I get it… all of these things go together, right?

Why have all of these separated?

They are all the same, no?

No. They are not all the same and that does matter. Sometimes understanding something as simple as terminology can change how we look at things. And as somebody who has made it through losing the weight and continues to keep it off… words matter. Your mindset matters. You’re going to fight your mind the entire way through. I will try to give you as much as I can here to help you fight that fight.

Let’s start by breaking each one down…

Diet

diet

noun (1) di·​et ˈdī-ət 

• food and drink regularly provided or consumed
• habitual nourishment
• the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason
• a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight
• something provided or experienced repeatedly

verb dieted; dieting; diets

• to cause to take food : FEED
• to cause to eat and drink sparingly or according to prescribed rules
• to eat sparingly or according to prescribed rules

adjective

• reduced in or free from calories
• promoting weight loss (as by depressing appetite)

noun (2)

• a formal deliberative assembly of princes or estates
• any of various national or provincial legislatures

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diet

If you read some of my other blogs, I have a thing for words, definitions, and even where the word comes from. This one here is interesting. and by interesting, I mean more in the way that we have applied it. We have heavily associated this word with a program to lose weight. But if you read through some of the things that are included in Merriam-Webster’s link above, you will see that there were different ways that this word was applied. In middle and early modern English, this was more about a “way of living”. And in Greek, there’s the word “diaita” which was originally from a verb that meant “to lead one’s life”. These bring a different light to the word. At least for me, it does. It makes it less about the automatic thought of restriction and more about my choices.

Weight Loss

To fully understand this one… we need to understand what weight actually is and what our body’s weight is made of.

When you stand on a scale, it measures the gravitational force exerted on your mass, providing you with a reading of your weight in kilograms or pounds. Your mass is all of these things.

1. Water: The human body is composed of a significant amount of water, which makes up about 50-70% of an adult’s total body weight.
2. Muscle: Muscle tissue is denser and heavier than fat tissue. Therefore, people with higher muscle mass will typically weigh more than those with less muscle mass, even if they appear leaner.
3. Fat: Adipose tissue or body fat is also a significant component of body weight. Fat tissue is less dense than muscle tissue but still contributes to the overall weight.
4. Bone: Bone mass is also a factor in body weight. The skeletal system provides structure and support to the body.
5. Organs: The combined weight of all the organs in the body contributes to overall body weight. This includes the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and others.
6. Connective Tissue: This includes tendons, ligaments, and cartilage, which also have weight.
7. Blood: The blood volume in the body also contributes to weight.
8. Other Substances: This includes things like minerals, glycogen (stored carbohydrate), and other substances present in the body.

Ok… so weight loss? It means you are losing some of those things LOL. I know. Super sciencey!

Fat Loss

Ready… ready… like weight loss but focused on losing fat. I KNOW! It’s earth-shaking information LOL! But really when we start to make these differentiations, it can definitely help us.

I mean, do we want to lose weight overall and see a change on the scale? Sure. But out of that weight that you lose… are you willing to lose some of your muscle mass?

And that’s why the difference matters.

And the problem here is that we generally don’t have a very accurate way daily to measure fat loss. It’s usually the reason that as coaches we lean on bodyweight scales because they’re in every or they can be in every home.

For the record, Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) is one of the most accurate ways to be able to measure body fat. It can also provide information about bone density and muscle distribution throughout the body. Some other ways to measure body fat that may not be as accurate would be underwater weighing (hydro densitometry), and air displacement plethysmography (Bod Pod). After that, you may have better access to these, but please note that there are different levels of accuracy and margins of error. But you can possibly have a better understanding of your body composition through bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), skin calipers, and 3-D body scanners. And honestly, there are so many different caveats to all of these different things and how they’re done and the types of machines and the person working it and… I could really go on and on here.

So anything that we do use… We truthfully need to take the just as a number there’s a really good chance that it might be off and… it might be off by anywhere from maybe 1-5%… maybe more. when we start thinking about body fat percentages, sometimes 5% is a big difference when we look at numbers personally.

The best thing that I can say when it comes to best understanding, fat loss and the bodyweight scale… we’re just looking for a comparison from week to week. are you trending up, staying the same, or trending down? That’s all that really matters.

Calorie Deficit

I saved this one for last because… well, it’s simple, but it’s not. it all depends on how in-depth you wanna go. And I find that this one is better to help understand why we do what we’re trying to do when it comes to fat loss.

The basics, however…

Calories In (Food Intake) < Calories Out (Energy Expenditure) = Calorie Deficit

Pretty simple, right? Unless… do you know what a calorie is?

A calorie is simply a unit of energy. But if you want to get more accurate… it is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius at a pressure of one atmosphere. For what we are talking about here, calories are used to measure the energy content of food and drinks.

Calories In (Food Intake)

Lots more info here: Macronutrient Food Guide

• Macronutrient Energy Values:
  • Carbohydrates: 1 gram = 4 calories
  • Protein: 1 gram = 4 calories
  • Fat: 1 gram = 9 calories
  • Alcohol: 1 gram = 7 calories

Calorie Out (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)

1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): BMR refers to the energy our body needs for essential functions like breathing, circulating blood, and maintaining organ function while at rest. We have limited control over our BMR, as it is largely determined by factors like age, gender, and genetics.
2. Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT): EAT accounts for the energy we expend during intentional exercises, such as going for a run or hitting the gym. While we have some control over our exercise activities, they typically represent a smaller portion of our total daily energy expenditure.
3. Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): This is the energy our body uses to digest and process the food we eat. While we have minimal control over this aspect, certain foods, such as protein-rich foods, can slightly increase the TEF.
4. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT): NEAT encompasses the energy we burn through non-exercise activities, such as walking, cleaning, gardening, or fidgeting. Unlike EAT, NEAT is highly influenced by our daily lifestyle choices and habits, and we have significant control over it.

Where to focus? Protein, Preferences & Awareness

When we’re looking at fat loss as a whole, it can get very overwhelming very quickly. There’s a lot of information out there, but these three things… these are some of the best places to start.

For the first one on this list, I highly recommend visiting the above-mentioned blog on macronutrients, or below you will find tons of additional resources.

But seriously… these three. They are the three things that have stayed true for me through every single strategy and phase that I have gone through during my own weight loss, maintenance/recomposition, and muscle-building phases.

1. Adequate protein to help with hunger management
2. Personal dietary preferences
3. Self-monitoring of food intake

“Ensuring that a diet contains adequate protein may also help to prevent an increase in the drive to eat. In addition, a dietary intervention that is tailored to a person’s dietary preferences (whilst still aligning with nutritional recommendations), may also improve adherence. For this reason, government-based dietary guidelines are a very useful tool to use when tailoring a dietary intervention, as they are intended as population approach that are designed to be adapted to different dietary, cultural and cost preferences. Encouraging individuals to self-monitor their food intake has also been shown to improve the success of weight loss attempts and maintaining dietary changes overtime.”

PMID: 28696389

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5618052/

Finding a Way Through Fat Loss: Tracking Energy Intake

Whenever we talk about tracking energy intake or self-monitoring food intake, people immediately think about tracking calorically through weighing and different apps that provide the ability to track calories and macro nutrients. But you don’t have to track food that way to lose weight. It’s a helpful tool, but not the only one. Fat loss boils down to consuming less than you burn.

Different tracking methods suit different situations and people though.

Sometimes you need a tool for portion control, other times you don’t.

Mindful eating habits, like eating slowly, savoring food, and choosing wisely, can aid weight loss.

However, some struggle with understanding “just enough.” 

Really the best way through is learning different ways to do this so that you have different tools to use in different moments that make sense to you. There is no right way. There is only a right way for you.

For more info, check this out: Ways of Tracking Food Consumption & Its Effectiveness for Weight Loss

Additional Resources

• A Guide to Protein for Weight Loss
• Good Eats Recipe Index
• Healthy Grocery Shopping on a Budget
• Grocery & Convenient Store Finds
• “Is this food good or bad?”
• Mindful Eating & Food Environments for Weight Management
• Fail Forward: Dealing with Setbacks

Quick Reference