Losing Weight without starving yourself – Part 2
WHAT ABOUT THOSE DIET COMPANIES AND FAD DIETS?
We’ll start out here by saying unequivocally that we think that many of these companies such as Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers have their definite positive aspects. They give people a way to lose weight in a healthy manner by providing foods you can eat that will meet recommended caloric intakes. They also give support and advice along the way as you lose weight.
Their downfall is that they can be quite expensive to join when you factor in the cost of membership along with the food. Many of these companies require you to buy their own pre-packaged food for all meals, and that can get quite costly. They are a good option for those of you who can well afford their plans and can stick to them.
There are also many, many fad diets that have popped up over the years that promise rapid weight loss as long as you stick to their recommendations. Some of these fad diets, however, can be dangerous, and they should be carefully evaluated before they are undertaken.
One such diet is the low carb option such as the Atkins Diet Plan. While many people have been able to lose weight using this plan, others have reported some serious health concerns about this.
Low carb diets can help you lose weight quickly, but keeping that weight off becomes much more difficult once the diet isn’t followed faithfully. Because of the requirements of the diet – high protein, no “white foods”, etc. – you will be eating foods that are generally high in fat which can raise cholesterol levels.
Some of the claims made by people who advocate low carb diets just don’t hold up. Because of the nature of the diet plan, you will lose weight quickly by cutting out carbs, but you won’t be able to keep it off once you re-introduce those carbohydrates back into your eating plan. In fact, the longer you are on a low carb diet, the more quickly you will re-gain your old weight.
Carbohydrates provide a way for your body to convert food into energy. By keeping them out of your diet, you’ll notice a lowering of your energy level, and your muscles will lose their tone becoming softer and flattening out.
Also consider that these types of diets recommend that you eat a lot of protein which would be mostly meats and fish. Many of these foods are high in fat. Eating a lot of fat can contribute to health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, and some cancers.
Yes, low carb diets can help you lose weight quickly, but know completely what you’re getting into before you start. A good diet plan will balance out all the things your body needs to operate efficiently in terms of food and the benefits of those foods.
You may also be considering one of the many “fat burner” pills out there advertised everywhere. It seems like everyone time I turn on the television, I see a commercial showing people who’ve lost 100 pounds in just two weeks and now they can parade around in swimsuits on national TV – all with the help of the amazing diet pill they’d been taking.
Some people have great luck losing weight by taking these pills, but those pills do come with risks attached to them. These pills are not required to be tested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they are released to the public.
On the upside, if the drug is found to be dangerous, the FDA will work quickly to make sure it is banned from future sales. This happened in 2003 when the FDA banned products that contained ephedrine after it was found to be at least partly responsible for the death of a prominent athlete.
These pills work in different ways. Many are appetite suppressants containing phenylpropanoline or caffeine. Some claim to increase your metabolism thus increasing the body’s ability to burn fat while at the same time causing you to feel less hungry. Other pills say they can block the body’s ability to absorb fat or help you lose weight by removing fluids from the body. These pills contain a diuretic or laxative.
It’s very important for you to consult with your doctor before you start taking any kind of diet pills – even the ones that claim to be all-natural. This is especially true if you have a medical condition. Taking these pills could interact with medication you are already taking or it could aggravate a previous condition such as anxiety disorders.
Diet pills can be addictive, so take caution when beginning their regimen. Follow the directions for dosages exactly and be aware of any possible side effects. If you experience any of the following symptoms while taking diet pills, stop taking them immediately and consult with your physician:
Anxiety or nervousness
Irritability
Insomnia, restlessness, or hyperactivity
High blood pressure
Tightening in the chest
Heart palpitations
Fever
Dry mouth
Excessive headaches
Dizziness
Blurred Vision
Profuse sweating
Menstrual cycle or sex drive disturbances
Because diet pills can be purchased over the counter, it is up to each individual person to use them correctly. Some people stupidly take more than the recommended dosage in hopes that it will speed up the weight loss, but this is very dangerous! You can overdose on diet pills which can cause tremors, breathing problems, convulsions, renal failure or heart attack.
If you want to take diet pills, that is certainly one way for you to try and lose weight. Just do so cautiously and follow the manufacturer’s instructions exactly in order to keep yourself safe. Even if you do take diet pills, you will still have to make modifications to your diet and introduce exercise in order to lose weight. Many people think they can eat whatever they want when they take these pills, but that’s just not the case.
And remember that nothing takes off weight and keeps off weight like a sensible, balanced diet and exercise. Plus, no pill will help you make the emotional and lifestyle changes that you will have to make in order to lose those extra pounds.
GETTING STARTED
You can lose weight in many ways. Sure you could go the supermodel route and starve yourself, but who wants to do that. There are a few things about dieting and weight loss that most experts agree upon in general.
First, you need to drink a lot of water. Most individuals don’t drink nearly enough water. Colas and coffee don’t count! Yes, you really should drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day – maybe more, depending on your weight.
Water is a natural appetite suppressant. If you drink a full glass of water before beginning your meal, your stomach simply doesn’t hold as much food.
No, you will not gain weight from drinking a lot of water. It’s when you don’t drink enough water throughout the day, your body gets dehydrated. When it does finally get water, it holds onto it and stores it for a future need. That’s when we feel swollen, and bloated with water weight.
However, if you give your body enough water on a regular basis, it releases it naturally. Drinking enough water gives you the benefit of hydration and fullness.
You should always eat a balanced meal. This might be the one thing we learned in elementary school that we really can use in our adult life – the basic food groups.
Proteins and carbohydrates are essential to a healthy meal. Carbohydrates are the main source of energy in our diet, and proteins burn fat. At a bare minimum, each meal should consist of a protein and a carbohydrate.
DO NOT skip meals. One of the worst things we can do, in our attempt to lose weight, is to skip a meal. I’ve seen it countless times: Motivated to lose weight, an individual decides to eat just twice a day. But your metabolism needs the consistency of regular meals. With erratic eating schedules, the body thinks it’s starving. So, everything it takes in – it stores as fat to be used for energy.
Finally, exercise. You just can’t lose weight when you maintain a sedentary lifestyle. People who exercise live longer and feel better. And, they lose weight quicker. But, keep it simple.
Thomas Jefferson said, “The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best.”
It’s never too late to get in shape. We’ll give you a whole separate section on exercise, but you don’t have to join a gym and become the next famous body builder. There’s plenty of ways you can get enough exercise to aid in your weight loss efforts.
Of course, there is a simple formula to help calculate weight loss: consume fewer calories than what you burn every day. For example, if you consume 2000 calories per day and you burn 2500 calories per day, you will lose weight.
You might just say “Why don’t I just cut down on my calories intake considerably, hence I don’t really have to burn many calories to lose weight?” Well that would be starving yourself and is not a good idea at all. This will make you weaker, hungrier and you will eat quite a lot after.
Your body needs food and calories to get energy. You need to eat enough so as not to starve yourself and be able to burn these calories and more after. On the other hand, if you burn out the exact same amount of calories that you take, you will stay the same.
The secret to losing weight without going hungry is to make the right food choices. You need to choose foods that are low in calories but can satisfy your stomach so you don’t become hungry.
We found a very interesting study that illustrates how the way we eat affects our weight. It was performed by New Zealand’s University of Auckland in 1999.
The researchers divided male participants into three groups. Each group was put on a diet with different fat percentages (their total daily calories were composed of 60, 40 or 20-percent fat) but no calorie limits. The men were told to eat as much they wanted from the food choices they were allowed.
As expected, the men eating the 20-percent fat diets lost weight because they were consuming fewer calories. Fat contains nine calories per gram compared to four calories per gram for carbohydrates or protein. Therefore, the more fat a food contains the more calories it will have. However, in spite of the lower calorie diet, the men in this group were not at all hungry.
What the researchers discovered was that the men in the low-fat group unconsciously compensated by choosing foods that weighed the same as the men in the higher-fat groups and, therefore, were not hungry.
What this suggests is that the weight of the food you eat may play a more important role than fat or calories in satisfying your hunger. In other words, you may not need to eat high-calorie or high-fat foods to feel full but your stomach has to feel the weight of a certain amount of food.
There are several other studies suggesting that people tend to eat the same weight of food daily, regardless of the fat or calories that the meals contain. It’s almost as if your stomach has an internal scale with a pre-determined weight that has to be reached for you to be satisfied and not hungry.
This may explain the rationale behind drinking a glass of water or having a bowl of soup before eating to cut down on your appetite. It may also explain why people can go on a low fat diet and yet gain weight if the majority of their food choices come from starchy food that is highly processed and low in fiber.
You can eat many slices of fluffy white bread before you feel full while eating two slices of whole wheat multi-grain bread already makes you feel like you swallowed the whole loaf. Eating high fiber foods like oatmeal helps you eat fewer calories (seven ounces of oatmeal only has 120 calories) without going hungry.
So how do you choose the right foods?
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