A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. If you take in less calories than your body expends, you lose weight. Simple!
How many times have you heard or read similar statements? How many times have well-meaning friends, family, or acquaintances said these words to you? I know I’ve heard them many times in my life — and years ago, I actually believed them.
For those of us who have made numerous efforts at weight loss over the course of our lives, the answer isn’t quite so easy. For a normal person of young adult age who has no health or genetic predispositions, the statement might be true. But for many of us, there are complicated factors that effect our ability to lose weight.
Yes, a calorie is a scientific unit of measure, but that doesn’t mean we all burn that fuel the same way, much like vehicles don’t burn fuel at the same rate. Take that average young adult and add in health and/or genetic issues, and that person’s ability to burn energy changes. I think we all know this; we’ve all heard the talk of complicating factors, such as PCOS, thyroid disease, and many more. Two women of the same age, height, and weight may very well expend completely different amounts of energy (and therefore, fuel — calories) to perform identical tasks.
Let me add another: some studies are now showing that once you lose weight, your body changes; it becomes more efficient and burns less calories to do the same tasks. Because it runs more efficiently, it requires less fuel. Give it too much fuel, and that fuel is stored… as fat. Conversely, in order to lose fat, greater effort or restriction (or both) is required in order to lose that fat. If either of the women in our example has dieted before, the chances of them having greater difficulty losing weight increase.
From the New York Times comes mention of a Columbia University study that reveals interesting insight to the changes dieters go through.
Eventually, the Columbia subjects are placed on liquid diets of 800 calories a day until they lose 10 percent of their body weight. Once they reach the goal, they are subjected to another round of intensive testing as they try to maintain the new weight. The data generated by these experiments suggest that once a person loses about 10 percent of body weight, he or she is metabolically different than a similar-size person who is naturally the same weight.
The research shows that the changes that occur after weight loss translate to a huge caloric disadvantage of about 250 to 400 calories. For instance, one woman who entered the Columbia studies at 230 pounds was eating about 3,000 calories to maintain that weight. Once she dropped to 190 pounds, losing 17 percent of her body weight, metabolic studies determined that she needed about 2,300 daily calories to maintain the new lower weight. That may sound like plenty, but the typical 30-year-old 190-pound woman can consume about 2,600 calories to maintain her weight — 300 more calories than the woman who dieted to get there.
Scientists are still learning why a weight-reduced body behaves so differently from a similar-size body that has not dieted. Muscle biopsies taken before, during and after weight loss show that once a person drops weight, their muscle fibers undergo a transformation, making them more like highly efficient “slow twitch” muscle fibers. A result is that after losing weight, your muscles burn 20 to 25 percent fewer calories during everyday activity and moderate aerobic exercise than those of a person who is naturally at the same weight. That means a dieter who thinks she is burning 200 calories during a brisk half-hour walk is probably using closer to 150 to 160 calories.
Read the entire article: The Fat Trap
You can call this a metabolic slowdown of sorts, but the important takeaway from this is that if you have dieted before, you have to plan for subsequent attempts to be more difficult, because you must eat less and exercise more to produce the same result.
The great technological tools we have at our disposal may actually make this more difficult, because these sorts of factors aren’t accounted for. If you strap on a heart rate monitor for exercise, it will create a number of (suggested) calories burned based on the data you entered. Age + weight + height + heart rate should equal a certain range of burned calories. The same holds true for entering in information to a diet-tracking website or software: it works on calculations based on a norm, dependent on the information you enter.
Without getting too technical about these calculations, those of us with such issues need to consider that if we don’t lose weight based on the suggested calculations, it’s likely because they’re too high and need to be adjusted downward until we can successfully lose weight or see our desired results.
An example: I just now searched for an online calculator that would tell me how many calories I need to maintain my current weight. The result? 4,623 calories daily. Another said 3,467 calories, and the lowest reported 2200 calories.
I can assure you that if I ate at any of those suggested levels, even the lowest, I would gain weight — and probably a lot of it. At my current weight, I generally eat under 1400 calories a day. (I also chiefly eat low carb, but that’s another subject that I’m not touching on today.)
Every metabolic issue you have is a strike against you, and is going to shave calories off that number required to maintain where you are, right now, dietary methods aside.
I don’t say this to upset anyone; instead, I hope what it does is open your eyes to understanding that if you want results, you have to be willing to experiment with how your body handles fuel (food). Don’t rely on calculations, whether they’re for calories burned in exercise or daily caloric limitations. Be willing to chart your numbers and take some general notes on what happens when you eat at certain levels; experiment. Do not accept the numbers you’re given by computer-generated results; they are only a guideline. Our bodies are individual, and the computer-generated numbers are created for a norm which may not apply to us. Still, you can use these numbers as an indicator of what works and what doesn’t.
The above article is an interesting one, in that it speculates on many causes as to why repeat dieters cannot successfully keep weight off, if they’re able to successfully lose it in the first place. In some ways, it’s a depressing read, but in my opinion, knowing what you’re up against helps you understand the process. To really be successful at weight loss, you have to be willing to completely embrace your body’s method of working, but more importantly, you must change how you think. If you don’t do the research, you’re more likely to throw your hands up in frustration and give up.
If you know the challenges you face beforehand and can accept them, you’re much less likely to reach a level of frustration. You can quiet that inner voice that tells you to just give up. You stand a chance of success.
Jimmy, the 35 lb. beagle
Speaking of success, I’m happy to report a change in my stats; I’m now 35 pounds down. I passed two small milestones in those three pounds, as well.
The firsts was passing by 338. Back in 2003, I saw 338 on the scale when I first start a low carb diet. I’d dieted for several weeks, but didn’t know my weight because the scale I had was incapable of reading my actual weight. The first number I saw was 338. The journey that started with 338 ended at 197.5 — a loss of 140.5 pounds.
The second milestone, 337, was the weight I was at when I started a weight loss effort before my current one. During that journey, I lost 70 pounds.
While these might come across as depressing, since I started this effort at my highest recorded weight ever, I look at it as encouragement; I was able to lose great amounts of weight both times. I am smarter, now. I am determined to beat both losses… possibly combined. I’m now in territory I’ve been in, before.
I’m in a good place, right now, and looking forward to the next weight milestone, which is just two pounds away.
