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I'll explain why low-cal diets don't work, why you always gain the weight back and then some, because there is a scientific, bio-chemical reason that this occurs, and will always occur. More important than just slashing calories is what you eat (quality and combinations of foods) and when you eat. After explaining why low cal diets don't work, I'll get into the details of how your body works, how it metabolizes foods, and how you can control your own body's metabolism in your favor.

First, lets debunk a HUGE myth!

First off, I want you to forget about all you've heard about low cal diets for burning fat. This may be hard, and even I admit to having been led astray. Though this 'new' information has been around for a few years now, you still hear very little about it. I would almost suspect that info about this 'new' strategy to lose weight is being suppressed by the 'institution'. Let me draw a short analogy if I may:
Many years ago, there was a race to develop a manufacturing process to make paper, and those trying to make paper out of wood beat those trying to make wood out of hemp. Though a method was found to make paper out of hemp, hemp was made an evil entity by the press (which was printed on wood paper), and to this day we cut down acres and acres of trees to make paper.

Trees require several decades to grow to harvestable size, hemp can be harvested three times a year. So why not use hemp and save our forests? Or why use cotton that requires mass amounts of fertilizer and chemical treatment when we could use hemp?

What about herbal remedies? You hear more and more about these nowadays, but they are hardly well publicized, and the medical community for the most part scoffs at their effectiveness. Yet in Germany St. Johns Wort outsells Prozak 20 to 1 for treating depression! It is hard for pharmaceutical companies to make money off of something they can't patent, and something you can grow in your own backyard.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe a multi-billion dollar diet-food and diet-programs industry doesn't want an easier way to be made known. But can you remember the last time you heard of a real, scientific, bio-chemical basis of support for the low-cal diet? Is it true that you just have to burn more than you eat? Or do doctors and dietitians not want to admit to having been wrong for the last 50 years?

Why low-calorie diets don't work!

So why does this well established method of losing weight fail? Why do people keep on gaining all the weight back, and often times even more? Let me explain: Lets say you use up 2000 calories a day, and want to lose weight, so you drop your caloric intake to 1700 calories a day. Initially your body is burning up those extra 300 calories, and you do lose weight.

But your body adjusts to the lower calories, your metabolism drops to match you intake, and you stop losing weight. So, in order to lose more weight, you have to drop your calories more, and again your body adjusts. To make matters worse, your body thinks it won't be getting normal quantities of food for a while, so it starts storing as much energy as it can in fat.

So there you are, consuming maybe 800-1000 calories a day, practically starving yourself, and your body has adjusted and burns no more, probably less than you eat, so you start gaining weight again. And now what happens if you lose it for a weekend and eat normal amounts? Your body rejoices, and eagerly packs all that extra energy away as fat.

What happens if you quit your diet? You eat 2000 calories and are only burning maybe 1000. I suppose one way to offset the lowering of your metabolism would be to exercise regularly. This is probably the only way to have a somewhat effective low calorie diet.

So does that make sense? Do you see the logic? I hope so, cause now you can not diet, and not feel guilty about it. These diets are bad for you! You lose muscle, gain fat, burn less calories, don't get all the nutrients you need, and feel miserable! I also found this research paper on why low-fat diets don't work. So if you don't want to take my word for it, here's some scientific proof!

So what should you do?

Hopefully by now I have piqued your interest! I mean the logic is solid, and perhaps you've even heard some diet plans say 'eat what you want!'. Well, maybe there is some validity behind these plans. I think an answer to losing weight lies in understanding and controlling blood sugar, and hence insulin levels.

Quick lesson in biochemistry!

Here is a short list of metabolic facts about fat storage and usage, learn and understand them, and you will understand what is needed to change your body. Also find some explanations to common sense items that are never explained, just accepted!

The brain requires a certain level of blood glucose to survive, if it falls to low, coma results
The brain and other nerve tissue requires glucose as its primary fuel source
To maintain this constant glucose level, glycogen in liver is broken down into glucose.
The liver stores on avg. (for 70 kg individual) 90 grams of carbohydrates in form of glycogen.
Glucose is stored (as glycogen) in the muscle cells and used for anaerobic contractions.
Anaerobic contractions are when energy is used faster than oxidative energy can be supplied.
Oxidative energy is supplied by fatty acid oxidation.
High blood glucose levels are quickly leveled out by insulin by glycogen storage in muscle, or glycogen storage in liver.
If liver and muscle are full, excess glucose is converted to fat and stored in fat cells.
All non-nerve tissues derive energy from fat oxidation in favor of reserving glucose for nerve tissue.
Hormones exist that assist fat mobilization (glucagon) and fat storage (insulin) which are mutually exclusive.
Blood glucose is raised by ingestion of foods, mostly carbs. High Glycemic foods cause greater increase.
Higher blood glucose causes greater release of insulin to bring blood glucose down to baseline.
The higher the insulin response, the more glucose it clears out of blood causing fatigue after a high-carb/high glycemic carb meal.
Glucose levels are then normalized by liver glycogen being broken down into glucose. This uses up some of your glycogen stores, and results in more hunger sooner.
Low glycemic foods cause less insulin response, ending up in less glycogen mobilization, allowing you to feel fuller longer.

There are two things you can actively do to promote fat loss: prevent further storage and maximize fat usage.

Maximizing Fat Usage

This is the simpler aspect. You already burn fat in all your non-nerve tissues throughout the entire day. Simply taking a flight of stairs or going for a short walk is enough to bump your metabolism up for a half hour or more.

If you're really serious about losing fat, you should definitely consider some aerobic exercise like cycling, swimming, jogging, walking, etc. This will actively burn fat from your body, but will require a few weeks of 3 times a week before you notice results.

Your aerobic sessions can be any length, but aim for 20-40 minutes, three times a week or more. You could divide this up into multiple shorter sessions, or make them even longer if you feel like it. Just find something not too boring, grab a magazine and read a good article to make the time fly by. It has also been shown that shorter sessions with bursts of higher intensity (Interval Training) is more effective than longer, steady low-intensity cardio. See my cardio page for more details.

Most sources agree, and even my brother and myself have noticed that cardio done first thing in the morning (before breakfast)is the best way to get the most out of your cardio. Eating causes insulin response, which inhibits fat burning, and may take up to 4 hours to clear out of your system. You will never have as low an insulin level as you do first thing in the morning!

All numbers are given as a guideline only, you may be able to handle more, or less cardio, or weight training. Keep a log to track what you've done, how you feel, and adjust your training accordingly!!
Another thing you should definitely consider is weight lifting to build more muscle that burn more calories. You should pursue a well rounded workout plan to target muscle growth and endurance. Do sets with rep ranges of 6-8 and 12 and up. 6-8 for size, 12 and up to target slow-twitch muscle which may be more involved in fat oxidation.

Here is my idea of an ideal fat loss program, though you may want to only do cardio 3 days a week for better recuperation:

Fat loss exercise plan (All Cardio using Interval Training)
	Mon.	Tue.	Wed.	Thu.	Fri.	Sat.	Sun.
morning.	rest	30 min. stair climber, pulldowns, curls, rows -40 reps each	30 min. rowing, leg press, leg curl -40 reps each	rest	30 min. exercycle, bench press, shoulder press, tricep press down -40 reps each	30 min. rowing, calf raises, crunches -40 reps each	rest
afternoon.	rest	quads, hams: squats/leg press & leg curl for 2X8 each	rest	chest, shoulders, triceps: bench press & shoulder press & french press for 2X8 each	rest	back, biceps: pullups/pulldowns & cable rows/DB rows & barbell/dumbbell curls for 2X8 each	rest

This program is designed to focus mainly on fat loss by training a little for size, but mostly for fat burning capacity and fat burning. The high reps can really accelerate your fat loss, and could possibly be discontinued after a few weeks in favor of size training. At that point your slow twitch fibers would already be nicely developed to get the most out of cardio.

Also notice that I try to vary the cardio exercises used, as most people just sit on a bike day in, day out, and this tends to severly neglect the upper body. To get the most out of your bodys fat burning capacity, you need to get the whole body involved.

If you've done the above for a few weeks, or just feel like you would like to focus more on building size as well as burn fat, you could leave out the high rep sets in the morning, move cardio to only 3 days a week, and increase your heavy training to something like the following:

squats or leg press, 2 warm-up sets(~10 reps), 4 sets of 10-12
leg curls, 2 warm-up sets, 4 sets of 10-12
seated and/or standing calf raises, 2 warm-up sets, 3 sets of 10-15

Here's one for upper body:

cable rows or dumbbell rows or barbell rows,2 warm-up sets, 2 sets of 10-12
pulldowns or pullups, 2 sets of 10-12
bench press, 2 warm-up sets, 3 sets of 10-12
shoulder press or lateral raises, 2 warm-up sets, 2 sets of 10-12
lying triceps extensions or close grip bench or dips, 1 warm-up set, 2 sets of 10-12
barbell curl or incline dumbbell curl, 2 warm-up sets, 2 sets of 10-12

I offer these sample workouts as a very light, low intensity workout to accompany the rest of your fat loss program. You can increase the workout load more if you like, but always keep in mind that overtraining is a risk.

This sample workout also focuses more on higher rep ranges to develop the endurance/fat burning aspect of your muscles since fat loss is your goal. You might want to sneak in a workout every once in a while with rep ranges in the 6-8 area to build some of the faster twitch fibers.

Something that the magazines have been talking about is the ability of the body to continue to burn calories even after training, for up to an hour! Though this may be true, I would like to point out that the catabolic hormones responsible for fat mobilization also break muscle tissue down.

But there is also evidence for a greater release of growth hormone if a meal is not consumed immediately after a workout. Sow what to do? What I do is wait maybe half an hour after cardio sessions before eating a low glycemic meal, and consume a med-high glycemic meal right after a heavy workout.

Don't worry about the details too much, people have been building fantastic bodies before we knew all these facts to confuse and complicate things! Do your cardio regularly, and with dedication, and you will get results!

Preventing Fat Storage

This is the more complicated part of losing bodyfat. It requires discipline, understanding of how your body works, and maybe some meal planning. I say maybe some meal planning because I know this can be difficult, and it can be avoided as long as you follow some basic guidelines when choosing foods (which I guess is essentially meal planning... oh well).

First and foremost, you should consume more meals per day, on the order of 5-7 as opposed to 3. This increases your metabolism, brings nutrients to your muscles for protein synthesis and growth, and keeps you from going hungry.

Each meal should provide you with just what you need, plus some protein and fat. That is, eat just enough carbs to replenish used up glycogen in the liver and used up glucose in the muscles (especially after a workout). Any excess carbs will be stored as fat. Look at my Macro-nutrients page for more details on how many carbs to eat.

Protein and fat are actually required for proper cell and enzyme functions. They get used up in synthesis of new enzymes and cells, and any deficiency can have dire consequences. Most any protein source is good for you, even if the protein isn't of the highest quality. Some vegetarian sources are incomplete and need to be supplemented with other sources.

Another important thing to keep in mind is a reduction in energy usage as the day wears on. Meals should be smaller as the evening approaches, and definitely stay away from junk foods like chocolate bars, candies, popcorn, donuts, fries, chips, etc. in the evening. This is the most common time to eat such foods, which is probably at least partially responsible for the ever-growing average waist size.

Stick with veggies and dip, fruit, whole grains, meat, beans, anything with a low glycemic index. Ah yes, the glycemic index, I believe it warrants a section of its own, so here it is!

The Glycemic Index

The glycemic index (GI) is a measure of blood glucose levels after ingestion of a food. This measure is taken over several hours, and can vary greatly for many foods. Any blood glucose increase brings with it a corresponding insulin response which stores the glucose in the muscles, liver, and fat cells.

The GI is a new concept that is replacing the old concept of 'simple' and 'complex' carbohydrates, key words you'll hear often in some cereal commercials and see in bodybuilding/fitness/health magazines. I suppose we can still use the terms simple and complex, but we must redefine which foods belong in which groups.

Before, any carbohydrate that was simple in structure was considered a simple, and thus bad carbohydrate. This included sucrose, fructose, dextrose, maltose, glucose, lactose, amongst others. Complex and good carbohydrates were those with bigger molecular structures as found in grains and starches, pasta, rice bread, and potatoes.

What research has shown is that fructose, formerly a simple carb, is actually the most 'complex' of them all! Probably because it has to follow a completely different digestion/absorption path from other carbohydrates. Conversely, most potatoes and starches were found to be almost as 'simple' as glucose!

The GI is a measure of how much blood glucose is raised compared to glucose, which is given a value of 100. Some of the surprising findings in GI studies are that ice-cream, milk, and yogurt have very low GI's (between 20 and 50), and sucrose(67) is less than some breads, pastas and potatoes! White bread is horrible (101), whole wheat isn't any better, maybe even worse. Carrots(101), white rice(83), and bananas(77) are all not great.

Don't get me wrong, not all potatoes, rice, and breads are bad for you, but you really have to hunt to find some good stuff! Basically look for whole grain breads, the really chunky stuff. Amazingly enough, instant rice ranks far better than regular rice! You just have to look through some lists to get a feel for what's good and what isn't.

There are many more factors that need to be considered than just molecular structure before we can classify a carbohydrate as either. The easiest method is to actually measure blood glucose levels after a meal, which is exactly what the GI does.

Here are some links you might want to look at for more information on the glycemic index. They all have some foods listed with their GI, some more extensive than others:

One question I asked myself is, why would eating 50 grams of high GI carbs be worse than 70 grams of low GI carbs? And here is the answer I was able to dig up.

Eating 50 grams of high GI carbs cause a quick insulin spike. Insulin is very quick in removing glucose from the blood, so if your liver and muscles only had room for 30 grams of carbs, the rest goes into fat. Even worse, since there was a huge spike that overcompensated for the relatively small amount of carbs, blood sugar will plummet, you feel tired, and liver glycogen breaks down to re-establish its blood glucose baseline.

So now you stored 20 grams of carbs away as fat, and your liver got depleted a bit again, leaving you hungry! That's why eating 'simple', sugary, high GI carbs doesn't 'fill you up'.

Now if I eat 70 grams of low GI carbs, it gradually gets absorbed into the blood causing a gradual release of insulin. Say these carbs are absorbed over the next half hour to an hour, in that time my basal metabolic rate will have burnt up another 100 calories of carbs or so, making room for an additional 25 carbs for storage in the liver and muscle.

In this scenario, I would store away 55 grams of carbs in the liver, 15 grams in fat, and the whole absorption process would take a half to a full hour longer. At which point the insulin doesn't cause a major crash in blood glucose, causing a need for too much liver glycogen, so liver glycogen is spared. And I feel full for a lot longer, and store away less fat than with the 50 grams of high GI carbs!!

Summary of Fat Loss

Low calorie diets are a thing of the past. Learn to feed your body the right balance of nutrients and the fat will come off on it's own, and use exercise to accelerate this fat loss. The real problem lies in bingeing. If any one meal contains more nutrients than your body needs, the excess gets stored as fat. Never eat in excess, and nothing gets stored as fat. And your body burns fat all day, so you will lose fat!

I think the hardest thing about loosing fat is the patience factor. You shouldn't bother stepping on a scale, especially if you're also lifting weights, as it will only discourage you. Instead stick with measuring tape and photos to gauge your progress, and even then, at most once a week. See my page on Measuring Progress for more ways to track your progress and keep motivated.

Don't think in terms of 'I want to lose 10 pounds by summer', but rather 'I want to fit in a size ?? by summer'. And think long term as well as small changes will bring rewards in the long run. Rather than suffer through an impossible diet for a few weeks and fail, make a small sustainable change, and in a year you'll be a new person.

High Fat Diets

Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? How could a diet contain high fat? I must be kidding! But no, I'm not. And after reading all of the above, you should have an alright understanding of how insulin functions. You know: eat carbs, insulin is secreted, used to store glycogen in the liver, and fatty acids in you fat cells. Well, what if you didn't eat carbohydrates and no insulin is secreted? Would you die? Not likely. So what happens?

The body needs energy, and it gets its energy from carbs, fat and even proteins. Conventional diets involve cutting all fat from your diet, and hoping your body will go get it from your fat stores. Yet excess carbs are converted into fat, and insulin is released to help store that fat. Not to mention the presence of insulin decreases certain lipolytic enzymes which burn fat.

By cutting carbs from your diets, your body increases lipolytic enzymes so that it can get the energy it needs from dietary and stored fat. You body essentially adapts to a new fuel source, and becomes quite efficient at burning fat.

I suppose a simple argument, and one that I came across fairly often while searching the net for information, is to consider how our ancestors ate. How did the body evolve to survive. What did our forefathers' deits consist of. Sugar? Bread? Any kind of dough? Not likely. In fact, they probably lived mostly off meat. And of course roots, berries, and whatever else they could find.

This would definitely be classified as a low carb, high fat diet. That is how are bodies evolved to be fed. Maybe we should take this into consideration when trying to think of a diet ideally suited to our bodies, which are the products of thousands of years of evolution. Even today, the eskimos have a 80-90% fat diet.

There are a great many intricacies to this whole process. For some more details see this site which does a review on several books that deal with such diets. It gives some pretty good explanations of how it works, and cites some research studies and what the results of those indicate. Here's a page that has a couple of links to sites dealing with low carb ketogenic diets. In the future I may delve into this subject more, but for now, just check out the links!

A word of caution about this diet. The ketone bodies which are produced are acidic by nature, and if there is an excess buildup of these in the blood, the pH could drop too low and have dire consequences.

I recommend this only for losing those last few % of bodyfat, and combine it with lot's of exercise to use up the ketone bodies. If you're serious about trying this diet out, buy a book on it, like Dan Duchaine's "Body Opus".

Last Modified:
February 10, 2000

Exercise is not without its risks and this or any other exercise program may result in injury. To reduce the risk of injury in your case, consult your doctor before beginning this exercise program. The advice presented is in no way intended as a substitute for medical counsulation. The developer of Muscle101.com disclaims any liability from and in connection with any information conveyed on this web page. As with any exercise program, if at any point during your workout you begin to feel faint, dizzy, or have physical discomfort, you should stop immediately and consult a physician.