Great article ,going to share this.
Eat less than you burn and you’ll lose weight – it’s preached as the “be all, end all” of weight loss and it’s completely WRONG.
Truth is, the numeric value of an individual’s caloric intake is not the only factor that affects body composition. In fact, there are at least 5 other factors that need to be considered, including:
- The thermic effect of the food ingested. The thermic effect of food (TEF) measures the amount of energy that is required to support the processes of digesting, absorbing, and assimilating food nutrients as well as the energy expended as a result of the central nervous system’s stimulatory effect on metabolism when food is ingested. Of the three macronutrients, protein carries the highest thermic effect.
- The fiber content of the food ingested. Due to its chemical makeup, fiber is classified as a carbohydrate; however, it is unlike other carbohydrates in that it is a mostly indigestible nutrient. Even though each gram of fiber contains four calories, these calories will remain undigested and will not be absorbed. Therefore, if one were to consume 300 calories of red beans (a food in which nearly 1/3 of the caloric content is from fiber), approximately 100 of these calories would pass through the intestinal tract undigested.
- The glycemic and insulin indices of the food ingested. The glycemic and insulin indices are scaled numbers that refer to how quickly a particular carbohydrate source enters the bloodstream as sugar and how much insulin is needed to rid that sugar from the bloodstream, respectively. Generally speaking, there is a positive relationship between the two; that is, the quicker sugar enters the bloodstream, the more insulin is needed to rid that sugar from the bloodstream. When high levels of insulin are present within the blood, fat burning is brought to a screeching halt, which is anything but desirable for those whose goal is just that.
- The macronutrients present in the food ingested. Although insulin’s primary function is to shuttle glucose (sugar) into skeletal muscle, it also carries many other nutrients to their respective storage sites; this includes fat. Since carbohydrate ingestion stimulates a large insulin response and fat ingestion gives rise to blood lipid levels, the two, when consumed together, promote the greatest fat storage.
- The size, frequency, and time of ingested meals. Large, infrequent meals tend to promote storage of the ingested nutrients as the body is unsure as to when the next feeding will take place. Conversely, consuming smaller, frequent meals will result in increased fat loss and utilization of the ingested nutrients. Also, ingesting a large amount of carbohydrates before bed spikes insulin, deters overnight fat burning, and increases fat storage during sleep. On the contrary, consuming a great deal of calories early in the day does not bring about this problem; rather, these calories are likely to be used as energy to support daily activities.
As you can see, someone could be eating a relatively small amount of calories daily, but at the same time promoting a great deal of fat storage by 1) making poor food choices, 2) combining macronutrients in a nonproductive fashion, and 3) consuming food infrequently and at inopportune times. To illustrate this further, let’s take a look at a recent study conducted by Demling et al which analyzed the diets of 38 police officers. Demling found that although the officers were consuming a hypocaloric diet (fewer calories than they burn), they all had unhealthy levels of body fat and had been gaining fat mass over the past five years. If all you had to do to lose fat was consume fewer calories than you burn, then these individuals would be losing fat, not gaining it! And to confirm the importance of the factors that I previously mentioned, let’s take a look at some of the other things that Demling noted:
- Only 15% of their diet consisted of protein, the macronutrient with the greatest TEF.
- Their diet contained very little fiber.
- Over 50% of their carbohydrate intake was derived from simple sugars, which have very high glycemic and insulin indices.
- They didn’t note this, but I’m willing to bet that they didn’t avoid the fat-carb combo.
- They ate infrequently, only 10% of their caloric intake was consumed at breakfast, and over 50% was consumed right before bed.
By now, it should be obvious that fat loss isn’t just a matter of calories in, calories out.
Enjoy today’s post? Questions? Comments? Post your reply below! At least 100 comments and I’ll be back tomorrow with more killer content for ya!
Keep rockin’,
Joel
P.S. My buddy Jon Benson just posted a 30 second tip that will literally net you an extra 8 lbs of fat loss with practically NO effort…check it out here:
Lose 8 lbs with this 30 second tip <——- Click here
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61 comments - add yours
@ Reka:
Thanks for breaking this down like that- it now makes TOTAL sense to me and- could definately be what I’m doing wrong. I have been blaming my lack of weight loss on my age- I eat healthy, exercise almost every day and have been stuck for years. I am going to start using this method for meal planning- thanks!
Did anyone who commented even bother to re-check what Joel wrote before commenting?
“Demling found that although the officers were consuming a hypocaloric diet (fewer calories than they burn), they all had unhealthy levels of body fat and had been gaining fat mass over the past five years.”
Notice he specifically says “gaining fat mass” over the years, not “gaining mass?”
Yes, you read that correctly! You can be hypo-caloric, and still be gaining fat! This is the case for people who eat low protein / high sat-fat / high-GI foods in their daily diet! Your body is much more readily equipped to break down your stored muscle mass for energy when it needs it than that it is to break down your stored fat! This is indeed often the case if your hypo-caloric diet is fueled mostly by high-GI foods. This is because, when your blood-glucose level spikes, your body will store fat (and will store significantly more fat if you have fat waiting to be stored (i.e. you ate a nice big dish of chocolate cake & ice cream right after eating those 4 bratwursts)), but when the blood-glucose level plummets shortly thereafter due to the high insulin response caused by that chocolate ice cream, and your body needs energy to fuel your organs for your survival during the time it takes for the high insulin levels to recede, it’s going straight for your muscle mass for it’s energy, not your fat stores.
It takes some thought, but if you understand what’s going on inside your body, you will be infinitely more successfully at achieving your physical goals.
I agree that it is physically impossible to gain mass on a deficit, but let’s face it: most people don’t actually know what they burn in a day, so how can they even know that they are hypo-caloric? I know some people who are so bloody sedentary and physically weak that I know they aren’t burning much over 1000-1500 calories per day, and so when they wonder why they are gaining fat on a 1600 cal/day diet with no exercise (keep in mind also those cals are probably made up of 3 chocolate bars and 3 bags of chips all eaten within one 15 ‘meal’) it doesn’t puzzle me why they are stuck!
BTW, someone else posted it, but it’s worth re-posting so others can read the abstract to a study similar to the one Joel was speaking of: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10838463 . All participants LOST mass on the hypo-glycemic diet, as is expected since we all live on Earth and are therefore bound by the laws of physics. This study however does not cover much in regard to the insulin response stuff I was talking about above.
Weight loss does NOT EQUAL fat loss, and weight loss is therefore NOT ALWAYS A GOOD THING. If you are going on a low protein / high-GI food / no exercise diet, you might as well throw your weight-scale out the window because its reading will mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
But what about the Twinkie Diet? A guy lost something like 40 pounds eating only Twinkies (and a few multivitamins). His reduced caloric intake combined with a moderate exercise regime resulted in fewer calories in, and more calories out, so he lost weight. If they were only Twinkie calories, shouldn’t he have gained weight? He set out to prove that a calorie is a calorie, even if it is not unprosessed or proteinful food. Why didn’t he get fat?
As far as the “twinkie diet”…I honestly have never read about it, but you said that they were doing “moderate exercise”. I would like to know what type of exercise was being done? Everyone is different, but this article is certainly dead on. Out of those 40lbs. that were lost, do we know what % was fat loss/how much muscle was maintained/gained/lost? There’s 2 MAIN parts in losing weight/fat…diet and exercise of course. Supplements are another part, but they are certainly not NEEDED and IMO would only account for about 10% of the equation if added in. Everyone’s body is also different. A calorie certainly is not a calorie. What that calorie “contains” is going to determine how much fat you will lose as well as how much muscle you will maintain/gain. I hear ya on the twinkie diet, but those are just the questions I have about it, and through all the research that has been done, we know a cal is not a cal. Anyone who hasn’t, go read Timothy Ferriss’ book, “The 4 Hour Body”. It’s an incredible book and will change the way you look at nutrition!
Its an interesting article, this only one study however. I think people doing IF would tend to disagree with this, as wouldnsome of the major proponents such as Brad Pilon and related approaches like lean gains, etc.
Glad this didn’t degrade into “insulin is the problem” as protein causes a spike in insulin as well.
Excellent post Joel. I agree it’s the quality of the calories consumed that counts. And if your goal is fat loss (not just losing excess pounds) you have to throw in strength training to make sure you’re not losing lean muscle along with the fat.
Ray
@ Chuck:
I have had good results by eating a couple of unsalted crackers or a slice of whole grain bread along with a glass of water. This seems to make the ‘full feeling’ last a little longer. I feel sure the bread absorbs a good amount of the water, giving a bit of ‘mass’ and slowing the absorbsion of the water.
This is an EXCELLENT article, over all!!
Thanks Joel!
@ Janez:
No Janez, Joes said the fat consumed with the carbs THAT SHOOT UP INSULIN cause the fat gain. It meas cakes, pasties, etc., are the worst offenders.
Fantastic article, something that conventional diets tend to mislead people about.
I find that having a high calorie breakfast with a load of fiber (Oats or bran cereals) is a very good start to any day. With 4 meals consisting mostly of protein for slow release energy during the day and a nice low calorie soup for dinner, this all works very well to regulate my weight and keep me motivated for the day. However it should be noted that even though diet is about 80% of a healthy lifestyle without exercise there is no way to ensure that you can keep the same muscle mass while losing unneeded fat.
Awesome info. Knowledge is power!
Hi Joel, great article.
I’m trying to follow a 30/50/20 diet. Although my protein and fat is not a problem I struggle to get my carbs up. I work out my calorie needs on my fat free mass and at 71kg it comes out to 2600. All my carbs are consumed by my fourth meal except post workout dinner. Typically it would look like this:
Bfast: oats, whey, honey and water shake.
Meal 2: 1 serving whey
Lunch: super club sandwich(very high protein and carbs, this is also my only high fat meal of day)
Meal3: 1 serving whey, 100g sweet potato
Meal4: 3 boiled eggs, 100g sweet potato
Meal 5: w serving whey, 1 apple(post workout)
Dinner: meat,100g green veg/butternut, 1 potato.
Bedtime: 1 serving whey
So I’m still 200g carbs short as well as 800 calories.
So yeah, its confusing to hear you should cut carbs or fat if some people just don’t get there. Should I add carb to my whey servings then?
Hi Joel I wanted to know if you know anything about the science behind eat stop eat by Brad Pilon he states with research, that it DOESN’T MATTER how many meals you eat compared to 1 or 8 as long as your calories are clean and you weight train YOU WILL NOT LOSE MUSCLE AND YOU COULD LOSE FAT IN THE PROCESS He also states that 1-2 Fasts a week MATCH THE SAME AMOUNT OF CALORIES as a daily defecit of 325-650 calories
Thanks Joel your input IS EXTREMELY VALUABLE TO ME!
CD
Hi Joel !
how are you ! It was really an informative Colum by you. You told in brief about A calorie is not a Calorie, But my question is , How About those people who talk about MEtabolic Typing ? What is that , How does it affect us And what is the Correct defination of Metabolism, How can we lose weight by adressing this issue( Metabolism) ?
Thanks and you take very good care of your self !
Atif , Malaysia.
Hi Joel !
how are you ! It was really an informative Colum by you. You told in brief about A calorie is not a Calorie, But my question is , How About those people who talk about MEtabolic Typing ? What is that , How does it affect us And what is the Correct defination of Metabolism, How can we lose weight by adressing this issue( Metabolism) ?
Thanks and you take very good care of your self !
Atif , Malaysia.
@ Neil:
This was very interesting and enlighting. I love eating beans but the way I cook them is I would take some olive oil (1-1 1/2 Tbsp), then add onions, spices and then the beans (2-3 cups). That makes about 4-6 servings So it is like eating carbohydrates with fat. Is that alright?
A calorie is a unit of heat needed to raise one gram of water one degree F.
Why don’t I lose weight after drinking, say a liter of cold water. If my body must bring 1000 grams of cold water up to it’s temperature, say a modest 10 degrees higher, why don’t I create a 10,000 calories deficit?
Someone once told me that protein NEVER gets stored as fat… is that true?
I had good luck in the past with a high-protein, low-carb diet, and your article helps illustrate why it works.
But is it true that protein never gets stored as fat, and that the actual process of digesting proteins burns off more calories than the protein had in the first place?
@ Diane:
Diane,
That is the wrong unit. Food energy uses “Calorie” (capitalized) that is 1000 times the “calorie” (lower case). Heating a liter of water by 1 degree Celsius water requires 1000 calories, equivalent to 1 Calorie.
Best to you.
@ Diane:
A calories in physics is not a calorie in food science. A calorie in food science is 1000 calories in physics (aka a kilocalorie). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie
Therefore, the deficit in your example is actually only 10 calories.
Thankyou this has definatly given me food for thought. Should i think of fruit and veg as carbs or fibre
Please Joel can one train two times in one day? Is it advisable to do that what will be the implications?
I really enjoyed todays article and I know it will help a lot of people like myself out there.
Thanks for great article.
Great post Joel! Thanks for sharing, you are getting us there!
Dan
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...