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How Do You Lose Weight? Fat Loss 101

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Today’s Question: How Do You Lose Weight?

This question, when asked, will return so many different answers. As someone who is struggling to lose weight, you may feel like throwing your hands up and screaming.

Woman standing on a scale. Text reads How Do You Lose Weight?

How Do You Lose Weight? Everyone Has Something To Say

Is it calories in, calories out?

Is it eating the right kind of carbs?

Maybe it’s eating no carbs at all

Are you avoiding all delicious processed food?

How about eating good fat for fat loss?

Eating less food than your body can burn off in a day?

Do you count your macros? 

I want to try to keep this as simple as possible because it can get a little confusing.

How Do You Lose Weight? What About Science? 

Food is potential energy, so let’s start there.

The Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system. So we know that energy is transferred or moved from one item to another or transformed.

To have a healthy relationship with food, we have to start by understanding that food is neither good nor bad. It is merely a source of potential energy for our bodies. Our food sources contain different macronutrients (carbs, fats, proteins) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). These profiles work together and affect our bodies in multiple ways.

Fat loss isn’t as complicated as it may seem. 

When you eat food each day, your body has to decide whether to store it or transfer the energy you put in. If that energy is transferred into mechanical energy, your body can move. I’m not only referring to movements like running on a treadmill or pushing out a weighted rep in the gym. Food gives your body the energy to move your eyes, breath air into your lungs, and smile at your children.

What your body doesn’t transfer to muscles and organs its stores. When you read that you probably assume that storage is fat but the truth is energy can be stored in your liver, muscles, and fat to be used the next day or when you crush your leg workout three days later. If however, you routinely eat more energy than your body uses your body’s favorite way to store that energy is as fat tissue.

Maybe That’s Not Your Problem! 

If you are in a position right now where you need to lose weight, what you need to do is lose or burn up the excess fat your body has stored. Gorging on energy sources isn’t the only reason our bodies store fat. There are also disorders, diseases, and imbalances that can cause weight gain, but we might also consider that being overweight leads to metabolic diseases that cause us to accumulate fat which has a downward spiral effect.

So if we consider diet alone, to lose weight we need to deplete our current stores and make sure that we eat less than we need to fuel our bodies, so we have to dig into those reserves to function. While this may not be fun, it is possible, and with this mindset, we can forget about starving ourselves because we definitely won’t be doing that. We will continue to nourish our bodies while the body makes up for what doesn’t go in through our mouths by metabolizing the fat stored in our cells. 

How Do You Lose Weight? Start Losing Today

Now that you know how to lose weight it’s time to figure out How Many Calories Do I Need Each Day? then you can work on
 How To Calculate Your Macros In A Way That Works For You

Energy intake is only one method of losing weight; another area you can focus on is energy output. That, however, is a post for another time. You will find that you can get results by making changes to your diet alone, but the many benefits of exercise make it something you don’t want to overlook.

Other things that affect your weight are sleep, stress, sodium/water retention, and metabolic diseases or issues.

Let’s recap! So, how do you lose weight?

You must create an energy deficit. This deficit will cause your body to dive into those fat stores, and you will burn that fat for fuel to keep you going through the day.

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