On this episode of The Ask Prof Noakes Podcast, we delve into the FAQ between men vs women when it comes to losing weight and get some valuable advice from Prof. Tim Noakes on how to beat the blues because women don’t lose as much weight as quickly as the men.
Don’t become despondent
We answer another very common question today on the Real Meal Radio. Natalie Cronje got in touch with us and she said her husband is 6 foot 6 inches tall and weighs 123kg. She’s 5 foot 2 inches and weighs 63kg. They’ve been following the LCHF or Banting diet since July.
He has lost 7kgs and is down to 116kgs while Natalie’s down to 60kg, having lost 3kgs.
She’s frustrated because he cheats with chips and chocolate and she doesn’t cheat at all. She snacks on nuts and biltong and she can’t break the 59kg mark.
She loves how she’s feeling but she is feeling down because of the lack of weight loss. Have you got any suggestions for her?
Remain focused
Professor Tim Noakes: What Natalie needs to do is just keep going, because many people, and women particularly, start to lose after about six months to a year.
It takes six months to a year to settle down the problems if she’s been dieting in the past. I suspect she has, at that weight and that height. She’s probably been dieting in the past to try to lose weight.
So what Natalie needs to do is, firstly, to be cautious of her portion sizes. You know, we don’t normally talk like that, because we think the brain should regulate perfectly how much you eat. But in some people who’ve dieted before, it does not. It takes time to correct. So she needs to just be a little cautious about the fat in the diet and the portion sizes, because it’s very easy to overeat on fat, if you’re not cautious. That’s point one.
What to do if you’re not losing weight on the Banting Diet
Point two is, she may not need to eat three meals a day, she may only need to eat two meals a day. The best way to get that going is to eat a huge breakfast and then try to make sure you’re not hungry until 5pm in the afternoon. Then have a second meal, a small meal.
Those are two keys. And she absolutely may not cheat. On top of that, some women do very well if they cut dairy.
And then finally, and this is more extreme, to get the brain to understand that it doesn’t need all the calories she’s currently eating, intermittent fasting is also very helpful on the LCHF diet. So, if there are days where she could go 18 to 24 hours without eating. That may get the brain into mode, saying gosh I realise I don’t need so much food and she can lose weight.
So the problem is she’s still eating too many calories. Her brain is not yet conditioned to absolutely give her the right messaging about how much and what portion sizes she should be eating.
The only way around that is to actively intervene and eat slightly less. Because the key is, we tell people to eat to hunger, and literally on this diet, as you know, your hunger disappears. So when you sit down you’re not really feeling hungry and you feel you have to eat. Well then you actually shouldn’t be doing that. You should rather wait until you’re really hungry and then eat.
She may just be misinterpreting her hunger signalling, and by just fasting a little bit, she may well find some big changes.
Are you really hungry? Really?
Brad Brown: Prof it’s actually quite funny when I hear questions like that, because it’s also a case of, if you look at her hubby’s weight compared to her weight, he’s practically double her size. If you then look at the weight loss in kilograms, she’s lost half of what he’s lost. So from a percentage of body weight perspective, they’re on exactly the same curve.
Prof Tim Noakes: Yes, exactly. And neither of them is grossly overweight. Men generally do better on the Banting diet. I don’t know why, but I think it’s also because they generally haven’t been on diets before, and I think the body responds differently to the Banting diet, especially if it’s the first time you really seriously go on a diet, or if you’ve been on a diet frequently in the past.