At Leanness Lifestyle University our mission statement includes “Evidence-based lifestyle-management for permanent weight control.” That might seem like a mouthful but every word is important.
The first part of our mission statement includes “evidence-based.” For two decades now I’ve kept my nose buried in the real, published, peer-reviewed research. I interview lead authors of the research, authors published in the New England Journal of Medicine and many others, and I make these interviews available for my students.
All this to say we don’t fly by the seat of our pants here. And as part of our mission to bring our students an evidence-based education for permanent weight control I can promise you that you’ll never hear me say any of these six popular pieces of diet guidance I hear from so many others:
1. “You’re not eating enough. That’s why you’re not losing weight.”
– False and said for two reasons; 1). It sells as people overweight would like to hear they need to eat more and 2). The purveyors pitching it are ignorant. Calories are king BUT there is a lot more to it and we get into those details and help our students understand the facts.
2. “Bacon in moderation good but a whole grain in any amount is bad.”
– False and arbitrary although when you read their “supportive” material it sure sounds good. People who falsely believe our paleo ancestors never ate a grain LOVE to hear “bacon good, grain bad” – said in my best caveman voice. It’s just b.s. Our ancestors ate some grains and NO you can’t have as many as you want but you can have them. We show our students how and what.
3. “The heavier you are the more rest days you need.”
– Talk about marketing 101 right? If you’ve been on the couch the last 10 years that’s music to our ears right? It’s just not true. But it also doesn’t mean the best thing to do is jump out of the gates with grueling workouts – not at all. There’s a right way to do it. We meet our students where they are and don’t push beyond what’s legitimately possible.
4. “The first thing we need to do is get you eating about 3,000 calories a day to repair your damaged metabolism from yo-yo dieting and undereating.”
– False, a reduced metabolism occurs for every single person on earth while they are cutting the fat and the RESEARCH does indicate those who have lost substantial weight might have a SLIGHTLY slower metabolism compared to someone who has NEVER lost weight (and weighs the same) but there is no “repairing” of a damaged metabolism because your metabolism isn’t damaged. Eating 3,000 or WHATEVER calories for a few months isn’t going to repair a damn thing but it WILL stop all weight loss. But none of this, in any way, indicates you are screwed. You’re not. It’s science – physiology – and we know how to get it working for you rather than lie to you out of marketing or ignorance to get your hopes up while wasting your time.
5. “Slow and steady wins the race.”
– Sometimes it does. Oftentimes in weight loss it doesn’t. Many programs get their clients to believe they need to be patient and wait weeks or even MONTHS to get their body “adjusted” and “ready” to drop the weight. Here’s the truth – if you’re not losing weight (fat focused by the way) within EVERY 2-3 week period then you are doing the wrong things and you need to adjust. That’s all the patience any of us needs. If you’re more patient than that? You’ve bought into your own or someone else’s bullcrap.
6. “Pay no attention to the scale – it doesn’t understand muscle.”
– Sometimes there’s partial truth in the ignorance or outright lie right? This is one of those. No, the bath scale doesn’t understand fat vs. muscle unless you have a scale that also measured body fat. Even so? Unless you’re a pro bodybuilder training like a pro bodybuilder you WILL see the scale going down, weekly at a minimum, if you are doing everything right – and that includes doing some muscle preserving/adding resistance training. Why? Because fat loss is WAYYYYY faster than adding muscle. Adding muscle is like watching cars rust – it’s SLOW compared to fat loss. So if you aren’t losing weight and you believe it’s because of all that muscle you’re adding? Stop the program you’re doing. What boggles the mind is the number of programs out there who get their clients to believe, after a MONTH or longer, they haven’t lost scale weight because they put on tons of muscle. Good Lord the sham, stupidity or ignorance being perpetrated against the hopeful. I don’t blame the clients. Of course not. I blame the ignorant charlatans.
If you want quick, consistent, lasting results and you’d rather follow a program based on science rather than marketing or ignorance, I’d love to have you in the next Lifestyle 180 class.
http://LLUniversity.com/lifestyle180
Hope to see you on campus soon,
David Greenwalt B.Sc. – Founder
Certified Wellness Coach (ACSM – Wellcoach)
Leanness Lifestyle University
Leanness Lifestyle University
