I just had lunch with a coworker and was trying to explain to her my approach with weight loss and weight lifting.
I'm curious if it jives with your own experience and if you agree with the approach. I'm also curious if you have had to explain to people "how to lose weight". (Obviously, it's working for me, so I'm not going to change it )
The way my trainer describes it, and I remember or interpret it:
You bulk up first, ie build muscle, then work your way down from there, this helps the body manage weight loss without it simply being all about restriction and resulting in a full body sag. (My trainer lost 180lbs and doesn't have an ounce of loose skin on him!)
To do this nutritionally, you have to fuel your weight loss. You take your BMR, add your calories burned from exercise (I'm conservative with that number), subtract 300 to no more than 500 calories, and that's how many calories you need to take in). This way the food builds the muscle and the calories don't put you into restriction, resulting in a yo yo effect that dieters experience. You lose weight slowly (2lbs/week) but it's sustainable loss.
I find this puts me at 800 calories more than most diets would put me on. And yes, I yo-yo'd like crazy before this.
Anyway, thoughts?
It seems this shocks most people who just believe "eat less" and move more to lose weight. I tried explaining to her that it works and is better, and I just got looked at like I'm from Mars. However, my body is living proof.... Yet people are married to our rarely successful diet culture, aren't they...?