How to Lose Fat and Keep it Off

[Angelo John Gage]

Summer is here! So decided to spread some knowledge here on the forum.

Here's a video I made months ago (when I was fatter lol) that breaks down fact loss without the broscience and fitness guru biases.

 

[outlandish]

Solid video! You've slain so many weight loss myths. I hope everyone watches this.

A couple questions:

• Any specific advice for going down to pretty lean levels? Last time I checked I was 17% body fat (DXA scan) - goal is to cut down to around 10-12% so I can run faster. Currently running about 6x per week, 70-80km/week, eating an unmeasured shit-ton, but not between dinner and breakfast.
• How do you define whole foods? For example, would you consider whole grain bread or rice noodles to be whole foods? I know some people would not, but personally I do think of them as "whole" foods, even though they're in fact pretty processed. I would find it hard to eat 80-90% completely unprocessed food.

Thanks @Angelo John Gage

[Angelo John Gage]

@outlandish Thanks for watching. 

Answer 1: the more fat you lose, the harder it will become. Even a bodybuilder on tons of steroids and illegal fat burners ( I know a few pros) will have to start doing cardio 2x a day 6 days a week, for 2-3 hours total on top of their routine; but that's to achieve like 3-5% bf levels...totally unnatural and unsustainable. 10-12% is a healthy and sustainable fat percentage. So in order to go lower, you have to either increase your work load OR decrease your calories further. Now you're already running 6x a week which is a lot. In your case, it would be way harder on you to increase running, so I would stop eating an unmeasured shit ton and start counting calories. This is why bodybuilders package their foods to preset meals; they weigh their foods and know the calorie count. This is the old-school method before apps. They eat the same boring crap until a cheat day. That's one method. Or you can use MyFitnessPal like I suggested and easily count your foods. (I keep using body building because that was what I enjoyed and how I train)

Answer 2: Whole foods simply means densely nutritious foods. Whole grain bread is more nutritious than say ramen noodles. Both are carbs, both could contain even the same amount of calories when you match them, but one will be more satiating and nutritious than another.

So when I say eat whole/densely nutritious foods, you should be eating nutritious foods that contain vitamins and minerals fiber and all necessary nutrients; whether plant or animal 80-90% of the time, then enjoy your Doritos or cookies the 20-10% of the time. The reason its OK to indulge in junk at that percent is because it does three things: A. Satifies any cravings you may have. B. Avoids binge eating since your not going weeks without a food you crave, and C. Most importantly, KEEPS YOU ON YOUR DIET!

 

Edited May 6, 2019 by Angelo John Gage

[Angelo John Gage]

[outlandish]

@Angelo John Gage I was afraid you'd tell me to count calories  I know you're right about that.. 

One problem I always have with apps like myfitnesspal is that my idea of a serving is a lot bigger than the usual idea, so I end up having to adjust everything. Also, there's so much variance in things like sauces - even with my own cooking, I'll make a tomato sauce loaded with olive oil one week, much more energy dense than a lighter fresher one the next week. I guess it doesn't need to be so accurate, just looking for the big picture here? Or maybe I need to go old school and get a scale.

Honestly when I think about all this accounting it sounds easier just to run more. But then I'd probably end up instinctively eating more to compensate, and I'd be in the same spot, which would bring me back to calorie counting.

I'm probably too lazy to count calories strictly, but I know I need to at least try to get a rough idea. When I did the DXA scan I got my base calorie needs, and it should be pretty easy to estimate calories burned from running.

Re: whole foods, I'm already eating 80-90% whole foods on that definition. We barely have anything in the house that's highly processed, nutrient-poor. The closest thing to junk food around here is plain stone-ground whole corn tortilla chips, good quality dark chocolate and the occasional beer. Luckily don't get cravings for crap food really.

 

Another question: I have a big long distance race coming up in a 4-5 weeks, how close to the race do you think it's safe to keep cutting? Can I do it right up until I begin carb loading in the 2-3 days leading up to the race, or should I ease off in the final week or something?

[Angelo John Gage]

@outlandish

My knowledge isn't really based on any marathon type training, but if you are pushing your body a lot and not consuming adequate protein, it will start catabolism muscle. This is why you sees a huge different in marathon runners, who are usually really skinny, versus sprinters who are jacked. Marathons runners obviously have a longer haul so the less weight they can carry the better, but sprinters need power to move faster in short distances.

If you goal is to lose "weight" (like a wrestler wants to make weight for a meet) regardless of what it is (water, fat, muscle) you COULD run more to BUT you would have to not change the way you're eating right now. This may be what is right for you. My view is, I always wish to spare muscle as much as I can, but I'm coming from a body building perspective.

I myself am currently not counting because I'm at the initial stage of my diet. I have to lose about 30-40 lbs and so any adjustment I make make right now will make a huge difference. Ill have to start counting when I want to get leaner. I stopped "bored eating" and "binge eating" at nights. That alone will make a huge difference, leaving me with all the other strategies later when I need them.

I don't think cutting will matter so long as you load up for your race and fuel your body efficiently . I would carb load a few days before so you don't risk doing it last minute and feeling sluggish or whatever. Again, I'm not knowledgeable when it comes to track sports.

[outlandish]

Yeah I'm not quite committed enough to go full skinny marathon man mode, so Iike you I want to preserve muscle tissue and maximize fat loss.

I ended bored eating and pre-bedtime snacks a few years ago, that brought be down about 20lbs to where I am now. So that really worked for me as well.

Anyways, great video again. I don't want to derail the thread anymore with my own particular weight loss story. I hope this thread is useful for anyone loosing weight no matter where you're starting out.

[Evilwave Heddy]

Eat less calories...simple really.

[Not me]

@outlandish Check out Stephan Guyenet. He is the man when it comes to fat loss. His idea is basically that people get fat because the they eat food tastes too good (high food reward).

When you eat food that has low reward you will be able to eat less without hunger because the body’s hunger mechanisms work properly and thus you will lose fat.

[outlandish]

@Not me I think Guyenet is correct, but I think that saying people get fat because they eat food that tastes too good is a misinterpretation of what he's saying... it's slightly more nuanced than that.

Food can taste extremely good, and be very healthy. The problem is eating food that is excessively calorie dense and over processed. Packaged food, sugary food, overly salted and so on, are the real culprits. It's too easy to over-consume calories with these kinds of foods.

Many parts of the world with amazing delicious food have very low levels of obesity, and many places with terrible food have very high levels of obesity. Thailand is a great example - amazing food, hardly any obesity. Scotland is another example - you could say not the most famous for refined cuisine, yet extremely high levels of obesity.

[integral]

 

[Not me]

@outlandish Good point. I wonder if you could also eat extremely calorie dense and non processed food and get fat. For example I imagine eating a lot of dried fruit would lead overeating. Would the body still have mechanisms to prevent fat gain just because the food is healthy?

[outlandish]

@Not me It really just comes down to thermodynamics, like Guyenet said. So if you ate a lot of dried fruit, yeah you'd get fat. It would be easier to overeat dried fruit than fresh fruit, but harder to overeat dried fruit than candy.

Your body can get fat from any kind of food if you eat too many calories of it, whether we consider it "healthy" or not. However, a good rule of thumb is that most "healthy" foods are harder to overeat than industrial, processed foods.

[outlandish]

@Angelo John Gage and anyone else:

• What do you think of those bathroom scales that try to measure your bodyfat via your body's conductivity (or capacitance or something electrical)?
• How much subjective hunger do you put up with when cutting?

[Joseph Maynor]

I will watch this with my accountability partner right now.

[Angelo John Gage]

@integral dr. berg is not a biologist or nutritionist, he is a chiropractor. He is basically spewing the same talking points every single other keto person does. Calories in vs calories out is based on the laws of thermodynamics. You if you are eating ONLY keto and consuming more calories that you are burning, you will gain fat, this is irrefutable.

 

@outlandish the scale is a nice too but the mirror is what tells the truth. you weight can fluctuate do to water and other factors; from what I understand such advanced scales will change due to those changes. even other methods are not fully accurate. To death with hunger I just wait it out, but if you're eating well, more densely nutritious foods than junk, you won't be too hungry. For me, coffee in the am allows me to fast for hours if I wanted to. There are also hunger suppressants you can take. I've never tried them though.

[outlandish]

@Angelo John Gage cool thanks. I find if I just wait out any hunger in the evening for example, eventually my body just recalibrates the feeling of hunger and it goes away. But sometimes that takes a while. I don't think I'll worry about hunger suppressants or anything. I find coffee can go either way - either I can wait it out like you, or I get mega hungry and jittery and just need to eat

Been shedding a few lbs which is encouraging going into a race. It's hard to tell with the fluctuations of water, but I can see it's dropping a little bit.

[Angelo John Gage]

@outlandish intermittent fasting is a good way to train your body to be hungry in a specific window, then you eat in an 8hr window. So your day would be like this:

12 am you eat your first meal, then 1-2 more meals but stop eating at 8 pm. Then do not eat until the next day at 12am. This is a 16hr fast. Now if you eat TOO much in the 8hr window, you won't lose fat. Intermittent fasting is a good way to lose fat without counting calories because its less likely you will over eat due to hunger in only a few meals (2-3) in an 8hr window. but if you're doing this and not losing fat, then you're eating too much. 

[outlandish]

I'm doing like a 13hr "intermittent fast" right now, probably not wide enough to be a true intermittent fast. Thanks for the idea to push it further.

[Angelo John Gage]

@outlandish just keep pushing an extra hour until you reach 16... some people go extreme and do full days; that's up to you but I don't' think its necessary.