Which diet is right?
Myth number 1: the word “diet” is incorrect. We are all on a “diet”. The food that we eat every day makes up our individual dietary requirements. Therefore if we want to lose size, we need to modify them, dietary requirements that is. In other words we need to change what we are eating from foods that have allowed us to gain weight, to foods that allow us to lose weight. Losing weight is a simple equation – eat less than your body needs to use as fuel and you will lose weight. In very simple terms – eat less and exercise more by modifying your daily dietary requirements.
Myth number 2: When you lose weight you are not just losing “fat. Your body is made up of many things including hair, bones, tendons, muscles, organs, water and fat, and you can lose weight from each and every part of your body. "Diets" that claim to help you lose 10lbs of fat in 10 days is also a myth, it is also false advertising. Calorie restricted diets that make these kinds of claims, also advise you not to exercise, epecially exercise that involves lifting weights. Why? Well muscle weighs heavier than fat, so you are unlikely to lose weight if you are also weight training, at least in the first instance. So what are you losing when you are going on this kid of "diet" - the answer is water and most likely muscle tissue.
Do you want to know why you always gain weight again, and a few more kilos after you've stopped following theircalorie restricted "diet"? Well the muscle tissue that you lost during your dieting phase is actually your engine, it is the fat burning equipment your body uses and needs to get rid of the fat that we have stored in our bodies. As mentioned - when most people "diet" they don't lose "Fat" they lose weight from all over their bodies, and because muscle tissue is the easiest to break down it is the thing that goes first. Lose muscle tissue and you lose the body's ability to burn fat efficiently. In real terms your body now needs less calories to maintain its BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. Which is why a lot of people claim they eat hardly anything and still gain weight. Well now you know why. In order to burn fat, you need to exercise, specifically weight train in order to gain muscle mass. Do more exercise and you will lose weight.
In order to modify your daily dietary requirements, you need to understand where you are getting your energy from , so take a day or so and make a simple food diary of what you have eaten during the day. Do not cheat, you are only fooling yourself – if you put something into your mouth, write it in your food diary. To do this properly you need to write down the food that you eat over the weekend as well.
Once you have the information in front of you, it will be very easy to see where you can start modifying your “diet”.
If you are anything like me, you will have one or two diet books on your shelf. Please choose one that has sound scientific principles behind it, and read it. If you don’t have one at home, then borrow one from your local library or from someone who does have one or two books gathering dust on their shelves.
What do I mean by sound scientific principles? Well a lot of diets are fads – nothing more: eat fish, don’t eat fish, eat eggs, don’t eat eggs, eat lots of protein, don’t eat any carbs, yes those kind of fad diets. I have to confess that I am an impulse buyer when it comes to the latest diet and exercise books. Yes I really was hoping for the miracle cure. When in reality all I had to do was follow the suggestions given in one or two of the books that I already had, for as long as I needed to in order to lose the size that I wanted.
So, once you have read through your choice of book, completely once, I would suggest you read it again. This time read with a pen and paper next to you.
Write down the steps the authors recommend, and do them. Follow the steps as outlined and you will lose weight. Where most people fail is they skip ahead, or they don’t do what the author tells them to do. Personally when i am looking to lose fat I look at those people who have made lean bodies a business - the body sculptors, the body builders. Now you don not have to become a body builder to benefit from their techniques - besides as a woman it is virtuallly impossible to look like them - because we do not have the right amounts of testosterone in our bodies needed to create that kind of muscle mass. So don't panic.
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Are you drinking enough water?
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Are you eating the correct food or are you modifying the diet as you go alone?
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Do you know what you are eating?
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Are you eating too much for the amount of exercise you are doing?
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Are you doing any exercise?
Remember, it has taken you this long to get to the size and shape that you are. Do not expect to lose all your excess weight or size in a few days.
Remember the choices that you make today, will impact on how you look tomorrow.
Are you making the right choices?
February 24, 2007 at 12:25
Reader Comments (3)
And I'm sorry I didn't motivate you to lose weight. I can't win all the time, and nor would I claim to do that. What I had hoped was to just alert you to the fact that most people gain weight over a long period of time, and losing weight can be just as long a process.
Best wishes on your particular journey
Elle
Some people would say - just have a smaller portion of whatever it is you like. If you tell yourself you can't have something you are more likely to fall off the band wagon, whereas telling yourself nothing is restricted per se, your mind quickly gets used to the idea that it can have it if it wants to, which usually means you don't.