Weight VS Fat

Weight versus fat: they are not the same thing

Every tissue in your body (including muscle, bodyfat, your heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, bones, etc.) weighs a given amount. We could (conceivably anyhow) take them out of your body, plop them on a scale and find out how much they weigh. Your total bodyweight is comprised of the weight of every one of those tissues. But only some percentage of your total bodyweight is bodyfat.
Researchers and techie types frequently divide the body into two (or more) components including fat mass (the sum total of the bodyfat you have on your body) and lean body mass (everything else). Without getting into unnecessarily technical details about different kinds of bodyfat,

let’s just go from there.

Let’s say that we could magically determine the weight of only your fat cells. Of course, we know your total weight by throwing you on a scale. By dividing the total amount of fat into the total bodyweight, you can determine a bodyfat percentage which represents the percentage of your total weight is fat. Lean athletes might only have 5-10% bodyfat, meaning that only 5-10% of their total weight is fat. So a 200 pound athlete with 10% bodyfat is carrying 20 lbs (200 * 0.10 = 20) of bodyfat. The remaining 180 pounds (200 total pounds - 20 pounds of fat = 180 pounds) of weight is muscle, organs, bones, water, etc. Researchers call the remaining 180 pounds lean body mass or LBM. In cases of extreme obesity, a bodyfat percentage of 40-50% or higher is not unheard of. Meaning that nearly 1/2 of that person’s total weight is fat. A 400 pound person with 50% bodyfat is carrying 200 lbs of bodyfat. The other 200 pounds is muscle, organs, bones, etc. Again, 200 pounds of LBM. Most people fall somewhere between these two extremes. An average male may carry from 18-23% bodyfat and an average female somewhere between 25-30% bodyfat. So a male at 180 lbs and 20% bodyfat is carrying 36 pounds of fat and the rest of his weight (144 lbs) is LBM. A 150 pound female at 30% bodyfat has 50 pounds of bodyfat and 100 pounds of LBM.

Why is this important?

So let’s say you start a diet, reducing some part of your daily food intake. Maybe you start exercising too. After some time period, you get on the scale and it says you’ve lost 10 lbs. That’s 10 lbs of weight. But how much of it is fat? Frankly, you have no way of knowing with just the scale (unless it’s one of those Tanita bodyfat scales, which attempt to estimate bodyfat percentage but more or less suck, by the way). You could have lost fat or muscle or just dropped a lot of water. Even a big bowel movement can cause a weight loss of a pound or two (or more, depending). A colonic that clears out your entire lower intestinal tract may cause a significant weight loss. The scale can’t tell you what you’ve lost, it can only tell you how much you have lost.
When you’re worrying about long-term changes, the real goal is fat loss (some LBM loss is occasionally acceptable). That is, cycling water weight on and off of your body (as frequently happens with certain dieting  pproaches) isn’t really moving you towards any real goal even if makes you think you are. Don’t get me wrong, it may be beneficial in the short-term (again, I’ll talk about reasons to crash diet shortly) but it doesn’t represent true fat loss.
My point in bringing up this distinction is that it’s easy to hide the true results of a diet by not making the distinction between weight loss and fat loss.

Just how quickly

So just how quickly can you lose fat (or weight for that matter)? Most mainstream diet books and authorities echo the idea that 2 lbs per week (a little less than 1 kilogram per week for the metrically inclined) is the maximum. Where did this value come from? Frankly, I have no idea. To at least some degree, it probably represents about the maximum weight/fat loss that most feel should be attempted. To understand this, I have to do a little bit of math for you. One pound of fat contains roughly 3,500 calories of energy. Therefore to lose two pounds of fat per week (this assumes that you are losing 100% fat which turns out to be a bad assumption) requires that you create a weekly deficit of 7,000 calories.
Meaning you either have to restrict your food intake or increase your energy expenditure (with exercise or drugs) by that much. Obviously, that averages out to 1,000 calories/day. You either end up having to restrict food pretty severely or have to engage in hours of exercise each day. From that perspective alone, losing faster than 2 pounds per week is considered unrealistic or unwise. At the same time, it’s not uncommon to see claims of weight losses of one pound per day or 3-5 lbs per week on some diets. In the initial stages of some diets, weight losses of 15-20 pounds are not unheard of. Are these all lies? Not exactly. Part of it has to do with the issue of weight loss and fat loss discussed above. An extremely large individual, put on a restrictive diet can probably lose significantly more than two pounds of weight per week. But it’s not all fat.
This is especially true for the myriad low-carbohydrate dieting approaches out there. Studies demonstrate a rapid weight loss of anywhere from 1-15 lbs in the first week or two of a lowcarbohydrate diet and average weight losses of 7-10 lbs in the first week are fairly standard. Most of it is simply water loss although some of it will be true tissue loss, meaning fat and muscle. After that initial rapid weight loss, true weight/fat loss slows down to more ‘normal’ levels. The same goes in reverse, by the way, when you take someone on a low-carbohydrate diet and feed them carbs again, it’s not uncommon to see weight spike by many pounds very quickly. A high salt intake can cause a rather large retention of water (especially if you’ve been on a low-salt diet) and most women will readily tell you about the rapid weight gain (from water retention) that occurs during their menstrual cycle.

Flexible Dieting

What is flexible dieting?

The basic idea of flexible dieting is


that you aren’t expecting absolute perfection and strictness in your dieting behavior. Rather, small (or even larger) lapses from your diet simply aren’t any big deal in the big scheme of things.
Once again, let’s put dieting into perspective here. Let’s say that you have enough fat to lose that you may be dieting for one half to one year straight. Let’s say that you’ve been absolutely great on your diet for the last 4-5 days or even the last few weeks. Now you come up against one of those situations that I mentioned in the foreword.

Say you eat that single cookie. In the big scheme of things, what’s the big deal, really? So you had 100 calories extra from that cookie. Within the context of the period of proper eating (proper means following whatever diet you’re on), that 100 calories is simply no big deal. Now, if you take that 100 calorie lapse as an excuse to eat the entire bag, to the tune of 1000 calories, you’ve just taken what is no big deal and made it into one.

Or let’s look at a slightly different perspective.

Say you’ve been on your diet just perfectly for the last 4-5 days (or longer). Now you get a craving for something sweet.
Those cookies are calling but you’re afraid that the one cookie is going to blow your entire diet. You resist and resist and resist until finally you give in and, because of the huge cravings you’ve now generated, you end up eating the whole bag. Which generates the same, if not more, guilt to boot and you throw your diet out the window. That’s an example of the types of rigid dieting that tends to derail dieting efforts.

Contrast that to changing your mental attitude: you want a cookie, you have one cookie, you realize that it’s no big deal in the big scheme of things, you deal with the craving before it gets out of hand and then get on with your life. The latter attitude would be consistent with Flexible Dieting.

Or say you’ve been dieting and you’ve got a special even coming up. A birthday, a dinner party, whatever. Now, if you’re still in the rigid mindset, you’ll either go to the party and be miserable because you don’t get to eat any of the good stuff or you’ll decide that your diet is clearly blown and go off of it completely and shovel as much crap down your throat as you possibly can.

Again, let’s look at the long-term perspective:

can a single meal really be that relevant to your overall diet (again, remember that you may have one half to a full year of dieting to reach your goal)? Of course not. If you've been following your diet properly for the past 4-5 days (or weeks or whatever), that single meal is simply no big deal. Unless you make it into one.
A flexible dieter would realize that that single meal is no big deal, go enjoy themselves at the party and get on with their life. They might try to limit their intake (don’t go have 4 pieces of cake or anything like that) at the party or even earlier in the day but they would still enjoy themselves at the party.

Consider the final example from the foreword, a situation where you have an extended period where following your diet will be more difficult. Perhaps it’s a family vacation, a cruise, something along those lines. Holidays always tend to be miserable times for dieters, with regular parties and an extended period where it’s nearly impossible to keep on your diet. There actually a workable approach to this type of situation. simply do the best you can, damage control if it were. Even if you maintain your current diet for most of the time (even if it’s only 2 meals out of 3), that’s still better than blowing your diet and shoveling down as much crap as you can at every meal,
 right?

The Most 12 Types Of Foods That Turn To Fat Part 2

7. Bacon, Sausage

Bacon has almost become a standard feature in the typical American breakfast. Too bad! The Center for Science in the Public Interest says that Bacon and Sausage are one of the worst foods you could possibly eat.
Even if you choose turkey bacon, or a reduced fat bacon, you’d better check the label carefully. “Reduced fat” doesn’t mean much. If the fat is reduced from 90% fat to 70% fat or even 50% fat, that’s not much improvement.
Suppose you find a really, honestly lean bacon or bacon substitute. Still not a good choice. Why? Because it’s a processed food. The same warning that goes for processed fats and processed carbohydrates go for processed meats. You’re not

8. White bread

Most people think bread is fattening. This is largely due to the popularity of low carb diets. The problem is they’re eating the wrong kind of bread. White bread is treated in the body the same way as white sugar. White bread is a refined carbohydrate with no nutritional value. Whole grain breads (100% wheat, rye, etc) are another story.
Some breads are made from 100% whole grains with all the vitamins, minerals and fiber left intact. Other breads are all or mostly refined white flour. These breads have been stripped of most of their nutrients. The milling and grinding of the whole grain reduces the particle size while increasing the calorie density and turns the whole grain (a complex carb) into a simple carb that’s no better than pure sugar.
That’s right! This means that anything and everything made from white or enriched flour is a food that will more readily turn to fat! That includes, cereals, pretzels, bagels, breads, pitas, crackers and anything else made from white flour. If you’re not sure whether a food is whole grain or not, simply read the ingredients list on the label. If the food is whole grain, then the first ingredient will say something like “100% whole wheat.”
If you want to burn fat, give up the white flour completely and go with the grain – whole grain that is.

9. Potato Chips, Nachos, Corn Chips

Far too high sodium content makes potato chips almost lethal, especially if you are predisposed to high blood pressure. One popular brand contains 680 milligrams of salt, compared to the 4 milligrams of sodium one finds in an average baked potato.”
Sodium’s not the only thing chips have against them. Let’s see... we’ve got lots of calories, tons of fat, flavor additives and the refined oils that are used to fry/cook these buggers. The potato chip is not even close to the nutritional value of the raw potato, sodium and fat notwithstanding. The nutritional value that was in the raw potato has literally been “fried right out.” What’s left is mostly calories from fat from the refined oil used in the cooking process.
Oh, by the way, Nachos and Dorito-type chips are on the out list too (sorry).

10. Hot dogs, fast food burgers

Out of the two, hamburgers are the lesser of the evils (but they’re still pretty evil). Hot dogs are not pure meat – they are a “meat product” consisting of some meat, mashed up with fillers, stabilizers, sodium, preservatives, artificial colors and artificial flavors. They’re a veritable mish-mash of chemicals and additives... a “fake food” so to speak. A three-ounce regular hot dog has 16 grams of fat – seven of them saturated.
If you simply must have a hot dog, these days, you can find low fat hot dogs or turkey dogs by companies such as Healthy Choice. However, keep in mind that all hot dogs – low fat or not – are processed meats. The same rule that applies to carbohydrates applies to proteins as well; that is: Natural foods are always better than refined foods. Stick with natural lean proteins like chicken breast and egg whites and avoid the refined and processed meats as much as possible.
Hamburgers, while they may be made from real meat, are made from some of the fattiest meat available. There’s no such thing as “lean ground beef.” Even the leanest beef is still relatively high in fat. Read the labels and do the math for yourself.
Oh, one last thing…The nitrites used to cure the hot dogs have been linked to cancer.

11. Cookies, cakes, pies

Cookies, cakes and pies fall into the same categories as donuts – fat and sugar joined at the hip (and they’ll end up on your hips too, if you’re not careful!) Just because they’re baked and not fried doesn’t mean they’re any better.
Fat and sugar is the worst of all food combinations and they’re both found in abundance in cookies, cakes and pies. They also harbor untold amounts of dangerous trans fatty acids.

12. Sugary breakfast cereals

Most of the boxed cereals found in supermarkets contain large amounts of sugar and some contain more than 50% sugar (sugar smacks have 53% sugar). Cereal manufacturers are very clever in their marketing, making many cereals appear much more healthy than they appear by “fortifying” them with vitamins and minerals. Oh, lovely – you now have vitamin-fortified sugar!
Before you eat any cereal, read the ingredients list and see how high sugar appears on the ingredient list. Then check the “Nutrition facts” panel.
There are actually only a small handful of national commercially branded cereals that are made from whole grains and are sugar free. If you shop
at a health food store instead of in your local supermarket, you are much more likely to find a healthy, whole grain, sugar free (or very low sugar) cereal. But watch out – some of the health food store boxed cereals are sweetened with fruit juice or fructose. Although this may be an improvement over refined white sugar, this can really skyrocket the calories.
Although there are some good boxed cereals available, you may find it interesting that bodybuilders and fitness models – among the leanest athletes in the world – almost never eat boxed cereal – even the better brands. Instead, they opt for unsweetened old fashioned oatmeal (not the flavored, sweetened packets). This might surprise you, but most commercial breakfasts cereals, with their hidden sugars and clever marketing, are foods that turn to fat. Leave em on the shelf!