How to lose weight?
Modern lifestyle's big problem is abundance of bad food. We are no longer hungry. Instead we are fat, and sad. Obesity is the driver of diseases. So, how do we manage weight in this environment?
👋 Hola! Welcome to Out of Singapore. This is Shan and I write this newsletter every Sunday. The focus of the newsletter is about building a business from scratch. I talk about zero-to-one problems. For the past few weeks I have been writing the consumer need and problems we solve at the current company - Xandro Lab. The business backend is one important component, however, the business problem and the consumer need is the biggest factor behind success or failure of a business. Today, we will talk about the problem of weight management or weight loss.
This won’t be a weight loss or management guide. The right plan depends on individual needs, lifestyle and environment. Instead, I will share
What is body weight?
White fat cells and brown fat cells?
Ideal body fat
The metrics you should know and care about.
Secret trick to lose weight (🤫)
My weight loss journey
The inspiration behind this post is two fold -
To share my personal journey (I am slightly proud of my transformation 🤞)
We launched a weight management supplement, Lean XP. It’s available for pre-order now (first batch is almost over).
Before we jump into the topic, I hope you understand why managing weight is important and crucial for health. If you are unsure, here are some quick reasons -
Reduces risk of chronic diseases
Lowers burden on heart
Enhances mobility and physical functions
Improves mental health
Improves sleep quality
Higher energy levels
#1 What is body weight?
Before we jump into weight management, let’s understand what is our body weight composed of. Typical body weight consists of:
Muscle Mass: Approximately 30-40% of body weight. This includes all the muscles in the body.
Fat Mass: Around 15-25% for men and 25-35% for women. This includes both essential fat, which is necessary for normal physiological functions, and storage fat, which provides energy reserves.
Bone Mass: Typically 10-15% of body weight.
Organs and Tissues (including blood): About 15-25% of body weight.
This encompasses all the major organs, such as the brain, liver, kidneys, heart, and other tissues, including skin and connective tissues.Digestive Contents and Other Components: Roughly 5-10% of body weight.
This includes the contents of the gastrointestinal tract and other miscellaneous components.
#2 White vs brown fat cells
Out of these body weight components, the one non-essential component is the storage fat weight. Since we don’t live in a world of food shortage, the storage fat is primary target of weight management. Okay, before we head forward, you should know that fat cells are of two types:
White Fat Cells (White Adipose Tissue)
Majority of Body Fat: This makes up the majority of the fat in the human body. It stores energy in large, unilocular lipid droplets and is the primary form of fat storage.
Functions: Energy storage, insulation and cushioning for organs and tissues.
Brown Fat Cells (Brown Adipose Tissue):
Small Proportion of Body Fat: Typically around 1-2% or less of total body fat in adults. It is more prevalent in infants and decreases with age.
Functions: Brown fat is specialized for heat production (thermogenesis) and contains many mitochondria, which give it a brown color. It helps maintain body temperature by burning calories.
#3 Ideal body fat
This depends on the gender, age and activity level. I found this chart that succinctly captures the ideal body fat range. So, for me (20-39 yr old man), the healthy body fat is 7% to 20%. For a woman in age group of 20-39, this range is 21% to 33%.
Notice the huge delta between male and female ideal body fat? Last week we started our weight loss program in the office and all the women were so sad after they got results. They compared their results with men, which is not right.
Why women have more body fat.
Four key reasons, one of which is evolutionary (which I skip below).
Energy Reserve for Pregnancy and Lactation: During pregnancy, the body needs extra energy to support the growing fetus and changes in the mother's bod
Hormonal Regulation: Estrogen, a primary female sex hormone, promotes the accumulation of subcutaneous fat. This hormone is crucial for reproductive health and helps prepare the body for potential pregnancy.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): Women generally have a lower basal metabolic rate compared to men, partly due to a higher fat-to-muscle ratio. This means that women burn fewer calories at rest, leading to a greater accumulation of fat.
In summary, women have higher storage fat due to a combination of reproductive needs, hormonal influences, evolutionary advantages, and metabolic differences.
How to measure body fat?
Here are some methods. Option 1 and 2 can be found anywhere in the world. Option 3 is specific to Singapore.
Buy a weighing scale that has body fat measurement built in. I used this method. You can get these on Shopee from Watsons, Omron, Xiaomi. Xiaomi and Watsons are cheap, while Omron is an advanced measurement device and expensive.
Get a DEXA scan from any of the clinics in Singapore. Quite expensive, can be upwards of SGD 300.
ActiveSG - Get your fitness and health assessment done at a Active Health Centre by ActiveSG for free.
#4 Which metrics to look at weight loss?
This is simple, right? Just look at the weight and you are good. Haha, but that’s not the case. You should plan their weight loss target based on their current health numbers. There are two key metrics that you should get before you start.
Body Fat Percentage: Measure from one of the devices mentioned above.
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the number of calories your body needs to maintain basic physiological functions while at rest. This is 60-70% of Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). TDEE is the total calories needed by your body for all activities in a day. Any extra calorie is stored in the body.
Knowing these two metrics will help you with your weight loss goals. It tells you how much you can eat. We will talk about this in sometime.
Weight loss shouldn’t be sudden. You should enjoy your weight loss journey and the benefits that come with it. Too fast weight with crash diets will make you hate the progress. A good time frame would be 1-2 kg every month.
Note that losing first 3-5 kgs is the easiest since you will lose water weight. After that it will depend on your consistency and discipline.
After you know find your BMR and Body Fat, you could be in these two situations:
High body fat: Primary focus should be reducing weight by cutting down the storage fat cells.
Normal or ideal body fat: If you are in this group, then I believe you wish to become shredded or target specific body areas like the abdomen (where visceral fat sits).
#5 Increase BMR (or TDEE) and create calorie deficit to lose weight
You can increase your BMR by
Building muscles with strength training. Muscle tissue spends more energy at rest.
Increase physical activity. Walk more, run, swim or play a sport.
Eat more protein, fewer carbs. Protein has a higher thermic effect compared to fats and carbohydrates, meaning it requires more energy to digest.
Thermogenic supplements help boost metabolism with activators like caffeine (stimulant), green tea extract, L-Carnitine and Garcinia cambogia among others.
You can find your TDEE by multiplying BMR with your activity factor. Activity factor would 1.3, 1.5, or 1.7 if your physical activity level is sedentary, mildly active, athlete-level active. My activity factor is 1.5, since I workout at least 6 days and walk 10K+ steps every day. TDEE is the total calories your body expends for all its energy needs.
TDEE = BMR * Activity Factor
Once you know your BMR and TDEE, you can regulate the amount of total calories you can eat each day.
For sustained weight loss, eat 70% of your TDEE need. This is being in a state of “calorie deficit”.
For weight maintenance, don’t eat more than your TDEE.
Being in calorie deficit, activates conversion of storage fat cells to brown fat cells for energy generation. White fat cells are the storage unit, while brown fat cells are the metabolically active unit.
Higher BMR and calorie deficit reduces the white fat cells, aiding in weight loss. In case you are strength training, you will gain muscles. This will replace the weight of storage fat cells. Hence it is important to monitor body fat percentage.
I will not go into further details today. My head is aching with all the details I have entered today. I will have to re-read this and maybe give more content next week. I will leave you with my weight loss journey over the past 4 years. Enjoy!
#6 My weight loss journey
Today I weigh 65.5 kgs. Back in 2020, I was 80 kgs.
I was chubby, with extra fat all around my body. I exercised lightly somedays, light exercises like 10 push ups at max in a single day. I did not believe in eating less, fasting or crash diets. Then I was introduced to intermittent fasting by a work friend. I did not believe it was for me.
February of 2021, Dubai imposed COVID lockdown and we all had to work from home for 5 weeks. This was a first for Dubai - while the rest of the world has imposed lockdowns, Dubai was largely free and I went to office everyday.
During the lockdown, I experimented with my food. Reduced spices, ate slightly less for each meal, took my breakfast later than usual. There was a weight loss competition going on in the office. When the office opened after 5 weeks, I had lost 4 kgs. I had never lost a single kg of weight in last 6 years. This gave me a big boost of motivation and I went all in.
Over the next 6 months, I skipped my breakfast almost every day. I went down to 71 kgs by May 2021. In June, I moved to SG for my MBA. By July 2021, I was 69 kgs. Portion size in SG was smaller. Intermittent fasting combined with lower portion size in NTU food centres made my weight go down to 66 kgs by September 2021. I was beyond elated. 12 kgs in less than 12 months. 😍🥹🥹🥹
I had lost weight, and I was feeling great. No bloating, light feeling, energetic and fresh mind throughout the day.
So, since Sep 2021, I have worked hard to maintain by weight. I fluctuate between 65 to 67 depending on my eating patterns. The whole of the year 2022, I maintained my weight with intermittent fasting and light exercise. Till this time, my goal was reduce my weight.
From April 2023, I increased my physical activity, now 3-5x reps instead of single rep of exercises. These were all body weight exercise. This stage was supported with supplements - NMN, Ca AKG and Magnesium Glycinate. I further intensified this in late 2023 and early 2024 with strength training, gradually lifting heavier weights. Now, my goal was to reduce body fat and build more muscles. This is ongoing, my body fat has come down to 12% (think this was 20%+ one year back).
I am trying to go down to 63 kgs and see how does my body look and feel at that weight. I am taking help of our recently launched weight loss product, Lean XP. I will update you with the progress made.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading again 😍
Please write to me your feedback for this edition. I deeply value criticism. I have so much to improve on.
Would you like to hear about thermogenic supplements ingredients next week? If yes, like this post 🤣
I have not been talking about business for few weeks and I miss it. There is so much to share about
TikTok racing ahead of all other channels
We increased price of our products (reduced promotions).
We released first of our Q3 and Q4 products (Lean XP). More products and updates coming up.
Our search based revenue has gone up a few times. We are no longer dependent on Facebook Ads.
Our Facebook ads have stopped for one week each in May, June and July, and out revenue has not been impacted.
Email has become a strong lever to generate revenue.
Our top selling product, Magnesium Glycinate, stocked out for 2 weeks. Revenues dipped first but then it rebounded strongly. Now our AOV is up 35%.
July will be the biggest ever month in terms of absolute sale and MER. We may be almost EBIDTA positive this month.
July was probably one of the hardest month. We didn’t have cash to pay salaries. Salaries were delayed by upto 4 weeks. Fortunately, I got my credit card at the start of the month (pure coincidence).
I am working on launching “the responsible longevity movement”. This will become our key brand slogan.
Would you like to know more about business or longevity topics? Write to me. 🫠
The cute one, Jisoo
I am so tired today. I finally managed to cross the 10K run distance, but my body didn’t like it. So, instead of sleeping, I was wreathing with pain last night. Hope I get better sleep today.
That’s it for today. Hope you have a great week ahead!