BY ERNIE MEDINA, JR.
ESUS SAID SOME paradoxical things that left many people scratching their heads. Things like: "Lose your life to find it," "The least is the greatest," and "The first will be last, and the last first."
If obesity had been a problem in those days, I'm sure He would have said something just as paradoxical: "If you want to lose weight, you must gain it."
"What? He's got to be kidding. He must be a quack," those hefty, well-to-do Pharisees might have muttered to themselves.
That's the response I get every time I say my "gain weight to lose weight" mantra to counselees. But I truly believe that Jesus, being the Creator of our bodies and the Great Physician, would agree.
Fads and Gimmicks
Gaining weight is the last thing you want to do, much less hear about it in any weight loss solution. Losing weight is the number one New Year's resolution made--and broken--every year. Everywhere you turn--TV commercials, printed ads, signs on telephone poles, spam e-mail--you can find the latest and greatest hoax cure for losing weight. In the United States we're spending as much as $33 billion dollars annually on our obsession to lose weight.
Many try to lose weight for aesthetic reasons, and there are sound medical reasons that others need to drop a few pounds. Numerous chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, orthopedic problems, hypertension, heart disease, and even cancer, are related to obesity.
Have you tried the weight loss gimmicks to remedy these problems? Even though they help melt pounds fast, it is the wrong weight that is lost. You may have experienced "yo-yo weight loss"--lose 30 pounds and gain back 40. What is actually happening with fad diets and the yo-yoing of your weight is loss of mostly muscle and water; later, fat is gained in its place. No wonder frustration comes with trying to lose fat!*
So how do you lose the fat? Building or toning muscles is the key for successful fat loss and long-term maintenance. By focusing on gaining muscle, your body loses excess fat. In contrast, quick-fix weight loss methods can cause muscle loss and actually program your body to store fat!
Building muscle is important to shedding the pounds because our metabolism is directly connected to the amount of muscle we have (metabolism has to do with the calories burned to keep our body alive and accounts for the calories we burn each day). A typical bodybuilder has to consume anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 calories a day just to keep all that muscle that they have worked so hard to build.
Missing Muscle
In order to be successful for the long haul, remember that the key is to focus on gaining muscle weight. By doing this, you will lose excess fat and keep it off.
There are many reasons that we don't have the amount of muscle needed to keep us from gaining excess fat. A history of frequent starvation and fad diets that promise quick weight loss is one reason. Also, as we get older, we start to lose muscle. This process may start in your early 30s. It's not surprising that the most active seniors are the ones who have incorporated strength training into their regular exercise.
Inactivity is another reason for muscle loss. As with your bones and brain, if you don't use your muscles, you'll lose them. Think of the person who wears a cast on their arm for several weeks. What is that arm like when the cast comes off? It's shriveled, atrophied, from disuse. Worse yet, think of those who are in comas, lying in bed for several months or even years. Their bodies are like those of much older individuals all because of inactivity.
You may be thinking that because you exercise, you're OK. Unfortunately, while walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, and other forms of aerobic or cardiovascular activities are good for the heart muscle and general health, they are not enough when it comes to our muscles. That's why you need to do some form of strength training in addition to aerobic activity.
I can hear some of you pressed-for-time readers saying, "Great! Now he's telling me that I have to do more exercise." The good news is that doing as little as two 15-minute sessions per week can get you all the benefits you need for your muscles.
Dump the Scales
Forget about ideal body weight and your body mass index. Quit weighing yourself and get rid of your scales. Why? Because all of these do not account for the fact that muscle weighs more than fat; if you're focused on gaining back the muscle that you've been losing, these parameters won't accurately reflect your progress and could make for a very discouraging journey.
Here's an example: A patient came in for a follow-up appointment after three months of eating more healthfully, jogging four times a week for 30 minutes, and lifting weights twice a week for 15 minutes. But she was depressed when she arrived. Despite admonitions not to weigh herself on her scale at home, she noted that she had lost a total of only eight pounds since starting her healthier lifestyle.
Even though her clothes were looser-fitting, and she had even dropped a dress size, all she could focus on was her measly eight-pound loss in three whole months. But how did she really do? After analyzing her body fat percentage, we saw that in fact she had lost almost 27 pounds of fat and gained 19 pounds of lean mass (five pounds of that was actual muscle, 14 pounds represented water and bone weight). Now how do you think she felt at the end of the appointment?
Women are especially hesitant to start strength training, fearing that they will bulk up to some grotesque size. But rest assured that without the right genetics, hours of training per day, and drugs, it's highly unlikely that you'll attain that size and bulk on two 15-minute sessions a week.
Get on Track
To lose weight safely with the best results, find a good health-care professional or certified personal trainer who can help set up and monitor an individualized strength-training program. He or she can also measure your body fat so you can have a baseline to track your progress and keep you focused on gaining (or maintaining) muscle while losing excess body fat.
Jesus intimately knows your body inside and out, and desires that you enjoy a body as close as possible to what He intended when He created you. Perhaps He designed the "weight loss paradox" of having to gain weight in order to lose weight to encourage us not to obsess over our weight, but to focus on health, feeling great, and having the energy and quality of life that come with total wellness and fitness.
So are you interested in joining a "gain muscle to lose fat" program? Here's what it would consist of:
1. Get rid of the scale. Measure your body fat, use the fit of your clothes as a guide, or just pinch yourself in fat storage sites (you know where those are!). If you can pinch more than an inch, it's extra fat you don't need.
2. Keep repeating the "Gain weight to lose weight" philosophy to help undo all those years of "quick weight loss" brainwashing.
3. Eat plenty of fruits, whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products, and practice moderation in sweets and other special-occasion foods (especially at church potlucks). While some people may do better on varying ratios of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, be wary of diets that push extremes or say that fruits and vegetables are bad.
4. See your primary care physician before starting any kind of exercise program. There are qualified health-care professionals such as certified fitness experts (American College of Sports Medicine is one such certified organization), registered dietitians and certified nutritionists, and preventive care specialists who can help you set up a total wellness program.
5. Exercise. Include aerobic activities (like walking) at least four times a week for 20 to 45 minutes (fast-slow-fast or interval-type workouts enhance the flit-burning capabilities if pressed for time), and strength-training exercises at least two days a week with a rest day in between sessions. Round this out with a good stretching program. You will need to increase the duration and/or intensity (pace of walking, pounds of weight lifting) of your exercise activities if you reach a plateau.
6. Practice NEWSTART principles: Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunlight, Temperance, Air, Rest, and Trust in God.
7. Be patient with yourself. The excess fat didn't show up overnight, and it won't go away overnight, either. Enjoy the journey. Don't go it alone. Recruit other like-minded individuals intent on making this a way of life.
Why not join in following a healthy and well-balanced approach to losing excess fat and improving your quality of life and level of energy at the same time?
If Jesus counseled someone about weight loss today, I could hear Him say, "If you want to lose the fat weight, you must gain muscle."
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*While excess fat is unhealthy, it is also unhealthy to think that you should have zero fat on your body. A certain amount of fat, referred to as "essential fat," is needed for life. Essential fat helps to protect and cushion internal organs, is part of the bilipid membrane of every cell in the body, and helps absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Healthy amounts of body fat are 17-27 percent for women, and 14-22 percent for men.
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Ernie Medina, Jr., Dr.P.H., is a preventive care specialist at Beaver Medical Group in Redlands, California, and associate clinical professor at Loma Linda University School of Public Health and Medicine. For further information on this approach to fat weight loss, e-mail the author at emedina@epiclp.com.
