Can you lose weight the wrong way?

When someones sets out to lose weight they have a number of resources they can turn to for information. But most of these resources make a critical error that can stall your weight loss before it ever gets started. And that error is assuming there is a right and wrong way to lose weight.

Eating for weight loss is already tough enough, and being told there are right and wrong ways to do it makes it feel even harder. This is where the fallacy of fitness and health come into play.

The local gym personal trainer or fitness magazine will suggest there is a correct and healthy way to eat for weight loss. They’ll go on to also explain how to exercise to become fit and lose weight.

In both cases the emphasis is turned away from the fundamental principles of weight loss and turned towards the nebulous and entirely undefinable conceptions of ‘health’ and ‘fitness’…but this was never the point…the point was ‘weight loss’…that’s it.

The truth of the matter is that there is no correct way to lose weight. However you can get it done is the right way…The weight loss itself is what will produce most of the health benefit.

This is evident from people who use laproscopic band and gastric bypass surgery to lose weight. They obviously didn’t adopt the typical fitness marketing strategy of ‘eating clean and working out’.

In this case they have a surgical intervention to get to the root of what causes people to be overweight…eating too much. And the best thing for them isn’t to adopt some workout routine or start eating spelt and quinoa…no the thing they need is to eat less…even if it means a surgical intervention to allow less food to enter their stomach.

If weight loss is your goal then you have to keep your eye on the prize and don’t allow yourself to get side tracked with popular fitness media dogma about the right or healthy way to lose weight.

There is no correct way to lose weight, there is only weight loss, or no weight loss.

John

Posted by johnbarban in Fat Loss, Weight Loss
Tags: Fitness, Health, Weight Loss |17 Comments

17 Responses to “Can you lose weight the wrong way?”

  1. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    January 24th, 2011 at 11:19 am

    “The truth of the matter is that there is no correct way to lose weight. However you can get it done is the right way…The weight loss itself is what will produce most of the health benefit.

    This is evident from people who use laproscopic band and gastric bypass surgery to lose weight. They obviously didn’t adopt the typical fitness marketing strategy of ‘eating clean and working out’.”

    That pretty much nails it!

  2. dan_morethangold Says:
    January 24th, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    I don’t know how many people I’ve talked to that don’t understand this. They get caught up with the idea that they have to “eat healthy” and my question to them is why would you care about eating healthy now if you haven’t up until this point? It’s just so odd. What you said is exactly right, getting rid of the weight will provide the most health benefit, over and above any kind of food you might choose to eat on your way to getting rid of it.

  3. debh Says:
    January 24th, 2011 at 5:07 pm

    Heh heh, I like how the last sentence in your article is a bit like Yoda philosophy… “Do or do not, there is no try”.

    It’s funny how it doesn’t really matter WHAT you eat (unless there is some specific allergy/underlying food intolerance that is causing you grief), just HOW MUCH in the way of calories.

    It is entirely possible to overeat healthy food and still stack on weight. Granted, most whole food may be lower in calories and provide enough macro nutrients to make you feel full, over less “healthy” food. However, if it’s bad eating habits getting in the way – eating too fast, too large portion sizes, having a second helping, overeating dense nutrient food (like a bag of nuts instead of a handful) – then that will definitely lead to weight gain.

    I guess that’s part of the reason I don’t like the advice of some health professionals to be “eating 5-6 small meals a day”. What is the definition of a meal? I was definitely eating 5-6 times a day – I never felt hungry and just forced the food in – all good whole foods – but I was eating far too much because my portion sizes were too big.

    Heh, heh, I’m talking from experience here. I don’t eat much in the way of processed/high fat/high sugar food, but have had problems with eating too much of the good stuff. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong, but now I understand the concept and it’s helping in a big way.

    Eating off a smaller plate, not eating the kids’ leftovers, and not having seconds has already made a difference. I find that eating a maximum of 3 meals a day works for me (sometimes that’s even too much food), and I love my “dinner only” fast days as well – feeling a bit hungry sometimes is great!

  4. andresayz4545 Says:
    January 24th, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    Or how about this “I’m not trying to lose good fat, I’m trying to lose bad fat!” I laugh a little on the inside everytime someone says that in front of me.

  5. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    January 24th, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    andresayz4545, I hear this one all the time too:

    “I may be fat, but I’m healthy because I can run a mile in under 8 minutes.”

    lol what?

  6. Lillea Says:
    January 25th, 2011 at 1:42 am

    So true. I know so many people who broke the supposed rules about the ‘right’ way to lose weight, and they are fine. They didn’t rebound and eat it all back or have other problems.

    Great examples given by the commenters so far. lol (and of course eye rolls) for some of the bizarre things that people say to explain why *their* way of losing (or not losing) is best/safe, etc.

  7. VGregor Says:
    January 25th, 2011 at 10:01 am

    Well, trainers and supplement companies don’t know how to make money by actually helping people lose fat, so they trick them into buying useless crap like fat burning supplements etc. However, I think that if osmebody wants to find the right answer, he will.
    Greg

  8. Tweets that mention Can you lose weight the wrong way? | JohnBarban.com -- Topsy.com Says:
    January 25th, 2011 at 9:24 pm

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  9. Wood Says:
    January 26th, 2011 at 9:12 am

    John, do You know the Kekwick and Pawan study? And if yes what do you think about it?

  10. johnbarban Says:
    January 26th, 2011 at 10:23 am

    Wood, no I don’t.

  11. jasetagle Says:
    January 26th, 2011 at 9:54 pm

    John – million dollar question – what do you know about Arachadonic Acid supplementation (clinical or empirical)? From what I’ve read so far it seems comparible to Creatine as far as non-steroidal supplements go.

    Jason

  12. jasetagle Says:
    January 26th, 2011 at 9:55 pm

    Arachidonic (sp)

  13. johnbarban Says:
    January 27th, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    Old news, haven’t seen any research on it doing anything like creatine can and it seems there is virtually no research on it at all in sport performance.

    We looked into this about 6-7 years ago when I was in the supplement industry…it’s an interesting story but it’s mostly just a mis-interpretation of what the role of this particular acid is in the normal metabolic pathway.

    I think it’s much ado about nothing.

  14. Wood Says:
    January 28th, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    John what dou you think about food toxins? I know you are not a fan of food restriction, but lately I read a lot about that gluten, milk, seedoils are toxins and do harm even in small quantities.

  15. slimwithin Says:
    January 29th, 2011 at 10:08 pm

    I need help, I follow your podcast and I’m trying to lose fat but every month my weight is going down and body fat % going up!!! Please, please tell me wats going on :(

  16. slimwithin Says:
    January 29th, 2011 at 10:09 pm

    I want to purchase the Venus programme but am having problems, as the card I have your site doesn’t accept :(

  17. slimwithin Says:
    January 30th, 2011 at 1:32 am

    I try to watch my diet, It’s up and down
    I do low int cardio 5 times a week for an hour a time, burning aprox 500k according g to my fitness watch.I weight train my mower half 3 times a week I can’t train my upper as at present I hv a shoulder injury.in 1 month I hv lost 1 kg and increased bodyfat from 23.4 to 24.7!!!! I hv no idea wat I’m doing wrong :( I wd b so grateful if OCD get some advice.

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