composition is the important factor,
not weight alone, weighing yourself to
determine how well you are doing with
your fat loss plan is at best useless and
at worst extremely harmful to your
efforts. I cannot tell you how many
clients we have seen working hard,
sticking to a great plan, becoming
healthier and more energetic every
day, only to have the whole thing
ruined by standing on the scales and
inferring failure because the numbers
didn’t show what they hoped for.
The key to fat loss is to target health,
not weight. If you are getting to bed
on time, sleeping better, eating good
amounts of fresh, natural foods,
drinking lots of good quality water,
reducing stress levels, enjoying your
work and the company of your
friends and family, feeling happier and
more energised, your body will start
shedding fat and you will look and
feel better.
The healthier you are, the less inclined
your body is to hold onto fat. So throw
out the bathroom scales, work to make
yourself healthier, rather than working
to lose weight, and you will achieve
that lean, healthy look you are working
so hard for, without all the stress!
Seven – Drinking Fruit Juice
Whilst freshly squeezed fruit
juice can be a good source
of vitamins and other nutrients, it’s also very high in fructose. A half pint
glass of orange juice has about eight
full teaspoons of sugar, 50 percent
of which is fructose. That’s almost as
much as a can of most soft-drinks,
which contains approximately 10
teaspoons of sugar.
Many people assume that fructose is
a good sugar because it is found in
fruit and, to a certain extent, that may
be true when it comes in its natural
form, with the whole fruit including the
fibre and natural nutrients which slows
down the absorption of that sugar.
However, consumption of fructose has been identified as one of the
primary culprits in the rise of obesity
and diabetes.
It has also been shown to cause a
whole host of other health problems
such as hormonal imbalances (which
increase hunger), increases in
abdominal fat, detrimental effects on
cholesterol/triglyceride levels, elevated
blood sugar levels, high blood pressure
and, over time, the metabolism of
fructose leads to insulin resistance and
increased fat storage.
Add to this the fact that many of
the nutrients in store bought “fresh”
fruit juices are lost to pasteurisation
and deaeration (removal of oxygen),
coupled with the addition of
chemicals, such as ethyl butyrate, used
to give the juice flavour and fragrance,
and the product you happily include
as part of your fat loss breakfast could
actually be making you fatter by
the day.
Eight – Skipping Meals
Intermittent fasting, or not eating for
an entire day, may have some benefits
for some people but, in general, skipping meals is not a good idea if
you are trying to lose body fat.
There are two main reasons for this.
A key factors in fat loss is managing
blood sugar levels. If blood sugar levels
are too high, say after a bowl of cereal
or can of soda, insulin is released and
you start storing calories as fat, you get
fatter. If blood sugar levels are too low,
as when you don’t eat, energy levels
drop, you become tired and irritable,
your body breaks down muscle into
sugars, you get sugar cravings and
you reach for the most sugary snack
you can find. Now a flood of sugar hits
the blood stream, insulin is released,
calories are stored as fat, you get fatter
and in addition you have also lost some
muscle – great!
Skipping meals also means skipping
nutrients. Nutrient deficiency is a
leading factor in the rise of obesity. In
the West we think of “food” as being
abundant so we never consider that we
could be nutrient deficient but there is a big difference between foods that
just contain calories and foods that are
dense with nutrients.
Green vegetables, grass fed beef or
salmon are foods dense with nutrients.
A box of cereal, loaf of bread or a pint
of pasteurised, skimmed milk are all
foods which are very low in nutrients
and amount to little more than sugar
and calories. When you consume low
nutrient foods, the body cannot make
the enzymes or hormones needed to
build muscle, bone, nerves or energy
and it starts to fight for survival. Stage
one of survival mode is fat storage!
Nine – Believing Media Hype
You cannot turn on the TV or open a
newspaper these days without being
told of how this pill or that food has been
“scientifically proven” to make us healthier,
happier and even more popular.
Actors in white coats and glasses tap
earnestly on computer screens whilst
graphs flow across our screens, “proving”
in ways we can’t possibly understand, that
science has confirmed the health benefits of
each product.
Advertisements for all kinds of processed
foods claim to be “clinically proven” to
improve our health and, worse still, news
readers and TV doctors join us in the
morning to attest to the latest study
which has confirmed the benefits of some
medication which we should all be taking
for health problems we didn’t know we had.
No doubt about it, science sells.
The problem is that many of these studies
are, scientifically speaking, total garbage.
The study groups used are extremely small,
the studies are not randomised, double
blind or ward controlled. They are often
observational studies showing correlations rather than causality, and large corporations
hire marketing people to present results
favourably and use unsuspecting news
presenters to announce results to an equally
unsuspecting public.
As an example, the Jupiter Study, we were
told by BBC’s Dr. Rosemary, proved statin
drugs afforded us a 44% benefit in primary
prevention against coronary heart disease.
Some time later the findings of that study
were called into serious question and
found to be riddled with inconsistencies, but not until millions of people, doctors
included, had been convinced by the media
that statins should be handed out like
smarties to people who, very likely, did not
need them.
In his insightful and thought provoking
books Bad Pharma and Bad Science,
Ben Goldacre casts a bright light on the
shadowy and often unbelievably immoral
world of health studies and the media that
reports them. If you want to arm yourself
against the onslaught of deception and
idiocy of media hype I would urge you to
read these books.
Ten – Stressing Out
Stress causes the release of a hormone
called cortisol. Cortisol is normally
released in a specific rhythm throughout the day. It should be high in the mornings
when you wake up (this is what helps
you get out of bed and start your day),
and gradually taper off throughout the
day (so you feel tired at bedtime and can
fall asleep).
The release of cortisol as a reaction to
stress should be a good thing, helping to
reduce inflammation and preparing us for
fight or flight situations, however, modern
society places us in situations of prolonged,
chronic stress which may people encounter
from sun up to sun down. Poor sleep,
waking up tired, caffeine shots, sugary
foods, road rage, more coffee, more sugary
foods, stressful jobs, stressful relationships,
more road rage, smoking alcohol, electrical
equipment, late nights and on and on and on….
Recent research shows that chronic stress
wreaks tremendous havoc on your body.
Among other things, focusing just on the
fat effects, chronic stress will:
– Raise your blood sugar – which will cause
fat storage.
– Make your gut leaky – which can cause
fat storage.
– Make you hungry and crave sugar – which
can cause fat storage.
– Reduce your ability to burn fat – which
means fat storage.
– Suppress your HPA-axis, which will cause
hormonal imbalances – which can cause
fat storage.
– Reduce your DHEA, testosterone, growth
hormone and TSH levels – fat storage!
– Increase your belly fat and make your liver
fatty – fat storage!
– Contributes to cardiovascular disease – fat
storage, obesity, diabetes and death!
Fat storage – fat storage – fat storage.