Weight loss success secrets - Part 1 of 4

If weight loss were easy, obesity would not be climbing at an alarming rate around the world. A few key secrets and some hard work, however, can put you on track for successful, permanent weight loss.

This is a four-part series. In parts one and two, we'll look at five common fat burning myths and explain why they simply don't work. In parts three and four, we'll cover five keys to success that have been proven by science and the experience of individuals who have lost fat and successfully kept it off for long periods of time.

1. The Fat Lie

The 'fat lie' is that the scale is the most important factor when losing weight. In fact, while the term 'weight loss' is one of the most searched keywords on the Internet, people are searching for the wrong thing. Most people do not desire to lose weight. What they really desire is to lose fat. Confusing the two can be the difference between success and failure.

The scale by itself doesn't help much with determining your state of health or whether you are overweight. Obviously, a 1.5 meter (5 foot) woman cannot be compared to a 1.8 meter (6 foot) male who weighs the same. The Body Mass Index, or BMI, attempts to address this by relating weight to height. The formula for BMI is:

BMI = Weight in Kilograms / (Height in Meters x Height in Meters)

If you prefer to use pounds and inches, simply multiply the result by 703.

In the previous example, if both individuals weighed 90 kilograms (about 198 pounds), the woman would have a BMI of 37 (obese) while the male would have a BMI of 26 (overweight).

Unfortunately, BMI doesn't tell the entire story, either. Two 1.8 meter males who weigh 90 kilograms may in fact have a different body composition. If one male has trained hard to gain muscle, their body fat percentage would be lower - in other words, despite weighing the same on the scale, their muscle mass is higher so their fat mass is lower. This translates to a person of the same weight being able to fit into smaller jeans.

Is your goal truly weight loss, or are you convinced that you need to in fact focus on losing fat instead?

2. Too Good to be True

Fat burning pills promise the world. In fact, some people will go to great lengths to try to 'cheat the fat off.' They'll drink cold drinks because, 'cold drinks force the body to burn more calories.' They'll take the so-called fat-burning pills to 'melt the pounds away' and then they'll invest in gimmick machines that supposedly spot reduce. Most of these claims, however, are too good to be true.

In fact, I challenge the reader to find a single individual who has lost a tremendous amount of weight, successfully kept it off for several years, and attributes their success to a specific pill or weight loss gadget. Some people may have found success with a particular program or system, but in years of coaching people to lose weight I have not found a single individual who claims to have lost their weight due to a magic pill (except, of course, a few who have been paid handsomely to make those claims for advertising).

The science on the subject is very clear. The most studied fat burning agents have been shown to burn extra calories, this much is true. However, the amount is small - only about 50 - 150 extra calories per day. The benefit is an additional half kilogram (one pound) every three weeks. The same success could be obtained simply by walking for ten - fifteen minutes every day. Using the pills means extra money spent as well as potentially harmful side effects. Many of the products don't use the ingredients proven by science and misquote scientific studies to convince the consumers that they really work.

While every little bit counts, the amount of extra calories burned by drinking a cold beverage is hardly worth giving up your favorite warm liquids.

3. Zone Alert

A popular weight loss adage is to 'train in the fat-burning zone.' It's time to understand what the 'fat burning zone' truly is. Your body is always burning energy from multiple sources: carbohydrates (in your bloodstream and stored in your muscle), protein, and fats. The preferred source of fuel changes with the intensity of your training. Typically, lower levels of intensity burn a higher percentage of calories from fat, while more intense training burns a higher percentage of calories from carbohydrates and protein.

For this reason, so-called fitness gurus have been recommending that you must stay within your 'fat burning heart rate zone' to burn fat.

On the surface, this seems to make sense. Upon closer inspection, the theory falls apart.

When you are training at a low intensity, you are burning calories at a slower rate. So while you may be burning a higher percentage of calories from fat, you are burning fewer calories overall. Intense training, on the other hand, burns more calories in the same period of time. A smaller percentage is burned from fat, but the total calories are higher. Furthermore, intense training tends to elevate your metabolism so that you continue to burn calories for long after the activity is over.

Research suggests that a mix of training is ideal for burning fat. Too much high-intensity training can lead to injury. However, low intensity training simply does not burn the same volume of calories nor impact the metabolism like high-intensity training. This is why an approach that addresses nutrition, weight training, and cardio or aerobics has been shown to be the most successful approach to permanent weight loss.

In part 2 of this series, we'll cover 'Diet: Don't Do It' and 'Crunch Time.