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Why Is It So Hard to Lose Weight in Midlife? 1

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Why Is It So Hard to Lose Weight in Midlife? 1 WHY IS IT SO HARD TO LOSE WEIGHT IN MIDLIFE? 1 S 1. MEET MY GOOD FRIEND, TEDDY! T 2.THE INESCAPABLE ARITHMETIC OF 3 LOSING WEIGHT - THERE’S NO WAY N AROUND IT. E 3. BUT, I LOVE CHICKEN PARM!!! 6 T 4. YOU MEAN I GET TO EAT 9 WHATEVER I WANT?!?! - HOW N SPLURGING A LITTLE CAN HELP US STAY ON TRACK O 5. "BUT I THOUGHT VODKA WAS FAT- 11 FREE!” - ARE WE DELUDING C OURSELVES ABOUT THE CALORIES WE DRINK? F 6. TWO WORKOUTS A WEEK JUST 14 AIN’T GONNA GET IT DONE. O 7. FEELING SLEEPY... AND FAT? 16 E COULD LACK OF SLEEP DERAIL YOUR WEIGHT LOSS? L 8. OVERCOMMITTED, OVERWORKED, 18 B OVER-SCHEDULED, OVERWHELMED: HOW STRESS IMPEDES WEIGHT LOSS A 9. WE JAMMIN’, I HOPE YOU LIKE 20 T JAMMIN’ TOO! 1 MEET MY GOOD FRIEND, TEDDY! "Sure,” Teddy reported, “I feel much stronger and much more physically capable. But, I’m stuck at 215 lbs. It’s kinda frustrating. It just doesn’t seem to budge even though I’m working out 2-3 times per week, consistently. What do you think, Paul? What should I do? " I was recently chatting with one of our online He lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife and family. members who was discouraged that he hadn’t He’s 48 years old and stands at 5’10”. An avid lost much weight. He’s been training with us golfer, he was a former multi-sport athlete in high through our online platform for about six school and still considers himself “athletic”. He months, but his efforts hadn’t done much to plays golf 1-2 times a week but doesn’t walk the move the needle on his bathroom scale. course anymore due to sore knees and some back pain. He works as a VP in an insurance firm and He’s a good sport and agreed to allow me to puts in long hours, most days 10+ hours. He’s got use his story to illustrate some of the two teenagers at home who are active in school complexities, as well as the simplicities of losing and sports. weight. For privacy sake let’s call this Like everybody I know, Teddy is busy. His primary gentleman, Teddy. stated fitness objective is to feel stronger, less stressed, and “maybe lose a little weight.” He’d Teddy’s dilemma is a common one and I’ve had also like to get back to feeling capable of walking this conversation with no fewer than 253,461 18 holes carrying his golf bag. He feels like he’s people over the past five years. Obviously, I’m about 20 lbs overweight and would love to get exaggerating, but seriously, Jules and I have back to his “playing weight” of 195 lbs. discussions like this at least once a day with somebody. Sound like anybody you know? Yeah, a very familiar story, I’d say I personally know about 150 About 90% of world either wants to or needs to guys like Ted. lose weight. That quest fuels billions of dollars every year in books and magazines, diets and We developed a plan for Teddy to train three supplements, gym memberships and personal times per week for an hour each training session. training, you name it. Seems like a never-ending When he was getting started we spoke about search for some method that might finally make nutrition coaching, but he commented that he us successful shedding unwanted bodyweight. “already knows what he’s supposed to eat and not eat.” So, he opted out. As with most things, the only truly proven method is both blindingly simple and He’s been reasonably adherent to the plan. So, maddeningly complex. why stagnation with his weight loss? I’m going to shed some light on the matter in Well, over the next few chapters, we’ll dig deeper the subsequent chapters of this ebook, using my into Teddy’s situation and unpack all the factors friend Teddy’s story to illustrate our points. influencing why he feels stalled out. Here's a little more about him... 1 WE WILL: Dive into the inescapable arithmetic of fat loss Examine how often Teddy is actually training and how we sometimes deceive ourselves about our true level of output and effort Introduce two influential hormones that work to govern our appetite and satiety, and the effects of exercise on our hormones Explore the challenges we experience with weight loss when we’re sleep deprived Poke fun at some of the persistent and closely cherished myths surrounding weight loss Take a look at what sustainable weight loss actually looks like Propose a very simple of amazingly effective approach that will get Teddy JAMMin’ and can accelerate weight loss by just doing a little bit more every day In the next chapter we’ll dive into The Inescapable Arithmetic of Losing Weight - There’s No Way Around It. Until then, I wanted to let you know that Julie and I want to be a resource to you. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email us at [email protected]. 2 THE INESCAPABLE ARITHMETIC 2 OF LOSING WEIGHT - THERE'S NO WAY AROUND IT. I just don’t get it, Paulie,” Teddy began, “I eat right. I exercise. I cut back on " my drinking. I’m trying to do everything we’ve discussed, getting more sleep, eating all those vegetables and stuff, I even tried that meditation crap that you suggested. But, I just can’t seem to lose any weight! Nothing. I haven’t dropped a single pound. I guess there’s just something wrong with me. Maybe all those techniques just won’t work for me. I mean, yeah, I feel better and my clothes are starting to fit again, but why can’t I lose the weight? Where do we go from here? So, began a recent one-on-one coaching call with our friend Teddy. " You’ll remember that he’s frustrated that he’s not losing much weight even though he’s working out 2-3 times per week for the past several months and trying to be mindful about his diet. So, let’s get to it and examine Teddy’s experience with nutrition and exercise to better understand and explain some of the challenges someone in midlife might encounter when hoping to lose weight. To begin, we’ll need to get a bit mathematical and slightly technical to introduce the inescapable arithmetic of weight loss. The equation is a simple one: When we take in more energy than we put out we create an energy imbalance. That imbalance leads to weight gain. While lots of factors can impact the energy we take in and put out, for the most part, how much food we consume and how active we are, are the primary variables. Mathematically it might look like this: IF ENERGY IN > ENERGY OUT = WEIGHT GAIN OR IF ENERGY IN < ENERGY OUT = WEIGHT LOSS OR WHEN ENERGY IN = ENERGY OUT = HOMEOSTASIS (NEITHER GAIN NOR LOSS) 3 Seems pretty simple and straightforward, doesn't it? Let's dig into Teddy's situation a bit deeper. Based on his height, weight, and age, we can estimate what his daily caloric intake ought to be to maintain his current weight. We start by calculating his Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) which approximates how much energy he consumes by simply being alive. Our bodies expend energy even when we’re sleeping. RMR includes all those necessary biological processes, like our heartbeat, breathing, and brain activity, as well as some minimal movement. Teddy’s RMR works out to about 1850 kcal. Outside of his workouts and the occasional round of golf, he’s not very active. He works at a desk most of the day, drives to and from work, and aside for a little bit of housework and yard work, doesn’t move around all that much. All of that adds up to a total of about 2300 kcal per day to maintain energy balance. If he consumes more than those 2300, his body will store that energy and he’ll gain weight. Likewise, if he consumes less than 2300 kcal on any given day, he would tap into stored energy and theoretically lose weight. I say “theoretically" here because, as simple as the math above seems, there are a number of complexities involved that can confound his weight loss, particularly in midlife. They include Ted’s hormonal balances, the quantity and quality of his sleep, how stressed he is, even the health and diversity of his gut microbiome. We’ll explore each of these factors more fully in future installments.For this discussion, let’s stay focused on the arithmetic: When we use the term “weight loss” we are usually talking about burning off fat. The amount of potential energy stored in 1 lb of fat is 3500 kcal. So, to lose 1 lb of fat we need to create an energy imbalance of 3500 kcal. We often call that energy imbalance a "calorie deficit”. To say it another way, to create a calorie deficit of 3500 kcal, we can consume 3500 kcal fewer than we expend, or expend 3500 kcal more than we consume, or any combination thereof. However we get there, that caloric deficit will, eventually, result in a loss of 1 lb of fat. 4 For fitness and nutrition coaches, the number 3500 is really convenient! It’s easily divisible by seven. With seven days in each week, it works out quite nicely that to burn off 1 lb of fat in a week, we need to create a calorie deficit of 500 kcal per day.
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