Diets, exercise, health and weight loss

Diets, exercise, health and weight loss

First place. Stop thinking about diet, diets, diets, diets, fad diets, latest diets, celebrity diets, diet pills, diet plans, diet programs...ad nauseum...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 exempt you. Instead, they lock you in a cage. Eat anything other than what they prescribe and you're a failure...at least that's what their literature reads.

Of course, what we eat and when we eat it can play a big role in losing or gaining weight. Where we eat can also be a factor. Have you ever eaten too much at Grandma's on Thanksgiving? I have. How about that cocktail party when you went to the snack trays and drank another drink because someone offered it to you? Okay, for me it would be sitting at the bar and ordering another beer (easy, of course) because the game isn't over yet. Oh yeah, pass the chips.

FORGET THE WORD “DIET”

Let's just eat healthy and live healthy, OK, Sister Mary Fides, healthy. I know. It's an adverb.

Here is the decline in weight loss.

If you take in more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. If you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight. Proven scientific fact. No ifs and buts. Although we are all different and our bodies mix amounts of calories and deposit 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.

They have already found that using both techniques at the same time is more effective than trying to achieve successful weight loss with just one.

I'm assuming the reason you want to lose weight is to improve your quality of life. You worry about your health. Being over fat can lead to health problems big and small. Yes, you honestly believe that losing weight would be great, but you don't want to be unhappy, and neither do the people around you.

By the way, I said about fat rather than overweight, because healthy people can weigh more than what is indicated in the tables and tables. Weight itself is not the problem. It's the fat that cripples and kills people, so I just made a point. According to the charts, Arnold Schwarzenegger was "overweight" when he was in the best physical shape of his life, but I doubt he was "overfat."

Well, you can cut calories through diet. CORRECT?

At first, if not at the beginning, then somewhere in the diet, you will feel deprived, depressed, and craving dessert. (Nice trick with the D’s, huh?) You may even feel like you’re being punished. I can't eat the things you like. Can only eat asparagus or bean sprouts or three from this column and two from this column; except on the third Tuesday when the moon is full. Is it any wonder that you and another living human could quit a diet simply because of this nonsense?

THE REAL BASIC DIETS DON'T WORK.

As if discomfort and stress weren't enough, there are actually a few hidden reasons why diets don't work. I won't even go into the effects of stress and cortisol on your weight. This is a book in itself and too big a topic to go into here.

IN FACT, THE DIET CAN MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT.

Most diets are based on one principle: reduce calories consumed. Most of us burn calories at a certain rate based on our age, physical condition, activity and heredity. The rate at which we burn calories is called the “metabolic rate.” Our metabolic rate is unique to each of us and is simply the measure of how quickly we burn or metabolize calories. As we age, metabolism slows down and if we eat the same number of calories as last year, we gain weight. As we age, we also tend to become less active, and our body gradually changes its metabolic rate based on our activity level.

As with most diets, when you start drastically reducing calories, your body responds by lowering your metabolism. Even though you have reduced your calorie intake, fewer calories are now needed to maintain your weight. If you eat less, you may even gain weight.

What usually happens when someone comes on board with an extreme diet? Well, at some point they usually fall off the wagon and go back to their old eating habits, maybe even a little or a lot! If your body has learned to survive on fewer calories, what happens to the calories that are now too many? They are stored as more fat.

If calories are reduced too drastically, the body can actually start eating itself and it only wants the best! It will go for muscle tissue. The problem is that muscles burn calories more effectively than other body components. When you lose muscle tissue or muscle mass, you burn fewer calories. You probably won't feel as good or as energetic either, so you'll become less active. So simply cutting calories can create a one-two punch that works against you.

By the way, one of the sources of muscle tissue that the body may break down is called the heart! There is no way that can be good for you.

Okay, you've slowed your metabolism and lost muscle mass. Now you're disillusioned and depressed because you're not losing like you thought you would. You have less energy and are hungry all the time. You're tired of eating the same old stuff, you're unhappy, your family doesn't understand, there's no one to talk to! Oh! A small bowl of ice cream doesn't hurt, right?

YOU KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS!

The next thing you know, you're in the gutter, surrounded by burgers and fries and chocolate milkshakes. Lo! How the mighty have fallen.

No, you're just human. But now you're depressed (which can contribute to weight gain) because you failed again. Besides everything else, you win again. How did that happen?

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

It's a winning cycle, isn't it? WHAT CAN YOU DO?

I suppose you could hire a nutritionist to help you plan your meals. You can shop prepared menus to purchase the specific ingredients needed for healthy, nutritious meals. You could take some college courses and learn how to do it all yourself.

That's where the diet problem lies. To properly control calorie intake, someone must be responsible for the nutrition of a planned weight loss program. You can take on the responsibility 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 offer you a wide range of delicious planned meals that can help you achieve the goal.

EXERCISE AND WEIGHT LOSS:

Remember that part about metabolism and muscle mass?

If you engage in physical activity; For example, gardening, walking, weight lifting, swimming, cycling, or dance gymnastics burn more calories during activity than during rest or most other less strenuous activities.

That's good, but it gets better. If the activity is strenuous enough, your metabolism may remain elevated for some time after the activity has stopped. Uh-oh! I said “exhausting,” right? Look, what's strenuous enough for you is what YOU can handle, not what an Olympic miler can do. Do what you can and your body will figure it out. In fact, if you try to do too much at first, your body will get excited and team up with your mind and convince you that this is JUST TOO HARD. This is one reason why many well-intentioned exercise programs don't last. The other main reason is that people expect too much in too little time. It took years to get out of shape. This won't be undone in a week, a month or longer.

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

So, here is the solution:

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

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

Some have meetings, others have online support, but the key is that you can communicate with others who know what you're going through.

No weight loss program is necessarily suitable for everyone. Check out these programs and decide which ones work for you, or create your own weight loss program. Also remember that we are all human. Please forgive yourself if you slip and fall. It's important to get up and move forward again.

Inspired by Donovan Baldwin