Why You’re Not Losing Fat
"Sol Brah, I want to lose fat, how do I do it?”
This is a commonly asked question and the answer is relatively simple; move more, eat less.
HOWEVER, there are factors that can be inhibiting your fat loss, despite dieting + exercising!
It is not enough to ‘lose weight’, as no one really cares (or should care) about the numbers on the scale. You should be more interested in increasing muscle mass, and decreasing fat content in the body.
There ARE factors that can inhibit this natural "calories in, calories out" mechanism.
Simply eating less and restricting your body of the nutrition it needs is not necessarily the best way to lose body fat and keep it off.
If you're restricting your diet to the point of low energy and lethargy, you're not going to have the motivation to exercise, your body will be unable to repair itself and you'll experience burnout and injury.
Eat nutritious whole foods, not a lettuce and cucumber salad.
In terms of the best long-term strategy for keeping body fat lower, you should aim to increase your body's RESTING METABOLIC RATE.
This is the amount of calories your body burns AT REST, doing nothing else.
What tissue is the most metabolically expensive?
MUSCLE.
When you increase the muscle on your frame, your body needs more calories to maintain this tissue. This is why bodybuilders can consume 4000+ calories and not put an ounce of fat on.
Additionally, resistance based training burns calories even after you've stopped working out.
HIGH STRESS / CORTISOL: When you are stressed, your body releases cortisol = higher blood pressure and rapid decision-making, while inhibiting immune function, digestion, and protein synthesis. If you are stressed, the body is not going to be functioning optimally, which impacts numerous processes involved with health and fat loss.
NOT SLEEPING ENOUGH: Minimal sleep causes insulin resistance and high glycemic variability, leading to diabetes, appetite cravings, and weight gain. IT IS CRITICAL you're getting 8 hours of sleep, EVERY NIGHT. You will see fat loss from this alone.
Sleep deprivation also reduces satiety-inducing hormone leptin and increases hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin.
TOO MUCH EXERCISE: Excessive exercise can lead to elevated levels of cortisol and inflammation. If you’re killing yourself in the gym but not getting the quality weight loss (fat loss) you desire, then maybe look to see if you’re overtraining. 45 minutes of concentrated and intense weightlifting is enough to induce a hypertrophic reaction without overkill.
Overtraining does not just happen to athletes – you may be in this category if you are not recovering properly, you under-nourish your body, or you fail to get quality sleep.
TOO MUCH CARDIO: When you engage in aerobic exercise, your body wants to work as efficiently as possible while producing the greatest amount of physical output. As you perform long cardio sessions with increasing volume and frequency, your body will attempt to shed unnecessary excess weight while storing usable energy.
Do you know what type of weight is more or less unnecessary when you run, due to its need to be carried and cooled?
Muscle.
And do you know what’s a great source of stored, usable energy for cardio?
Body fat.
Therefore, when you perform increasingly hard cardio your body gets rid of muscle and stores fat to prepare for each bout of cardio, while also down-regulating anabolic hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone, as these are paradoxical to extreme endurance efficiency.
SAID PRINCIPLE: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands Principle = your body will eventually adapt to the demands you place upon it. SO much so, that repeating the same exercise will eventually utilise less calories and receive less gains from the same workout. Here are some key modifications to try:
Combining exercises (supersets)
Active rest periods (walking)
Training outside (different temperature and environment)
Changing the center of gravity (loading a different angle or path of movement)
Workout at a different time of day
HORMONE IMBALANCE: Endocrine disruption and hormonal imbalances can be caused by exposure to chemicals such as pesticides and plasticizers, external stress such as relationship or financial stress, internal stress such as viruses, heavy metal accumulation and blood sugar swings. Dietary contaminants, deficiencies in critical micronutrients, lack of sleep and poor digestive health are also factors to consider that could be impacting your hormones.
Eat high-quality animal fats, cholesterol. These are CRITICAL in the production of testosterone and other hormones.
Eat more cruciferous veggies = broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and cabbage. They contain indole-3-carbinol, an antioxidant that metabolizes excess estrogen in the body.
Filtering your water.
Use glass or stainless steel products instead of plastic
KEY MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES: Research has shown that specific micronutrient deficiencies are associated with weight gain and obesity. Among these micronutrients, the most significant are vitamin D, chromium, biotin, thiamine, and antioxidants.
Metabolism and resistance to weight loss are also negatively affected by deficiencies in magnesium, boron, vitamin A, vitamin K2, and choline. You can get blood panels to check your levels of these nutrients.
FIRST STEPS TO REDUCE BODY FAT
Eliminate seed oils, processed foods, non-natural sugars, ENTIRELY. They are predominantly empty nutrition and contain a host of metabolically and hormonally damaging ingredients that you can do without.
EAT ONLY whole foods you prepare yourself.
DRINK WATER / NON-CALORIC LIQUIDS: Drinks such as black coffee and herbal teas. This means no alcohol too.
Eliminate 'Sauces', 'Marinades' etc, these are extra calories loaded with sugars/preservatives. Your pallette will adjust accordingly after a while, which reduces your calorie content by nature of it being harder to eat more of 'normal' foods.
FASTING: Research has shown that short-term fasts, such as daily and overnight 12 to 16-hour fasts, will actually increase your metabolic rate due to an increase in norepinephrine, one of the hormones that signal fat cells to break down.
Eat everyday within an 8 hour window. If you’re trying to put on weight, I don’t recommend as your hunger naturally decreases and it can be harder to eat your required calories within a smaller window. But for fat loss, definitely try this out.
STARVATION MODE MYTH: It takes 3 days, or 4 weeks of extreme calorie restriction for the body to down-regulate metabolism. Therefore, there is no need to snack throughout the day if your goal is to lose weight.
EAT AT THE SAME TIME: Maintaining a regular eating schedule can improve the body’s metabolic response to meals, don't skip breakfast one day then eat it the next, don't snack late at night etc. Keep the amount/volume consistent and consume them at the same times each day.
LOW-CARB/KETO: Depending on your goals and body type, a ketogenic diet can be exceptional in the goal of fat loss as your body changes to burning fat as a fuel source. It can also result in a reduction in inflammatory markers. This is the best strategy for obese people looking to cut a lot of weight.
INCREASING PROTEIN INTAKE: Protein is thermogenic, meaning your body burns more calories to process it than other food types such as carbohydrates. Increasing your protein intake relative to carbohydrates can help increase calorie expenditure.
MOVEMENT: For most people, sitting for eight hours a day does not expend enough energy to counterbalance breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, despite any exercise performed at the beginning or end of the day.
Throughout the day, every hour or so, get out of your chair, run up and down some stairs, go in the handicapped stall and do 50 bodyweight squats, find a tree to do some pullups, kettlebell swings if you can, anything to get the blood pumping + increase caloric expenditure is a good move. You will feel additional added benefits to these bouts of extra movement throughout the day.
COLD EXPOSURE: Brown fat is stimulated by cold exposure to burn white fat, so one of your primary fat-burning techniques should be daily cold thermogenesis (cold showers, a cold plunge if you have it, or the local river if you're in a cold area).
Thanks for reading this breakdown of fat loss, be sure to follow me on Twitter and subscribe to Sol Brah’s Solcast.
- Sol Brah