Rapid Weight Loss

Recently by Mark Sisson: The Definitive Guide to Grains

Mark,

I’m a big guy (okay, obese, if I’m being honest) who’s getting smaller fast. I adopted the PB a couple weeks ago, and I’ve already dropped twenty pounds, going from 300 to 280. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m just confused. How does that work? You always hear that initial weight loss for the really overweight is fast, but why? Is it really just water weight? It seems metabolically impossible that I’ve actually burned that much body fat… I can’t help but feel a bit let down if all I’m doing is losing water. If there’s one thing I learned from your writings, it’s weight isn’t just weight (and calories aren’t just calories). So… what gives?

Thanks,

Todd

The Primal Blueprint C... Sisson, Mark Best Price: $1.23 Buy New $9.20 (as of 12:45 UTC - Details)

Thanks for the question, Todd.

It’s a common weight loss experience. You’re overweight. You decide to take control of your health and shed some body fat. You go Primal, drop a bunch of weight and the first thing you hear from detractors is “Oh, it’s all water weight.” Uggh. How frustrating. But it’s also absolutely true that the bulk of the initial weight loss from a low-carb diet is from the expulsion of previously retained water. The question is: is that loss of water necessarily a bad thing? The answer is, as always, complex and we’ll need to look at it in the context of all the changes taking place when you start eating and exercising Primally.

The Primal Blueprint: ... Sisson, Mark Best Price: $1.25 Buy New $4.70 (as of 12:45 UTC - Details)

Most obese people have accumulated their extra adipose (fat) tissue through eating a diet that is higher in pro-inflammatory agents (insulin-promoters, anti-nutrients and omega 6 fats) and generally also higher in sodium. One of the side effects of such a diet is substantial water retention both within the cells and in the spaces between cells (interstitial space). This retained water can amount to 10, 20 or more pounds depending on how large the person is. Even in non-obese people, this effect often manifests itself most obviously in a “puffy” look around the face or a feeling of “bloatiness.” It’s a testament to the power of eating Primally when you realize that often within just a week of decreasing grains and other simple carbs and sugars, as well as cutting omega 6s and the huge amounts of sodium found in the SAD, the body no longer needs to hoard all this water. Understand that this was water you never really needed in the first place; it was just there because agents in the diet sent signals to different systems to hold onto it. As long as you continue to eat Primally, the need for this retained water ceases and you not only weigh less, your body shrinks accordingly. Nothing wrong with that as long as you retain muscle, which you do easily on a Primal program.

Thermos Vacuum Insulat... Buy New $15.16 (as of 06:50 UTC - Details)

The other (albeit secondary) source of rapid weight loss can happen in the muscles. It’s also a short term adjustment to a decrease in carbohydrates that – over time – levels out and soon becomes insignificant. This is the idea that muscle glycogen is stored with water and when you deplete glycogen, you deplete that water as well. You see, for every gram of stored carbohydrate – also known as glycogenthree to four grams of water are stored as well (PDF). So, if you burn, say, 400 grams of glycogen through exercise without refueling with carbohydrate in a short span of time, you might drop close to a kilo of water, too. This can happen when a new Primal convert gets overly enthusiastic and hammers the first few workouts. (Nothing wrong with that, it’s just that we are looking to burn relatively more fat than glycogen over the long haul.)

Why would the body be “built” this way? It turns out that glycogen burning releases water as a metabolic byproduct and that this fulfills an athlete’s hydration needs.

Think about it: glycolytic work, as a general rule, makes you thirsty. What do hiking a steep mountain in the summer heat, going for a long grueling bike ride, and running fifteen sprints to absolute exhaustion have in common? They make you thirsty and they force you to burn glycogen for energy. You see, in the real world, glucose demand and hydration needs go hand in hand. You don’t engage in a glycolytic activity without also increasing your requirement for fluids. It appears as if your body stores water and glycogen together because it “knows” that when you call upon the glycogen for energy, you’re also going to be thirsty.

Read the rest of the article