FAST WEIGHT LOSS WARNING! From: Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS Date: Friday, December 11, 2009 Re: Dangers and consequences of fast weight loss Dear Friend, Question: What Do ALL 6 Of These Advertisements Have In Common? "Burn 30 lbs in 3 weeks - no diet!" "Lose 9 Pounds Every 11 Days!" "Lose 30 pounds In 30 Days!" "Lose 20 lbs in 3 weeks!" "Burn 30 lbs in 25 days!" Lose 10 Pounds This Weekend! Answer: They are All FALSE, they are all DECEPTIVE and they are all ILLEGAL! I just did a search on google for "how fast should you lose weight" and these are just a small sample of ACTUAL ADS that are running this very moment. They sure are enticing, aren't they? They play on your emotions and on your desire for instant gratification. And Did you know that these claims are actually ILLEGAL, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) "We have known for some time now that there is a serious problem with weight-loss product advertising," said FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris. "Reputable marketers continue to take care to avoid false and misleading claims, but it appears that too many unscrupulous marketers are making false claims promising dramatic and effortless weight loss to sell their products. It is not fair to consumers; it is not fair to legitimate businesses, it is illegal, and it will not be tolerated." You might be asking, if "it will not be tolerated", then why do we keep seeing these ads? Well, God bless the Internet, On google you can put up an ad and have it showing in 15 minutes. You can then have it taken down just as fast. Same goes for websites. I believe that the weight loss education industry has been knocked a few steps backward in the last few years due to (1) the internet and (2) The horrendous reality TV shows that actually encourage people to attempt “extreme� body makeovers or see who can lose
weight the fastest. The winners (or shall we say, the "losers", as if that's a flattering title to earn), are rewarded generously with fortune, fame and congratulations. Despicable. Let’s face it. Everyone wants to get the fat off as quickly as possible - and having that desire is not wrong – it’s simply human nature. Patience is the one thing you never seem to have when you’ve got a body fat problem. You want the fat gone and you want it gone now! With what we see on TV these days and with web page after web page of fast weight loss claims, you actually start to believe it's do-able. In fact, you even see people with your own eyes losing weight incredible quickly. How do you deny it's possible when you see THAT? Well, the answer comes to you when you expand your time perspective and see where those people are 6, 12, 18 months from now. Deep in your heart, you KNOW the answer... Serious Problems Can Occur If You Try To Force It And Lose Weight Too Fast The faster you lose weight, the more muscle you will lose right along with the fat, and that can really mess up your metabolism. An even bigger problem with fast weight loss is that it just won’t last. The faster you lose, the more likely you are to gain it back. It's the the "yo-yo diet effect" - weight does down, but always comes back up. Think about it: We don’t have a weight loss problem today, we have a “keeping weight off” problem Weight loss will be the healthiest, safest and most likely to be permanent if you set your goal for about two pounds per week (and even if you lose only a single pound each week, that is healthy progress). This is the recommendation of almost every legitimate and respected dietician, nutritionist, exercise physiologist and personal trainer on the planet, as well as exercise organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Dietetic Association. Are there any exceptions? Yes. It may be ok to lose more than two pounds per week if you have a lot of weight to lose, because the rate of weight loss tends to be relative to your total starting body weight. 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 You Lose, But How Much FAT You Lose Where did your weight loss come from? Did you lose body fat or lean body mass? "Weight" is not the same as "fat." Weight includes muscle, bone, internal organs as well as lots and lots of water. Let’s look at an example with some numbers so you can really grasp this concept of weight versus fat and then you can see, illustrated with specific examples, what will happen when you lose weight too quickly. As an 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 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 and he kept ALL the muscle! 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% (better than average), 100% of the three pounds lost is fat. So as you can see, yes, it’s safe to lose more than two pounds per week… but only if the weight fat. If you lose three or four pounds per week, and you know it’s all fat, not lean tissue, then more power to you! If you lose four pounds and two of those pounds are muscle, you just shot yourself in the foot! If as little as 20%-30% of your weight loss comes from muscle, when compounded over a few months, you’re talking about a massive muscle tissue loss which can dramatically slow down your metabolism, weaken you and turn you into nothing more than a “skinny fat person” (that's a person with low body weight because they lost so much muscle, but still holding stubborn fat because they shut down their metabolism). Don't Be Fooled By Water Weight Losses One thing you should also know is that it’s very common to lose 3 - 5 pounds in the first week on nearly any diet and exercise program and often even more on low carb diets. Just remember, its NOT all fat - WATER LOSS IS NOT FAT LOSS! The only way to know if you've actually lost FAT is with body composition testing. For home body fat self-testing, I recommend the Accu-Measure skinfold caliper as first choice. Even better, get a multi site skinfold caliper test from an experienced tester at a health club, or even an underwater (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 exceed 2.0 to 3.0 pounds per week, the probability of losing muscle is extremely high. If
you lose muscle, you are damaging your metabolism and this will lead to a plateau and ultimately to relapse. The Biggest Weight Loss Mistake That Is FATAL To Your Long Term Success Lack of patience is one of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to losing body fat. If you want to lose FAT, not muscle, and if you want to keep the fat off for good, then you have to take off the pounds slowly. (of course, if you want to crash diet the weight off fast, lose muscle with the fat and gain all the fat back later, be my guest) 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. To the producers of these shows, I say SHAME ON YOU! To the personal trainers, registered dieticians and medical doctors who are associated with these programs, I say DOUBLE SHAME ON YOU, because you of all people should know better. These shows are not "motivating" or "inspiring" - they are DAMAGING! They are a DISGRACE! The rapid weight loss being promoted by the media for the sake of ratings and by the weight loss companies for the sake of profits makes it even harder for legitimate fitness and nutrition professionals because our clients say, “But look at so and so on TV - he lost 26 pounds in a week!” Sure, but 26 pounds of WHAT - and do you have any idea what the long term consequences are? Short term thinking… foolish. Do it the right way. The healthy way. Take off pounds slowly, steadily and sensibly with an intelligent nutrition and exercise program like Burn The Fat, measure your body fat, not just your body weight, and make this a new lifestyle, not a race, and you will never have to take the pounds off again, because they will be gone forever the first time. To comment or post your opinions about this article, CLICK HERE
Train hard and expect success, Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS Fat Loss Coach Burn The Fat
PS Actually, there IS one guaranteed way to take off a lot of body weight very quickly. It's a little extreme, I admit, but if you absolutely insist on cutting your body weight as fast as humanly possible, then you may want to read this: How To Lose 20 Pounds In 5 Minutes
About Bodybuilding & Fat Loss Coach, Tom Venuto Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, nutrition researcher and author. His #1 best-selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Tom has written hundreds of articles and been featured in IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Men's Exercise, Men's Fitness, First for Women, The Wall Street Journal and Oprah Magazine. To get more information about Tom's e-book about natural fat loss, visit the home page at: Burn The Fat