Weight Loss - The Simple Explanation

Many people over-complicate the area of weight loss by focusing on the minor details rather than the fundamentals. As a result, they get lost and, more often than not, hopelessly confused about what they need to do to lose weight.

For example, some people concern themselves with whether they should eat low fat or low carb, eat only foods that are low GI or if they should cut their starchy carbs after 4pm. They may also focus on whether they should do weights or cardio first in their workout, what sort of cardio they should do, which sort of protein powder they should use based on its macronutrient profile and perhaps which thermogenic is best for them to use.

Whilst these areas provide some relevance, they are minor details when compared to the fundamental principle of weight loss, which simply states that in order to lose weight you must create an energy or calorie deficit. This means you must burn up more energy each day than you take in from food.

Unless this fundamental principle is followed first and foremost, all of the other principles become irrelevant.

There are only 2 ways to create a calorie or energy deficit in the body:

1. Reduce energy intake
2. Increase energy output

Let's consider each of these in a bit more detail.

Reduce energy intake
This obviously means eating less food. Unfortunately though, many people think that if a small reduction is good, a big reduction is even better. Of course, this is not the case even though it is the approach most often used by one of the countless diets on the market today.

'Starvation diets' have never worked and never will work. The body has a very powerful mechanism called the, 'Anti-Starvation Response', which prevents these diets from being able to work for a long period of time. Whilst they can help to get weight off quickly, they cannot help people keep weight off and more often than not, they put the weight back on faster than they lost it.

A slight reduction in energy or calorie intake is a far better approach simply because it does not stress the body too much and therefore can assist weight-loss efforts without the corresponding rebound weight gain that often occurs.

Increase energy output
This means finding ways to increase the body's daily expenditure of energy or calories. This may be done by exercising, increasing food intake (the process of digestion requires energy expenditure) but this would go against step 1, and finding ways to boost the body's basal metabolic rate.

Exercise is beneficial because muscle contractions require energy , which increases energy output. It is not important to get caught up in what type of exercise you do; the most important point when it comes to exercise is simply that you do it!

The 'thermic effect of food' (energy expenditure as a result of digestion) is important to keep in mind because it re-inforces the fact that it is not necessary to starve in order to lose weight and in fact it, can actually assist your weight-loss effort. However, it doesn't make sense to eat more to increase energy output because it then goes against point 1, which is reducing energy intake.

Boosting the body's metabolic rate is probably the best way to increase energy output. This may be done by increasing muscle mass or using supplements that stimulate the nervous system (thermogenics).

Since muscle is one of the most metabolically-active tissues in the body (the other being nerve tissue), increasing your muscle mass through resistance exercise helps to permanently boost your metabolism and therefore your overall energy expenditure/ output.

Thermogenics, also known as fat burners, stimulate receptors in both the central nervous system and sympathetic nervous system and therefore help increase energy output. They also boost energy levels (vibrancy) and the body's mobilisation and utilisation of fat for fuel.

Overall, these two principles: reduce energy intake and increase energy output are the most important areas to consider when it comes to losing weight. Once these are successfully achieved and adhered to consistently then the other principles can come into to play to help speed up the weight-loss/ fat-burning process even further.

Stephen Smith is the part-owner of Body Concepts, an Australian supplement company, and Focus On, a health and lifestyle magazine. Stephen has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 18 years and after completing a science degree from the University of Western Australia, spent many years researching the most effective ways to help people lose weight quickly.

In 2004 he published his best-selling book, Look Good Feel Great which explains exactly what people need to do to lose all the weight they want to get in the best shape of their life. For More Information On Weight Loss Click Here