Site Search

Under Weight and Over Fat

By Robert DeWees

As a seasoned fitness professional, I've worked with thousands of people from all walks of life like business folk that work steady 9-5 jobs and nurses that seem to be up for 3-4 days in a row. I have seen stay-at-home moms (and now dads) who struggle with the balance between nurturing their families and nourishing themselves. Even recently I have had several young high school and college students approach me for help – losing massive amounts of weight for self-esteem. However, my biggest challenge comes from an innocent and seemingly fit source:

Maggie's Story

Maggie sits before me in my secluded abode I call an office. Her brown bubbly eyes scan my meekly decorated walls – sayings like "Lifestyle – it's not about the food" and my personal favorite "To Blessed to Be Stressed" surround and support her. During the intake interview, I discover that Maggie has lost a tremendous amount of weight – she's dropped over 80 pounds in about 6 months. "I joined ________ and was really strict on my food!" Maggie boasts. "But I can't seem to get these last 15 pounds off…"

My heart begins to sink – thinking about the trials, challenges, and re-education she would endure. Forcing a smile, I ask "What did you do for exercise to lose the weight?" The next ten seconds seemed like eternity while I cringed in anticipation…. "I walked a lot on the treadmill and road my bike for hours, I was up to 2 hours a day!" she exclaimed with excitement. I paused while I studied her body language, looking for insight in to which direction to go, is she ready for the truth? Not yet…

In a fitness interview, the professional trainer is looking for two things: What is your goal? And what is your area of weakness? A really good integrated program will include Nutrition, Cardio, and Weight training advice. Maggie was eating salads for lunch, a good sensible dinner and nothing after 7 pm of course… (hmmmm – that's a whole other article) and she continues with her daily 2 hour-walking routine which she has done for over a year now and gotten 'really good results'. The weight training, not so much. "I'm not interested in bulky muscles, - I just want to tone up and lose a little around here" Maggie motion her hands around her mid section.

"Alright, Maggie. Now where going to get some baseline statistics. I'm going to take some measurements we can use to establish your starting point today. That way, you and I will have a better idea of where you can go and develop a reasonable plan for getting there." – My typical lead-in….

Out comes the steering-wheel-looking device. Mr. OMRON HBF-306 Fat Loss Monitor. I enter the stats:

5'6 inches… 154 pounds….age … being polite we will say 40ish. Now most people, upon looking at Maggie would assume she's pretty fit… i.e. not overly-fat or obese. Understanding that 65% of Americans are overweight …i.e. our friends we work with and are around all the time… we judge ourselves against them --- and can safely say we're pretty healthy, right?

The machine blinks and Maggie asks with a puzzled look on her face, "I have some numbers here….35.6…. What does that mean?"

35.6 percent body fat – before I can continue I hear "oh, is that good?" I brace myself internally and swallow hard, "That means that you have about 54 pounds of fat mass; that is stuff that isn't doing anything for you. For a person of your age, being under 21% would be considered good." Thus begins my relationship with Maggie, and Donna, Bruce, Wendy…

Diets Don't Work

There are numerous reasons why diets are so detrimental to our health but here are a few you probably didn't know. If you maintain a caloric deficit for long periods of time, your body begins to work against itself. Three things happen so that your body can preserve mass:
  1. Increase in hunger & metabolic efficiencies – responsible for being cold & 'cranky'
  2. Decrease in metabolism – responsible for feeling lethargic or 'tired' all the time
  3. Loss in Lean Body Mass – decreases your fat-burning engine so you gain weight faster next time
This is the classic state of being UNDER-FED!

Mysteries of the Fat Burning Zone

Back in the 80's you couldn't walk by a piece of cardio equipment without a huge Heart-rate Training Zone Chart posted either on the wall or even on the equipment itself. These charts where designed to encourage the outrageously out-of-shape folks that never exercised a day in their life, to get up off their butts and move! It was very encouraging to those who wanted to lose weight to know that they didn't have to 'work' that hard to begin to lose weight. The idea being that some movement, any kind of movement is better than none at all. The notion that I could simply walk in my 'fat-burning' zone which is about 40-50% of my predicted maximum heart-rate and be most efficient at burning fat; that wiggly stuff everyone wants to lose around their mid-section, inspired the whole nation to participate in the Presidential Fitness Campaign..(Not). Remember those thousands of people I've helped in the past 15 years…. Yeah, about 80% of them where under-weight and over-fat from walking.

Don't get me wrong, the health benefits for walking is incredible, but one would hope that after some time (like 3-4 weeks) that one could progress to higher levels of cardio fitness. Here's what happens if you don't.

You're body get's better at storing fat! Since all you want to do is burn fat, you body creates an environment to give you all the fat you want to burn, by storing more of it.

Combine that with losing muscle (the very thing that burns fat) and lowering metabolic output – that means that those same 300 calories you thought you burned according to the treadmill; wasn't really 300 calories because your body is trying to do what? Preserve body mass.

The World Hasn't Ended

If you find yourself in a similar predicament, here are a few things you can do to reverse this effect.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs from Dr. John Berardi and his work, Precision Nutrition.
  1. Eat every 2-3 hours – this gives you a steady stream of nutrients throughout the day without over feeding.
  2. Include a lean source of complete protein every time you eat – it is easier to meet daily protein requirements for health (not to mention active adults trying to change their body composition) if you spread it out throughout the day.
  3. Eat fruit and/or vegetables with each feeding opportunity – this is the big empty spot in a typical North American diet.
  4. Include 'healthy' fats back into our diets – these would include oils from, mixed nuts, avocados, fish oils, flax seed, and omega-3's.
  5. Eat carbohydrates (those that aren't a fruit or vegetable) when you deserve them – this means your pasta, breads, rice, and potatoes should be eaten the meals following your intense workout. This is when your body is best equipped to utilize carbohydrates for promoting health.
  6. Zero calorie beverages like water and green tea – to make things simple: it is best we eat our calories rather than drink them.
  7. Eat whole foods whenever possible – this is referring to pre-packaged chemically preserved foods versus the fresh organic stuff; and real food vs. astronaut food (e.g. protein shakes, smoothies, bars, meal- replacement drinks etc…)
Our bodies are pre-programmed for success. Unfortunately for many of us, we running the wrong program – (Anyone remember learning BASIC or FORTRAN in school?). Too much emphasis has been placed on the simplicity of Calories-In and Calories-out as our working theoretical model for losing weight. Well, with the obesity rate constantly climbing in our country, I think it is safe to say that this model doesn't explain or predict our desired outcomes – a lean fat burning machine that we can maintain with our hectic schedules and lifestyle choices.

I propose a sensible eating strategy like the one described above from our good doctor, Dr. John Berardi, and a training program that uses cardio as a means to increase our heart capacity (not for burning calories) so that our intense weight training sessions can increase our muscle mass – our FAT BURNING MATERIAL – this means changing our metabolism not only while we're exercising but while we are walking, talking, eating and even, get this SLEEPING!

About the Author:

Robert DeWees is an ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) certified Health & Fitness instructor and a NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) Corrective Exercise Specialist with a B.S. in Exercise & Sports Medicine. You may contact him here.