What are the advantages of losing fat slowly?

[sunny]

They say "the body doesn't feel starved, so you aren't so hungry in the end, and it's easier to maintain".
How much truth in all that?
Or mostly phychological benefits? And building good dietary habits?

[Sarah]

Originally posted by sunny@Jun 5 2006, 12:14 PM
They say "the body doesn't feel starved, so you aren't so hungry in the end, and it's easier to maintain".
How much truth in all that?
Or mostly phychological benefits? And building good dietary habits?
for me

1) I get to keep my sanity
2) I don't murder my fiancee when he eats a double cheeseburger from McD's.
3) Don't have to buy new clothes all the time.

Probably not what you wanted - but those are my reasons.

[Dreamer]

Ok, I'll give my shot, till Thunder correct me. :p

1. If you lose fat too fast, you tend lose too much muscle as well and the metabolism's activity slow down too.

2. The skin tend to be more sagging if the fat loss is too rapid.

3. I think that the metabolism tend to change into the function '' starving'' after a while, meaning that if you lose 9 lbs of fat every weeks for three months ( which is a lot), the metabolism will be damaged. Also, it will be far easier to get fat again once the ''starving diet'' stop.



They say "the body doesn't feel starved, so you aren't so hungry in the end, and it's easier to maintain".

Who is ''they'' ???

[sunny]

Good point about the metabolism damage, Dreamer.
For me the most annoying thing about dieting is that you sometimes come to the gym only to find out that you're so weak you can't lift! :censor:

Actually that's what keeps me from eating cake - the thought that after the cake I'll have to diet again, and again feel miserable at the gym. :)

[BlueTuna]

I think the main reasons people recommend losing weight slowly are that:
1) as others have mentioned, if you lose weight fast, you'll be losing a lot of muscle, which will then slow down your metabolism
2) losing weight slowly helps you to build good eating habits/attitudes towards food - as opposed to the "diet" mentality.

But I'm curious about the loose skin issue. I recently read a magazine interview with Jillian Michaels who said that there's no correlation between how fast someone loses weight and whether or not they'll get loose skin. Of course, she has a vested interest in saying that, as The Biggest Loser promotes very rapid weight loss. But it got me thinking... using the "deflated balloon" analogy, it doesn't matter how fast you let the air out, the balloon will still be wrinkly. Does anyone else know?

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Here's an article by Tom Venuto about why the experts recommend slow weight loss. I couldn't find the link, sorry, so I'm posting the whole article.

DON'T BE A BIG FAT LOSER!

Q:Dear Tom, I already know you preach losing no more than two pounds per week. But does this apply to everyone? I’m currently at a 32% body fat level. I was curious to know if it’s ok to lose up to three pounds per week until I get to a 25%-20% body fat level. Will my body fight against such a loss? Thanks in advance for your time, knowledge, and response to this matter.

A: It’s usually best to aim for one or two pounds per week of weight loss. This is the recommendation of most legitimate and respected dieticians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists and exercise organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine and I’m in 100% agreement with this guideline.

However, it’s definitely ok to lose three pounds per week when you have a lot to lose. The more you have, the more you can safely lose per week because fat loss is relative to total body weight. Makes sense, right?

Generally the rule is that it’s safe to lose up to 1% of your total body weight per week, so if you weigh 300 lbs to start, then 3 lbs a week is a reasonable goal.

But there IS a catch.

What really matters is not how much weight is lost, but how much FAT is lost. Where did the weight come from? Are we talking about fat weight or lean body mass?

For example, let’s take a 260 pound man who has a lot of body fat to lose - let’s call it 32%. With 32% fat, a 260 pounder has 83.2 pounds of body fat and 176.8 pounds of lean mass. Using this example, let’s look at a few possible scenarios with losses ranging from two to four pounds per week.

Weight Loss Scenario 1:

Suppose our 260 pound subject loses four full pounds instead of the recommended one to two pounds per week. Is this bad? Well, let’s see:

If he loses a half a percent of body fat, here are his body composition results:

256 lbs
31.5% body fat
80.6 lbs fat
175.4 lbs lean body mass

Out of the four pounds lost, 2.8 pounds were fat and 1.2 were lean mass. Not a disaster, but not good either. Thirty percent of the weight lost was lean tissue.

Weight Loss Scenario 2:

If he loses a half a percent of body fat and only three pounds, here are his results:

257 lbs
31.5% body fat
80.9 lbs fat
176.1 lbs lean body mass

These results are better. Although he lost less body weight than scenario one, in this instance, 2.3 pounds of fat and only 0.7 lbs of lean mass were lost.

Weight Loss Scenario 3:

What if he only lost two pounds? Here are the results:

258 lbs
31.5% body fat
81.2 lbs fat
176.8 lbs lean body mass

These results are perfect. Even though our subject has only lost two pounds, which seems slow, 100% of the two pound weight loss came from fat.

Weight Loss Scenario 4:

Now let’s suppose he loses three pounds but he loses more body fat: .8%

257 lbs
31.2% body fat
80.2 lbs fat
176.8 lbs lean body mass

These are the best results of all. When the weekly fat loss is .8%, 100% of the three pounds lost is fat.

So the answer to the question is yes - it’s safe to lose more than two pounds per week… IF the weight is all fat or at least mostly fat with minimal lean mass losses.

One thing you should know is that water weight losses sometimes tend to distort these numbers, especially when you first begin a new nutrition and training program. It’s very common to lose 3 - 5 pounds in the first week on nearly any diet and exercise program especially those that involve low carbs. Just remember, its NOT all fat - It’s water!

The lean body mass number isn’t just muscle. Lean mass reflects all fat free tissue, including water weight. That’s why you shouldn’t panic if you see small drops in lean body mass - some of it is water.

When you lose large amounts of lean mass and/or if your lean mass drops consistently week after week, that’s an indication that you’re definitely losing muscle tissue.

The best advice I can give you is to focus on losing fat, not losing weight. If you lose three to five pounds per week, and you know it’s all fat, no muscle - more power to you!

Of course the only way to know this is with body composition testing. For home self-testing, I recommend the Accu measure as first choice. I suggest using the Tanita bio-electric impedance analysis scale only as second choice behind calipers for home self testing because this device gives some funky readings sometimes.

Even better, get a professional caliper test from an experienced tester at a health club, or even a water (hydrostatic) or air (bod pod) displacement test.

From literally hundreds of client case studies, I can confirm that it’s rare to lose more than 1.5 - 2.0 lbs of weight per week without losing some muscle along with it. If you lose muscle, you are damaging your metabolism and this will ultimately lead to a plateau and weight re-gain.

Lack of patience is one of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to losing weight. If you want your weight loss to be PERMANENT, you have to take off the pounds slowly.

This is one of the toughest lessons that overweight men and women have to learn - and they can be very hard learners. They fight kicking and screaming, insisting that they CAN and they MUST lose it faster.

Then you have these TV shows that ENCOURAGE the masses that rapid, crash weight loss is okay.

This makes it even harder for those of us who are legitimate fitness and nutrition professionals because our clients say, “But Tom, look at so and so on TV - he lost 20 pounds in a week!”

Sure, but do you have any idea what the long term consequences are for so and so? Yes, that’s right - when you lose too much too fast, your lose lean tissue, you slow your metabolism, and your odds of gaining every ounce back - plus a few pounds extra for interest - are about 95% (not to mention the health and psychological consequences)

Short term thinking, folks… foolish. There are hundreds of ways to lose weight quickly, but only ONE WAY to lose fat and keep it off in the long term.

Do it the right way - the healthy and sensible way. Take off the pounds slowly with an intelligent nutrition and exercise program - and you will never have to take the pounds off again - they will be gone forever the first time. No more yo-yoing.