Fat Loss Fundamentals

If you are looking at undertaking a fat loss transformation, simply finding your starting point is a daunting task. The term ‘Fat loss’ has become an industry within itself and has become inundated with 1000’s of methods and diets claiming to be the easiest and quickest way to lose the fat. With this vast amount of information, ultimately losing fat can be condensed down into a few fundamental principles that once understood, make undergoing a period of losing fat much easier. In this blog I’ll outline some basic physiology of both how we gain fat as well as why it's hard to lose. Finally I’ll give some advice as to how you can set up your fat loss plan.

How we store fat

To understand how we store fat you must have an understanding of the energy balance equation. The human body follows the law of thermodynamics in that the balance between energy intake and expenditure determines what and how we are storing energy.

The change in energy stores = Energy intake - Energy Expenditure

Whether we are gaining or losing weight= How many calories we consume - How many calories we expend

*TEF: Thermic effect of food: How much energy is utilised by the body through the process of digestion

*Resting Metabolic Rate: The energy expenditure the body requires to perform all basic vital functions (ie. breathing, circulating blood, organ functions etc.)

There are certain caveats to this with it being more of a dynamic rather than static equation due to the increase in expenditure with increase in intake and body weight and inversely the decrease in expenditure with a decrease in body weight and intake, however a basic understanding of this formula gives you insight as to how our intake affects how we store fat. To summarise if we consume more than we expend we gain weight, if we expend more than we consume we lose weight.

Physiology of fat. Why is it so hard to lose weight?

In certain ways you can think of the fat cells in your body as an organ of the endocrine system (The glands and organs that make hormones and release them directly into the blood so they can travel to tissues and organs all over the body). Fat cells themselves produce hormones that regulate functions within the body. When we reach a certain threshold of body fat (Men 15%+, women 20%+) we begin to experience maladaptions from too much fat. The three signalling molecules relevant to fat gain are Leptin and Ghrellin. Leptin is the hormone that regulates satiety and gives us the feeling of being full. Ghrelin is known as ‘the hunger hormone’ and makes us feel hungry in the absence of Leptin. When you start to accumulate too much fat, you begin to release Leptin at the wrong times. Why is this a problem? The human body becomes desensitized to these signalling pathways essentially meaning you don’t get that feeling of being full, even after a meal. We can utilise certain strategies when setting a caloric deficit to resensitise your body to these signalling pathways.

Fat loss basics
In certain ways you can think of the fat cells in your body as an organ of the endocrine system (The glands and organs that make hormones and release them directly into the blood so they can travel to tissues and organs all over the body). Fat cells themselves produce hormones that regulate functions within the body. When we reach a certain threshold of body fat (Men 15%+, women 20%+) we begin to experience maladaptions from too much fat. The three signalling molecules relevant to fat gain are Leptin and Ghrellin. Leptin is the hormone that regulates satiety and gives us the feeling of being full. Ghrelin is known as ‘the hunger hormone’ and makes us feel hungry in the absence of Leptin. When you start to accumulate too much fat, you begin to release Leptin at the wrong times. Why is this a problem? The human body becomes desensitized to these signalling pathways essentially meaning you don’t get that feeling of being full, even after a meal. We can utilise certain strategies when setting a caloric deficit to resensitise your body to these signalling pathways.

Fat loss basics
In later weeks I will be covering more in depth of how to determine your caloric intake, macronutrient targets as well as how to track your food. If you have had little experience with more advanced dieting strategies or have never undertaken a fat loss plan before, you can make incredible progress by simply covering your bases and addressing the things that are easiest to cover.

Nutritional audit
If you are trying to keep track of your finances and know where your money is going you would perform a personal audit. Same thing can be applied in the context of nutrition. To perform a nutritional audit:

1. Keep a food diary for a week: MyfitnessPal and Cronometer are great apps that will give you a breakdown of your caloric intake as well as the specific macro and micro nutrients. However if you have never tracked before (will cover in next week’s blog), simply keeping a physical note of what you eat for the week will work as well
2. Determine ‘where your big calorie intakes are coming from’: Find the points in your day/week where you are having the big chunks of your caloric intake. Even without the context of exact calories you should be able to see where your bigger intakes come from (ie. 10 beers, and a whole pizza on a friday night probably has a lot of calories)
3. Make a sustainable change: If I asked you what the biggest determining factor in what makes an effective diet what would you say? Would it be reducing carbs? Getting in 2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight? Eating 10 serves of fruit and veggies? The biggest determining factor of your success on a fat loss plan is simply adherence! What can you stick to and maintain for a sustained period of time. You could have the most optimal diet plan in the world however if you couldn’t stick to it, it’s worthless. So how do you make a sustainable change? Use your food diary and assess what you could take away or substitute. Maybe instead of that whole pizza on friday night you have half. Maybe instead of eating fries with your meal and lunch have a salad instead. By making these changes you’d be surprised how effective this is in putting you in a caloric deficit.
4. Eat more protein: There haven't been any specific recommendations in terms of what food to actually eat for fat loss and that is intentional. Within the context of creating a caloric deficit you want to start with an easy sustainable approach without drastic changes. However increasing protein intake is one that I recommend from the outset for a few reasons. When dieting, protein has a muscle sparing effect, ensuring that the weight loss is coming from fat tissue rather than muscle mass. On top of this, protein is highly satiating and will keep us fuller for longer. Without tracking, a rough recommendation would be a palm sized serving for women and 2 palms for men per meal if you are roughly eating 3-4 meals per day.

Next week will cover the basics of macronutrients. If you have any questions, send us a direct message on IG @rav_desilva. Good luck!