There is a lot of confusion in both the corporate and alternative media with regards to diet and exercise. I wrote this article in hope of providing some clarity to those lost in the sea of infomation overload.
1) Not tracking calories
While weighing or measuring every single calorie is not fun nor quick, it’s the number one tactic for losing weight. Every steroid-using fitness model, who spend hours at the gym, religiously counts their calories, as it’s the only way to track progress.
Calorie counting apps are no good as they are slow and inaccurate. A food scale, measuring cups & spoons, and a pen & paper are the most accurate and efficient. Shouting ingredients along with measurements at Alexa with pen in hand is fairly fast. After a few months of meticulously tracking, your memorization will quicken the process, but as soon as you stray from your food journal, progress will stifle.
Obesity by State
Colorado (CO) has the least obesity and Mississippi (MS) the most.
Image Source: Brock, D. W., Thomas, O., Cowan, C. D., Allison, D. B., Gaesser, G. A., & Hunter, G. R. (2009). Association between insufficiently physically active and the prevalence of obesity in the United States. Journal of physical activity & health, 6(1), 1–5.
2) Eating too many calories
Eating the right amount of calories is responsible for about 60 - 65% of your body weight and the way you look. While this is really the most important principle for losing weight, without tracking your calories, it’s nearly impossible to tell if you are consuming 2,000 or 4,879 calories.
Caloric deficit = you will lose weight
Caloric surplus = you will gain weight
Weight loss depends ONLY on an energy deficit, regardless of the method. This means you need to consume fewer calories to lose weight than your baseline energy needs. If you are looking to gain weight then you need to consume more calories than what your body is expending.
Intermittent Fasting
There are numerous fasting and feeding schedules, however, the main reason people lose weight while intermittent fasting is because they are eating less food.
The standard beginner schedule of 16:8 allows for only 8 hours per day of eating. Once progress slows, an 18:6 schedule is started, further reducing the eating time to six hours. This allows people to eat less without counting calories, however, I’d recommend tracking calories, regardless of nutritional method.
2018 Map of Global BMI (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Caloric Balance
Whether you lose FAT or gain MUSCLE depends on other factors, especially what foods those calories come from (fats, proteins, carbohydrates). However, it's impossible to lose weight while being in a caloric surplus. Without counting every calorie how do you know if you are eating too much or not enough??
Most diets focus on macro-nutrient composition but miss the main principle of caloric balance. Keto, for example, focuses on fats, followed by protein. You’re not going to lose weight, even while in ketosis if your consuming surplus calories (outside of the initial water weight as glycogen is bonded to water)
3) Not knowing daily energy expenditure
Tracking calories and eating less doesn’t mean anything unless you know exactly how much less to eat. There are three components to total energy expenditure:
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) = energy burned while resting (60 - 75%)
Thermic effect of food = The energy required to digest, metabolize and store food (8 - 10%)
Energy expenditure of physical activities = Thermogenesis that accompanies all physical activities, including exercise, tasks of daily living, fidgeting, etc. (0 to ~ 30%)
For the most detailed and accurate measurement, you’ll need to go to a research laboratory or university hospital.
However, for a ball-park number, just Google energy expenditure calculator. I recommend using a handful of Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculators and then averaging the results.
Frequent weighing. Once you know your TDEE, and total calories, time to weigh yourself frequently and adjust calories accordingly.
The Myth of the 3,500 calories & One-pound of fat
It’s commonly accepted that 3,500 calories are equal to one pound of fat. If you eat 500 calories less each day for one week, then, in theory, you will lose one pound of fat per week. This simple weight loss rule is cited in over 40,000 websites, nutrition textbooks, and scientific articles. Even the USDA, the department that sets the dietary guidelines for Americans, reports:
“You need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose one pound of weight. This translates into a reduction of 500 calories per day to lose one pound in a week, or a reduction of 1,000 calories per day to lose two pounds in a week.”
In reality, the 3,500 calorie rule significantly overestimates weight loss and projects a linear change, which is known to be untrue. People seeking 1 pound or more of weight loss per week will need to reduce daily caloric intake by 1,000 calories, minimum, all while actively combating passive compensatory changes. People on the extremes of human size will need less or more, but the bottom line is you’re not going to drop 30 lbs anytime soon by only reducing your daily intake by 500 calories.
“The panel recommended that the 3500 kcal per pound rule should no longer be used.”
4) Macros out of balance
Image Source: USDA
Macros & muscle or fat
Caloric balance or lack thereof is responsible for about two-thirds of your body weight. However, body composition, or how much fat or muscle you have is mostly dependent on the proportion of macro-nutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates).
Ancestral Human Diet
Humanity’s gene pool is identical to that of the hunter-gatherers of the Stone Age beginning about 2.6 million years ago. Our optimal diet is the same today as it was during the Palaeolithic Period, which lasted for 2.5 million years or 99% of humanity’s existence.
During this era, there were no nutritional books or health “gurus” extolling the merits of the keto diet or “bulletproof” coffee. Hunter-gatherers ate food derived from naturally occurring vegetation, wild game, and aquatic resources.
Today, the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR) set forth by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) recommends:
Carbohydrate = 45%-65% of energy
Protein = 10%-35% of energy
Fat = 20%-35% of energy (with limit saturated and trans fats)
This differs slightly from the macro-nutrients of the hunter -gatherers of the Palaeolithic Era:
Carbohydrates = 35%
Proteins = 30%
Fats = 35% (mostly polyunsaturated)
Average Macros of Hunter-Gatherers
Protein
Hunter-gatherers got slightly less than 1/3 of their calories from protein or about 30%. Today, this would be on the high side of the AMDR recommendations.
Protein is essential for fat loss as it helps prevent muscle loss and it reduces hunger. 1 gram of protein per pound of lean bodyweight is a good starting point.
For example:
200lb man with 27% body fat would need about 146grams of protein.
Carbohydrates
Today, about 50% of the total calories in the American diet come from carbohydrates with about 15% coming from added sugars. During the 2.5 million years where aboriginal peoples roamed the Earth, only about 35% of total energy came from carbs, with 2 - 3% from added sugar (mostly from honey).
Grains, which today are the largest source of carbohydrates was rarely eaten during the Stone Age. A Palaeolithic Period diet was high in fruits, especially berries along with tubers.
Carbohydrate's main purpose is to provide energy as opposed to proteins, which are the building blocks of tissues. Assuming you are exercising, 1g per pound of body weight, just like protein, is recommended.
Fats
Fat intake during the Palaeolithic Period ranged from about 25 to 60%, depending on latitude.
Arctic areas = 60% fat
Tropical terrain = 25% or less fat
Rest of the Planet = ~35%
Stone Age hunter-gatherers ate more fat than the typical person today, only about 8% of total calories came from saturated fat while eating significantly more polyunsaturated fats, as the fatty acid profile of wild game animals differs greatly from that of modern grain-fed commercial feedlots.
Carbohydrates and proteins have 4 calories per gram. Fat, however, is over double with 9 calories per gram. As people start tracking calories and limiting calories, the first thing that gets reduced is fat, as it limits the amount of total food you can eat. I listed fats last here because after calculating protein and carbohydrates, your remaining calories will come from fat. Don’t let fat intake dip below 15% as fat is essential to health, however, fat has a very limited role in body composition changes.
Image Source: Marlowe, Frank W., et al. “Honey, Hadza, Hunter-Gatherers, and Human Evolution.” Journal of Human Evolution, vol. 71, June 2014, pp. 119–128.
Micro-nutrients
Paleolithic people's diets had 2 - 8 times more micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) than today’s diets, with the lone exception of sodium. Today, sodium consumption is higher than potassium, which has reversed our electrolyte balance.
Micros for losing fat & Latitude
“Most (73%) of the worldwide hunter-gatherers derived >50% (≥56–65%) of their subsistence from animal foods (hunted and fished), whereas only 13.5% of worldwide hunter-gatherers derived >50% (≥56–65%) of their subsistence from gathered plant foods.”
All calories are created equal for overall weight loss. However, a calorie is not a calorie when fat loss or muscle gains are desired. It is common for dieters to restrict certain macros in hopes of slimming down. Yet proteins, carbs, and fats all play a role.
Also, depending on the latitude of your lineage, your optimal macros will vary. Hunted animals and fish made up the vast majority of food for those with ancestry from Arctic areas, temperate grasslands, and subtropical rain forests. Genealogies with origins in the temperature forests, desert forests, and tropical grassland depended on gathered plants more than they did game and fish. This means that depending on your family’s origins, the optimal amount of carbohydrates could be anywhere from 5% to 55%.
5) Eating out too much
Fast food joints like McDonald’s take the majority of the blame, but every restaurant meal eaten per week, regardless of the eatery, increases your BMI by at least .6. A healthy BMI is 18.5 to 24.9, which means 5 restaurant meals a week increases a person’s BMI by 3.0, which is 50% of an entire BMI category.
A 2014 study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, analyzed 250 restaurant chains and their 30,923 unique menu items. The researchers found:
674 calories per entree
813 calories per appetizer
260 calories per side
496 calories per salad
419 calories per drink
429 calories per dessert
The average meal was between 785 - 1,860 calories. Oddly enough, McDonald’s had the lowest caloric average per meal of all of the food chains. It’s also interesting to note that restaurant salads average 500 calories. Even if you forgo the dressing, many of these “healthy” options are filled with bacon bits, shredded cheeses, crispy bits of fried anything, and starchy vegetables. Oh, and by the way, salads are generally the most contaminated menu items and are responsible for 20% of all foodborne illnesses.
6) Excessive Caffeine & Alcohol
You can still lose weight while drinking alcohol as long as your total calories are less than your daily energy needs. However, for every drink that you consume, you shift how food is metabolized, especially while eating fatty foods and enhance your appetite. A glass or two of wine/beer is okay. However, one Saturday night rager can undo an entire week of caloric balance.
For those of you trying to get rid of the “last 5 - 10lbs,” it’s really hard to achieve without completely eliminating alcohol.
Stimulation - Sedation Cycle
Excessive caffeine, 400mg or more, causes the Stimulation - Sedation Cycle, where you start your day with caffeine and end it with alcohol or marijuana to calm down. This reduces your sleep quality, which is hugely important in regulating and rebalancing your hormones.
7) Poor sleep
For those that sleep less than 7 hours per night, focusing on healthy sleeping habits should be your number one priority. Even doing everything else right - caloric balance, optimal macros, and proper exercise, insufficient sleep will wreak havoc on your body.
Decreased Leptin - Satiety hormone (feeling of fullness after eating)
Increased Ghrelin - Hunger-stimulating hormone
Increased Cortisol - High concentrations of this stress hormone causes impaired glucose homeostasis, insulin resistance, and fat gain (especially belly fat)
Decreased Melatonin - Responsible for circadian rhythm disturbances and a weekend immune system.
8) Exercise vs Recreational Hobbies
You cannot outrun a bad diet is a popular maxim. Running a 5k (3.1 miles) only burns ~ 200 to 500 calories, which is the equivalent of a banana and a medium coffee with a little cream and sugar.
However, simply reducing exercise to a caloric equation misses the major point. Let's use mountain biking as an example - Recreational mountain biking burns about 700 calories per hour and combines resistance training, cardio, and HIIT training, all while being in the great outdoors (green exercise) while also enriching social connections. The 700 kcals/hour is great for reducing fat and increasing muscle proportions, but the overall health impact is unmeasurable. Making new friends, spending time in nature free of your cell phone, physically exerting yourself to the max to climb steep hills, exploring areas you have not been to, and flying down fast hills with a huge smile. None of this shows up in laboratory studies.
Instead of focusing on “exercise” and how many calories you burned, spend time playing beach tennis, riding bicycles, racquetball, squash, hiking……anything that promotes movement so long as you enjoy it.
Final Thoughts
Why can’t I lose weight with diet and exercise?
Diet and weight loss in the United States is a $70 billion a year industry with public marketing being the largest contributor to excess weight. Fad diets, fake health foods, exotic fat burning programs, and photo-shopped fake pictures of fitness “influencers,” are all manufactured to create economic growth.
You don’t need to be a health “expert” to reach your optimal you. I can narrow it down to 8 actionable steps:
Purchase quality lean meats and produce
Cook the majority of your own meals
Track calories
Have a good idea of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and don’t exceed it too often
Get some recreational hobbies that involve sport or exercise that you enjoy (preferable outside)
Sleep 8 hours
Don’t excessively drink or party your progress away
Finally, be realistic, even Hollywood superheroes have digitally-painted six pack abs.
Contract Jesse if you have any questions
Jesse is the Director of Pedal Chile and lives in Chile’s Patagonia (most of the year). Jesse has a Master of Science in Health and Human Performance & Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. Jesse is an avid MTB rider & snowboarder and enjoys researching and reading non-fiction and academic studies.
Sources and References
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Casazza, Krista, et al. “Myths, Presumptions, and Facts about Obesity.” The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 368, no. 5, 31 Jan. 2013, pp. 446–454, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3606061/, 10.1056/NEJMsa1208051.
Cohen, D. A., & Story, M. (2014). Mitigating the health risks of dining out: the need for standardized portion sizes in restaurants. American journal of public health, 104(4), 586–590. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301692
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