In my opinion there are 4 types of weight watchers
Type 1: They want to lose weight – but it’s only a wish – very weak in the head – they need cognitive help before they embark on any weight loss ambition
Type 2: Want to lose weight – but they are adamant in not giving up their sodas and pet dishes. – They need brain transplant or they should be struck with amnesia.
Type 3: They are the regular fitness enthusiasts, who will try everything they read upon; will try every form of exercise like Tabata, cross fit, functional training, power yoga, Pilates (I don’t blame the exercises or the methods) and try all nutritional plans every week – they will talk as if they are connoisseurs of the fitness world – they are well informed on how to get into a rut. They are they typical losers of this world (stay away from them). Bottom line they don’t lose weight and neither do they get fitter and they will continue with their verdicts in clubs, parties and family get togethers. – ROTFL
Type 4: They will follow a method and would go all the way
If you have read my earlier blog “truth revealed” I have clearly stated that losing weight is a product of method and not madness. If it is that easy then every man will showcase a six-pack and every woman will have an hourglass figure. There have been millions written about weight loss and the money spent on the same is quite staggering around the world.
Everyone is looking for a quick fix and if you want to follow the regular “run of the mill food pyramid and don’t eat fat world” – this blog is not for you. Actually you don’t need to worry coz you will never lose weight and you can be like those whining aunts/uncles. Okay, now to some serious business!!
Food quality is not the same from what it uses to be in the 70s and 80s and with the advent of fast foods, sodas and the works – there is one thing, which is assured from the young to the old – obesity. Obesity is a hormonal imbalance and if you want to count calorie in and calorie out – stop reading this blog now.
We are living in a very fat world and it is not just a personal issue, rather an issue for the community. If you want to test – please go to the nearest scan centre and take a DEXA scan to ascertain your fat % and you will be surprised. Almost everyone who walks into my gym whether it’s slim or fat – if I scan them they come under obesity. The best part if they are close to the accepted mark we are actually relieved.
Some of them are unbelievably fat (fat % and not the appearance) and they would seem just fine from the exterior. This is not a joke. People are not aware of what’s happening to the intake of food, what food to take and when, activity, playing, sleeping early, electromagnetic stress and I can go on and on with the list. I will address one issue at a time – for starters a little science on insulin – its effect on obesity.
Science tells us that obesity is ultimately the result of a hormonal imbalance, not a caloric one- specifically, the stimulation of insulin secretion caused by eating easily digestible, carbohydrate – rich foods, refined carbohydrates, including flour and cereal grains, starchy vegetables such as potatoes, and sugars, like sucrose (table sugar). Secondly, our insulin levels are effectively determined by the carbohydrate we eat- not entirely, but for all intents and purposes. The more carbohydrates we eat, and the easier they are to digest and the sweeter they are, the more insulin we will ultimately secrete.
ROLLER COASTER
So continuing from my observation with insulin. It’s quite easy to understand that all insulin does in this context is to increase the fat we store and decrease the fat we burn, insulin works to make us fatter. So anything that is easily digestible will increase your insulin secretion, which is almost everything in the modern world.
The worst foods are table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. You can be rest assured of corn syrup used in many dishes served to you in restaurants. So to succinctly reiterate one pointer is to stop the insulin roller coaster all day.
The argument in defence to carbohydrates can be – ‘All my life I have had rotis and rice and that has been my staple food’ – Fair enough – I give it to them – not all of us get fat when we eat carbs, but if you add inches and fat (and feel like a slob- Dexa scan will tell you that) then, the carbs you eat are to blame – time to cut carbohydrates intake.
Remember 25 % for men and 30 % for women is the ceiling. Anything more than that you can be rest assured of:
1.Insulin roller coaster due to excessive consumption of easily digestible carbs
2.Protein and Fats in the right proportions are not being consumed.
3.Mood swings and depression will definitely be a by-product.
I periodically visit the cardio sections of local gyms and check the type of persons using the treadmills, cross trainers. To my surprise it’s always the obese person. Another interesting observation for you to ponder over. Check some of your friends and relatives who only indulge in ‘walking or cardio’ without alterations in nutrition. They will never lose weight and they keep increasing their workload in cardio but to no avail. Even if they lose weight it is seldom the fat- instead the plunge is the lean muscle tissue. When I consult the poor souls who come from the world of ‘eat less and walk more and more to lose weight’ – my heart goes out – it’s not their fault – they have been conditioned for many years. They live in a time warp and they are also victims of the “fat is bad” myth – ergo all the complications. Remember the fat person is a hungry person (Anyone with a fat % of more than 25 and 30 for men and women respectively). You need to feed them with the right type of food for him to lose fat.
Alcohol – one liner from many. It’s tough for us – coz we have so many eat outs and parties – and ‘What is there to life without indulging’. I am not against indulging – please indulge – but if it’s once in a while – say even if it’s once in 2 months – I probably will subscribe to their theories on lifestyle and socializing. I would definitely agree with the fact that once in a while you need to let your hair loose and put your heel up and chill.
But the decorated person who gives the excuse of weekend is in denial and their priorities are juxtaposed. A little cognitive help would suffice. Alcohol will play havoc with your insulin and if there is someone who is not able to lose weight despite doing everything else right except quitting alcohol (even in limited doses) – then the insulin roller coaster due to the consumption of alcohol is not helping you at all. Check your mid-section and hips – they are the house for insulin roller coaster. So help your body to alleviate this pandemic state.
Also the footer for this part is the fat% and not the body weight. I have seen a young lady aged 20 weighing 46 kgs with a fat % of 36(Dexa scan and not the cheap fat monitors which are there in your local clinic). She is considered obese by a scientific standpoint.
Insulin is a stumbling block when it comes to losing fat and that’s been a bane for many and sadly the battle of the bulge is going on for many years. Various methods have come and gone; some are cycling back -retro style.
As I said transforming your body, building your body, making it athletic, slim fit, blah blah all have one underlining factor and that is to have a desire to make the change. Without that many resort to shortcuts by trying out things, which come out in TV commercials, tall claims from fitness equipment manufacturers, etc. etc.… If you notice most of them behave like snake oil salesmen and many fall for that.
Please do not fall for such gimmicks. If you want to bark up that tree then it reflects the way you drive your life. Believe in Science, facts and strategies rather than quick fixes. All our life we have heard that hard work pays and how is it different with the physiology of the body and the biochemistry. If you messed with it, first be brave enough to accept it and that will be your positive change towards a new horizon.
Exercise is important for weight loss – but it works concomitantly with nutrition and if ‘exercise hard and eat whatever’ is your mantra you can stop here. I have nothing for such folks. To start with as I mentioned – this is for the cardio aficionados. If you’re the type who feels I can eat anything as long as I burn it with an hour of cross trainer/jogging/biking – Try this experiment – get a DEXA scan find your fat % – do not follow any meal plan – just run or walk hard every day for the next 90 days and re test and compare your pre and post DEXAs.
DEXA
Now to ‘Cheat meals’ – Just to jog your memory back to fat percentage, the upper limit for fat percentage is 25(for men) and 30 for women. So cheat meals are fine with people who are below this. For personnel not in this particular range, cheat meal is like a statutory warning.
If you are fighting the battle of the bulge and yet you really want to transform- Please get your priorities right. If fat loss is your goal just prioritize your life around it. Just do one thing at a time – if you want to enjoy the best of all the ends in the world, it’s just not possible to even enjoy one with sanity. Your mind will constantly be stressed with all the juxtaposition in your so-called priority list. So if you wake up in the morning and hypothetically your physician says that you have been diagnosed with a deadly disease you will do anything to revert. But sadly it could have been late. For many, the years of abuse sometimes could have caused irreversible damage and probably the reversal rate is zilch when it comes to body transformation. But then that number is very small. But don’t try to put that to test.
To simply state – if you have crossed age 30 and if you come under the classification of obese, cheat meals and yo yo will be the bane for the rest of your life. Just to understand classification see below:
Fat percentage – preferably by DEXA scan
| Description | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
|
Essential fat |
10–13% |
2–5% |
|
Athletes |
14–20% |
6–13% |
|
Fitness |
21–24% |
14–17% |
|
Average |
25–31% |
18–24% |
|
Obese |
31%+ |
25%+ |
I have knocked 2.8 kgs in the last 35 days and it took quite a bit of hard work to do that coz my weight loss goal is just about 4 kgs and I wanted to lose fat and not muscle. In the month of June I tried everything during the week and had one cheat meal on Sundays and to my utter disbelief nothing changed. I did not lose a gram of weight. The best part is I made it a point to cycle almost 2 hours a day. But every Monday morning weigh in was in vain. I actually did not lose a gram and I was fluctuating 1 or 2 kilograms through the week.
From 1st July to now I went on a strict regimen and I even stopped my cycling and resorted just to 45 mins of weight training 6 days a week and I have managed to knock off close to 2.8 kgs in probably 30 to 35 days. Once you reach a decent level of metabolism, health and wellness you can definitely experiment with some more freedom.
Please do not listen to overtly sympathetic or “I know it all” elders or physicians coz they don’t want to be left alone in the obese club. Just to put a flash in your head.
The following type of people are the ones who will tempt you for a cheat meal:
1.Close kith and kin who are not fit themselves
2.The already obese ones who want you to join them – a la devil.
3.People who are not consistent.
If cheat meal is not working for you – it’s time to stop cheating!
There are numerous studies (epidemiological research) looking at the correlation between body fat and sleep. There is an inverse relationship (less sleep is associated with more fat) and if you check it over a period of 4 to 5 years you can be rest assured that you will pile up the fat mass.
SLEEP DEPRIVATION
If and when you go on a weight loss program, there is enough research to support the theory that you should sleep adequately (preferably – latest by 10.30pm to at least 6 in the morning). Anyone loses sleep by 3 hours (8 to 5) is associated with a negative result.
The nutrient partition effect is now awry and the weight loss primarily comes from lean muscle tissue instead of fat mass. Sleep deprivation appears to increase hunger and may be more significant when the sleep deprivation coexists with a reduced caloric intake. In otherwise healthy women, this has been quantified at around a 20% increase in voluntary energy intake (and a slight increase in body weight of 0.4kg over 4 days).
Sleep deprivation has been noted to increase circulating leptin (a protein produced by fatty tissue which is believed to regulate fat storage in the body). Sleep deprivation, over time, may lead to higher fat mass gains (possibly secondary to hunger, which is reliably increased) whilst short term sleep deprivation appears to hinder fat loss attempts.
Cognitive Output :
Reduced sleep produces a neural sleep wave pattern that is sometimes observed in depression and well-being appears to be related to sleep as well. A reduction in sleep reduces higher levels of cognition and impairs it beyond your imagination.
Insulin sensitivity :
There is a correlation between abnormal sleep patterns and metabolic syndrome, with less sleep and disturbed sleep you will definitely increase the likelihood of insulin resistance, hypertension and obesity.
Circadian rhythm :
Chronotype is an attribute of human beings, reflecting at what time of the day their physical functions (hormone level, body temperature, cognitive faculties, eating and sleeping) are active, change or reach a certain level.
This phenomenon is commonly reduced to sleeping habits only, referring to people as “larks” and “owls” which refer to, respectively, morning people (those who wake up early and are most alert in the first part of the day) and evening people (those who are most alert in the late evening hours and prefer to go to bed late).
Humans are normally diurnal creatures, that is to say they are active in the daytime. As with most other diurnal animals, human activity-rest patterns are endogenously controlled by biological clocks with a circadian period.
Normal variation in chronotypes encompasses sleep/wake cycles that are from about two hours earlier to about two hours later than average. Extremes outside of this range can cause a person difficulty in participating in normal work, school, and social activities. If a person’s “lark” or (more commonly) “owl” tendencies are strong and intractable to the point of disallowing normal participation in society, the person is considered to have a circadian rhythm sleep disorder.
Sleep deprivation can result in lowered testosterone levels.
Androgens, with testosterone being the most frequently measured, are reliably around 10-30% with moderate daily sleep deprivation, and can be reduced with a single night of outright sleep abolishment
Cortisol
Cortisol normally follows a pulsative pattern and is higher in the morning and lower at night. Sleep deprivation dysregulates this, and causes a normalization of sorts of this pulsatile pattern (reducing morning cortisol, increasing serum cortisol) while whole-day exposure to cortisol goes up slightly.
Thyroid Hormones:
Sleep deprivation in otherwise healthy females has been noted to increase thyroid hormones T3 (19%) and T4 (10%)although other trials have failed to find an alteration in thyroid hormones with 33 hours acute sleep deprivation or chronic sleep deprivation.
Growth Hormone:
Growth hormone can be altered with sleep deprivation or working against the circadian rhythm. All the effects will surface after a few years. Even cell phones need recharge. Human bodies will be in sync with nature if you get to bed early and get a good 8 hour of sleep.
Many men and women in the mid-thirties now are fighting the battle of the bulge but they have major issues with reproduction. Late nights, Sodas, processed junk, Toxic food, lack of exercise, electromagnetic stress and lowered testosterone which can cause disaster to the present generation.
The final pointer
