“I’ve been doing LCHF for several weeks now and have only lost 2kgs, I’m getting very discouraged although I do notice my clothes getting looser. How long before my body starts to burn fat?”
We get asked questions like this one quite regularly here at Edify and in my reply to one of these emails today, I thought it best to add it as a blog post for others to read as well.
To have the most success with your overall health, nutrition and weight loss, people need to completely change their way of thinking about “diet”, and these three things are some of the most important concepts to wrap your head around to have the best success.
LCHF isn’t a “Diet” but a “Lifestyle”.
The most important thing, I believe, about LCHF (or any of the low carb variations) is that it is a lifestyle change, not just a weight loss diet. I have been eating LCHF since May 2013 (18 months) and I came to the conclusion after about 3 months that “I will be eating this way the rest of my life” and I still believe this today. I have no intention of ever changing from cutting down on carbs, cutting out wheat/grains, all processed foods, soy products and vegetable oils. There is a reason it is called the “Weight Loss Industry”. It’s big business to keep people gaining and losing weight because these large corporations make squillions of dollars in both directions. Understanding that nutrition is “for life”, not just “for now” is very important.
Weight Loss shouldn’t be the primary goal.
Often people get hung up on “Weight Loss” and they should be more focused on overall good health. I have said to people many times that the key goals with nutrition are to feed your body well, improve your overall health, feel better, and to have more energy. Once you start feeding your body the best fuels you can (eg, low carb, high fat foods) the body can begin to repair itself from (often) decades of poor nutrition and damage from the previously recommended Low Fat diets. Weight loss is just a bonus that comes with your body improving and functioning correctly. Some people lose weight quickly, some people lose it a lot slower (and a few people even find they put a little weight on when they start). Allow your body to do its thing. Let the body shed weight when it needs to…. it knows what it’s doing! Your body may not want to put effort and energy into losing weight just yet while is repairs and improves. So long as you are feeling better, healthier and more energetic, that is the most important things by far. Weight loss, when it comes, is just an added bonus.
Never go by the scales alone.
Newsflash!!! Your bathroom scales lie. No, they aren’t giving you incorrect weight readings, or telling you your bum doesn’t look big in those pants, but they are experts in the art of deception. As mentioned above, depending on what your body wants and needs to do to repair itself and get healthy, will depend on what the scales tell you. Your body could be putting on muscle for example. Muscle weighs more than fat, so you could be losing fat and it doesn’t show on the scales. If you are noticing your clothes are getting looser, or you are using a smaller notch on your belt etc, that is a great thing regardless of whether the scales tell you otherwise. Always take your measurements and use those as your main goal, not the scales.
Hi – I just found your blog, excellent reading! The world sure is changing with so many knowledgable people spreading the low carb word! I’ve been low carb now for over three years and as you said, once your done it for awhile you know that it’s the way you will eat for the rest of your life. That is definitely the case for me and my partner.
I have not lost any weight after six months of changing my life style but have found error from my behalf, I have had carrots, beans, peanuts so I constantly check my list and correct my error but still have faith and understand this is a huge change in the way I have been eating for years but will persist, I have joined the gym from Monday to give me an added boost but not quitting as I enjoy the meals more they are a lot more tasty and a great deal of fun xxxx
We are members of a growing FB community called Banting Downunder (LCHF in NZ and OZ).
A few people have asked about Blogs etc so have pointed them in this direction.
Great site well done
Over the past four months I have made a number of changes to my diet (eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, juicing etc) and lost weight quite easily. A few weeks ago I started on LCHF and felt great almost immediately. After about a month I checked the scales – no weight loss over a whole month! OMG what is happening? I wondered.
I felt quite discouraged but consoled myself with the fact that my clothes were loose on me, I had increased energy, I was sleeping better, more mental clarity, more emotional stability, no hunger etc. Still, I felt discouraged. Then I read about how to measure your fat composition by floating in a swimming pool and to my surprise, I sank to the bottom. This was the encouragement I needed to keep going (as if I didn’t have enough reasons already) because I now had the proof I needed that I was loosing fat.
This gave me the boost I needed and I realised that somehow I had become fixated on weight loss and was not able to see the “bigger picture” of “body recomposition”. LCHF is, I believe both anabolic and catabolic. Our body melts away the fat while it rebuilds itself and so weight can be fairly stable even as we gain muscle definition, become leaner, fitter and healthier.
Oh yes, and I have noticed my eyesight is getting better. I am now putting my glasses to one side more and more often for some tasks (like typing now) after wearing them constantly for 30 years.
P.S. After six weeks or more on LCHF, the weight has finally started to fall away gradually.