Introduction about this topic:I came into this subforum for the first time just a few minutes ago and saw a couple posts about weightloss. The answers were quite stupid and that's pretty much the reason I decided to write this. If any answer had some correct points into them, they were way to incomplete to actually help someone, thus I've decided to write this.
Introduction about me:I'm a soon-to-be 19 years old male from Sweden whom been interested in sports, weightlifting and nutrition-science for many years. I'm currently studying to become a nutrionist focused on helping people directly, not science, so I hope this will both inspire some people and learn people a few things which some might not yet know.
Points:- This FAQ is about losing fat, not weight. Obviously losing fat will make you lose weight as well, but it's still different.
- My main language isn't english, so there is no need for comments about my english although it should be good enough for you to understand what I type.
- Everything I write is scientifically correct. Ofcourse todays science may be different tomorrow, once the earth "was" flat, remember? There won't be any missasumptions of that caliber however
- I'm making this on a very basic level, no hard or advanced stuff are mentioned. Just basic how-to and why's pointed out.
- I'll add questions if any are asked, right now I'm just stating the most obvious ones. Don't think some of them are too obvious, they're not.
FAQ:Q: Is it possible to be unable to lose fat?
A: No, however there are rare cases where someones metabolism is lower than others. This is nearly never true enough to actually make anything different, but there may be disorders in the metabolism which gives some people a harder time, however it is very rare
Q: How come I gain fat?
A: Everything you eat or drink that contains calories combusts to energy. When this energy sum up to higher quantities than what you use (more about this later) it converts into mass.
Q: How do I lose fat?
A: Fat will combust back to energy when the body needs it. If you use more energy than you get, the body will find resources elsewhere to get the necessary energy.
Q: Can I lose fat while gaining muscles?
A: No, that is 100% impossible. Just as you can't build muscles while losing fat. If the body has more energy than is being put to use, it will convert to mass and vice versa. The illusion of gaining muscles while you're losing fat is nothing else than an illusion once the muscles become more visable.
Q: Is excersise necessary to lose fat?
A: No. The total energy used gets larger however, but you will lose/gain/keep same fat-mass as long as the energy-balance is the same as without excersise.
Q: Does unhealthy food = fat gain?
A: Never due to the food being "unhealthy". Unhealthy food is simply food with either "nutrion"(mostly chemicals) that are bad for you from a pure health-perspective or food that contains low quantitys of mikronutrion. After you've already gotten all mikronutriton one day from 75% of what you eat it does not matter if the other 25% are from broccoli or white bread. If anything, the white bread is healthier as consuming more mikronutritons than necessary is not a good thing, however it varies from nutrtion to nutriton.
Q: Are carbs evil?
A: Absolutly not. If you read crappy health-magazines they'll tell you that they are, however carbs are a vital nutriton and doesn't leave you with more fat than protein. Vegetables are carbs, for example. However there is ofcourse difference in carbs, not all carbs are the same. It's pretty basic, choose brown pasta over white pasta, dark bread over white bread etc.
Q: What are good carb-resources?
A: Brown pasta, oatmeal, parboiled rice, potatoes, dark breads, beans and fruit are some examples.
Q: Do I get fat if I eat fat?
A: No, but you will get sick if you don't eat fat. As mentioned earlier, more energy(calories if you wish) than the body uses = body mass. Fat converts into fat with a higher frequency than proteins, for example. However you can't gain any body mass as long as you use more energy than you consume.
Q: What are good fat-resources?
A: Avocado, almonds, Rapseed-oil, Oliv-oil, fat fish and nuts are some examples.
Q: Why is fat necessary?
A: Without fat you're metabolism and ability to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, E and K.
Q: Is proteins really as good as everyone says?
A: Actually, most people that worships proteins are right. However, it's just as vital as carbs and fat, which all three combines into the three "big" nutrions .Proteins are quite advanced as a protein is built out of amino-acids. Some are essential, some are not.
Q: What are good proteins?
A: Egg, fish, lean meat, lowfat cheeses, beans, lowfat milks, seafood, chicken, turkey, duck and alot more.
Q: What is mikronutritions?
A: Vitamins, kalcium, iron, minerals, kalium.. The list is huge, but should give you the main-idea.
Q: How do I know how much energy I consume daily?
A: There is an easy, however not 100% sure method as it varies from person to person.
Males: (13.75 * Weight in Kg) + (5.003 * Height in cm) - (6.775 * age) + 66.5 - The number you get is your BEE, which is the number of your energy-consument in total rest(Like koma). Multiply the number you get with 1.2 through 2.0, depending on how physically active you are. 1.2 sitting in front of your computer, 2.0 is an elite sportsman, so be honest with yourself when you put the number there. This is the energy used for those 24hours.
- Example with my stats: (13.75 * 82) + (5.003 * 188) - (6.775 * 19) + 66.5 = 2018.589 * 1.2(I'm only sitting in front of the computer due to injury, thus 1.2, remember to increase the days your physical activites increase) = 2422.3068 kcal per day
Females: 655.1 + (9.563 x Weight in kg) + (1.850 x Height in cm) - (4.676 x age) and is calculated the exact same way, but with these numbers.
Q: Are these numbers correct for everyone?
A: The formula is quite old, however it's for sure one of the best methods. It's older than fastfood. This means the average person were more fit and if you're not, the energy needed is probably abit lower. If you're huge, probably even lower. It's an mathematical formula people, not a top of the edge science lab, however it's quite trustable and there is no reason to not have faith in it.
Q: So I have like 2500 kcal per day consument, how much shall I eat?
A: A proper guide-line is minus 500kcal, thus 2000kcal with this guideline. However more are acceptable in some cases (more of that right below).
Q: I'm huge. I mean really, really huge. Is minus 500 still best?
A: Minus 500kcal is an proper guideline for people that are somewhat normal built. Each kg of fat can be consumed into energy worth 70kcal each 24 hours. If you weight 100kg and have 10% bodyfat it'd be retarded to be on an heavy diet, however if you weight 300 Kg and have 80% bodyfat, a heavy diet would be in place.
Q: What happens if I go on a very low calorie diet and I'm in pretty decent shape?
A: Let's take the example of 100kg male with 10% bodyfat to make it simple. This means 10kg of fat on the body, thus maximum of 700kcal per 24 hours that it can convert. Let's say he consumes 1000kcal in food and his body wants 3000. The body will get it for sure, however fat isn't a valid resource as it's limit has exceeded. This will only make the body look for other resources, and muscles, for example, are filled with energy that the body will sure take a big bite off. A little more about this later.
Q: So if the male consumes 2500kcal in food with an need of 3000kcal, he'd only lose fat?
A: No. Muscles will burn even if the body could use fat as an resources, this is inevitable, although being on a proper diet greatly reduces the muscle-loss, also using the muscle will reduce muscle-loss since the body will find them more needed than if you let them rest.
Q: How do I know how much kcal some food contains?
A: It's on the packages. If you eat out you won't know.
Q: Have you, Saikyou, ever measured what the kcal amount of a super-sized macdonalds meal is?
A: Yes. Remember the calculation? My body needs about 2500 kcal per day while I'm in front of the computer. The super-sized meal contained about 3300 kcal, which is more than probably all of you reading this needs per day. Still want one?
Q: I know this is a fat-loss FAQ, but how do I gain muscles?
A: If I put it very simple, as mentioned, the body converts the energy to mass. If you use the muscles while being on +energy, the body will find muscles needed and have the proper material, thus create them.
Q: So how much of my kcal per day should be protein, carbs and fat?
A: 45% Carbs, 35% Proteins, 20% Fat is an good guideline(This is however incredibly debated) for someone who is just looking to be healthy. For someone who wants to build/keep muscles more proteins should be added, and for someone doing cardio more carbs should be added.
Q: I am hungry
This rabbit-food doesn't fill my stomache, wth shall I eat?
A: Here's an good diagram from a research about food with satiety per calorie.
As you can see potatoes are off the charts, and guess what? It's carbs. There is nothing bad with carbs, it's just some modern myth that has been implented by youth-magazines and similar stuff. There are only scientifcally evidence of carbs being a good thing rather than a bad thing.
Q: So I can lose as much fat without excersise as with?
A: Yes. Exercise is however essential in many aspecs from celluar levels to physical. More exercise = more food = more nutrion for the body. Just losing fat isn't good enough, you have to do it with a way the body appreciates or your body will revolt against you. Also, after a while it'll revolt enough and go into starvation-mode, which will stop your fat-loss. A machine that doesn't get to do any work will eventuelly rust.
Q: What kind of excersises are best for losing fat?
A: Highest amount of intensivity depending on the individual. More intensive is better, but 10 minutes of jogging burns less fat than 60 minutes of walking. Do what you manage to do the longest as intense as possible. If you think running all you can as an unfit person for 10 minutes and then being exhausted is better than 60 minutes of walking, you're wrong.
Q: Is weightlifting a good fat-burner?
A: Yes. weight-lifting also increases your metabolism for a longer period of time than cardio, even though the same amount of cardio burns more calories since it's more intense. Weight-lifting is always a good thing no matter what you want to achieve, be it fat-loss, muscle-gain or just keeping the same weight, it's just a great thing for the body.
Q: Is there any products I can eat that actually helps losing weight?
A: Caffeine has an effect on the metabolism, some coffe isn't a bad thing. Most of those weight-loss products helps nothing or minimal. Green tea is an excellent product to drink, which is also one of the few products that actually have an effect whatsoever.
Q: I eat late, will I get fat?
A: No, that's another myth. It doesn't matter if you eat right before bed or not as long as the calorie-amount is same over the 24hours. Laying of to much carbs right before bed is a good thing though as it can decrease growth-hormone levels during the night.
Q: So all I have to do to lose fat is to calculate how much energy my body uses, consume 500kcal less of that per day while trying to eat as healthy as possible and I'll lose 0.5kg(99.99% certain if you follow it correctly) clean fat-mass per week which is the size of 0.5 Liter milk?
A: Yes, have fun ^^
If there is something important I've missed (I wrote all this out of memory so there might be something), feel free to let me know.
I might throw one about muscle-gain up later which I'm alot more confident in, depending on if anyone actually finds this helpful and if I got the will
