Remember: Losing weight and keeping it off permanently
is less about the stomach and more about the brain.
Eliza Kingsford
When I read books about weight loss, nutrition, and training, my goal is twofold: to learn and apply the knowledge to myself and to share it with my clients. This dual purpose is extraordinarily motivating and exciting. Eliza Kingsford’s book, Brain-Powered Weight Loss, falls into this category. I’ve gleaned some excellent tips that I’m eager to share through my coaching and writing. This article highlights two impactful insights from the book that could also aid you on your journey.
The Stages of Weight Loss
Understanding the stages of weight loss was a revelation for me. While it makes sense that weight loss has stages, I had never consciously recognized them. Anyone managing their body weight can attest to the emotional rollercoaster it involves. Kingsford identifies four common stages of weight loss. You may experience all or just some of them, but knowing they exist helps you recognize them as temporary phases. They don’t last forever. Here are the four stages as described in Brain-Powered Weight Loss (Kingsford, 2017):
1. The Honeymoon Phase: This kickoff phase is exhilarating (“Wow! Six pounds in two weeks!”). You’re excited and ready to make changes, and studies show that spending more time in this stage can lead to better weight loss and control over time.
2. Frustration: This phase sets in when progress stalls (“I didn’t lose a thing for two weeks, and then the scale went up!”). You start feeling the strain of the weight-loss process, which can be time-consuming and tedious. Kingsford’s book offers skills to accept and move forward during this phase.
3. Tentative Acceptance: Here, losing weight starts to feel like a tentative reality. You see yourself making progress but recognize that it will take time and effort.
4. Ambivalence: Months down the road, you might start thinking, “Holy crap, this weight-management thing is going to be going on forever.” Motivation starts to slip.
Some people, especially those with significant weight to lose, may encounter a fifth stage: Fear of the Future. This is when they realize they are presenting a new persona to the world (“Will I still be me, and will people like what they see?”).
Understanding Fat Cells
Another key insight from the book involves the nature of fat cells. I knew that among two individuals of the same weight and body composition, the one who had lost weight to reach that point had to eat less than the one who had always been that weight. However, I didn’t understand why until I read Kingsford’s explanation in the section Anatomy of a Fat Cell.
Fat cells in someone who has never been overweight are small in number and even in size. When we take in more energy than we use, fat cells expand and multiply to store fat. After losing weight, fat cells shrink but never reduce in number. This is because our bodies are designed to resist starvation by keeping fat cells full, a survival mechanism from our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Learning this made so much sense to me. I would work hard to lose five pounds, but as soon as I relaxed a bit on my eating, the weight would come right back. This was incredibly demotivating and frustrating. Kingsford is right: knowledge is power. Now that I understand the anatomy of fat cells, I know I can’t celebrate weight loss by relaxing my eating habits. These habits must become my new lifestyle, regardless of my weight fluctuations.
I am about two-thirds of the way through the book, and Kingsford’s approach aligns closely with what I learned from Precision Nutrition: change your habits and make lifestyle changes to keep the weight off. Dieting alone doesn’t work. A sobering statistic is that only 4% of people who diet keep the weight off, and to be considered successful, you must maintain the weight loss for at least two years.
Most of us have to work hard to lose or maintain weight. I hope these insights from Eliza Kingsford will help you achieve or sustain your goals.