Resolutions
Most of us do the time honored tradition of making a New Year's Resolution and if statistics are correct, most of you reading this have made the resolution to lose weight in 2012. We always want to be the better, healthier people we know we can be. The problem that we now run into is: How do I not only lose weight but keep it off this time?
To Diet or Not to Diet
The first thing you are probably asking yourself is which diet works the best? The unfortunate answer to that question is: NONE OF THEM. I know that is a tough thing to read but it is the truth. Diets are inherently bad, they don't work. The definition of a diet is a temporary thing. Diets and particular crash diets like the HCG diet, Atkin's diet, The Master Cleanse, and other restrictive diets are only good for temporary weight loss. Can they help you lose weight? Yes, some of them can. Will you keep the weight off once you stop utilizing the diet? No, most people end up putting the weight back on and in some cases, add additional weight to what they had before.
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So, why does this happen? It happens as a result of the restrictive nature of the diets. These diets are not healthy enough to continue to do your entire life. When you do a restrictive diet or cleanse, you are missing vital nutrients/food stuff that your body needs to perform normal bodily functions. You are also not being told how to eat properly. As soon as the diet ends, most people go right back to their old habits as that is the way they know how to eat, and all of the weight comes right back. So how do you lose weight and keep it off?
Changing Your Lifestyle
If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you must change your lifestyle. Look at it this way, if you were a smoker and wanted to quit smoking, you do not stop smoking for only a month or two and then pick it back up once that time is over. So, why do we do this with food? The only way to not be a smoker anymore is to change your lifestyle. The same is the case with food. If you want to keep the weight off, you must change your eating habits including the kind and amounts of food you eat, FOR GOOD.
Using the Basal Metabolic Rate
If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to know how many calories your body needs.
There are many different factors that are involved in weight loss. Most of weight gain happens due to a high caloric intake and not enough caloric output by the body. For us to determine how many calories it would take to lose weight we must first determine how many calories your body uses while at rest. This is called your Resting Metabolic Rate (or Basal Metabolic Rate). There are several ways to determine how many calories are burned while your body is at rest. All of the different equations are correct and are widely used to determine your RMR. For an accurate number we are going to use the average of the results of all the equations.
Males: 66 + (6.22 x _______weight (lbs)) + (12.7 x _________height (inches)) - (6.8 x _____age)
=____________ SCORE 1
Females: 655 + (4.36 x _______weight (lbs)) + (4.32 x _______height (inches)) - (4.7 x ____age)
Females: 655 + (4.36 x _______weight (lbs)) + (4.32 x _______height (inches)) - (4.7 x ____age)
Men: RMR = 66.473 + (13.751*________BW) + (5.0033*________HT) - (6.755*________Age)
=____________ SCORE 2
Women: RMR = 655.0955 + (9.463*________BW) + (1.8496*________HT) - (4.6756*_____Age)
Women: RMR = 655.0955 + (9.463*________BW) + (1.8496*________HT) - (4.6756*_____Age)
Men: RMR = 88.362 + (13.397*_________BW) + (4.799*_______HT) - (5.677*______Age)
=___________ SCORE 3
Women: RMR = 447.593 + (9.247*_________BW) + (3.098*________HT) - (4.330*_______Age)
Women: RMR = 447.593 + (9.247*_________BW) + (3.098*________HT) - (4.330*_______Age)
Method Four Description: Quick Estimate Formula
Men: _________BW (in kg) * 24.2 =___________ SCORE 4
Women: __________BW (in kg) * 22.0 =___________ SCORE 4
Women: __________BW (in kg) * 22.0 =___________ SCORE 4
RMR = 1.3 * Fat Free Mass (in kg) * 24
What this all Means
So now that we have determined what your RMR is let me explain how this is helpful. This is the number of calories you need to eat in order to maintain your weight. This is the baseline for which to set your diet. We know through numerous experiments that there are roughly 3500 calories in a pound of fat. What this means is that if you cut out 3500 calories from your diet you will lose one pound. Lets put this into a more practical term. If you were to cut out 500 calories a day you will lose a pound after only one week. It is as simple as that, just eating a little less, no exercise. We all know nothing is simple especially weight loss so there must be a trick right? Well there is a trick to losing weight faster than a pound a week and maintaining that weight loss.
The Trick
The trick is in the food you eat. There are certain foods that will make you full faster and help you to eat fewer calories. Let’s talk about how your body physically works. When you eat food as you chew you are making the food into smaller particles, as well as adding saliva that begins the digestive phase. The food then passes down the esophagus to the stomach where it is broken down further by the stomach’s acid. The stomach then passes the food into the intestine. In the intestine the food takes a bath in pancreatic enzymes that further aid in breaking the food down into the particles that our body uses. This is also where we determine if we are full. There is one particle that our body is looking for and once it has enough of this particle another enzyme is released by the pancreas to make us feel full. What is this magic particle? Protein.
Eat about five small meals a day instead of eating two or three big meals. This helps to prevent overeating and using up all or most of your calories on one meal. If you put longer than 4-6 hours in-between meals your body begins to enter into starvation mode. Starvation mode is also conservation mode meaning your body will begin to conserve and store calories. This will cause you to hold on to fat, which is the opposite of what you are trying to accomplish.
Disclaimer: The above information is intended for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to be used as medical advise. Always, see your physician prior to beginning any diet or exercise program to determine if you are healthy enough for the program.
