Weight Loss Advice from Dr. Willey

The first priority in a ‘weight loss’ program is understanding exactly what you are loosing! I get asked all the time to provide weight lose eating plans and menus, and to be honest, that is very easy to do. If, in the long run, it was not harmful, I could easily help you loose 30 pounds in 30 days, like a few of these dangerous, money making companies claim. The problem is, with a calorie deficient diet that does not account for lean and fat mass and overall health, muscle is the first to go. Lean body mass loss must be minimized

Lean body mass contains only 363 kcal/lb, i.e. muscle is 20% protein, 80% water

For example: Weight loss of greater than 0.3 lb. per day on a 1,000 kcal/day deficit includes loss of lean body mass. If a 1,000 kcal deficit targets lean body mass, one can lose 2 ¾ lb. per day. Unfortunatly – that is your metabolism, your energy, and your ability to maintain that white knuckled weight loss. Quality weight loss must be paced! Better yet, quality FAT loss must be paced! I have included a chapter from WHAT DOES YOUR DOCTOR LOOK LIKE NAKED?, to help you better understand the problem with ‘scale weight loss’. After reading this, continue in our section on Fat Loss to learn more!


Copyright Dr. Warren Willey-Do not reproduce without written permission

My wish is that everyone reading this book or adjusting their weight in general, would understand the problems associated with the ‘dreaded scale’. I can recall my mother being very upset that the scale ‘can lie so often without conscience’. Even in her jest, she hit it right on the head. Scale weight is misleading, uninformative, and essentially a terrible way to judge the accuracy or strength of any weight adjustment program. I believe it is crucial for you to stay focused on lean mass gain and fat loss, NOT weight loss.

Our current paradigm dictates that the scale weight change, whether from fat, water, or lean mass. Unfortunately, this thinking is flawed because WHAT you are losing is more important than HOW MUCH you are losing. The word “loss” in and of itself has negative connotations. I do not know about you, but I get rather moody when I lose something, from car keys to that to-do list I lost in the pile on my desk. Forget about losing weight and start focusing on GAINING lean mass. Gain? Did he just say GAIN?

Yes I did! Focus on gaining muscle because that is what burns the fat! Doesn’t gaining something sound and feel better than losing something?

Lean mass makes up a majority of your metabolism: for every pound of lean mass you put on, you greatly increase your metabolic engine. You burn more calories just sitting there!! In the same sense, every pound of lean mass you lose results in a large number of calories a day you ARE NOT burning! These programs that claim 30 pounds in 30 days can help you lose 30 pounds of scale weight. Unfortunately, however, and to their extreme discredit, 90% of that scale weight loss will be muscle. It goes without saying, based on the above information, that by doing this you have destroyed your metabolism!

The disservice to you is literally criminal! That is why we have such severe diet ‘yoyo’s’ out there: lose 20 -gain 30, lose 15 -gain 25… as you can see there is a continual and gradual INCREASE in your scale weight (all of which is fat with this type of fluctuation) and the source for extreme prejudice with all current diet programs. What scale weight fails to recognize is lean mass versus fat mass. Your goal, from the time you finish this sentence, should be to focus on body composition and a continual INCREASE in lean mass. The side effect of increasing lean mass is automatic: fat falls off!

Doesn’t gaining something sound and feel better than losing something?

To better help you understand this point; I will briefly review body composition and the measurement of fat and lean mass.

The evaluation of body composition permits quantification of the major structural components of the body – muscle, bone and fat. Body fat testing not only determines what (approximate) percentage of total mass is fat, but also gives the amount of lean mass available. Since muscle makes up the greatest percentage of lean mass, it is a good indication of how much muscle comprises a body.

Body fat testing has many implications, associations and undertones. Utilization can be for medical purposes - by a physician monitoring progress of a rigorous diet and exercise program, or inquiry by an athlete to help direct performance or appearance enhancing efforts. There are many options available for the inquisitive mind and body in the determination of body composition. I have found, through years of experience, that skin

fold assessments are not only the least expensive, but also one of the most accurate in the determination of change. Let me repeat that… the determination of CHANGE! In other words, the total number does not matter and should not be focused on. Part of our definition of health, as you recall, is a continuing process of transformation or positive change. This is one of my primary goals with this book: empowering you to continually improve.

Unfortunately, our present system utilizes height-weight tables and body mass index (BMI) to determine if a person is ‘overweight’. Such methods do not provide any information about the relative composition or quality of an individual’s body. The term ‘overweight’ only refers to body mass in excess of some standard, usually the average body mass for a given stature. Being “above average” or “not ideal” by height -weight charts does not dictate whether or not you need to go on a weight loss program. For example, as I write this information I am 56 pounds ‘overweight’ in terms of my insurance company’s height – weight tables (5’ 8” and 210 lbs where they say I should weight 154…) and my BMI is 32 (anything greater that 30 is considere d ‘obese’). Here is what they fail to account for: my percentage body fat is currently 8%, placing my lean mass at 193.2 pounds and my fat mass at 16.8 pounds. Determination of body composition is a much better way to actually see what your body consists of: are you fat or just heavy? To better understanding body composition, it is important to understand the difference between lean body mass and fat mass as it relates to total composition of the human body.

Essential fat and Storage fat

The total amount of body fat exists in two storage sites. The first site, called essential fat, is the fat stored in the marrow of bones, in the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines, muscles, brain, and spinal cord. This fat is required for normal physiological functioning (i.e. life). In the female, this fat includes sex specific fat or sex characteristic fat. It is not known if this particular fat is expendable or serves as reserve storage. The second storage site is termed storage fat. This is the popular fat that accumulates in adipose (fatty) tissue. This “nutritional reserve” includes fatty tissue that protects organs and the fat located directly under the skin. The proportion of storage fat is very similar in males and females (average 12% in men and 15% in women), while the amount of essential fat is approximately four times higher in women. This is most likely needed for childbearing and hormone related functions.

Lean body mass

For purposes of this book, lean body mass will be viewed as muscle and bone.

Lean body mass does not necessarily indicate fat free mass. Lean body mass

contains a small percentage of fat (roughly 3%) within the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), marrow of bones, and internal organs. It should be everyone’s goal to increase, or at a minimum to maintain, their lean mass weight. In this book, we will use “lean mass” interchangeably with “muscle”. Remember that for every pound of muscle you put on, your body burns a number of extra calories per day.

Forget about weight LOSS! Focus on muscle GAIN!!

Why keep track?

Keeping track of your progress, specifically gains and losses, is one of the most important keys to health renovation. This area is often overlooked because it seems confusing, time consuming, or too technical to learn and accurately track. In my experience, I have found that those who take the time to learn how to measure and monitor their results have better and more consistent results than those who do not. Do not overlook the importance of objectively measuring your progress!

While I consider it essential for everyone who is after optimal health and fat loss to track their body composition with an accepted measuring device, I chose not to include one with this book. They are available however, with detailed instructions: just contact my office and I will send you the skin calipers and instruction manual. (See Appendix IX, How to Contact Dr. Willey) Until then, the following chapter provides you with a weekly measuring chart that will help you track to important data sets: Objective Measurements and Subjective Input.


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