“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.