Is Fasting the Key to Weight Loss?

Several years ago, I watched a BBC Horizon documentary, "Eat, Fast, Live Longer".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-20122013-3-eat-fast-and-live-longer

Michael Mosley was looking at diets which may increase longevity. Some of the diets didn't look too appetising. Perhaps eating them just makes one feel as if life is longer!

The focus of the programme was on calorie restriction and fasting. It has been demonstrated in the laboratory that decreasing calorie intake leads to longer life in some animals. This may appliy to humans too.

After looking at low calorie diets, Mosely tried fasting. He discussed intermittent fasting, suggesting that eating normally for 5 days with a 2 days fast each week would have similar, achievable benefits as a permanent, low calorie regime. Unfortunately, this has evolved into the 5:2 fad diet which was never intended (I hope), since the programme was not about weight loss, but longevity. This 5:2 diet has really taken off, with books, cookbooks and God knows what else, making a lot of money for those jumping on its bandwagon.

Anyway, the programmme prompted me to try a 3 day fast, just to see its effect. I'm not quite sure why, but a thin consomme soup of about 50 kcals was permitted each day, so I had this each evening.

On the first day, I cycled 35 miles and felt fine afterwards. On the second day, I cycled the same route. Curiously, I did not feel hungry at all, but the soup on this day tasted absolutely delicious. By noon on this second day, I was already planning my first breakfast meal and lunch on day four. On the third day, I knew that my liver glycogen Ievels would be depleted, so I did not go out cycling, which is a pity because I am sure I would have coped very well. At that time, I wasn't fully aware of the body's mechanism for surviving in an absence of carbohydrates in the diet.

Although I still wasn't hungry, I was thinking of food constantly. By now, I had a mental plan of the following week's menus and the evening mug of soup, which I ate slowly with a spoon, was the most delicious I had ever tasted! Finally, after 78 hours, I broke my fast on a Saturday morning, eating a normal breakfast and a lunch about 5 hours later. I can't say I lost any body weight in such a short time (I wasn't looking for that), but clearly, a number of internal changes would have occurred.

When a human starves (and a fast is simply voluntary starvation) the body goes into survival mode. Firstly, we are constantly bombarded with thoughts of food, a I was. Food becomes an obsession. In Kurt Vonnegut's collection of short stories about war,  "Armaggedon in Retrospect", he describes his fellow prisoners-of-war, discussing and fantasising about food, planning future meals constantly. This is the experience of most people in similar situations. The brain is constantly reminding us, "Eat!! Eat! Eat!"

When it is obvious that there is no food available (or very little), the liver starts giving up its glycogen reserves and fat burning mechanisms are switched on, to burn the body's fat. This would have been happening to me by the third day. The liver converts fatty acids to ketones, which can be utilised by the muscles and brain instead of glucose. Both acetoacetic acid and beta-hydroxybutyric acid are used in the heart and brain. Acetone is a by-product of acetoacetic acid's degradation. These ketone molecules are used for energy in the body's cells  The vital organs and muscles run on these very successsfully. 

There is also a requirement for protein to maintain and repair vital organs. Skeletal muscle is relatively expendable, so the muscles are gradually consumed. Muscle protein, like meat in our normal diet, can be converted to glycogen via gluconeogenesis, if necessary, so people who criticise low carb diets, saying that the brain requires carbohydrate to function, are missing the point. The body can manufacture its own carbohydrate, if required, by gluconeogenesis.

So, if there is sufficient water available, the body organism can survive in this state, feeding itself on fat and muscle, very efficiently for several weeks. But there are two serious drawbacks to this fasting; firstly, the body is wasting away. Mental processes and sexual libido will fail and extreme lethargy will result, as the body's metabolism slows down in an effort to conserve energy.The other drawback is slightly more serious - death will soon occur, as the body is unable to sustain vital functions. However, if food becomes available soon enough, the effects of starvation can be reversed and recovery to normal weight and health can occur.

We can learn some important things about weight loss diets from the experience of starvation. Clearly, the body can survive very well for a short time on its own resources - protein and fat, without carbohydrate. This mechanim to survive when food was not ever-present, originates in the very beginning of human development. Humanity has survived food shortages for millions of years. We know this because we are still here!

If then, we could find an eating plan today, which mimics our prehistoric, starvation survival mode, it would be the ideal reducing diet. It would leave us satisfied after eating, providing enough protein to prevent muscle and organ deterioration, while encouraging the body to use up its own excess fat. Well, the good news is, such a diet exists already. It is variously known as LCHF, Banting or Atkins diet. It is probably the most successful weight loss system in history, based as it is on protein and high fat (prehistoric survival food), with very low amounts of carbohydrate.

As early as 1862, the idea of eating just fat and meat, with some leafy green vegetables was promoted in a leaflet by William Banting, a retired English undertaker, who  had been struggling with obesity all his life. You can read about him here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Banting

A century later, in U.S.A., Dr Robert Atkins came to similar conclusions and made millions of dollars selling books explaining his plan, much to the chagrin of his envious peers. 

Since then, there has been much research on Low Carb, High Fat diets. Not only are they effective in weight loss, but they are also now being proven to be healthy, despite their high percentage of fats. Notice, an LCHF diet is not a high protein diet. It always irritates me when dieticians don't listen before quickly defending the orthodox diet, consisting of 50% carbs and rush off into unnecessary warnings about the perils of "too much protein". 

An LCHF diet provides most of its energy in fats (65-80%) with about 20% from protein. As we have seen above, in the absence of food, humans can live perfectly well without carbohydrates, which are a non-essentail macro-nutrient. However, the LCHF diet allows for about 5-15% of total calories from carbohydrate. This is made up mostly of green vegetables, berries, a few nuts and some cheeses.

In its initial stage, to stimulate weight loss, there is a very low carbohydrates intake - about 20g per day - to start nutritional ketosis (ketone burning). This continues for a few weeks, then as excess fat is steadily lost, a very gradual increase in carbohydrates to a moderate level can be sustained, without stopping fat burning. Ketone sticks can be used to detect ketones in the urine, to ensure that ketosis is continuing. 

Unless you become an athlete or a very physically active worker, you will continue to have a very moderate carbohydrate level thereafter, eating mostly home-cooked, natural foods.
If you would like to learn more about LCHF diets, look here;

www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

Update:
Previously, I recommended the Atkins website, until I saw promotion of their own-brand, processed crap in the guise of "healthy, low-carb food". Some folks just cannot resist making profit from the weaknesses and gullibility of others. Look here to see what I mean:

www.dietdoctor.com/atkins-greed-and-the-fairy-tale-cookies

This site below, has some good info;

www.authoritynutrition.com/low-carb-diet-meal-plan-and-menu/

My personal favourite is Diet Doctor, which is actually a translated Swedish website run by Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt.

NOTE for DIABETICS
Reducing dietary carbohydrates has an effect on blood sugar levels and insulin requirements. Therefore, it is essential that you monitor and modify your insulin medication carefully in consultation with your Doctor.

Today's cycling session

It's was a pleasant, sunny day here in Edinburgh, but there was  a strong westerly wind which slowed me down as I cycled along by the sea (Edinburgh is on the River Forth estuary).



I followed one of the city's cycle paths (former local railway lines) which are primarily recreational, for most of this route.



Here, in U.K., we have to share the road with motor vehicles, so we are way behind countries like Netherlands and Germany in our cycling safety!


My route today;  


www.endomondo.com/users/7277781/workouts/529896185

What You Need to Know about Carbohydrates and Insulin

When healthy people eat carbohydrates, and especially refined carbohydrates, their blood glucose rises. The pancreas responds by secreting insulin to process the glucose, transporting it to the cells of the liver and muscles, where it is stored as glycogen.


The skeletal muscles have a capacity of about 300g of glycogen storage. That glycogen sits there in the muscles until it used for vigorous exercise, so that "sink" has no more capacity. The liver stores about 100g of glycogen, but this can be released to the blood stream when blood sugar is low – if it ever gets low enough in a person who is continually snacking. (Keep reading to end for some important facts on insulin’s effect on protein intake)


When these liver and muscle reservoirs are full, the body does not waste any incoming excess available energy (food). It is very efficient in using valuable fuel. Excess glucose is converted to fatty acids and stored in fat tissue.


We can see that, for a sedentary person, a meal containing starchy vegetables, sweet fruits or flour products or sugar (and particularly sugary drinks like cola or fruit juices), will be an excess of carbohydrates for them and will be stored as fat.


Some will say, "but I drink Diet Coke", artificially sweetened. Sorry, but the same thing applies – the pancreas responds to any sweetness as if it is receiving sugar and secretes insulin.


If we ingest too much carbohydrate in one meal, there will be an insulin rush,overshooting the required amount, lowering our blood glucose too much. Soon, you will feel hungry again. Think of the popular "Chinese meal", high in simple carbohydrates (white rice) and probably sugar (sweet and sour) followed by banana fritters with syrup.


The above problems are increased by alcohol. All digestion is stopped, until it is broken down in the liver.


Over time, many of us become immune to insulin because the pancreas becomes over-worked by a life-time of high carb meals, so we need to keep producing more and more insulin. Then, the body becomes less efficient in converting glucose to glycogen and, instead, stores it as fat. Carbohydrates, not fats, make you fat.


If most of your carbohydrate is being shunted off into fat reserves, a lot of your food intake is lost to you. But what about your fat reserves? Well, if your body is used to burning carbohydrate, which it will always burn first, when available, fat will not be utilised. Also, when insulin is present in the bloodstream (and that’s most of the time when a person is always snacking), our fat is not released into the blood.


In view of the foregoing, it is rather disingenuous of doctors and dieticians (and exercise instructors!) to tell their patients to "eat less and exercise more". Many obese people will tell you that they "hardly eat anything" and that is probably true. Then, as I’ve said before, exercise makes us hungry! So, while I believe that many people become overweight initially through greed (second helpings or huge portions), once they start becoming insulin resistant because of over-consumption of carbs, they are losing half of their food intake to their fat stores. Obesity may start as occasional over-indulgence, but it soon becomes a hormonal problem.


Protein also stimulates insulin secretion. It is digested to peptides and finally, amino acids, which are used for growth and repair of tissues. Despite what many bodybuilders may think, our requirements for protein are fairly modest, at somewhere between one and two grams per kilogram of body weight per day. So a 75kg athlete might need 100-150g per day. This doesn't require huge consumption of flesh because virtually all natural foods contain protein. Even fruits and vegetables contain 2-3 g of protein, which adds to our total for the day. Although these proteins are from plants, the liver can reassemble their amino acids to form proteins useful to us.


Proteins, like fats and carbohydrate, are chains of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, but with a vital difference; there is a nitrogen molecule attached. If we ingest an excess of protein, the energy is not wasted. The amino acids are de-aminated in the liver i.e. the nitrogen molecule is removed and expelled in the urine. And what are we left with? A carbohydrate chain - and you know what's going to happen to that, if there is no room in the glycogen stores......... It will be stored as fat. So, the myth that "we can eat as much protein as we like, without getting fat" is untrue.


In a future post, I’ll discuss an enjoyable, proven diet that actually works for weight reduction and long-term, healthy maintenance of body weight.

Your Food Choices - Why do You make Them? (and recommended books)

The obvious answer to the above question is , “I eat what is available” or “I eat what I enjoy”, but subliminally, our food choices are often made as a result of health articles that we have read in newspapers and other media. 



From time to time, we see articles or documentaries warning us about eating too many eggs, or too much fat, “eat fatty fish”, “eat the right fats“, “eat more nuts, but not too many” or “eat more fruit and vegetables” or “this makes us live longer” and so on.  



The most influential piece of dietary advice in the last 70 years was the recommendation on reducing fats in the diet. This started in the 1960s in USA and particularly with scientist Ancel Keys, who was later featured on Time‘s front cover. Since then, we have seen an increase in the numbers of overweight and obese people who have followed that advice.



Gary Taubes’ book, “Good Calories, Bad Calories” explores the science behind the low-fat dogma, examines many of the studies made and shows that much of the nutritional science that we take for granted today is based on very unsound scientific studies. It’s quite a weighty book, with its emphasis on science and statistics (it took him five years to write, I believe) and its 600pp contain over 100pp of references alone, but it’s well worth the effort. 

If you're not of a scientific bent, requiring detailed proofs, you may find this book by the same science journalist more approachable. It carries a similar message, but in less detail; "Why We get Fat and What to Do about It". An audio version of this book is available on Youtube.

For those of you who prefer seminars and interviews on Youtube, follow this link;


www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEuIlQONcHw



To find out more about this journalist, see;  www.garytaubes.com/

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

I saw an interesting Youtube video by a medical doctor specialising in obesity and diabetes treatment, the other day. The key point of the short lecture by Dr Sarah Hallberg of Indiana was the reduction of carbohydrates in the diet.


I wrote to a diabetic friend, asking if lowering her carbohydrate intake might allow her to reduce her insulin dose. She replied that her doctor said it’s important to eat carbohydrates “to make the insulin work”. Really? Isn’t that the exact opposite of what happens in the body?



When we consume carbohydrate, it is all eventually digested to glucose, and this promotes excretion of insulin from the pancreas, to remove toxic sugar from the bloodstream. I say “toxic” because an excess of sugar in the blood is the very condition which exists in diabetes, hence the need for insulin injections.



But notice, the insulin secretions come in response to carbohydrate. The insulin doesn’t come first, so that we need to eat carbohydrate to modify the insulin release. This advice, to eat a lot of carbohydrates, is given to diabetics routinely.  



So, are doctors missing the point? Are they really overlooking the problem which causes the diabetes? i.e. carbohydrates consumption? If there is very little carbohydrate present in the digestive system, then there is very little glucose, so the requirement for insulin by injection is reduced. Simples?



Let’s suppose that, instead of prescribing a drug, the doctor simply advised patients to reduce their carbohydrates intake, thus by-passing the need for high doses of insulin. Wouldn’t that save the National Health Service and health insurances a lot of money? Wouldn't it eventually help people to get well, instead of simply managing their sickness? I think so.... But then, what would happen to pharmaceutical profits? Is there something else going on here?


If you would like to see Dr. Sarah Hallberg’s short presentation on Youtube, follow this link;



 www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ


If you have Type 2 diabetes, viewing this video may change your life.

Why I Stoppped Taking Statins - a Warning for Men over 40

IMPORTANT NOTE

Do not stop taking medication without doing thorough research first and consulting with your doctor. However, you should certainly ask your doctor a lot of questions before starting any medication and you should monitor your own symptoms carefully, in a diary.

=======================

Each day in U.K, about 8,000,000 people swallow a statin tablet. Let's suppose each one gives just one penny net profit to a pharmaceutical company; that means that, in one year, drug companies are making about £29,000,000 net profit on this one drug alone. The cost to NHS is enormous.

Atherosclerosis is" a disease of the arteries characterized by the deposition of fatty material on their inner walls". Doctors are taking a prophylactic approach to this disease, by prescribing statins to middle-aged men because these drugs lower blood cholesterol which, they say, is the reason for the fatty deposits. They reason that, since middle-aged men are most at risk of heart attacks and stroke because of high cholesterol, administering a pill to lower cholesterol must be a good idea. Some go so far as to say that statins prevent heart attacks, which is untrue.

Heart disease and stroke can be avoided by leading a physically active life. People who exercise regularly, are at less risk. While there are correlations between lowered heart attack/stroke incidents and statins, there is certainly no definitive proof. Quoted figures of increased life expectancy sometimes amount only to extra days of life, which is not a high return when we consider the side-effects of statins.

Cholesterol is a precursor for the biosynthesis of hormones, bile acids and vitamin D in the human body. It is the principal sterol synthesized by animals. All kinds of cells in animals can produce it, but particularly hepatic cells.

Statins work by blocking chemical pathways in the liver, which produces more cholesterol than we consume in our diets. The problem is, by blocking those pathways, other important chemicals are blocked too, further down the line. One of these is Co-Enzyme Q10 which is essential for heart health and generation of ATP for energy in our cell mitochondria. In some countries where statins are prescribed, Co-Q10 is prescribed with the statins, but not in Scotland, as I found out.

Here now, is my experience with statins;

Two years ago in March, I visited my friend's new house near Crieff on a Tuesday and stayed overnight. The next morning, I enjoyed a large, delicious breakfast of muesli, milk, wholemeal bread with honey and black coffee (I'll explain my reason for mentioning this shortly). About an hour or so later, we went for a walk in a wood nearby. Suddenly, I felt dizzy and my eyes wouldn't focus. I was afraid to take a step because I felt as if I couldn't plant my feet safely, so I stopped for a minute or so and the dizziness passed.

On the Thursday, I went to my optician. She could find nothing wrong with my sight. She advised me to see my GP which I did. I was lucky to get an appointment at such short notice. The locum doctor decided I had had a mini-stroke episode and, after talking to a professor at a local hospital, he prescribed Simvastatin and Aspirin. He also arranged an appointment for me at Edinburgh's Western General on the following Tuesday, to see a stroke specialist. This was a Friday night at 6 p.m. and I was due to fly to Madrid at 8 a.m. the next morning. I cancelled my holiday flight, very reluctantly, because I had felt fine since Wednesday evening.

On attending the hospital, I was given a brain scan and thorough checks. It was decided that I had some atherosclerosis, which is not uncommon in later life. In his report, the doctor described my incident as "a very curious case" because there was no evidence of a stroke. Anyway, he advised me to continue the Simvastatin and he prescribed Clopidogrel, instead of Aspirin.

At this time, I was working toward one million metres on an indoor rower, so I was training several times each week for 30 minutes or so and strength training twice. I also changed my diet overnight (not that it was particularly bad). I decided to eat at least 10 portions of fruit/veg each day and I cut animal fats right down.

It was only after a few weeks that I started noticing side effects of the drugs. These may include loss of memory and depression, but as I said to my doctor later, how is one supposed to know when memory is lost or if one is depressed?

Anyway, the most obvious thing was extreme fatigue. This is not surprising (see Co Q10 above). I was awakening each day, after a sound night's sleep exhausted, wiped out. With this, came severe muscle pain. This was not due to DOMS (delayed on-set muscle soreness), with which I am familiar.

Next, I noticed that my urine was brown. I don't mean dark yellow due to dehydration. It was the colour of cola. On researching this, I realised I probably was suffering rhabdomyolysis. This condition is so serious that I'd like you to read about it yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis

Essentially, it is due to damage to skeletal and heart muscles and can lead to kidney failure

Then, one morning I woke up to go for a wee (as one does, first thing) and noticed that something was missing........ You gentlemen will know what I mean when I say there was no stiffness (and I don't mean my back). I thought about this and realised it had been some time since I had been functioning normally, at least a week or two, I guessed. Another side-effect is sexual dysfunction.

Well, I went to my doctor, told him all of this, asked for Co Q10 ("we don't do that here" he said) and insisted on a lowering of the statin dose. He ignored my concerns about the other symptoms, virtually patted me on the head and told me to "keep up the diet and the exercise".

Meanwhile, I was doing more research and was extremely lucky to come across this article by Dr Stephanie Seneff of MIT

https://alethonews.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/how-statins-really-work-explains-why-they-dont-really-work/

I wrote to her, explaining my symptoms and history and she kindly replied the very next day, attaching three research papers and advising me that people who exercise are at most risk from statins.

I thought about this for a few days and, three months after starting statin medication, I stopped taking them and decided to be responsible for my own future health, by continuing exercise and diet.

Today, I am fit and in good health (so far, as I always say now.......)

As for my "mini-stroke" episode, I don't think it was a stroke at all. I believe I had an insulin surge due to too much carbohydrate in my breakfast, combined with strong coffee, which stimulates insulin production further. This would have lowered my blood sugar levels quickly, inducing a hypoglycaemic episode, making me fatigued and dizzy.

================================

A Tale of TwoTwins

Bill and Ben are twins aged 30. They both weigh 80 kgs and their height is 1.8m (that’s about 5’11” and 176 lbs or 12 st 8 lbs in old money)., so their BMI is 24.7. Genetically, they are identical and their interests are similar, but they have very different tastes in food.
 
Bill is very health conscious and follows current trends and advice. He keeps an eye on his calorie intake because he has noticed his clothes are getting tighter. His calorie intake is less than 2500 per day, but his waist is getting thicker. He carefully reads product labels when he makes food choices, to ensure that he is eating a low-fat diet, without added sugar. He knows that fat and sugar are bad for us because he keeps up with food articles and documentaries on TV. He works in an office and goes to the gym quite faithfully, three times each week, where he trains with weights, because he knows that improving muscle mass burns calories by increasing the metabolic rate. He also does some cardiovascular training. At weekends, he goes hill-walking or cycling with his brother.
 
Ben doesn’t worry too much about his calorie intake. His weight seems to be stable and he has plenty of energy. Like his twin, he works in an office (in the same company and building, in fact) and attends the gym three times each week, training with his brother, combining strength training with brief HIT cardiovascular training. In terms of strength, they are very similar and sometimes competitive on exercises like Bench Press and Pull-ups. As for fitness, Ben seems to have a slight edge. Bill has been suffering more, to keep up with Ben when running or cycling.
 
On a typical day, Bill’s breakfast consists of the following;
200 ml orange juice
50g Bran flakes
200 ml Semi-skimmed milk
2 slices wholemeal bread
5g low fat olive oil spread
10g marmalade or jam
Coffee with milk
Mid-morning, he is always ready for a snack, which he eats at his desk. This is usually a low fat yoghurt and an apple.
 
Ben’s breakfast is as follows:
2 slices back bacon
2 fried eggs
2 “home-made” pork sausages from his favourite local butcher
1 fried tomato
100g fried mushrooms
Coffee with 25ml double cream
He cooks the above himself, frying it in lard.
 
Mid-morning, Ben goes to the water cooler and chats to his colleagues. He doesn’t eat anything. He is simply not hungry. He doesn’t even think of food.
 
The brothers meet at lunch-time. Bill has a bowl of tomato and basil soup with one slice of pizza and coleslaw and coffee with milk.
 
Ben usually watches Bill eat his meal because he doesn’t feel hungry enough to eat. Sometimes, if he doesn’t feel hungry on rising, he will miss breakfast, but have coffee with thick cream, then eat an all-day breakfast from the canteen at mid-day, drinking black coffee or water. He always gives the toast and hash browns to his colleagues, who love to sit at his table!
 
Mid-afternoon, if Bill is going to the gym, he has a banana, to “keep up his blood sugar”, before training at 5.30 p.m. He usually has a Zero Calories Coke too. By this time, Ben is ready to eat, so he has a snack of 50g pecans and 50g cheese. He doesn’t always have this and never, if he’s had lunch.
 
After his work-out, Bill has a whey protein shake mixed with water. Ben has an apple.
 
On arriving home, Ben does the cooking. He grills one chicken breast for Bill and fries another in 75g butter and quickly boils 1000g broccoli. The portion sizes are the same, but Ben eats Bill’s chicken skin and pours the butter from his fried chicken over his own 500g broccoli.
 
After dinner at about 7 p.m., which include a multivitamin for each man, Bill has 250ml of bottled beer and 25g of salted peanuts. Ben had 75ml of dry red wine with his meal. Sometimes, he has 25ml malt whisky with a little water, afterwards, instead of the wine.
 
By 10 p.m., Bill feels hungry, so he has two small tangerines for supper. The brothers relax in the evening and go to bed at 10 p.m.
 
Before I discuss this, let me just say that each twin has consumed very close to 2400 kcals of energy this day. Does that surprise you?
 
Bill’s diet closely mirrors current government recommendations;
48% carbohydrates (50%), 24% protein (20%) and 28% fats (30%).
Ben’s intake, by contrast, is 9%, 19% and 72%.
 
Is one diet better than the other? What do you think? If they have both eaten the same number of calories, why is Bill hungry? Why has he had more meals than Ben? Is he just greedy? What is going on here? If “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie” and all these energy units are the same, why does one man’s calorie intake satisfy him, while the other does not? And why has Bill been gaining weight while carefully following government guidelines and doing exactly the same amount of physical and mental activity as his twin?
 
If I tell you that this is the way they always eat, in terms of macro nutrients and calorie intake, what might we expect for their immediate and future health?

I shall address these questions in another post, by which time, I hope you will have made some conclusions of your own.

Exercise for weight loss - does it really work?

Scotland has a growing obesity epidemic, which stood at about 27% in 2013, with 60% of our population overweight. This is estimated to cost the nation  between £600 million (NHS costs) and £4 billion (loss of productivity, early deaths etc). Either way, it is a lot of money!

At any gym in January, you’ll see the same scene every year; the room is crammed with overweight people trying to lose weight in preparation for spring weddings and holidays or for wake-up calls to health.

It occurred to the cynical side of me that their effort may be futile. Exercise is less effective for fat loss than we think. You don't believe me? Well, most people trying to lose weight are very conscious of calorie expenditure, but I have some bad news for you all.........

Let's suppose you jog for 30 minutes, at 10 kph (~6 mph), assuming that an overweight, unconditioned person can do that. The calorie charts and the treadmill will tell you that you have burned about 400 kcals, depending on your size (big people burn more energy than small). Now, if you stop jogging and sit down, you will burn ~150 kcals in 30 minutes, just sitting there. Why? Because your metabolism - all the necessary things to maintain life, such as breathing, blinking, digestion, heart-beat, thinking etc - requires energy. In other words, the 400 kcals burned is actually a net deficit of only ~250 kcals after 30 minutes of hard effort. Sorry!

There is more bad news; exercise may make us gain weight because it makes us hungry. Some may object - doesn't exercise suppress appetite? Well yes, while you are exercising, but when we stop, the body's first priority is to re-establish the status quo. This is a biological necessity for survival. The organism's first priority is restoration and repair. If, like me, you keep a food diary (www.myfitnesspal.com), you may notice that your calorie intake and appetite increases after exercise, either later that day or the next.

I was talking to a client the other day. about his running across the Pentland Hills, which lie to the south of Edinburgh. That morning, he had run for over 2 hours over rough ground in a stiff, cold wind. I asked him how he felt and how hungry he was. He wasn’t hungry because he'd had a huge post-running meal a couple of hours before coming to the gym for strength training. He agreed that his appetite was increased by running, but he said also, he had lost weight running in the past and his female colleagues were glad to either maintain their weight and eat well, or lose weight, by hill running.

So, that contradicts me, right? Well, in the man's case, he admitted that his previous weight loss had only been achievable through this repeated intense effort with hunger. He had continually and strictly under-eaten, below his appetite, in the past, after running, to achieve a particular weight goal. He was constantly hungry during that period because he was on a low-calorie die, relative to his needs. This is the experience of most people who try to lose weight by exercise and/or by low-calorie diets. Eventually, the body wins the fight and the weight is regained to safeguard its equilibrium.

Does this mean that exercise is a waste of time in weight loss programs? Not at all. Long-distance cyclists and runners are examples of leanness through exercise, but their training requires hours of steady state activity every day, combined with shorter periods of intense effort. This is something which requires dedication and motivation beyond the reach of most overweight people.

It is clear that we are designed for movement - we have muscles and a cardiovascular system to support them. The gym industry is growing because it replaces the activity that is lost in our lives by sedentary "work", sitting all day, moving a computer mouse or holding a pen or telephone. People who do real work, in the physics sense, don't need gym memberships because they are walking, climbing, lifting, carrying, moving, all day long, using their muscles, burning energy and depleting their muscle glycogen levels, unlike their sedentary counterparts.

If moderate exercise three times per week (the usual formula) has little effect on weight loss, then how can we lose excess fat? In future posts, I shall address this problem and explain why counting calories doesn't work , then I'll tell you about a weight loss diet that actually works - even without exercise.


Please go to my Update on 13 June.

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for looking at my blog. This is my first post.

My site name derives from my idea that, if we start getting fit today, then we will be fit 4 2 morrow. It's never too early, or too late in life, to change your habits, with a view to extending your future in health. Today, many people are living in miserable old age, plagued by the new diseases of our modern world - heart disease, dementia, obesity and diabetes have all come to the fore in the last 50 years and to a large extent, they are preventable. There is really no need for the mass degeneration of our older population. By making adjustments to your diet and exercise in your teens, 30s or 50s, you have a good chance of avoiding an inactive later life, which is hardly life at all, dependent on medication.

I have been a Health & Fitness Instructor for 12 years and a keen, but misinformed bodybuilder for many years before that, so most of my posts will be on those subjects, as well as nutrition and diet.  My main fitness activities are indoor rowing, long-distance cycling, HIT (high intensity training for fitness) and strength training.

I'll be including my other interests; photography, art, cinema, music and books from time to time.

A few thousand years ago, a jaded wise man said, "....there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already, in the ages before us." So, while it is difficult to be original, I hope my writing will entertain, inform, educate and amuse you. It may even save you money! As with most writers, my views come from recent encounters; conversations, books, reading on-line and lectures and seminars.

I welcome friendly comments and will try to respond where appropriate. My posts won't be exhaustive. I hope instead, that they will stimulate you to further research, following links that I provide. So, sometimes I'll make claims or comments without full references and refer instead, to the broad source which inspired my comments.

 If you enjoy my writing, please tell others.

Anthony