Principles of Weight Control – Part One

Exercise and Weight Loss: Important Considerations

The success for any weight loss programs depends on a person’s ability to make two main lifestyle modifications. Improve their eating habits, and participate in an appropriate amount of regular physical exercise.

Unfortunately, many people are not successful at losing wight because they make major changes to their diet without changing their activity patterns. Researchers estimate that 87 percent of people who try to lose weight by following a fasting-type program of calorie restriction (less than 1200 calories per day) without including an exercise program will gain the weight back within two years. Furthermore, the weight that is regained after the diet is stopped is often fat, not muscle.

Sure, low calorie diets seem to work miracles in the beginning, as weight is lost quickly. Studies have proven, however, that during low calorie diets the wrong kind of weight is being lost: muscle tissue (especially the water stored in muscle), not fat weight. When a person loses muscle mass, their metabolism slows down, so they burn less calories every day. In addition, research has shown that dieting can have a negative effect on a person’s weight control mechanism, and can also disrupt the function of the liver, kidneys and the gall bladder.

For these reasons, it is clear that trying to lower body fat by dieting alone can lead to many serious health complications. Consequently, the only safe and effective way to reduce body fat and keep it off is to combine healthy eating habits with a moderately intense, personalized exercise program.

Principles of Weight Control – Part Two

Body Fat vs. Body Weight

Given the negative health effects of being “over-fat” (including a greater risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, gall bladder disease and certain forms of cancer), as a society we should be more concerned with the reduction of body fat instead of body weight. In fact, the the whole issue of “weight loss” itself needs to be re-evaluated: since low calorie diets have been proven to be unhealthy while providing only short-term results, they should be replaced with positive lifestyle changes that include both healthier eating habits and regular exercise. Instead of talking about losing weight, we should concentrate our efforts on losing fat. The term “fat loss” should replace “weight loss”, and we should evaluate progress using body fat percent, a mirror or even a measuring tape rather than the out-dated weight scale.

Energy Balance: The basic principle of weight control is one of energy balance: if you eat more calories than you burn off, you will eventually gain weight. Thus, if your ENERGY INPUT (total calories expended through metabolism and exercise), the excess calories are stored as fat in adipose tissue (fat tissue):

If your ENERGY INPUT equals your ENERGY OUTPUT, your weight WON’T CHANGE.

If your ENERGY INPUT is more than your ENERGY OUTPUT, you will gain weight.

If your ENERGY OUTPUT is more than your ENERGY INPUT, you will lose weight.

There are three ways to alter the energy balance equations in favor of losing weight. Eat less (reduce caloric intake below daily energy needs), exercise more (maintain current food intake while increasing energy expenditure through additional physical exercise), and lastly, a combination of the first two (slight reductions in caloric intake and moderate increases in physical exercise. Obviously, the third strategy is the most effective way to achieve healthy, gradual weight loss.