Losing Weight: Simple and Tricky

Living Well

Written by: Meg Sharp, MSc. - Fitness & Well-being Consultant, Cambridge Group of Clubs

Lots of people speak to me about wanting to lose some weight. Yet despite 3 decades of experience and being up on all the latest research on the topic, I’m often at a loss to know exactly what to say and advise. Weight loss is simple, right?: Calories in must be less than calories expended. But weight loss is tricky too. 

The simple part is almost mathematical: In order to lose weight, a human being must adopt some sort of sustainable caloric restriction.

Yet many forms of caloric restriction are extremely difficult to sustain. They can mess with your energy, your strength, hormones, basal metabolic rate, and social life. And if you can’t sustain them, that messes again with your metabolic rate, your hormones, and, as importantly, your confidence and self-esteem.

There are many different ways of losing weight. Ultimately, the majority require some form of caloric restriction relative to your current eating habits. The person who loses weight and keeps it off has typically found a way of restricting their eating that doesn’t ultimately feel restrictive. They also have embraced a lifestyle that favours a healthy metabolism – due, in part, to daily movement as well as maintenance or an increase in muscle mass.   

Take home message: caloric restriction works. Provided you find a way of restricting that is healthy and viable over the long haul.

As humans, we’re not built to embrace restriction. My weight loss advice lately has centered almost entirely around adding: add water, vegetables, fiber, protein, fruit, for many, and movement. To be clear, the premise is the addition of these foods leads to more stable blood sugars, less inflammation, better insulin sensitivity, and more satiety. Additionally, as these foods are more filling and nutritious, they will displace the less favourable foods in someone’s diet. So, while my counsel is to add, the end result is also a kind of restriction.

Before we talk about forms of restriction that I think are effective, let’s review some important facts about exercise and weight control: Exercise alone is not considered an effective strategy for weight loss. However, exercise plays a vital role in weight loss. Bear with me: Over the short term, people who diet only lose weight. People who exercise only do not lose weight. People who diet and exercise lose weight. Over the long term, people who diet only gain the weight back. People who exercise only end up losing some weight. People who diet and exercise lose the weight AND keep it off.

Exercise helps maintain or even increase muscle mass, metabolic rate, and overall energy expenditure.  Daily movement reduces cortisol, improves mood and quality of sleep. People who exercise regularly are more likely to drink more water and lean towards healthier food choices. Exercise makes us feel better about our bodies. This last part, is key: 

It’s much easier to make healthy behaviour choices when we feel good about ourselves.

Back to caloric restriction. Here are a few solid options:

Daily Intermittent fasting: 

The rules are pretty simple. You adhere to eating/fasting splits of say 10/14, 9/15, or 8/16 where (for the first example) you eat all your food within a 10-hour window and fast for 14. Research suggests that results may be more favourable when the fast is broken in the morning and restarted mid to late afternoon. From a sustainability standpoint, look at where your social meals are. For example: If sharing an evening meal with loved ones is an important part of your life, a fast that begins before 7pm isn’t a sustainable strategy. It’s not enough that it works in the lab. It has to work FOR YOU. 

Pro tip: Ensure you are getting enough lean protein and fiber in your diet. Also, while some people love exercising in a fasted state, others struggle to maintain either the duration or intensity of their workouts. Remember: intense workouts rev your metabolic rate and keep your brain happy and sharp. Sacrificing the quality of your workouts is not a good longterm strategy.

Restriction of simple carbohydrates:

The body and brain need carbohydrates. As such, any sustainable diet needs to incorporate heathy doses of carbohydrates. That said, some people metabolize carbohydrates better than others. More importantly, not all carbohydrates are created equal. Look to limit refined, processed carbohydrates high in sugar and salt. Replace them with vegetables. Raw and frozen fruits. Grains that are high in fiber as well as those that tend to be higher in protein. All these provide vitamins, minerals, and bulk to your diet helping to maintain optimal health and level blood sugar levels. 

Avoid snacking:

This is as simple as it sounds. Avoid eating anything between meals. This does a few things: When it’s time for lunch or dinner, you are far more likely to have the appetite to eat and chew a whole lot of vegetables and protein. Most snacks tend to be high in simple carbohydrates and salt.

Pro tip: When you yearn for a snack, drink a large glass of water, brew a decaf tea, or go for a brisk walk.

Avoid eating after dinner: 

Yes, this basically falls under the category of intermittent fasting or avoiding snacking. And I think warrants its own little bullet. As for some, simply avoiding eating after dinner is enough to create the caloric deficit, they need to facilitate the weight loss. Eating before bed can disrupt quality and quantity of sleep. For some, insulin sensitivity is lower at night than in the morning – so we’re more likely to store those late-night calories. Finally, food choices are typically not optimal at this hour. 

Restrict alcohol:

Beyond the empty calories, alcohol can increase appetite, cravings for sweet and salty food, and disrupts both quantity and quality of sleep. The resulting increase in cortisol levels encourages fat storage around the mid line, further increases food cravings, and can reduce quality of your workouts. Commit to nights during the week (at least 4!) where you avoid alcohol completely. Then work on cutting back amounts on the evenings you do enjoy a few glasses.

Using restriction as a quick hack: 

“Wait: hasn’t she been saying all along there are no quick fixes? That changes need to be sustainable?”

Well, yes and no. I told you it was tricky. As humans, we love quick results and we respond really well to forward momentum. So, sometimes – not always, but sometimes – a quick bout of some kind of highly restrictive behaviour works. Let’s imagine, for example, you adopt a 6/18 fast where you are only eating for 6 hours in the day AND cut back on ALL simple carbohydrates (including alcohol) in favour of protein, healthy fats, and some vegetables. While not sustainable, your 3 week-journey results in dropping a bunch of weight. Not only do you feel better about yourself, you feel hopeful that you can be successful in this whole weight loss thing. Your blood sugars are more stable and your cravings for sweets have lessened. As importantly, you’ve learned some interesting things about yourself: You can go without booze for 3 weeks and so are happy to now avoid alcohol from Sunday to Thursday. You’ve tried a whole lot of different vegetables raw, roasted, sautéed and have found a bunch you really enjoy. You’ve proven to yourself you can go 18 hours without food so you now know you can certainly go from dinner to breakfast without anything in between.

If the more extreme behaviour helps you with your motivation and helps you figure out the right scaffolding for moving forward, then that could be a powerful interim step. 

Note a few things though – I didn’t suggest you could go back to how you were eating before the “quick fix”. You ultimately need to find a few things you can cut out or cut back on. I picked a diet high in protein on purpose: This type of diet is more likely to help you preserve lean tissue during your restrictive period. When we restrict calories we lose fat – but we can also lose muscle mass leading to reductions in metabolism and strength. Keep a keen eye on your protein consumption as you restrict overall calories. And lift weights. That helps you hang on to those protein stores too.

Questions? Please reach out. We’d love to help.