Why Some People Lose Weight Faster Than Others- Understanding Differences In Weight Loss Rates
See the video here- Why Some People LOSE WEIGHT FASTER Than Others
So today we’re going to talk a little bit about five reasons
why people lose weight at different speeds.
First off, I’d like to thank everyone for tuning in.
Thank you so much, and do be sure to like and subscribe.
I’m doing my best to make this channel
a one-stop resource for all the valuable information
I’ve been so blessed to have picked up
over the past 31 years, training so many people.
It’s a blessing, and a privilege,
and an art, I’ve learned so much,
and it’s even more a blessing to be able to
pass that on to more people.
And that’s what I’m trying to do here.
So very, very common question,
“Do people lose weight at different speeds?”
And the answer, like I said is yes, they absolutely do.
Now, there are five main reasons why people
tend to lose weight at different speeds.
Differences In Weight Loss Due To Dietary Adherence
And the number one reason,
let’s get it out of the way, is diet.
Dietary adherence trumps everything;
genetics, age, fitness level, experience,
muscle mass, everything.
If someone is 100% on their diet, 100%;
not 85%, not 90%, not 95%, 100% on their diet,
and consistent with their training,
they will be among the ones who will lose weight
as quickly as is humanly possible, naturally.
That doesn’t change, that’s a constant.
Now in one of my videos, I talk about how important diet is.
It’s a video body transformation, what’s most important?
Training or diet? Do be sure to take a look at it.
Do be sure, also, to click on the links
in the segment below, because there’s a link
to one of my blog articles talking about differences
into why people lose weight faster.
Blog articles are really kind of science-based.
Whereas the videos here, are really based on what I’ve seen
over the years with real people.
But the second and very interesting reason
why people seem to lose weight at different speeds,
is what I call “diet and exercise virginity”.
So if someone has never done any kind of dieting whatsoever,
and someone has never done any kind
of exercise whatsoever, as well,
and they go 100% from day one on their diet,
and they’re consistent with their training,
they tend to see results faster than anyone else.
It’s really interesting.
And that when I started training people,
those who came to me who were a little bit more experienced,
I would think that when they were 100% of their diet,
that they would be the ones who were the fast responders.
And interestingly enough, they weren’t.
In fact, especially among women,
it seemed to be that the ones who did
the most dieting in the past,
were the ones who tended to have
the slowest results, compared to those who didn’t.
In fact, I could see a very clear relationship,
inverse relationship, to speed up body fat loss
over the long-term, and much dieting they did in the past.
Which was even more exacerbated
if they included cardio with it.
So the group that tended to lose weight the slowest,
which sounds completely bizarre,
are the ones who did a combination of cardio,
and strict dieting, to reduce their body fat in the past.
The more they did that in the past,
the slower it was for them to lose body fat overall,
compared to someone who didn’t do it.
Now, I’m not a cardio believer.
I don’t do cardio, never done it.
My clients, I advise them not to ever do cardio.
I’ve competed at some of the highest,
natural bodybuilding levels, zero cardio.
I’ve trained clients who have won their pro-cards,
zero cardio, at natural bodybuilding competitions.
And over the years, I’ve been able to consistently
help people get into ridiculous shape,
as lean as is humanly possible,
sub 10%, zero cardio, not a believer in it.
And very often some of my clients will say,
“Well, you know, I want to lose weight faster.
Should I add cardio to my regime?”
And the answer’s always, “No.”
And it’s a big “no”, because I’ve seen over years and years,
that the ones who did cardio, all things being equal,
people who were doing cardio, trying to lose weight,
compared to those who weren’t doing cardio,
trying to lose weight, exercising less,
the ones who are doing cardio,
almost always didn’t see results
as fast as those who weren’t.
Now, the problem is when someone starts
doing cardio, there’s an initial weight loss.
And that tends to inspire them to think,
“Oh, well, I’m losing weight faster,”
but over time it slows down.
In fact, I have clients who have gone against my advice,
and they’ll do the same training as those who are-
as all of my other clients.
But they’ll add on their own little cardio on the side.
If I compare their fat loss,
that those who didn’t do any cardio, all things being equal,
the ones who are more or less the same age,
more or less same fitness level, over time,
the ones who don’t do cardio
are the ones who have the most results.
Now there’s an evolution-based explanation for that.
It’s not something that’s just happening off the bat.
And that our bodies are designed to be able to do
whatever activity we do, because we come from
an evolutionary path where our activity
was responsible for our survival.
Without supermarkets, and restaurants,
we have to literally work, physically, do physical work,
to get all of our food and all your nutrition.
And so our body does everything possible
to be as conservative as possible,
because the food supplies weren’t that high,
and it wasn’t necessarily guaranteed that you always had
a ready supply of calories coming in.
So if it was that your energy supply was really, really low,
our ancestors adapted in a way, whereas their bodies
would slow down, so that they could do the activity,
to increase the activity required to get those calories.
Because if calories are low from hunting and gathering,
as our ancestors would have been, you know,
doing to survive, it means you have
to hunt and gather more to get more calories.
And the way our body does that, without trying
to break down, you know, the energy reserves
that we already have, it slows our metabolic rates down,
so our bodies burn less calories every day
to be able to do the exercise.
And the more activity we do, the more it slows down.
And the same happened to someone who is,
let’s say, restricting their calories,
and doing a lot of cardio; it’s the same process.
Your body doesn’t know it’s 21st century.
Your body doesn’t know that the food that you’re not eating
is something as you’re choosing to do.
All your body knows is, not getting enough food,
but doing all this activity,
so we must be hunting a lot, gathering a lot,
doing something a lot to get food and to survive.
So we need to slow down everything as much as possible.
Again, it sounds counter-intuitive,
but over the years, I’ve always seen it.
It never ceases to surprise me.
Differences In Weight Loss Rates Among Individuals At Lower Body Fat Percentages
The other really important aspect
to take into consideration, in terms of what makes people
appear in this place to lose weight faster
than others, is where they are.
Falling in line with the same idea that our body does
everything to conserve body fat,
because body fat is kind of like our energy reservoir.
It’s our last resort, our last reserves,
that allow us to do activity
when energy supplies are scarce.
If you lose body fat, the more body fat you lose,
the more your body’s going to do everything possible
to conserve and hold onto as much body fat as you have.
So, that being said, someone who’s 25% body fat,
who loses 10 pounds, that can happen,
and will happen a lot faster,
even with a very tiny change in diet,
and increasing exercise levels,
happens like this. (snaps fingers)
Compared to someone who is, let’s say, 12% body fat.
For someone who’s 12% body fat to lose 10 pounds,
that could take a long time,
compared to someone who is 25%, losing 10 pounds.
I think the problem is that it’s apples and oranges.
Now it’s obvious, objectively, when it’s not you
looking at someone else,
and dealing with the emotions of it,
that someone who is leaner,
it’s going to take ’em a lot longer
to have the same amount of weight loss.
It’s objectively obvious, but we aren’t objective beings.
We live in our bodies, and sometimes comparisons,
especially with social media,
and there’s so much bombardment
of everyone’s progress pictures,
and how well they’re doing that and the other,
how much weight they lost.
It can be a little overwhelming sometimes,
and it can trip you up.
It’s important to kind of keep things in perspective.
Apparent Weight Loss Differences Due To Body Fat Percentages
The other important aspect is that, on the reverse side,
if someone has 12% body fat and they, for example,
lose 10 pounds, there’s going to be a remarkable
difference in how they look,
there’s going to be a big difference.
Same with someone who is, let’s say,
10% body fat, losing five pounds.
It’s going to be a remarkable transformation,
as far as visually.
Contrast and compare that to someone
who’s 25% body fat, little bit on the overweight side,
that and the other, and they lose 10 pounds.
They’re not going to see that much of a change
in their bodies.
And very often, people who are on the heavier side,
to someone who’s on the leaner side,
who loses probably even less weight than they do,
but their body’s changed radically in a short space of time.
And they think, “Well, that person is losing weight
faster than I am, what am I doing wrong?”
You’re not doing anything wrong.
It’s just a matter of, you may be losing weight
faster than they are.
You may be losing more weight than they are,
but because of where they are,
you’re going to see it much more pronounced,
as a point where your weight loss-
and small changes of weight loss
make huge differences in your body.
So it’s important to really be aware and stay in your lane.
Remember, it’s a sacred path, it’s your path.
Looking over your shoulder when you’re running
only slows you down.
You got to look at where you’re going,
and stay really focused on your path in going forward.
Now, there are two other issues that seem to make
some differences, in terms of loss of weight over time,
that was significant, looking at my clients over the years.
The Effects of Birth Control Pills, Antidepressants and Hormonal Changes During Menopause on Weight Loss Rates
The first one, among women, is menopause,
and hormonal intervention.
So, very often birth control can cause weight gain.
But I can say that over the years,
that while birth control does seem to slow it down,
slightly, the rate of fat loss among female clients,
I worked, it wasn’t appreciably to a degree
that was really prohibited.
And again, and very important,
whether someone was a beginner,
whether someone was advanced,
whether someone was high body fat or low body fat,
everyone who is 100% on diet, on training,
over time, gets to more or less the same place.
Everyone gets the same place, just takes a little bit longer
for one group to get there, than the other group.
Now, among women who were going through menopause,
interestingly enough,
most women tend to gain weight during menopause.
That’s how it usually goes.
And when menopause happens, that does tend to be,
among most women, a bit of a slowdown
in how quickly they lose body fat,
compared to someone who’s not going through menopause.
All things being equal, and dietary adherence being equal.
But again, the difference isn’t that big;
it’s a slow down, not a stop.
And it just means it’s going to take a little bit longer
to get where you’re going to get,
what you want to get to, as opposed to not getting there,
because you always get there, as long as you keep on going.
That being said, there was a small number of women
who did not experience a slow down in weight gain.
They actually lost weight, faster-
lost body fat faster during menopause.
It tended to be women who were very active.
That tends to be the group that I tended to see.
But again, it’s important to note that,
even though they did, over her time-
and again, we’re not talking about three-month periods,
one-month periods, two-week periods;
we’re talking about years.
Over time, everyone gets to the same point,
more or less, if they stick with it.
And that’s the message I want to really drive home
through all of this.
Yes, people do have differences
in how fast they lose weight,
but at the end of the day, like I said, it’s your path.
And it’s really important
that you don’t give in to comparison.
Comparison is the mortal enemy of your inner peace.
And you have to be kind to yourself.
So be kind to yourself, don’t compare.
Applaud yourself for what you’ve done,
or the fact that you’re making progress.
And keep in mind, have faith in the process,
that if you keep on doing everything you need to do,
you’re going to get there.
And know that I’m always here cheering you on.
Thanks so much for tuning in, and Excelsior!
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