On Losing Weight (3) & Fit For TV


I've been waiting for this documentary for a while now and all I can say is "Wow." So when I decided to embark on weightloss October last year, my first point of contact was to do research. Cos I've always heard that the majority of people who lose weight gain it back after a few years. So I needed to understand the science behind gaining the weight back.

Turns out that it's quite straightforward. The body is composed of fat and muscle. So when people go on mainly strict diets to lose weight, they're not only losing the fat but also their muscles. So if they don't build the muscle (resistance training), and they don't continue same diet afterwards, they gain back the weight. Now, what makes it worse is that it's only fat they're gaining back cos remember, the person lost both fat and muscle while during a restrictive diet.

The science still rings true, Calorie In, Calorie Out (CICO). What you put in your body either gets used up, else the excess remain stored in the body as fat. This is where portion control comes in. I went from 83kg to currently weighing 63kg/64kg and I still eat semo and soup every night. Hell, I can now see some muscle definitions on arms, thighs and abs when I flex. 

What changed? Portion control. Walking. Resistance training (I do Pilates and home workouts with my small 3kg pair dumbbells). I still take Pizza, shawarma, Ice-cream and of course bread (I'll never give bread up). The simple math is - Calorie In Calorie Out. If I'm going to take them junk, it has to be the meal, not a dessert and on rare occasions. 

If you build muscles, you develop a faster metabolism to burn fat. Then, your body taps into your stored fat reserve for sustenance even when you're at rest. Hence this is where the need for resistance training. Drugs like Ozempic and bariatric surgery follow the same principle. Both just make you eat less.

Why am I saying this? This show had people doing very restrictive and overly intensive workouts just to lose weight. In a very controlled environment. Just pure torture to melt away the fat So what happens when you leave that experiment area? It's rare to keep up and easy to revert to old behaviours. Where many people fall short is that they want to reach a target weight number. To do that, they start a very restrictive diet. So what happens when they get to that dream weight size? The person goes back to old eating habits with vigor. Hell, probably eat more to compensate for lost times. So of course the weight will come back with vengeance.

I don't want a fitness lifestyle that will make me overhaul my current schedule. I needed something that I can continue doing 20 years down the line. Hence why I really had to ensure I should still have semo and ofe onugbu (or any other soup) every night as well as eat my bread in peace. And that's where portion control shines. 

Again, weight loss is not complicated (unless you have health issues like PCOS or Thyroid issues but still not impossible). I used to give excuses that I have slow metabolism, but building muscles now has helped me develop same fast metabolism I claimed I didn't have. As we say in Computer Science, "Garbage In, Garbage Out." What you put into your body is what will reflect on the outside.

Happy Sunday Ụmụ Chineke

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