The Science of Weight Loss
Work With Your Body, Not Against It, For Effective Weight Loss
It is easy to think when we go on a weight loss diet that we have to cut way back on our food intake and suffer another ‘diet’; this was the way we use to do it but the problem is it does not work. In fact, it is estimated that 95 percent of all diets fail which is incredible seeing people are still trying to get them to work out. What happens is that we work against our body and the resilience of the human body means it has long since been able to adapt to harsh survival conditions and that is exactly what a diet replicates – a famine situation. Starvation does not lead to weight loss, it leads to weight conservation. Your body goes into survival mode when it suspects starvation, and shuts down the energy it burns because it does not know when or if it will be fed again. There is a science to weight loss just like there is a science to an engineer building a skyscraper, a person driving a car or a surgeon operation on someone. There is a scientific and systematic way of losing weight. The best way to lose weight and to be successful at weigh loss in the long run is to lose it gradually. You lose weight gradually by doing a complete overhaul of our current lifestyle, since your current lifestyle isn’t working out too well for you so far. Look at weight loss in a completely different way. Forget about getting on another fad diet and just change your whole lifestyle. Make it a lifestyle change.
The World Health Organization states that any diet with a caloric intake of 1800 or less for women and 2200 for men is a starvation diet. Yet many people around the world are cutting back to levels way below this in an attempt to lose weight even though it is fruitless. It is now known that we need to stay under the body’s ‘famine mode’ radar by only 100-200 calories each day so we do not trigger this ancient survival mechanism in us. This in affect outsmarts our body to release its stored fat and is the opposite of starving. A proper fat loss diet focuses on eating the right type of foods in the right quantities and at the right time and becoming more active.
When we eat the right way this has a two fold affect –
1) Boosting the metabolism by it having to fire up to process the large amounts of ‘clean’ foods.
2) Providing strength and energy so some effort can be put into a proper strength training program so more fat burning machinery can be added to the body – lean muscle tissue.
So out goes the refined and processed ‘so called’ foods, out goes the high sugar and high fat junk and in comes natural whole foods cooked from scratch; basically like the ones pulled off trees, taken out of the earth or fresh from the butcher shop or the ocean. Not the ones mass produced in factories with tons of additives, refined sugar, and salt to make us fat.
A fat burning meal has protein as it central component so this choice should be made first and foremost. Then the rest of the meal is added – complex carbohydrates in the form of vegetables are the best choice. Small amounts of grains and fruit can be used. These small fat burning meals are eaten every 2-3 hours and need to be prepared the night before so they can be taken whenever you go during the day.
As you can see a fat loss diet is completely different in its approach than simply losing weight. After all what sort of weight do you want to lose – muscle tissue or body fluid – I don’t think so. We want it to be fat so we need to work with the body not against it as that is a lose/lose situation.
Let’s go over the basic formula again – 5-7 small meals each with at least 20 grams of protein, just a couple of hundred calories less than you need each day. You may need to drop just 100 calories a day till you start losing fat. Ditch the processed foods, sugar, refined grains and high fat and start eating natural, whole and some raw foods each day.
Forget what you think you know about exercise and get yourself started on a proper strength training program and put some effort into it so you can boost your metabolism. How is that for a simple method and guess what? It really works. Your biggest problem will be having to fork out some money for a new wardrobe for the new strong, lean, slim, healthy and slimmer you. Heck you might be able to wear clothing you had prior and never thought you would ever be able to fit into again.
If you can follow these tips on weight loss you will be well on your way to a new body, not to mention the health benefits and the high you will get from finally having the body of your dream. You can’t really put a price on that. You deserve it! Here is a great book to start reading that will give you tons more diet and exercise tips that are practical that anyone can benefit from in no time.
