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Diets, Exercise, Health and Weight Loss
Copyright 2006 Donovan BaldwinSquare one. Stop thinking about diet, diets, dieting, on a diet,fad diet, latest diet, celebrity diet, diet pills, diet plans,diet programs...ad nauseum...literally!A diet is simply what you eat! Your diet can consist ofchocolate donuts or alfalfa sprouts, but most "Diets", with acapital "D" will not set you free. Instead, they lock you in acage. Eat anything other than what they prescribe, and you are afailure...at least, so reads their literature.Of course, what we eat and when we eat it can play a big part inweight loss or gain. Even where we eat can be important. Evereat too much at Grandma's on Thanksgiving? I have. How aboutthat cocktail party when you went wandering over to the snacktrays...and drank one more drink because someone offered it toyou? Okay, for me it would be sitting at the bar ordering onemore beer (light, of course) because the game's not over yet. Ohyeah, pass the chips.THE LOWDOWN ON WEIGHT LOSS.Take in more calories than you use, you gain weight. Use morecalories than you take in, you lose weight. Proven scientificfact. Although we are all different and our bodies shufflecalories and file them differently from our neighbors' bodies,we can all contribute to weight loss by taking in fewer caloriesor by burning more calories...or both.You've figured out that using both techniques simultaneously ismore effective than trying to accomplish successful weight losswith only one.I'm assuming that the reasons you want to lose weight arequality of life and concern about your health. Being over fatcan contribute to major and minor health problems. You honestlybelieve it would be great to lose weight, but you don't want tobe miserable, and neither do the people around you.By the way, I said "over fat", rather than overweight, becausehealthy people can weigh more than charts say they should weigh.Weight is not the problem. It's the fat that cripples and killspeople, so I was just making a point. According to the charts,when he was in the best physical condition of his life, ArnoldSchwarzenegger was "overweight", but I doubt he was "overfat".YOU CAN CUT CALORIES BY DIETING. RIGHT?Somewhere in a "diet", you begin to feel deprived, depressed,and desirous of dessert. You might even feel like you're beingpunished. Can't eat the things you like. Can only eat asparagus,or bean sprouts, or three from this column and two from thatcolumn...except on the third Tuesday when the moon is full. Isit any wonder you and any other living human might quit a dietsimply because of this nonsense?As if discomfort and stress were not enough, there are actuallya couple of hidden reasons why diets don't work.DIETING CAN MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT.Most diets are structur...
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...ed on one principle...cut calories takenin. Most of us burn calories at a given rate based on our age,physical makeup, activity, and heredity. The rate at which weburn calories is called the "metabolic rate". Our own metabolicrate is unique, and is simply the measure of how fast we burn,or metabolize, calories. As we grow older, the metabolic rateslows down and eating the same number of calories as last yearcauses us to gain weight. As we age, we also become less active,and our body gradually changes its metabolic rate based on ouractivity levels as well.When you cut calories drastically, as in most diets, your bodyresponds by lowering your metabolic rate. It now takes fewercalories to maintain your weight. While eating less, you mighteven find yourself gaining weight.What usually happens when someone tries an extreme diet? Well,eventually, they usually fall off the wagon and go back to theirold eating habits...perhaps even bingeing a little....or a lot!If their body has learned to get by on fewer calories, what'sgoing to happen to the calories that are now excess? They willbe stored as more fat.If calories are cut too drastically, the body may actually begineating own tissue! It's going to go after muscle tissue. Theproblem is that muscle burns calories more effectively thanother body components. When you lose muscle tissue, or musclemass, you burn fewer calories. You are also probably not goingto feel as well or as energetic, so you will become less active.So again, simply dieting might create a double whammy.Okay, you've slowed down your metabolism and lost muscle mass.Now you're disillusioned and depressed because you're not losinglike you thought you would. You have less energy and you'rehungry all the time. You're fed up with eating the same oldstuff, you're miserable, your family doesn't understand, there'snobody to talk to...! Oh! One little dish of ice cream won'thurt, will it?YOU KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT ONE!Next thing you know, you're in the gutter surrounded by burgersand fries and chocolate milk shakes.Really, now you're depressed (which can contribute to weightgain) because you failed again. On top of everything else,you're gaining again. How did that happen?Remember what we said earlier about your metabolism slowing downand the body depleting it's supply of muscle tissue? Well, withless muscle tissue you burn fewer calories, and, as you sawearlier, the body has slowed down its metabolic rate and doesn'tneed as many calories to survive.IT'S A VICIOUS CYCLE, ISN'T IT? WHAT CAN YOU DO?You could hire a dietician to help you plan meals. You can takeprepared menus shopping to help you buy the specific ingredientsneeded for healthy, nourishing meals. You could take someco...
...urses and learn how to do all this yourself.There's where the diet problem lies. To control calorie intakeproperly, somebody has to be in charge of the nutritional sideof a planned weight loss program. You can take theresponsibility yourself, but be prepared to spend a lot of timeplanning, preparing, and compensating.There are organizations and companies who can provide theguidance, planning, and/or products to help. You might want tolook at: NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, or TOPSInternational.These can provide you with a broad range of delicious plannedmeal choices which can help you stay on target. Forget the word,"diet".EXERCISE AND WEIGHT LOSS:Remember that part about metabolism and muscle mass?When you engage in physical activity; gardening, walking, weightlifting, swimming, biking or dance aerobics, for example, youburn more calories during the activity than during times at restor doing other less strenuous activities.This is good, but it gets better. If the activity is strenuousenough, your metabolic rate can remain elevated for some timeafter the activity has ended. Uh Oh! I said "strenuous", didn'tI? Look, what is strenuous enough for you is what YOU canhandle, not what some Olympic miler can do. Do what you can, andyour body will figure it out. In fact, your body is going to getall upset and team up with your mind and convince you that thisis JUST TOO HARD if you try to do too much at first. That's oneof the reasons many well intentioned exercise programs don'tlast. The other main reason is that people expect too much intoo short a time. It took years to get out of shape, you aren'tgoing to reverse that in a week, a month or even two.The degree to which the metabolism is raised, and the length oftime it remains raised, will depend on various factors. Two keyfactors are the intensity and duration of the activity. Thebottom line is that if you want to lose or control your weight,some sort of activity is important.HERE'S THE SOLUTION:Combine increased activity (exercise) with a controlled calorieintake, and you have the basic ingredients for healthy weightloss. Forget the pills and fad diets. Exercise and nutrition arebroad areas, and there is no way I can go into all the possiblevariations on those themes here, so take responsibility for yourown education.The programs mentioned above, in addition to guidance onexercise and nutrition provide one other highly importantingredient for success....SUPPORT!Some have counselors, meetings or online support. The key isthat you can communicate with others who know what you are goingthrough.Remember, you are only human, so forgive yourself if you slipand fall. It's the getting up and moving forward again that'simportant.
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