INTRODUCTION

There are not many “sure things” in life. Almost every worthwhile endeavor comes with a certain degree of risk and no assurance of the outcome. In the case of chiseling your body into a lean machine, there’s always some trial, error and experimentation necessary, especially because each person’s genetics, body type and physiology are so unique. There can be great value in the trial and error process as a learning experience, but what if you could skip the unnecessary trial and error by placing your bets on “sure things” instead of guessing or gambling?

That would be great wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, in the health and fitness field, there appear to be fewer “sure things” than anywhere else!

Fitness experts are known for having opinions and theories that range from one extreme to another. Many competing fat loss programs represent polar opposites: high carb vs low carb being the most common example.

Scientists often end their papers with, “more research is needed” and they rarely stick their necks out and take a strong stand, unless the evidence is air-tight and rock-solid.

And then there are some questions where the answers are just not known yet.

But amidst all the chaos, confusion and conflicting advice of the nutrition and fitness world, there are a small handful of “SURE THINGS” and you’re about to learn them all…

These are things that most of the researchers and most of the fitness and dietetic professionals agree on.

Of course, we will never get 100% consensus on exercise or nutrition, because science is continuously unfolding and one decade’s “sure thing” has been known to become the next decades “myth busted.” Should we close our minds and accept our current “sure things” as final, we may be closing our minds to future discoveries and potential for advancement.

Even if we get a nearly unanimous vote, there’s almost always a lone dissenter out there somewhere, and people sometimes believe weird things, even in the face of science. People also often believe in their dietary approaches NOT for scientific reasons, but for environmental, spiritual or humanitarian reasons.

Nevertheless, if we use science as our guide, then the weight of the current evidence is heavy enough that we can say these are as close to SURE THINGS as we can get, and that you can’t go wrong by applying these principles in your own fat loss program immediately…

SURE THING #1: FOCUS ON THE CALORIC DEFICIT

One thing that virtually the entire scientific community agrees on is that the law of energy balance is always with us. In order to lose body fat, you must burn more calories than you consume.

This is known as having a “caloric deficit.”

Although there are a few people who still claim that “calories don’t count,” I will be as bold as to say that those people are mistaken.

PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY: There is a huge difference between saying “you don’t have to count calories” and “calories don’t count.”

Some diet programs are “ad libitum” in nature. This means they do not advise calorie counting; they simply tell you what to eat and what not to eat. You eat as you please, as long as you follow the food restrictions provided.

What they usually don’t tell you is that the eating restrictions are the equivalent of having built-in automatic calorie control. These programs do not refute the law of energy balance, they confirm it.

When a diet program claims, “Eat as much as you want and still lose weight”, you are hearing a Big Fat Lie. Incidentally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it is illegal to make this claim in advertisements and they can sue you if you do.

Many people still deny the law of calorie balance in the face of scientific evidence.

For example, some of the old school low-carbers are notorious for disputing the calorie balance equation, in favor of believing in some type of “metabolic advantage” that comes from low carbs. I.e., “eat X grams of carbs or less, and you can eat as much as you want.”

I assure you, if you have a caloric maintenance level of 2000 calories a day and you eat 3000 calories a day of protein and fat (no carbs) you WILL gain fat!

Perhaps it will be harder to consume that many calories in the form of protein and fat as compared to sugar and protein and fat, but if you manage to pull off that gastronomic feat, you will gain weight nonetheless (and low carb writers might be surprised at how much food some people can shovel down their throats - even sans carbs!)

Fortunately, the low carb community today has some intelligent voices speaking out, saying that low carb does not mean “unlimited calories” and that low carb diets also require a caloric deficit; they may simply make it easier to achieve that deficit, automatically without counting calories.

While I am very much in favor of doing things “by the numbers,” programs that tend to make you “automatically” eat less without counting calories are not a bad thing at all (the spontaneous reduction in caloric intake often occurs due to an appetite-suppressive effect of certain diets, and or due to the selection of low calorie-density foods which are highly satiating).

That said, no combination of foods, elimination of foods, or arrangement of macronutrients will override the law of calorie balance. To lose fat, you have to eat less than you burn, period.

You have to be diligent about maintaining your deficit too, because:

(1) Energy balance is dynamic, and what is a deficit for you today, may not be a significant deficit six months from now

(2) If your maintenance calories are 2000, and your intake is 1500 one day (a deficit) and 2500 the next (a surplus), you have NOT achieved a caloric defict over the two day period - you are in energy balance. Conveniently, most people seem to have some kind of selective “amnesia” and they only remember the days they were in a deficit! Consistency over time is the key!

The sooner you accept that the cornerstone of fat loss is a caloric deficit, the sooner you’ll be able to think clearly about your nutritional choices and the better you’ll be able to judge everything you ever read, see and hear about nutrition, for the rest of your life.

By the way, did you know that there are two corollaries to the law of calorie balance, which almost no one teaches?

In my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program, I reveal these little-known calorie corollaries (chapter 6) and I teach the exact, scientific formulas for calculating your ideal calorie intake for burning the maximum amount of fat, without losing muscle or slowing down your metabolism.

You can learn more by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com