Health and Fitness
Fat Loss Isn’t Complex, But We Make It Mysterious.
Learning from five mistakes that turned into powerful habits to sustainable weight management solutions
There is no mystery to fat loss.
Frankly, I have regrets about my approach to fat loss, which I confused with weight loss. With paralysis of analysis, I made it so complex that it became a mammoth task in my health and fitness journey in my younger years.
Believing every published piece in nutrition, health, and fitness journals, I ruined my metabolism and suffered a lot unnecessarily. I feel guilty about wasting my money on weight loss programs, consulting, and expensive supplements.
In hindsight, fat loss is not so complex and not mysteries. The rules decisively became crystal clear after years of investigation, observations, trials, and making mistakes. I documented my experiences in multiple articles, blog posts, and book chapters over the years.
My purpose is to pass along my hard-learned lessons to those who may need insights from the experience of others who suffered.
I assumed scientists don’t make mistakes. When I saw obese scientists and medical doctors, my perception changed.
They are mortal beings like us. I learned better lessons from centenarians. Health has nothing to do with theory but much to do with listening to the body and taking corrective actions.
This article will touch on only five critical points that played a notable role in my fat loss journey. I simplify these diffident yet game-changer principles hoping they can give valuable perspectives to those who need fat loss for various reasons.
My key focus is physical and mental health gain. Of course, some people do it for aesthetic reasons, and I respect their choice. There is nothing wrong with that aspiration. Everyone deserves a fantastic body.
Here are the five mistakes which delayed losing fat and having a defined body in my younger years. Fixing these mistakes made the most impact on my fat loss journey. They are in no particular order, and each of them was critical for me. I look at physical and mental health holistically.
Body and mind are connected like yin and yang. We call it psychosomatic. All these points revolve around balance, as Health Is All About Homeostasis.
An Outline of Five Mistakes with Relevant Lessons
Mistake 1 — Depriving Quality Sleep
Due to my focus on my career and studies, I neglected sleep. I did not know how critical deep and restorative sleep is in burning belly fat. In addition, I had no idea about the role of cortisol in tapping into visceral fat.
By ignoring sleep and rest, I unreasonably increased my cortisol. I was incognizant of the importance of slowing down for fat loss, which was essential for physical and mental health.
Sleep deprivation not only increased my chronic stress but also inflamed my body, causing unnecessary bloating and distension. As a result, after sleepless nights, my belly was bulging even though I was losing weight in other body parts. The adverse effects of insomnia on our physical and mental health are incredible.
Unfortunately, cortisol was causing me to lose my valuable muscles. Understanding the importance of this critical hormone gave me practical perspectives.
As soon as I fixed my sleep issues, I experienced a remarkable improvement in losing belly fat. Nowadays, I prioritize sleep over my work and studies. My goal is at least to get eight hours of restful sleep. However, I sometimes sleep nine hours, especially after heavy workouts.
Mistake 2 — Delaying Fat Adaptation
My biggest mistake was believing in the frequent feeding hoping the thermic effect of food would burn extra calories and keep me in form. This was touted by nutritionists and even medical doctors in those days.
I regret believing these baseless claims without challenging them. Furthermore, none of them even touch on the dramatic effects of insulin, only focusing on calories.
I wish I knew calories had nothing to do with fat loss.
Eating six meals a day was a disaster for my body. With every main meal and three snacks in between, I was unknowingly causing insulin spikes which delayed my fat adaption.
The body was using the accessible energy from calories of these frequent meals, mainly carbs. This irrational regime was not giving my body a chance to recover.
When I cut the snacks, my hunger switch was turned off. My leptin resistance disappeared. My mood improved. Later learning about time-restricted eating was a game-changer for me.
As soon as I skipped a meal, I noticed a remarkable change in weight management. As confirmed by DEXA scans, I lost actual fat, not just fluids and muscles. In hindsight, being fat-adapted was the best state to manage my weight sustainably.
Mistake 3 — Overdoing Exercise, Especially Cardio
I was always a fitness freak, believing that more exercise equated to a healthier body. Besides, I thought that exercise was the best tool to lose weight.
I still love physical training, but my views on unbalanced workouts significantly changed after understanding the role of cortisol in our health and weight management.
Running gave me a lot of pleasure. I was part of a running group. It became a ritual rather than a health matter. This temporary pleasure got me hooked on this electrifying exercise which was ruining my health secretly. I thought that the more I run, the more calories I burn without being aware of the hormonal effects of excessive cardio.
When I stopped excessive cardio, especially running, my body thanked me for reducing my chronic stress and rewarded me by tapping into belly fat as an energy source.
This improvement was because of the optimized cortisol hormone. Learning about the effects of this hormone was the best investment in my fitness and health education.
Nowadays, I do moderate exercise, including calisthenics and weightlifting. These combined exercises gave me a better hormonal profile and contributed to burning fat sustainably.
As a bonus, I keep my defined belly even after 50. Learning about the value of activating autophagy and mitochondrial health catalyzed this significant achievement.
Mistake 4 — Eating Wrong Foods
I read many books and papers about diet as I knew the importance of nutrition in health and fitness. Those resources prescribed specific diets based on epidemiological studies, which had nothing to do with my body.
They represented a large group of people with generalizations without considering many individual factors such as genetics and personal metabolism.
By advice from these misleading papers, I naively excluded healthy fats and replaced them with easy carbs, which imbalanced my hormones.
I drank many cups of freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices which my body saw as toxic. I ridiculously supplemented with fiber harmed my body.
I followed some fad diets by eating restrictive food that my body did not like. They were suitable for some people but not for me.
I did not know the importance of a customized diet meeting my health profile. Lack of knowledge and awareness, coupled with wrong assumptions, caused me a lot of digestive issues.
So-called healthy food was not desirable for the body. They increased my digestive stress, causing a leaky gut and inflammation. When the body is under extreme pressure, it creates inflammation to protect against the damage.
However, excessive inflammation delays burning fat. When I used an elimination diet removing offending food, I experienced a remarkable improvement in my health and fitness.
An elimination diet became a catalyst for sustainable weight management.
Mistake 5 — Metabolic Damage
This item sums up the previous ones as it relates to all key points. I was ignorant about the role of blood sugar and insulin in our metabolism.
It was hardly mentioned in the nutritional resources consumed on those days. Many of them kept emphasizing caloric deficit and the thermal effects of food.
My digestive system produced a lot of glucose and turned them into fat molecules due to eating frequent meals. It pumped more insulin to cope with this excessive sugar in the bloodstream.
With frequent and extreme insulin spikes, my body became insulin resistant.
My muscles and organs couldn’t accept more sugar, and it produced more insulin, damaging my metabolism at a relatively young age. Suffering from metabolic syndrome was not fun.
Learning about the effects of blood sugar and insulin was an excellent starting point. However, understanding metabolic syndrome, especially the risk factors such as a large belly, was eye-opening for me.
Addressing the risks of metabolic syndrome played a substantial role in improving my health and fitness. As I mentioned in this story, fixing metabolic issues can be the best contributor to our health, fitness, and longevity,
Conclusions and Takeaways
We all make mistakes. Making mistakes is part of our journey in this life. However, learning from errors reflects our wisdom.
By making these five mistakes and correcting them using powerful and proven tools, I put myself on the right path in my health and fitness transformation.
I am grateful for my efforts and investment in unlearning bad habits and gaining new habits to serve my purpose.
I documented my seven big mistakes caused by my nativity, believing in false information. However, fixing my inaccuracies helped me solve 12 debilitating health conditions.
I feel blessed; hence pass along my experience and observations considering obesity turned out to be a global pandemic.
I hope these hard-learned lessons can give you valuable perspectives and inspire you to do your own research and experiment safely to find your ideal lifestyle habits.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
Please note that this story is not health advice. I shared my reviews, observations, and perspectives for information purposes only. If you have any disease symptoms, please consult your healthcare professionals.
I explained the sugar paradox in the attached article.
I gained a vision of humanity winning the battle against diseases in the 33rd century in a lucid dream. I hope my vision is realized one day so sufferings end on this planet.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
Here are sample health improvement articles for new readers:
Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease and Strokes, Liver Cancer, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, Brain Health, Brain Atrophy, Dementia, Depression, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Cardiovascular Health, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Autoimmune Conditions, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholestrol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, and other Major Diseases.
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Disclaimer: Please note that this post does not include health or professional advice. I documented my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives only to provide information.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
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