A Weight off my mind

Daily Mail. July 2, 2009

This was an article written by Claudia Connell and, to be fair, she did have the sub heading "It's the weirdest weight-loss idea ever - a hypnotist makes you think you've had gastric band surgery and will never need to eat so much again."

My hubby took one look at the article and said "But she's writing the article, so she knows she hasn't actually had a gastric band fitted - am I missing something?" (So funny)

I like Claudia - she writes some cracking articles in the Daily Mail - and for her health and well-being I really hope that she finds something that works for her. I will be really interested to see if this is the thing that does (joking from my man apart). Anything that helps an overweight person lose weight and keep it off is to be embraced. I am not trying to convert the world to The Harcombe Diet - if anyone out there has something that works for them (Atkins, whatever) - stick with it! Rare is the person that can lose weight and keep it off.

However, I am nervous for Claudia that this is taking her down the 'eat less' route. Indeed, she says in the article "I burn 1600 calories a day. A non dieting woman will averagely consume 2,000 calories a day which means I have 400 extra calories that are not being burnt and are turning into fat. If I cut my calorie intake to 1,300 a day, I can lose a pound a week - if I exercise as well I can double that."

The maths is all over the place (aside from the fact that, as other blogs will show, the calorie theory maths doesn't hold anyway):
1) If Claudia only 'burns' (the body does not behave like a Bunsen burner for a start) 1,600 cals a day and then eats 1,300 a day, she will only create a deficit of 7*300 cals in a week, which is 0.6 of a pound a week (according even to the theory);

2) Exercise will not automatically double this - it will depend on how much exercise and whether Claudia eats more after the exercise because exercise makes you hungry!

3) The type of calories eaten are (in my view) far more important than the number eaten, when it comes to weight loss. As Kekwick and Pawan proved in 1956 - Claudia could eat 2,000 cals of carbs and put on weight and 2,600 cals of virtually no carbs and lose weight.

This is just one reason why we have to Stop Counting Calories to Start Losing Weight!