In Depth Nutritional Articles

The Myths of Fat Loss

If I had a penny for every time someone asked me,

“What’s the best way to burn fat?” or “How can I lose fat from here?”

I’d be a very rich man! With that in mind, I thought I’d try to dispel some of the myths surrounding fat loss and advise as best I can on the nutritional and exercise considerations regarding fat loss.

Before the myths though, let’s start with some facts:

Fact #1 : If someone has too much bodyfat, the only way to reduce it is by eating fewer calories (kcals) and/or expending more calories by becoming more active. This is called ‘negative energy balance’ (energy input < energy output).

Fact #2 : 1g of carbohydrate or protein provides 4kcals, 1g of fat provides 9kcals

Fact #3 : Fat can only ‘burn’ when oxygen and carbohydrate are available.

Fact #4 : The UK government identifies the top four health risks associated with obesity as:
High blood pressure (hypertension)
Coronary Heart Disease
Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes
Osteoarthritis

Fact #5 :It is estimated that obesity costs:
£0.5 billion/year in NHS treatment
18million sick days/year
£2 billion/year impact on the economy
(Source: House of Commons report by the National Audit Office, ‘Tackling obesity in England’, 2001)

Fact #6 To achieve the realistic fat loss goal of 1Ib of fat in 1 week, you need to create a DEFICIT in your diet of 3,500kcals. That means you need to burn an extra 500kcals, or consume 500kcals less every day for a 7 day period. Do that successfully, and you will lose 1Ib of fat in that week.

Why Diets Don't Work

Over the last half century, the diet industry has grown with the promise of miraculous weight loss. In the UK alone over £10million is spent every year on diet products. However, alongside this extraordinary growth, has grown the incidence of obesity and it is estimated that only 1 in 50 people following a weight loss diet achieve permanent weight loss.

To examine why this is happening let's look at a typical case study of someone wishing to go on a diet to lose weight.