A workmate of mine recently announced she was on this “fantastic new diet” that promised rapid weight loss of about a pound a day, based on injections of a pregnancy hormone and the consumption about 500 calories a day and a ton of water. What she called “fantastic” I call “crazy!”
She was so excited about the results she’d had that it was really difficult for me to tell her the truth, which is that a near starvation diet like hers couldn’t possibly have a happy ending. Of course she’s going to lose weight. She’s hardly consuming any calories to begin with! But any benefits are not going to last. I hate to break it to you but the same is true about a lot of those diets out there. They just don’t work.
The truth is that there are no quick fixes, or magic bullets, when it comes to weight loss or management…just plain old fashioned science, hard work and common sense. The good news is that your success at losing weight can be based on your ability to grasp a very simple principle and it is this: Weight loss will occur when the calories expended, exceed the number of calories consumed. Simple math really.
Reducing the number of calories you consume is important but only through a well balanced diet of fats proteins and carbohydrates in the right proportions and based on the number of calories your body requires, to function optimally. The emphasis needs to be on consuming healthy foods rather than on consuming less food.
A combination of a healthy diet, aerobic exercise and resistance training remains the best formula for “losing weight.” It may seem like the harder solution to the problem but it is definitely the safer, healthier and more fun way to achieve your goal.
You see a huge part of the problem is people’s obsession with losing pounds, but real weight management isn’t about pounds on a scale. It’s a little more than that. The true measure of body weight is your Body Mass Index (BMI) or body composition - the ratio of lean body mass to body fat. The less fat you have and the more lean muscle mass, the healthier you likely are. But lean muscle mass weighs more than fat, so that even though you’re “losing weight” in the form of fat it won’t register on the scale, so forget about the scale for a bit and focus more on your BMI measurements. The obsession with the scale and pounds is what leads to many people getting frustrated and giving up on their exercise programmes prematurely.
Another important point to note is that as you lose pounds through some of these conventional low calorie diets, a significant chunk of that “weight” will likely be from lean mass tissue which can over time result in the slowing down of the metabolism, the creation of hormonal imbalances, and the disturbance of the nervous system. Like I said ti can’t possibly have a happy ending.
The problem with most of these low calorie diets is that they don’t take into consideration that the human body is not designed to function under the conditions they impose on it.
The human body is a finely tuned machine that needs fuel and care in order to function efficiently. Even at rest, your body needs and consumes energy or calories in order to carry out basic functions like breathing keeping your heart functioning, That’s referred to as your Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR; and unless you’re in a vegetative state, there’s no way your body can survive on a mere 500 calories per day without placing severe strain on it. So you may lose weight initially but at what long term cost to your health?
The more lean body mass you have the higher your BMR and one way of increasing your lean body mass is through resistance training. If your weight loss is accompanied by loss of lean muscle tissue then your BMR is reduced which translates into the body consuming less calories at rest, and to you packing the pounds back on.
So again the combination of a healthy diet, aerobic exercise and resistance training remains the best formula for “losing weight.” It may seem like the harder solution to the problem but it is definitely the safer, healthier and more fun way to achieve your goal.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kendal Burton is a Certified Personal Trainer, Yoga Instructor and Sports Nutrition Specialist.
No comments:
Post a Comment