Nutrition for Weight Loss (and Gain)
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Nutrition can be this big, complicated thing to people. Googling “Diet to lose weight” or “diet to gain weight” will find you in a cesspool of information, listing things like fad diets, specific foods, and “one quick trick that doctors hate”.
Personally, I have completed 5 “bulk & cut” sessions, AKA intentional weight gain followed by intentional weight loss, throughout my life. This is a lot more than the average person ever days. As well, a good chunk of the chiropractic postgraduate program in Canada focuses on nutrition.
In line with my desire to cut the nonsense out of healthcare, fitness & improvement I figure it’s about time to lay out the processes of weight loss & gain as simply as possible.
Lots of disclaimers up first – I won’t be talking about vitamins or minerals. These are very important when discussing diet quality, but would warrant their own blog post. I also won’t be discussing losing or gaining specifically muscle or fat (body composition). As well, we won’t be talking about the socioeconomic factors associated with weight gain & obesity. The obesity epidemic is a very complex beast that can not be solved simply with “eat less” – to think this is a very naïve opinion.
Lastly, before starting any new diet plan, I recommend consulting with a healthcare practitioner of your choosing. Some good ones to consider for nutrition include your GP, a Nutritionist, a Dietician, a Naturopath or an Evidence-Based Chiro.
Firstly, we must define a calorie. A Calorie is the unit of energy needed in order to heat up one gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. As well, we must also define macronutrients (or “macros”). There are 4 different kinds of macros, each with a certain caloric density (or calories/gram). They are: 1. Proteins, at a rate of 4 cal/g 2. Carbohydrates, at a rate of 4 cal/g 3. Fats, at a rate of 9 cal/g 4. Alcohol, at a rate of 7 cal/g.
Weight loss, and weight gain, at its absolute core, is calories in, and calories out. This is also referred to as a “Caloric Surplus” (taking in more calories than you are expending) and a “Caloric Deficit” (taking in less calories than you are expending).
There are approximately 3500 calories in 1 lbs of human body fat. Eating at a 500 calorie deficit for a week (7 days) burns off 3500 extra calories, losing you 1 lbs of body fat. This isn’t entirely accurate (as your body would naturally burn through available carbohydrates stored in the form of glycogen or available glucose), but it demonstrates the idea that a caloric deficit leads to weight loss.
Worth mentioning is a case-study where a nutrition teacher ate a “Twinkie” Diet, consisting only of junk food found within a corner store. His food of choice was fittingly, the Twinkie. On this diet, he managed to lose 27 lbs – because he only ate as many to remain in a caloric deficit during it. On the flip side, a “clean bulk” is intentional weight gain practiced by many different athletes or weight trainers via consumption only of what would be considered “healthy” foods – the staples of which are chicken breast, potatoes, rice, and broccoli. Despite the undeniable healthy nature of these, people on a clean bulk still gain weight because of the sheer quantity of food intake.
How do we apply this knowledge? Firstly, we must calculate our Maintenance Calories. For this purpose, we can look to the Mayoclinic, here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/calorie-calculator/itt-20402304
Once you have filled in your details, including specifics about your age, height, current weight, sex, and activity levels, you will receive your Maintenance Calories – AKA the number of calories we must intake in order to remain at our current weight. From here, we must decided whether we are looking to lose, or gain weight.
If you are looking to lose weight, you will subtract 500 from your maintenance calories. Conversely, if you are looking to gain weight, you will add 500 calories to your maintenance calories. Important to note here is that there is a limit to caloric deficit – if you are female, do not consume less than 1200 calories per day, and if you are male, do not consume less than 1500. Intake less than these will likely lead to a nutrient deficiency, and could compromise your health.
Now that we have our target calorie count, use a calorie tracker! The best tracker I can recommend would be MyFitnessPal. I used this app wayyy back during my undergraduate days, and more recently have had patients successfully lose upwards of 50 lbs tracking with it. The premise is that you type in whatever food you are eating, and the tracker spits back the number of calories within said food, keeping a tally each day. Simple and effective!
The golden rule here is consistency. You must consistently hit your target calories for a period of time until you hit your target weight. This is why a lot of fad diets fail, or why people rebound. Fad diets are usually very restricting to maintain, creating discomfort for those doing them. It’s hard to consistently be uncomfortable – hence the diet is eventually broken and the individual gives up.
To drive this home, you can cheat the numbers that you track, you can cheat others around you, and you can even cheat your own mental state, but you CAN NOT CHEAT YOUR BODY. It knows exactly what and how much you are putting into it. If you have struggled with weight loss in the past, but you’re a “one glass of red in the evening won’t hurt me” – yeah, you’re right. It’s not going to hurt you, but it IS going to mess up your calorie count and therefore it IS going to mess up your consistency and therefore it IS going to mess up your weight loss. There is no arguing this.
I am NOT advocating for not enjoying yourself occasionally. It’s the holiday season and, despite being in the middle of losing weight myself, I fully intend on eating and drinking liberally. However, these days are the exception, and far from the rule.
Regardless of whether you are trying to lose or gain weight, you should be exercising. Physical exertion helps to increase weight loss by increasing your calorie expenditure. This widens the gap in your caloric deficit, hence increasing the weight lost. As well for weight gain, exercise helps to facilitate the growth of lean muscle mass, ensuring that the weight you are putting on isn’t just fat. Keep in mind however, with the extra calories expended, you may need to eat slightly more to compensate. Important to note is that exercise is an accessory to weight changes in all cases – it is not possible to “outwork” a bad diet.
To summarize weight gain & loss in the healthy, uncomplicated individual:
1. Calculate your maintenance calories
2. Set your target (add or subtract 500 cals)
3. Include some activity
4. Honestly track your intake
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