Weight Management - How it Works

Time to cut the shit! Stop searching for the fast fat loss miracles, stop doing ridiculous diets for short term success, just fucking STOP doing it to yourself! You lose, you gain, you lose, you gain. Then you beat yourself up and sink into a vicious rotation of depression.

If enough is enough, read on. If you want to keep doing it to yourself, close this page now.

I am going to break down how weight works and what you can do to manage it. By the end, you should have the knowledge you need to start to take control of your life and your diet forever!

Let’s start way back at the beginning, back to the good old days when our ancestors roamed the world hunting food and fighting dinosaurs.

Back then, the body knew to store any excess calories as body fat, to ensure the survival of the human race in times of famine. As it could be days before Carl the caveman managed to hunt more food, he’d massively overindulge on food when he had it in abundance and his extremely smart body knew exactly what to do to keep Carl alive. And it didn’t mind doing this because Carl was a canny lad.

And when times were hard, and days went by without Carl having any food, his body would tap into those fat stores to fuel his body so it could operate and survive until he could get another feed.

Now, unfortunately things didn’t end well for Carl, he got a bit lost in the woods one winter and starved to death. His body got to the point where it had nothing left to feed him from its fat stores and eventually, it shut down and he just died. It was a very sad time.

Fast forward a few million years and this system the body operates still exists and is known as the law of thermodynamics. Also known as Energy Balance. Also known as Calories in vs calories out (CICO). Also known as SCIENCE!! For some reason though, mainly in the last 30 years or so, people seem to think it doesn’t and that we need to take special potions, start stupid specific diets or do ridiculous workouts to lose body fat we have gained. This my friends, is absolute tosh!

Energy Balance

Now we know Carl’s story, let’s discuss what happened and how it works in the most simple terms. Because it is simple. And it hasn’t changed. And it never ever will!

Our body requires energy to survive. And the energy we feed it is known to us as calories. If you sat on your arse all day and didn’t move, didn’t even blink, your body would still need a reasonable amount of energy (calories) to function. Your heart still has to beat and everything internally is still in work mode. And if you choose not to give it the energy it requires, it will start to use fat stores around the body. If it runs out of fat, it’ll burn through lean tissues. If it runs out of everything, it’ll start to shut down organs until you die.

Now on the other hand, if we choose to feed our body excessively whilst sitting on our arse, we are giving it much more energy (calories) than it requires. And your body, knowing it could end up like poor Carl the caveman, starts to store all of this excess energy in the form of body fat. It’s a survival mechanism in its most basic form.

If we look on the other other hand though, there is option number 3. Where you still sit on your arse all day long, still not even wasting energy on blinking, but you consume just enough energy (calories) for your body to operate in this sedentary state. This would be known as energy balance. You are putting in exactly what your body needs. You will not gain weight. You will not lose weight. You will stay exactly the same. You will have achieved energy balance.

If energy put into the body is more than energy expended from the body you will gain weight over time. This is referred to as a calorie surplus.

If energy expended from the body is more than put into the body you will lose weight over time. This is referred to as a calorie deficit.

If energy put into the body is the same as energy expended from the body nothing will change. This is energy balance.

And in a nutshell this is how weight gain and loss works.

Every single diet in the world is based around this process, whether you like it or not, whether you knew it or not, you expended more calories than your body needed if you lost weight.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

Now you know the basic process of how your body loses and gains weight, let us talk about where all of your daily calories go.

This is referred to as your total daily energy expenditure and it can be broken down into four main components.

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)- Remember when we said earlier if you sit on your arse all day long you still need a significant amount of calories for your body to operate? BMR is just that. And it accounts for a hefty 70% average of daily energy expenditure.

NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)- This is all of the movements you do throughout the day that are unplanned. A step count is a great indicator of how much NEAT you do daily. Any movement requires energy to be carried out so any fidgeting, foot tapping and even just standing up all fall into this category. It has the next largest impact on daily expenditure at an average 15%.

TEF (Thermic Effect of Food)- When you consume food and drink it requires energy just to be processed through your body. Each macronutrient has a different effect on this with protein having the highest thermic effect. On average this accounts for 10% of daily energy expenditure.

EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)- This is your planned activity. Spin class, Gym Workout, Joe Wicks HIIT sessions, Park runs etc. Anything at all planned falls into this category and it only accounts for 5% of daily energy expenditure. It’s where many people put focus for weight loss and it has the least impact of any energy expenditure component.

Looking at the above and having this information should make it clear where your daily calories are spent. It also should make it clear that the focus for weight loss is often focused in the completely wrong area! Planned activity only covering 5% of daily calories on average means to get the most from this you need to be an endurance athlete. Don’t get me wrong, planned activity is important and has its place. It’s very good for you. But instead of wasting time running on a treadmill because you think it’ll make you lose fat maybe do an activity you enjoy. Then if you want to have an impact on fat loss with day to day activity, try increasing your NEAT and hitting higher step totals. It’s going to pay off more in the long term.

Scale weight & tracking progress

To finish this one I want to discuss a few things about scale weight and progress tracking that you must be aware of when taking on any sort of weight loss venture.

We have it built into us from the moment we are born that our weight is a good unit of measurement to dictate our overall health.

The problem is, we have a major lack of understanding on how weight can fluctuate day to day. This then creates an extremely unhealthy relationship with the scales as we try to lose weight.

A scale is a useful tool and is needed to a point when aiming to lose fat. What a scale can’t tell you though is how much water you are retaining or how much lean tissue you have.

The water retention is most significant here as our body is able to retain a significant amount of water for a number of reasons;

• Increased carbohydrate intake. This can see you gain a few pounds overnight no problem. If you have ever weighed yourself after a heavy weekend and seen the scale jump by 8 or 9lbs this is normally why. It isn’t fat.

• Increased sodium intake. See above!

• Stress can cause water retention due to the hormone it releases.

• A heavy weights session.

• Menstrual Cycle. In the luteal phase women are susceptible to weight gain through increased water retention. Again, not fat.

So knowing this you can see that jumping on and off the scales every morning and night can be a complete head fuck.

Some people like to use a daily weigh in then take a weekly average to see the trend as weight drops over time. I still find a lot of people can’t cope well with this method.

I would advise a monthly weigh in in line with the menstrual cycle for women. Every four weeks at the same time of day on the same scale at the same place. This will give a good indication of progress.

Better than using the scales though would be taking progress photos and body part measurements every month. These will not trick you. These will tell your story and show the progress you are making.

Consider how your clothes fit. If they’re getting a bit looser, you’re making progress.

And finally what about how you feel? Are you happier? Have you made changes that make you feel better about yourself? Are you strutting around with your head held high and a smile on your face?

These are all better progress markers than a scale in my opinion.

Now you have all of this information there’s only one thing left to do. Go get to it and lose that body fat!

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