Lose fat, not 'weight'

Weight loss is something that most of us want, but do we really understand what we mean by it? I mean people are confused by the term weight loss. What they want actually is fat loss. People try so hard just to see the numbers go down on the weighing machine but does that really matter or is it the psychological jinx that we seek to break? People starve themselves, try different exercises, regimen, diets and whatnot. Do they really need to go through all that or is there a simple and scientific way to do it?

Let me tell you there is a simple way to do it and the cherry on the cake is that it is also cost-effective. You just need to make simple changes in your lifestyle. The golden rule for lifestyle change is: "Lifestyle changes that you do must be long-term not short-term". The problem with the short-term approach is that it leads to a yo-yo effect — you may lose four kg in two months but when you stop following whatever changes you have chosen, you may gain six kg back. The first thing that people seeking to lose weight do is to go on 'diet' which gives them short-term results but ultimately leads to failure as they are not able to stick to the diet in the long term. So, what to do? Let's break it.

FOOD

It is a necessity for everyone, without which we cannot survive and function optimally. So, that brings us to some important aspects of food:

Quantity of food: Who doesn't love to have a good tasty meal, enjoy to the fullest and satisfy his or her taste buds? Most people love to eat carbohydrate- and fat-rich food. The problem here is not the absence of any particular macronutrient but the quantity of the food. Our body stores excess food in the form of fat so that if a situation arises when you don't have access to food, then it utilises that fat to maintain necessary body functioning. To make things simple, let me give you an example. Let's say a person 'A' has 2,500 maintenance calorie intake and he is consuming 3,000 calories/day. The extra 500 Kcal will be stored as fat in the body. So, the takeaway here is to stick with your maintenance calories if you don't want that number on the weighing scale to go up! But the trick here is when your weight drops your maintenance calorie also drops.

Quality of food: Many people say we have good protein in our diet but they fail to understand that there is a difference between butter chicken and grilled chicken; although the core ingredient doesn't change, there is a huge difference in calorie intake with each. Suppose a person has 2,500 maintenance calories/day. These calories can be consumed from clean food like veggies, salad, lean meat, eggs etc., and can also be taken from junk foods like pizza, burgers, French fries, pasta etc. It is obvious that these calories should come from a clean diet.

Timing of food: Many of us have been advised not to have carbohydrates in the evening but no one knows why. The answer to this is simple — carbohydrates are our first source of energy. If we do not utilise it by doing physical work, it gets stored in the body and is converted into fat. Most of us work for long hours in the office, so, after having our dinner in the evening, we either jump into bed or start chatting on our phones. This way, we don't burn the calories that we took in our dinner. As a result, our body stores the excess energy as fat over some time.

The solution for this is very simple:

⁕ Have dinner early in the evening.

⁕ Consume less carbohydrates.

⁕ Go for a 15- to 20-minute walk after dinner.

DIET

When you talk about weight loss or fat loss, it is impossible to skip the word 'diet'. As people are more conscious about their health nowadays, they usually follow a particular diet. Many forms of diets are available in the market today — like metabolic balance, high-protein diet, vegetarian diet, intermittent fasting, and the famous keto diet. I feel everything works as long as you can fit it in your lifestyle as a long-term practice. The first thing for you to decide is whether it is practically possible for you to follow a particular diet as a long-term lifestyle change, because if the diet doesn't fit in your lifestyle, then it'll be just a waste of time and energy. You will eventually get frustrated and start blaming the diet for not yielding desired results. So, select a diet that fits in your lifestyle easily.

In Indian society, the majority of people are protein-deficient and have this false belief that if they have high protein in their diet, they may develop kidney issues, which is a myth. We all consider a bowl of dal in our diet as a stable protein source. There is 17 gram of protein in 100 gram of chana dal. When you have your lunch or dinner, you don't eat that 100 gram of dal all by yourself. There are other family members as well. So, if there are four members, you are left with 25 grams of dal, and if you calculate, out of the available 17 grams of protein, all you have is 4.25 grams. As for maintenance, you should have protein equal to your body weight. Although, scientific journals reveal that you can take up to 2.5 grams of protein/kg of body weight as a safe limit.

EXERCISES

Exercises are essential for fat loss or weight loss. There are a plethora of exercises like weight training, resistance band exercises, yoga, cross-fit, TRX, bodyweight training, running, swimming, cycling etc. that you can do. But which are the exercises that actually help you achieve your goals? The answer to this is that you may mix any resistance training — weight training, bodyweight training or TRX — with cardio such as jogging, running or HITT; and flexibility training such as stretching, ROM exercises or yoga. Many people, especially women, have this fear that they will become bigger if they do weight training. In fact, contrary to this, it will help them boost their metabolism by activating their muscles, toning their body and reducing that unwanted body fat.

So, what type of exercises should one focus on? The exercise of choice for this purpose will be compound exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, shoulder press etc., as these exercises involve many joints and result in more muscular activity which, in turn, burns more calories in less time.

Many people hold the belief that if you've to lose fat then you need to do more cardio, which is true to a certain extent, but not completely. You need to do cardio, but along with resistance training. In fact, the first focus should be on resistance training, followed by cardio. There are many forms of cardio, like slow steady cardio, walking or HITT cardio such as burpees. So, which is the one that you should do? The answer again is a mix of both, for e.g., you can do walking on day 1, running on day 2, HITT on day 3 and then repeat on other days — depending upon your fitness level. There are many other techniques of mixing.

Another important question is when is the right time to do a certain type of exercise? The human body is a piece of very smart and complex machinery. It adjusts itself if you give it a certain type of stimulus at a specific time. Therefore, the theory that doing morning exercises is better than evening ones is irrelevant, although there can be small differences that are not that significant. The goal should be to do exercises consistently.

If a myth is repeated several times, people start believing it. One such myth is about spot reduction of body fat which is proven to be scientifically impossible. Many people keep on doing abdominal crunches on the floor for days and months without getting any result because of the wrong choice of exercise which they made. When a person loses body fat, he will do it from the overall body, not just the belly. "Sorry to burst the bubbles", belly fat is the last one to go.

QUALITY OF SLEEP

This is the most underrated point. All we talk about is diets and exercises when we discuss fat loss. However, quality sleep is as important as any other thing. If we have good food and exercise but we lack quality sleep, we still won't be able to get the desired results. Lack of quality sleep affects both our digestion as well as muscle recovery. If digestion is not good then your muscle won't get good nutrition, hence, it won't grow — resulting in a slower metabolism. Another important facet associated with lack of sleep is increased stress levels, resulting from altered biological clocks which itself is a big issue. To overcome all these problems, all you need is to follow a simple proverb that we have been chanting since our childhood — "early to bed early to rise", with more emphasis on early to bed.

Fat loss can be simple and easy if you know what to do and how to do it. To sum up, all you need is knowledge about the procedure, consistency in exercises and choice of exercises, healthy food, and patience. You accumulated all that body fat in years, it won't disappear in days. It will take a few months, depending on several factors like your current body fat percentage, age, health conditions, muscle mass etc. But one thing is for sure, if you follow some simple tips, you will start seeing the results. Most importantly, you should enjoy the journey of fat loss rather than making yourself miserable.

The writer is a certified stott intensive reformer Pilates trainer. raveesraja16@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal