Executive Wellness MBA, Nutrition 101:: Trust Me, You Don't Want to "Lose Weight".

The most common request for a "plan" to a nutritionist is related to weight loss: "I want to lose weight". The problem is that you really don't want to lose weight:  You want to modify your body composition.  Some of your bodyweight, like your bones and organs, is not going to change. You can "lose weight" permanently by having your spleen removed, but that won't change the way you look. Face it, this is going to come down to fat and muscle, and it's a battle that's going to go on for the rest of your life. 

To lose one pound of body fat is the equivalent of 3,500 calories.  To gain one pound of muscle mass is the equivalent of 2,500 calories. That 1,000 calorie difference is the turf battle that is going to go on inside your body. But the reality is that by increasing lean muscle you actually make it easier to lose body fat.

Your resting metabolic rate (or "basal metabolic rate") is the amount of energy your body needs to function.  It is the largest component of your daily caloric requirements, followed by activity (like exercise), and lastly, the "thermic effect of food" (insert the NERD ALERT alarm), which is the energy needed to digest what you eat.  Think of it like your electric bill, the power needed to run your heat in the winter is transparent to you, but when you turn up the heat, the heat displaces the cold. Same thing with muscle, the more you have, the more calories your body burns and therefore it displaces more of the fat.

So what does this have to do with nutrition?  Well, to change your body composition you need to have a food plan that both reduces fat and increased muscle mass. And the ratio of the macronutrients - PRO, CHO, and FFA - you consume will have a direct impact on that composition change. So here's the punch line...Ready for it?...

Low-fat and low-carb "diets" work equally well for weight loss, but to effectively change body composition you also need to increase protein consumption.

This is the key to changing your body composition: Build muscle mass through training and increased protein intake. The increase muscle mass will increase the amount of calories you burn at rest and close the 1,000 gap between losing fat and gaining muscle. Protein is also the most difficult macronutrient for the body to digest, which gives it the highest thermic effect.