Weight Loss And Diet
Introduction:
You have met the team players in your nutrition. The proper structure
of the team is called a healthy diet. Scores of books regarding weight
loss ( weight watcher, weight loss program, weight loss diet) have been published
and bought, and for a while the one or the other will be considered the leader.
Usually there will be a few "miraculous" claims, and after a while the
big firework of promises quietly fizzles out. Very often we are looking at a diet
of extremes (the banana diet, the fat-burning grapefruit diet, just to name a
few). The refrain will remain constant: the dieter "goes on a diet".
This already points to the next step: he or she will go "off the diet".
Surprise? Not really! After 4 weeks of nutritional boredom you too would hate
to look another banana in the face or even think of a grapefruit. You've had it!
No more. You may salivate at the thought of steak and turn your attention to a
steak diet: all the steak you want to eat ! It won't work either: you'll be turned
off too after a while of this dietary escapade. Actually, you are playing russian
roulette with your health. You ate vast amounts of protein, and your kidneys will
be working overtime to eliminate the unusually high amounts of waste products.So
let's try fasting. It sounds like giving your body a "rest". It certainly
has always had an appeal especially with the crowd of people who want to lose
weight quickly. To their disappointment they are in for an exercise in frustration.
After some initial weight loss the body goes on spare flame. Weight loss
becomes non-existing or slow, concentration becomes a major effort, energy wanes,
irritation runs high. What happened? Our body still needs carbohydrates, protein,
and fat to function. If protein does not come in, it's taken from our muscles.
One of the muscles by the way is the heart. Obviously we are not doing ourselves
a service by a fasting regime. After a good amount of discouragement and deprivation
the dieter will become an ex-dieter. Really, nothing has changed. The eating habits
have not changed, and the next station is already visible on the horizon: the
pounds that have been lost are regained, and eventually things have gone full
circle. The next diet sounds like a promise of changes for the better, yet the
next disappointment seems already built in. It becomes very obvious that extremes
do not work. There are no quick fixes, and dieting based on gluttony ("Eat
all the oranges you want and lose 10 pounds quickly") just keeps the dieter
in a yo-yo existence of up and down.It's a blow to the emotional well-being, it's
as bad for the physical function. If you wait for another diet, don't read on.
If you are looking at lifestyle changes that enable you to enjoy the foods that
are fuel and pleasure for your body, read on ! Here is a link regarding
a sensible diet:
Your resource for diet reviews, programs, pills, and information! If
food is considered like a drug that keeps our systems running, it is obvious,
that we have to administer it in a way that overdoses are avoided. It should
rather be looked at as a slow controlled supply of nutrients that is made available
to our body.You would question the sanity of anybody who would elect to swallow
his cough syrup or his antibiotics as one mega dose just once a day when he is
sick! Yet food habits very often are exactly like this scenario. Here is a paper
that stresses the importance of a balanced approach to weight loss emphasizing
that this demands a lifestyle change on a permanent ongoing basis. Other useful
information on weight loss through the use of proper foods and excercise can be
found under Ref. 8.
This study of weight
gain by excess 1000 calories per day holds the key to permanent weight loss A
new clinical trial (Ref. 9) involved 25 healthy individuals aged 18 to 35 (16
males, 9 females). All of them received a diet in excess of almost 1000 calories
per day, but the protein content differed significantly. One group received a
5% protein diet (low protein group), a control group 15% protein (normal protein
diet) and the third group a 25% protein diet (high protein group). They were fed
this diet for 8 weeks. The results were rather interesting. Everybody gained weight
from the excess calories. The researchers measured the body composition, namely
the fat to muscle ratio by dual x-ray absorptiometry. With this scan it was discovered
that the low protein group gained more fat than muscle, while the normal protein
group and the high protein group gained more muscle mass. As muscle weighs a lot
more than fat one can not rely on body mass index alone. The authors concluded
that the best way to lose weight is to restrict calories by eating a high protein,
low fat diet that is rich in colorful fruits and vegetables (complex carbohydrates). What
is the lesson to be learnt for those of you who would like to permanently shed
the excess weight? It is simply to change your diet along the lines suggested
in this link. Briefly, you would
no longer consume sugar and sugar products, cut out excess starchy foods and eat
a good amount of lean meat, poultry and fish. Your plate would be filled with
a good amount of vegetables and/or salad. For dessert you would be allowed fruit.
As your total caloric intake will now be 800 to 1000 calories less than the average
American diet, you would comfortably lose 1 to 2 pounds per week. In the beginning
of such a weight loss program you may even lose several pounds per week as fatty
tissue is melted away and in the process you lose water as well. However, when
weight loss stabilizes you will lose 1 to 2 pounds per week until your ideal body
weight is achieved. You will note from the links below that it is advisable to
engage in some regular exercise as well as part of your new lifestyle (burning
off extra calories). As your hormones get balanced with this approach, you will
not have any problems maintaining your healthy weight on an ongoing basis. Follow
the links in the table below for more details on painfree weight loss. |
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