Its all about the starting point

Reducing fat may be viewed by many as difficult, and to some impossible, but it doesn’t need to be. For the past five years I have had the opportunity to deliver personalised wellness programs to a diverse group of around ~1000 people and it has taught me a lot about weight loss.  

The people I supported had unlimited access to biometric testing (body-fat, weight, and blood pressure), along with bi-annual or annual blood tests which measured cholesterol, triglycerides, and HbA1c levels. This unique opportunity, provided by a forward thinking multinational company, has allowed me to prescribe wellness programs on a large scale, continually adjust individual programs over a span of 5 years, and objectively measure outcomes. 

By the end of five years I’d created a framework which could be applied almost universally. I focused on it being easy to understand and maintainable long term. The average participant in this program saw a 5 – 10% sustainable reduction in body-fat, along with improvements in key markers of health.

The results showed that it was unlikely a person’s metabolism was the main reason they were not losing weight. Granted some people did have it easier, however when lifestyle changes were made everyone I worked with lost fat and improved markers of health. 

The key lessons learnt

Dieting doesn’t work because it’s not sustainable. People can lose weight following a diet but they can’t sustain the loss. If instead I gave them a framework which considered their current life situation, and helped them with strategies to improve their relationship with food, they generally had good long term success.

Don’t push for perfection. Never eliminate a food or food group from someone’s diet. People will still lose weight if they eat food that is unhealthy, they just need help with finding the balance. 

There is a lot of bad information out there. It is not from lack of trying that most people are not losing weight, it is from lack of quality information. Carbs do not make people fat, fasting is not magical, and most people who incorporated cheat meals struggled with losing weight.

Changes need to be slowly introduced.   Everyone wants to lose weight fast. However, If I slowed people down, made small changes, and only made the next change when the previous one was firmly established, fat loss was surprisingly easy. 

Track metrics not calories.  Tracking is essential, but it also needs to be easy. If people were willing to track key metrics they were basically guaranteed some fat lost, however if I made tracking too difficult (counting calories) they would generally drop out of the program.

 Mix resistance and cardio training. Most people think they need to run to lose weight. However as a general rule relying on cardio only to lose weight is at best futile, and at worst counterproductive.  It usually delivers limited results and a lot of times results in injury. 

The wellness program framework

Find the baseline, this would generally mean not changing anything for a week and measuring, bodyweight, steps, calories burned, exercise, and food intake.

Make a small adjustment from baseline, and do not try to progress until it has become the ‘new normal’. 

Learn how to reduce the frequency of the foods which move you away from your goal, while never eliminating them completely. 

Only increase your level of activity in small increments, making sure to keep the volume at a level that is realistically sustainable.

Always incorporate some strength training, it is a key ingredient to fat loss and overall health.

Learn how to break-up time seated during the day with low level movement.

While the framework above highlights the basic principles, in the next few posts I will dive deeper into food choices, tracking biometrics, and exercise, as I have only skimmed over these components.