How you lose body fat – the answer is C55H104O6+78O2→55CO2+52H2O

ONE of the trickiest questions I’m asked is this: “When somebody loses weight, where does all the fat go?” You know what – I wasn’t too sure myself the first time this cropped up. Luckily, I spend a lot of time studying research papers from around the world so thanks to an article in the British Medical Journal I was able to give a definitive answer. And you might be very surprised when you discover what that answer is.

Almost all the fat we lose is breathed out through our lungs as carbon dioxide. The rest is lost through sweat and urine.

I’m indebted to Dr Ruben Meerman and Dr Andrew Brown from the University of New South Wales in Australia for solving this important mystery – even if they did have to come up with this as their answer C55H104O6+78O2→55CO2+52H2O+energy

Once you understand the link between breathing and losing weight, you see life in a very different light.

How you lose body fat

Here’s the simple science: Every carb you eat, most of the protein and nearly all the fats are converted into carbon dioxide and water. If you don’t get rid of it all, you put on weight.

Now for the maths: The average person consumes almost 8lbs of food and drink a day (3.5kg) and breathes in about 21 ounces (600g) of oxygen.

So if less than 9lbs comes out (that’s 4kg) you’re going to put on weight.

How can you make sure that more comes out than goes in? Sadly, it’s not as simple as eat less and breathe out more. And no pills and potions will help either.

Of course, you’ve got to make sure you eat good, healthy food. That’s a given.

But just as important you need to increase the amount of carbon dioxide you’re breathing out – and the only effective way you can do that is to raise your metabolism by moving your muscles more.

Going for a walk triples your metabolic rate, and (sadly) so will Hoovering and sweeping. Even standing up can double your metabolic rate.

Read the BMJ research findings in full

How you lose body fat

Eating less obviously helps but consider these basic facts: We have to eat to survive and our daily intake has to be burned up. Metabolising 3.5 ounces (3.5oz) of fat intake uses 10 ounces (290g) of oxygen and produces 9.8 ounces (280g) of carbon dioxide plus 3.8 ounces (110g) of water.

Now let’s look at weight loss: To lose 3.5 ounces (100g) of fat a day, you have to exhale 9.8 ounces (280g) of carbon dioxide IN ADDITION to what you’ll breathe out while metabolising your daily food intake.

So you can see you’ve got to double your output of carbon dioxide every day to lose weight. One bit of good news is that we breathe out 7 ounces (200g) of carbon dioxide while we’re asleep at night, so that’s a quarter of your daily target gone before you get up.

But during the day, you’ve got to make sure you make healthier food choices (which is what a Slimpod is designed to do) and then be more active to lose weight. It’s why I swim, work out, play tennis or walk my dogs every morning and it’s why I’m a size 10 after having three children.

I’m luckier than most, I suppose – I’m my own boss so I can decide when I want to exercise and when I want to sit at my desk. But everyone can decide to stand up and walk around the office for a few minutes every hour.

Everyone can decide to talk a walk in their lunch break. Everyone can decide to walk up stairs and not take the lift. And everyone can decide to get moving more before or after work and at weekends.

What can YOU do to move more every day? Let me know by leaving a comment below. I look forward to reading them all – and I know they will inspire others.

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Are your beliefs about yourself sabotaging your weight loss?

THERE are many reasons why people find it hard to stick with healthy eating and good lifestyle habits – and more often than not the biggest problem is what’s going on inside their mind. We all know how powerful the mind is and the stories you tell yourself and the things you believe about yourself can really have a massive impact on your life, both positive and negative.

There is a direct link between our beliefs and our behaviour and of course this includes the way we behave towards food too. If you believe you CAN lose weight your actions every day will reflect those beliefs.

And likewise if you’ve given up believing losing weight is possible, you’ll behave very differently.  This can mean you don’t care any more because you’re resigned to being fat all your life and there’s no motivation.

It can also mean you do care but you are full of fear and anxiety about yet another failure, so your heart isn’t in it.  I come across a lot of people who are full of fear and find it much easier to believe they can’t lose weight and this then becomes a subconscious protection tool so that they don’t get disappointed.

Dr Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University in America, is famous for her research on two different types of mindset, the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

Here’s a really cute video that explains her research in nice simple terms:

The big thing about Carol’s research is that it talks about the connection between what you believe and how that then translates to what you do.

For example, if you believe things about yourself like “I can’t lose weight” or “It’s hard for me to lose weight because I’ve got a disability” or “I’ve got no willpower” – that’s the fixed mindset.

It means you’ll avoid doing things where you might feel like a failure and as a result you prefer to stop the healthy eating regime, and this will inevitably mean you self sabotage.  On the other hand, someone with a growth mindset tends to overcome challenges rather than avoid them and learn from comments and criticism, seeing them as inspirational and even motivational.

One of the limiting things about having a fixed mindset is it causes you to avoid experiences where you might feel like a failure. As a result you have a reluctance to learn and you avoid personal development because it’s too much of a risk.

I notice fixed mindsets nearly every day with people I serve. In so many cases they’ve come to Slimpod when everything else has failed.  They’ve been on 20 or 30 diets and have just given up believing it’s possible to change. They may not even have been that type of person before they started dieting.

So what can be done about this?  How can you change the things you believe about yourself?  How can you kick out the fixed mindset and achieve your goals?

How small daily actions can change your beliefs

Once you’ve identified that you have a fixed mindset and you would like to change the things you believe about yourself, the most important thing is to do something about it and take some action.

You can change your self-limiting beliefs by thinking of yourself as the person you’d like to become and getting there with small actions repeated every day.

When you enjoy the process of getting to the goal, this begins to change the way you think of yourself and will also start the process of changing your perception of yourself at an  identity level.

This is crucial because it’s at the identity level that real change happens.  If you want to lose three dress sizes and become a UK size 12, you MUST believe you can do it and then start becoming the person who IS the size 12.

This will help you to not only believe it’s possible but behave like a size 12 person.  It totally shifts your mindset.

The way of achieving this is to start with small steps.  You definitely need the goal in mind but that big hairy goal is not going to be achieved tomorrow so you can put it to the back of your mind right now.

The important thing is to start with the small steps and enjoy the process.  The process will then become a habit and you’ll gain loads of confidence along the way because you’ll start seeing results and begin to believe you CAN DO IT!

You’ll start to think of yourself as someone who CAN lose weight. So let’s break this down into small chunks, too:

1. Set the big goal/intention.
2. Set yourself a small action each day – this can be to eat protein three times a day, or reduce your full fat sugary lattes from three cups to one cup. Or plan your lunch and dinner in advance so you’re not grabbing the processed convenience junk. Or do a Hiit session three times a week.  Then DO THIS EVERY DAY!
3. The thing that will make a difference is your dedication to the daily practice of your small action.  This will change everything because the process will help you form different beliefs about who you are. It will help you become a person who believes they CAN DO.

Too many people think that the result will define who they are. “If I’m a size 12 it will transform my life and make me happy.” But this is not the case.

It’s your daily behaviour and actions that will change what you believe about yourself and the size 12 person you become. It’s all about focusing on the everyday process of eating healthily rather than constantly worrying about the number on the scale.

Are you a person with a fixed mindset and if so, what small daily actions can you perform to start changing your beliefs?  Do let me know in the comments below –  I look forward to hearing from you!

There are quite a few videos of Carol Dweck on YouTube, by the way. Take a look for yourself:

If you want to delve deeper into Carol’s work, she has a fascinating book which I often dip into called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. You’ll find it on Amazon.

 

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The inspiring story of Drew Lynch, the comedian who stutters

IT was my 20-year-old daughter who introduced me to Drew Lynch. “Mum, my favourite comedian’s doing a show in London this week and I’d love to take you with me to see him,” she gushed. How could I resist? “He’s one of my favourite You Tubers,” she said.  “He’s fabulous and the thing is, he stutters. Really badly.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. A stand-up comedian who stutters? Do I really want to sit through an hour of that, I thought?

Well, I did. And do you know what? It was the most inspiring and emotional hour I could ever have imagined.

Drew Lynch is 26 and looks about 18. A few years ago he was playing softball and was hit in the throat by a ball, damaging his vocal nerves. Worse, he fell backwards and hit his head – and didn’t realise he had suffered concussion.

Without treatment, his brain never recovered from the damage caused by the fall and Drew was unable to speak normally again.

But he looked adversity in the face and vowed he would conquer his disability. Remarkably, Drew Lynch auditioned for America’s Got Talent and on his first appearance on the show he had the audience, the judges and most of America in tears.

Here’s a video of that emotional night…

What’s so powerful about Drew Lynch’s act is that he tackles his disability head-on and shows that there’s no obstacle in life that can’t be overcome if you have the determination to succeed.

That’s a great lesson for all of us. If you think you can’t do something – like lose 20lbs or run a mile – you’ll never get anywhere.

But if you use the obstacle to your advantage it can help you succeed.  When you vow to succeed, even if it’s against all the odds, as Drew did, you can triumph!

If you want something bad enough, you’ll get it!

Drew Lynch didn’t win America’s Got Talent. He came second – which is an astonishing achievement for a man who can hardly put two words together without struggling.

Here’s another video which shows you how has won the hearts of audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

One more thing. Drew has a special helper dog called Stella who is trained to raise the alarm if Drew has breathing problems because of his throat injury.

I took a quick snap of Drew and Stella together as we left the theatre the other night.

My daughter was in tears so I asked her if she was crying because she’d fallen for Drew (who is adorable). “No,” she sighed. “It’s Stella. She’s so beautiful.”

I love them both. Because they are one of the most inspiring couples I’ve ever met.

Please tell me what you think of Drew Lynch’s videos. What lessons can we all learn from people with that kind of courage?

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