Laziness and Ignorance: Fat People’s Trademarks

You say: “I am doing everything right and I still cannot lose weight.” After that you say: “It must be that something is wrong with my metabolism.” You are a doctor now? Or do you believe that you are educated on nutrition just because you saw some catchy commercial or you have read some interesting articles on the internet? You will be surprised to learn how many internet articles on different types of diets are written by a particular company’s marketing departments and how many articles in newspapers are actually paid advertising.   

How did they get there?

There is a range in our body’s responses to particular types of foods but that range is actually narrow, contrary to what many nutritionists wants us to believe. I still remember what my biochemistry professor at the University of Sport and Physical Education in Belgrade said during my first class: “All of us in this room are Homo sapiens and you better believe that we all share the same biological chemistry.”

While there are some people with health conditions that affect their metabolism, based on my   professional experience and professional education, I am a strong opponent of using metabolic types and other similar theories as a response to fighting obesity and other overweight related problems. Opposition to the use of these theories in our daily lives can mean only one thing: that I am strong proponent of the theory of personal responsibility for our weight, physical abilities, and physical appearance.

There is only one way that you can lose weight, by burning more calories per day than you are taking in. Even quality of food has nothing to do with this: you can eat crappy food from fast food restaurants every day and still lose weight, if you are very active. It is an absolutely different story about how the quality of food affects your overall health, physical performance, and length of recovery time. So, do not be confused, I would like to discourage everybody from eating crappy fast food and to eat healthy food but again, for losing weight you need to satisfy only one simple requirement, spend more calories than you take in.

Often your one a day workout in the gym is not enough. In order to spend enough calories so that you can start losing weight you must be active throughout the entire day. Please, do not give me that crap that you are too busy at work so you cannot be more active. But how about this, when you go to work or to the grocery store park your car as far away from your building or grocery store as you possibly can. After your lunch break, instead of using the elevator, use the stairs to get to your office or even walk your dog an extra five minutes every time you take your dog out.

While reading some fitness literature, I ran into an interesting suggestion few times. In order to not to gain or to lose weight, on the days that you work out take at least 6,000 steps throughout entire day. On days off, walk at least 10,000 steps. Although this suggestion did not come about as a result of any particular study, I am convinced that this is great advice. Funny thing is that when I gave this advice to my clients, almost everybody reacted in the same manner: “it is a lot, it is not realistic for me to do it.” I told them to buy a simple $30 pedometer and to put it on their belt in the morning and to have it on them all day. After they got pedometers, their reaction was fascinating. They started walking more and almost every single one was able to reach the goal of 6,000 or 10,000 steps. Also, they said that just by parking their car farther from the office or grocery store, walking the dog a little bit longer, or taking the stairs instead the elevator they felt that they were much more energized than in previous period. There were all easy tasks and these small adjustments made a big difference.

Here is one more simple but useful piece of advice: instead to eating a few large, energy rich meals during the day, it is better to eat small sized meals more frequently. I am not giving you this advice because of some theories that eating more often will help you lose weight faster because your metabolism is working faster if you eat often. I have read a very comprehensive scientific study which disputes this theory so I would hesitate to confront this scientific finding. The reason that I would recommend eating frequently, every 90 – 120 minutes, is because of the proven fact that you will be more energetic throughout a day than when you eat large meals that demand long periods of time to be digested. When you eat in higher frequency, nothing will be difficult for you, to work or to work out.   

Bottom line is to be active, make small adjustments in your nutrition and your extra fat will disappear, there are no two ways about that.