Diets, exercise, health and weight loss

A square. Stop thinking about diets, diets, diets, diets, fad diets, latest fad diets, celebrity diets, diet pills, diet plans, diet programs… ad nauseam… literally!

A diet is simply what you eat! Your diet may consist of chocolate donuts or alfalfa sprouts, but most “Diets” with a capital “D” won’t set you free. Instead, they lock you in a cage. Eat anything that isn’t prescribed and you’ll be a failure… at least that’s what their literature says.

Of course, what we eat and when we eat it can play a big role in weight loss or weight gain. Even where we eat can be a factor. Have you ever eaten too much at Grandma’s on Thanksgiving? I’ve got. How about that cocktail party where you walked over to the snack trays and had one more drink because someone offered it to you? Ok, for me it would be to sit at the bar and order one more beer (light, of course) because the game is not over yet. Oh yeah, pass the chips.

FORGET ABOUT THE WORD “DIET”

Let’s eat healthy and live healthy, OK, Sister Mary Fides, healthy. I know. is an adverb

HERE IS THE WEIGHT LOSS.

If you take in more calories than you use, you gain weight. If you burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight. Proven scientific fact. No ifs, ands, or buts. Although we are all different and our bodies mix amounts of calories and store them a little differently than our neighbors’ bodies, we can all contribute to weight loss by consuming fewer calories or burning more calories… or both.

You already realized that using both techniques simultaneously will be more effective than trying to achieve successful weight loss with just one.

I’m going to assume that the reason you want to lose weight is to improve your quality of life. You are worried about your health. Having excess fat can contribute to major and minor health problems. Yes, you honestly think it would be great to lose weight, but you don’t want to feel miserable, and neither do the people around you.

By the way, I said fat, rather than overweight, because healthy people can weigh more than the graphs and charts say they should. The weight itself is not the problem. It’s fat that paralyzes and kills people, so I just wanted to make a point. According to the charts, when he was in the best physical condition of his life, Arnold Schwarzenegger was “overweight”, but I doubt he was “overweight”.

WELL, YOU CAN REDUCE CALORIES BY DIETING. RIGHT?

First, if not at first, then somewhere in the diet, you’ll start to feel deprived, depressed, and craving dessert. (Nice trick with the d’s, huh?) You might even feel like you’re being punished. You can’t eat the things you like. They can only eat asparagus, or bean sprouts, or three from this column and two from that column; except the third Tuesday when there is a full moon. Is it any wonder that you and every other human being alive can go off a diet simply because of this nonsense?

THE REAL REASON WHY DIETS DON’T WORK.

As if the discomfort and stress weren’t enough, there are actually a couple of hidden reasons why diets don’t work. I’m not even going to get into the effects of stress and cortisol on your weight. That is a book in itself, and it is too vast a subject to go into here.

IN FACT, DIETING CAN MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT.

Most diets are structured on the principle, reduce the calories ingested. Most of us burn calories at a rate determined by our age, physical constitution, activity, and heredity. The rate at which we burn calories is called our “metabolic rate.” Our metabolic rate is unique to each of us, and is simply a measure of how quickly we burn or metabolize calories. As we age, the metabolic rate slows down and eating the same number of calories as last year will cause us to gain weight. As we age, we also tend to become less active, and our bodies also gradually change their metabolic rate based on our activity levels.

When you start to drastically cut calories, as in most diets, your body responds by lowering your metabolic rate. Even though you have reduced your calorie intake, you now need fewer calories to maintain your weight. As you eat less, you may even gain weight.

What usually happens when someone jumps on board with an extreme diet? Well, eventually, they usually fall off the wagon and go back to their old eating habits, maybe even binge a little or a lot! If your body has learned to get by on fewer calories, what will happen to the calories that are now left over? They will be stored as more fat.

If calories are cut too drastically, the body can start eating on its own, and it only wants the best! It’s going to go after muscle tissue. The problem with this is that muscle burns calories more effectively than other components of the body. When you lose muscle tissue or muscle mass, you burn fewer calories. You probably won’t feel as good or energized either, so you’ll become less active. So again, simply cutting calories could create a double whammy against you.

By the way, one of the sources of muscle tissue that the body could start to break down is called the heart. There’s no way it could be good for you.

Okay, you’ve slowed down your metabolism and lost muscle mass. Now you are disappointed and depressed because you are not losing as you thought. You have less energy and are hungry all the time. You’re sick of eating the same old stuff, you’re miserable, your family doesn’t understand, there’s no one to talk to! Oh! A little bowl of ice cream won’t hurt, right?

YOU KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT!

Next thing you know, you’re in the gutter surrounded by burgers, fries, and chocolate milkshakes. It! How powerful to have fallen.

No, you’re only human. But now you’re depressed (which can contribute to weight gain) because you failed again. On top of everything else, you’re winning again. How did that happen?

Remember what we said earlier about your metabolism slowing down and the body depleting its supply of muscle tissue? Well, with less muscle tissue you burn fewer calories, and as you saw earlier, the body has slowed down its metabolic rate and doesn’t need as many calories to survive. Came back! It’s a trap!

IT’S A VICIOUS CIRCLE, RIGHT? WHAT CAN YOU DO?

I guess you could hire a dietitian to help you plan meals. You can purchase pre-made menus to help you shop for the specific ingredients needed for healthy and nutritious meals. You could take some college courses and learn how to do all of this yourself.

That is where the problem with diet lies. To properly control calorie intake, someone has to be in charge of the nutritional aspect of a planned weight loss program. You can take responsibility for yourself, but be prepared to spend a lot of time planning, preparing, and compensating.

There are organizations and companies that can provide guidance, planning, and/or products to help. You may want to check out: NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, or TOPS International.

These can provide you with a wide range of delicious meal plan options that can help you stay on target.

EXERCISE AND WEIGHT LOSS:

Remember that part about metabolism and muscle mass?

When you perform physical activity; gardening, walking, lifting weights, swimming, bicycling, or aerobic dancing, for example, burn more calories during activity than during times of rest or most other less strenuous activities.

This is good, but it gets better. If the activity is strenuous enough, your metabolic rate may remain elevated for some time after the activity ends. uh oh! I said “strenuous”, right? Look, what’s strenuous enough for you is what YOU can handle, not what an Olympic runner can do. Do what you can and your body will figure it out. In fact, your body will get angry and team up with your mind and convince you that this is TOO HARD if you try to do too much at first. That’s one of the reasons many well-intentioned exercise programs don’t last. The other main reason is that people expect too much too soon. It took me years to get out of shape, you’re not going to reverse that in a week, a month or more.

The degree to which your metabolism is elevated and how long it remains elevated will depend on a number of factors, of course, but a key factor is obviously the intensity and duration of the activity. The bottom line, though, is that if you want to lose or control your weight, some type of activity is important.

THEN, HERE IS THE SOLUTION:

Combine increased activity (okay, exercise) with controlled caloric intake, and you have the basic ingredients for healthy weight loss. Forget pills, fad diets and, except in the most extreme cases, surgical procedures. Now, exercise is a wide field, as is nutrition, and there’s no way I can go into all the possible variations on those topics here.

The programs listed above, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and TOPS Club, Inc. provide guidance on nutrition and exercise. Plus, they provide another very important ingredient for success… SUPPORT!

Some have meetings, some have online support, but the key is that you can connect with other people who know what you’re going through.

No weight loss program is necessarily right for everyone. Take a look at these programs and decide which one will work for you, or create your own weight loss program. Also remember that we are all human, so forgive yourself if you slip and fall. The important thing is to get up and move forward again.

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