Mark Haub – a professor of human nutrition from Kansas State University.

Mark Haub set out to prove that weight loss is purely a result of calorie reduction and not obtained through just eating higher quality ‘clean’ foods.

Mark’s diet consisted of 75% junk food (Doritos, chocolate, sugary cereals and Oreos to name a few). He did this for an entire 10 week period. At the end of the study the results were pretty interesting…

–  (Body mass index) reduced from 28.8 (overweight) to 24.9 (normal weight)

– Drop in body fat from 33.9% down to 24.9%

He set out to prove that weight loss is directly correlated to consuming less calories than is burned per day and achieved this with resounding success.

What does this mean?

Weight loss is not about what you eat –  it’s about how much you eat throughout the day relative to how much your body needs to maintain weight.

No question – non processed ‘clean foods such as fresh poultry, meats, fish,  fresh fruits and vegetables (even frozen), nuts, eggs, wholemeal breads and pasta are all digested and used properly by the body for energy.

Processed foods on the other hand have been chemically tampered with – we’ve all seen stories cropping up of people leaving a McDonalds burger out of the fridge for 2 years and guess what – it still looks exactly the same! Yuck.

Important digestive enzymes have been tampered with (by chemicals) to preserve the food for as long as possible – the nutrients within the food for the most part are zapped and pretty useless. Will the body use some of it? Yes undeniably it’ll break it down into energy but very inefficiently – it’s foods like this that cause bloating and a host of short/long term digestive issues and even mental issues. A good method to go on here is that if the food rots – and fairly quickly, then it’ll digest properly (just like fresh chicken that’s left out of the fridge for two days).

Eating clean foods is the right way to go. Undeniably you will be able to function better, be less bloated and feel less lethargic – so this is a big step in the right direction. However, unless the amount of food you’re eating directly equates to less than your body burns for the day there will be categorically zero weight loss.

So the question is not so much ‘What foods do we eat for fat loss?’ The question is ‘how do I make sure I eat less energy than my body burns?’

Through:

– Moving around more: Introduce a consistent training regime. For pure weight loss there is absolutely no need for the latest High intensity interval training regime or an aggressive weight lifting program. Are certain training methods better than others? Yes, absolutely – but I refuse to be dogmatic and depending on your goals – walking as a minimum when done consistently will start to burn some fat.

I lost 35lbs of fat through just this – consistent walking and minimal weight lifting twice a week.

Consistent physical activity is what the body is designed for. Being consistently active will get the metabolism cranking back into gear and burning more calories than before. Even if you don’t change your current dietary habits, this will most likely yield some result as you’re creating a dent in your energy expenditure.

–  Monitor your food: If you really want controlled, guaranteed and consistent weight loss this is how it’s done – no two ways about it. Tracking food intake brings your awareness towards what you eat. When you’re more aware of it – by default, you’re probably going to start cutting out unnecessary foods that you would otherwise have eaten. One step further; punch what you eat into a mobile app like ‘mynetdiary’ (it takes 2 seconds), this gives you fairly accurate calorie readings.

After one week of tracking your food – look at how many calories you’ve been consuming and how much your body weight has fluctuated. Is it sticking the same? Has it dropped…. has it increased? If your weight is maintained – cut back on the portion sizes of what you’re eating to create a larger calorie deficit.

If you’re used to eating a load of rubbish, that is pizzas, chocolate, ice cream etc cut it out. Is there anything technically wrong with these foods? No, there isn’t.

Then why cut them out?

The reason is purely because they’re probably the very foods which are bumping your calories into levels which either maintain or worse – make you gain weight.

There really are no foods which are ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The foods listed above are very calorie dense with high fat, high carbohydrate – this is why  (when not eaten within your daily guidelines) it’s so easy to blow your daily intake up with them.

If you’re struggling with weight loss – please, do not struggle any longer. Let me help you simplify the process and get you on track.

Any questions just drop me a line on here or through my facebook page – I’m here to help you.

All the best

Andrew