Quickhits: General Questions and Myths about Fat Loss

Alright I figured I should probably go into a quick overview of some of the prevalent thoughts/misconceptions about fat/weight loss to start things off. For the sake of my time I am not providing references on this, but could locate them if you feel the urge to debate me on it. Yes, these may be controversial.

Do low/no carb diets make you lose more fat? No, they don't. Not in the long term at least. Studies have shown that while low carbers lose more weight in the initial outset of a diet, (due mainly to water loss) over a year when compared with a "balanced diet" (providing carbohydrate) there was no difference in weight loss. The "balanced" group actually lost a little more weight but it was not statistically significant. In addition, blood glucose and insulin levels correspond positively with leptin, a hormone in your body that has a very large role in weight maintenance. What this means is that basically low carbohydrate diets mimic starvation on many levels, not something you want. Thats not to say that low-carb diets have no use, they certainly do, there's just no "metabolic advantage" to them.

You have to do tons of cardio to get shredded: No, you don't. You have to create a caloric deficit. I'll probably say this a million times but you must create a caloric deficit to lose bodyfat. How much of total body weight you lose as bodyfat will depend on your exercise regimen, diet, genetics, and supplementation. So instead of running you could simply eat less, though a combination of the two would be ideal. Of note, High Intensity Interval training (will be discussed in the future) may actually increase your bodies capacity to burn fat by upregulation of certain enzymes.

(Women) Lifting weights will make me look bulky (often accompanied by some flexing): Lifting weights is not going to make you look bulky unless you

• Are in a caloric surplus
• Using steroids, insulin, GH etc.

The fact is, you don't have the sort of hormonal system needed to make you very "bulky". Resistance training (weight lifting) confers a lot of benefits including fuel partitioning (more calories to muscle than fat), Calorie burn (as much as 9 cal/minute burnt), Better control of food portions, increased mental health, protection against wasting diseases etc etc. Lift, you'll thank me for it.

Whats the best drug/supplement to get me ripped in 2 days? That was a bit of an exaggeration but people ask me all the time, what can I take to accomplish my goals in (an absurdly short amount of time). Here it comes people, get ready for it. There isn't one. No magic bullet, no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, no santa claus. Now this is not to say that there aren't some nifty supplements/drugs for fat loss/recomposition because there are, I'll write more on those soon. The issue is people are going to rely mainly on this supplements, they think that it is going to be the main pulling horse on their plow of fat loss. It's not, and even if it was, its not sustainable. There is, for example, a very potent fat burning drug that many of you have probably never heard of (and I won't name it yet simply because I don't want you killing yourself before I write a full article on it) that causes losses of 2/3 lb to 1 lb of fat loss per day. You can't stay on this drug forever though, you build a tolerance and on top of that, it can literally cook you inside your skin.

Moral of the story: Drugs/supplements can help, but you cannot rely on them alone to reach and maintain your fatloss goals.

Eating before bed will make you fat: Again, no it won't. If you read the little bit above on cardio, it's the same deal. Eating something that puts you over maintenance calories combined will make you gain weight.

You have to eat 6 times a day to get your metabolism revved up. NO NO NO. This misconception stems from the thermic effect of feeding, i.e the amount of calories your body burns processing the food. The effects is different for each macronutrient but lets just say its 10%. With a 2000 calorie diet this makes 200 calories a day burnt processing the food, do you think it matters whether those 2000 calories were consumed in 6 meals or two? No, not really.

Localized fat loss: Losing fat just on your hips or thighs without supplement/drug intervention is not possible. Spot reduction does seem to have some real world applicability with certain drugs/supplements but I should note.

1. You already have to be lean (<15%)
2. You need to be in a calorie deficit
3. The effects are marginal

Closing: These are obviously not all the myths/statements in the fitness community, but I think some of the more prevalent ones. If you would like me to cover one in more depth or think I missed a big one I will be happy to go into it. 'Til next time.

Statement of Intent: What this is and what this is not

Hello, and welcome. My name is Jacob Johnson, and today I'm going to lay down the basics.

Background: This site was created to fill a sort of a hole I've seen in the fitness industry. You see there are sort of two kinds of people when it comes to "experts" in weight loss:

Person who wants to state their beliefs as fact: These are, by and large, the people you've read/listened to up until this point. They are almost everywhere, at every gym, every forum, every trainer convention saying that a certain diet, supplement or training regimen is going to get you huge, shredded, dense, diced, lean etc etc. These people are to be avoided at all costs, they will continue to glorify their method with no objective research. They have their own sort of logical failings that most people start out with (and will probably be covered in later posts), they just never shed them. Some of these people are actually quite out of shape, but most are in pretty good condition, and that's why a lot of people listen to them. Similarly, If you had to ask one person at the gym for advice on training/nutrition, you would probably ask the person that looks most like your goal. This person could just be genetically gifted and have no idea of what their doing. Instead of asking Johnny Biceps how he got those things you should ask the kid that came into the gym a year ago at an emaciated 100 pounds (or conversely, a rotund 350) and looks great today.

Research Nerds: These individuals are few and far between (they are some of my favorite authors though, links soon). Essentially they use science as their guiding light, sometimes leaving out anecdotal evidence. I should note that I lean very heavily towards this side. The problem with these guys is that sometimes (because they're so smart and maybe a little elitist) its very difficult to understand them or try to apply their techniques in a real world situation. I will include research in this site as I feel it is imperative to use science as a compass of knowledge. But I will try to be very "plain english", and warn you of upcoming technical stuff.

Purpose: To use science and real world feedback to achieve fat loss efficiently and permanently.

Here's the beauty, I am not trying to sell you anything, I just want to clear some misinformation and help you in your fat loss goals.The main site will contain four subcategories: Nutrition, Training, Supplements/Drugs, and Research Review. I think those should be pretty self explanatory. Within the next few days I'll be posting the first real article.