Do you diet?
Not a day goes by that I don't search the web and see another site promising fast weight loss, or offering the same stupid advice. Things like
Loose belly fat fast
Loose 30 pounds in 30 days
Low carbohydrate diet
Only eat once a day
Just reduce 500 calories a day to loose weight
Eat less than 1200 calories a day
Flush your system
Detoxify your system
Fasting
Etc.
Diet pills, fat free food, low fat snacks, just and endless array of utter bullshit designed to get the consumer hooked on a roller coaster ride with no end in site.
Most people will be quick to try any diet or product that promises fast weight loss,even if it has taken years for them to get overweight they expect it to just disappear with very little effort on their part.
If you only have a few pounds to loose read this Why you cant loose that last few pounds
So here are the facts:
If you are overweight you are going to have to work to get in shape, there is no quick fix. Or should i say any that last!
If you take a fancy little diet pill or drink what happens when you stop? The weight will creep right back on.
You can’t eat less than 1200 calories a day and stay healthy, this is the body’s minimum requirement just to survive without and physical activity.
You simply cannot loose more than 2 to 3 pounds of fat a week safely; you might be saying well I know some one who lost 5 pounds a week?
Yes but it wasn't fat, they lost water weight and valuable muscle mass!
Diets for the most part require you to eat a certain way that includes eliminating or severely reducing a certain food group. This is not only unhealthy but also not maintainable for the long term.
Over the past 20 years I have seen more diets come and go than I can count, why is this?
Simply because they don’t stand the test of time, isn’t it funny though that 40 years ago the word diet was rarely ever heard and the majority of people weren’t overweight. So what has changed?
The quality and quantity of the food we eat, and people are doing less physical activities.
Most of the foods you buy are full of chemicals unless they are 100% organic, and a lot of these chemicals will alter your hormones causing you to gain weight.
See Not all meats is created equal
You absolutely must read the labels of the food you purchase to know what you are eating.
People have become addicted to super size meals; a lot of people will eat their daily intake of calories in one meal. This is a recipe for disaster!
As our technology becomes more advanced we keep taking away the little things in life that we use to burn calories in our everyday lives.
Imagine how many calories you would burn if you didn’t have your TV remote control and actually had to get up and walk to the TV?
More people are playing sports on a video game instead of in real life.
They are even coming out with cars that park themselves.
Today everything is becoming automated, combine that with the foods people eat and it is no wonder why we are an overweight society.
So you might be asking what is the solution?
You need to have a clear cut step-by-step plan to start with.
Step one:
Just like Dorothy stated at the beginning of the yellow brick road, a house needs a foundation before you can build the walls. A sound weight loss plan will only work if you start from the beginning.
Most people try to skip the beginning and just replace the foods they eat with diet food, what the hell is diet food?
Think about this, have you ever seen a diet tree? Diet cow? Diet plant? Diet food is nothing more than a man made chemically enhanced junk food. The majority of diet foods and drinks are actually worse for you than their regular counter parts.
Forget diets and do it the right way:
You need to know exactly how many calories that you need to consume each and every day to be at the weight you wish to obtain. This is the most important thing you can do if you are trying to loose weight, yet few people ever do.
Now I have heard a lot of people say that they don’t want to count calories, and I don’t blame you. And once you have your basic eating plan in place you wont have to.
But you must have a starting point to work from, so I have made this simple calorie chart to make this as easy as pie. (Excuse the pun LOL)
Now that you know how many calories you need to consume, you need to figure out how many you are currently consuming.
Use a daily diary to write down what and when you eat each day for a week, keep track of the calories also. Most people are in complete denial of their eating habits and when it is in black and white in front of them reality has to set in.
Step two:
When you eat is as important as what you eat. Spread you calories out over 5 to 6 meals through out your day.
By spreading you meals out when cutting calories you keep your body from going into hunger withdrawals. Plus when eating the right combination of foods you will speed up your metabolism helping you loose weight even faster.
See simple steps to speed up your metabolism
If you are currently taking in way more calories then you should then slowly reduce them each week, not all at once. This way you give your body time to adjust to taking in less food.
Step three:
A healthy diet consists of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and good fats.
Lean protein is the building blocks of your muscle; if you don’t consume enough protein your body will go into a catabolism mode using its own muscle mass to get it. If this happens your metabolism will slow down and weight loss will come to a halt.
Your body also has to work much harder to digest protein versus carbohydrates or fats, thus speeding up your metabolism. The faster your metabolism the more weight you will loose.
Protein comes from meat, dairy, nuts, fish, and poultry.
Complex carbohydrates give you the energy you need to get through your day; your body converts carbohydrates to glucose for energy. Contrary to what most people think consuming complex carbohydrates will actually make you loose weight also.
If you eat a low carbohydrate diet your body will use your fat and protein for glucose your body’s energy source. You will have less energy and if you don’t consume enough protein this can be dangerous since your brain uses glucose for learning, memory, and motivation. See- The human brain
Carbohydrates come from fruits, vegetables, and grains like oatmeal.
Good fats:
Your body must consume good fats to be healthy, fats that are high in omega 3 fatty acids. Good fats protect your heart and joints; they also keep your skin and hair healthy
Good fats come from fish, nuts, flax seed oil, and fish oil pills.
Now to put it all together, if you are going to be exercising start with consuming 40% protein, 40% complex carbohydrates, and 20% good fats in your daily diet. Spread this out over the course of your day trying to consume protein in most of your meals.
This is just a starting point; since each and every person is different you will most likely have to adjust these percentages accordingly.
If you don’t do much physical activity you will most likely have to lower your carbohydrates and raise your protein intake.
Step 4:
You must exercise at least 3 days a week, and don’t give me that crap you don’t have time. A friend of mine once told me he worked too much to go to the gym, so I asked him if he watched TV at home and he said yes.
So I told him to exercise while watching TV, he did lost weight met a girl and got married.
I used to work 70 hours a week and went to the gym on my lunch hour. Your health is the most important thing in your life, find the time there simply is no excuse.
Your body looses muscle mass each year as you get older unless you take steps to prevent it. Stop by a senior center to see your future if you don't, it’s not a pretty site.
Your exercise goal should be to add lean muscle and cardio, both will burn more calories.
The obvious ways of doing this is going to a gym lifting weights, jogging,or playing some sport for cardio.
But maybe you don’t have the time or the dedication to follow the tradition route, there is a way you can do both without leaving your home.
There was a day when kids went to gym class and had to do the basic calisthenics, these were simple exercises that used your own body weight as resistance.
Jumping jacks
Squats
Squat thrust
Push-ups
Sit-ups
Leg raise
You can start out doing these six basic exercises keeping track of the time it takes you to do this routine, and how many repetitions you do for each one of them.
Don’t worry if you can do only a few, the goal her is to set a basic bench mark for you to beat the next week you workout.
Any time you exercise you should always look to challenge your body, if you keep doing the same thing (sets or reps and even exercises) your body will adapt and progress with come to a halt.
Every six weeks at most you should change your routine, change the type of exercise or order in which you perform them.
This is why people will spend years in the gym lifting weights only to look not much different than when they started.
They spend years doing the same routine with the same tempo.
Its called hitting a plateau and this is when most people give up on trying to loose weight or build muscle.
If you don’t know how to do these calisthenics let me know and I will tell you how?
Or if you have any questions lets here them?
2 comments:
I have never been on a diet. I'm still the same weight--185 lbs.--that I was when I was in high school. That goes back 64 years.
And, I eat like a pig. No regard for sodium, fat, calories, carbs. Nothing.
Am I just an odd-ball, or, am I nuts?
Glad to here that Jack, neither have I.
There are a few reasons why you never gain weight.
1. You have a fast metabolism.
2. You stay fairly active.
3. You really don't eat as bad as you think you do.
Most people our age don't eat all the crap and graze like our younger counter parts do.
My father in law was skinny all his life till he retired at 65, then he gained almost 60 pounds in a few years.
He became a diabetic also because he changed his eating habits.
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