Why Most Diets Dont Work
Ever thought of, known someone, or gone on a diet? You probably have. The word diet seems like a common word for someone who is unsatisfied with their current physical condition. The problem is that most diets usually end up failing?in the long run. Going on a "diet" usually refers to eating alot less food, in the hope that it will make us lose those unwanted pounds of fat. Although there are different types of diets, 90% of them stress a strong reduction in calories one way or another.
Everyone has a certain amount of calories that they require per day to keep themselves alive and to perform bodily processes. This requirement of calories is known as Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR for short. For the purpose of this article, we will use my body as an example. My RMR is about 2500 calories/day. I will eat about 2500 calories to just keep myself alive. Note: You can calculate your RMR at weight-loss-resources.com/calculators/rmr.html
On another note, our bodies adapt to the stimuli that they are exposed to. For instance, when one lifts weights their body adapts by growing muscle, when one runs long distances their bodies adapt by building more capillaries to enhance blood flow, when one is exposed to cold temperatures their body begins to shiver in an attempt to create heat through muscle contractions, etc. The point is our bodies adapt to essentially everything that they are exposed to, including how many calories we eat per day.
So, when our bodies are exposed to a calorie deficit (a lower number of calories than our RMR) they must adapt. Let’s say that I want to go on a diet and I begin to eat 1000 calories a day instead of the normal 2500 (Actually, I eat more than 2500 calories because I exercise and perform daily activities. 2500 only accounts for the calories needed to keep my body alive. Although for the sake of simplicity, we are only using the RMR. If the message within these parentheses confused you, simply ignore it.) One of the first ways my body is going to adapt is by using up my fat stores to make up for the lack of calories. This is why most diets seem to work in the beginning. The thing is, the body does not want to keep using its precious fat stores for energy. The human body does not see fat as a bad thing; it is a backup mechanism for when a calorie deficit is introduced.
Now here’s the kicker. Since my body is not going to want to keep using up its fat stores, it is going to adapt by lowering how many calories my body needs per day to keep itself running (RMR). One of the main ways it accomplishes this is by eating away at it’s own muscle. Instead of requiring 2500 calories a day to keep my body running, my body will eventually adapt over a period of time and only require 1000 calories to keep running. Back when our ancestors lived they needed this calorie adaptation to survive when food was short and they were starving. The trouble is, the body cannot tell the difference between starvation and dieting.
Now that my body’s RMR has adjusted to the new number of calories that I’m are eating, it no longer needs to use its emergency fat stores to keep itself alive. This is when your fat loss stops from a diet. In addition to this, if I decide that I want to go off of my 1000 calories a day diet and begin to eat 2500 calories a day again then there is a calorie surplus. The body does not need these extra calories so it will store them as fat. The exception to storing them as fat is when the body needs to build muscle because it has been exposed to some type of exercise or weight lifting, and even then all of the calories are not used for muscle growth.
Now that I have changed my RMR to 1000 calories per day, I have really wrecked my metabolism and it’s going to be harder to get to my goal of actually losing fat. That is, unless of course If I want to stay on my diet forever.
So what is the best way to lose fat without messing up my metabolism (RMR)?
A calorie deficit is required to lose weight, but eating less is not the only way to create a calorie deficit. Another safer way is to exercise. More detail can be found on this in Tom Venuto’s book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle", which is located at weight-loss-resources.com. You can also calculate your RMR at weight-loss-resources.com/calculators/rmr.html
Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace medical advice from you’re a physician or your health care provider.
Nathan Latvitis: An avid fitness researcher – helping other people realize their goals through knowledge. Nathan runs a fitness website at weight-loss-resources.com where you can find more fitness tips, articles, calculators, reviews, a message board, and more.
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98 Percent of Dieters Fail: A Sensible Lifestyle is the Answer
What the Diet Industry Does Not Want You To Know: 98 Percent of Dieters Fail. 98 Percent of dieters either quit the diet or are not able to keep the weight off permanently. This is because diets are to restrictive and force people into cheating because their diet is not providing the nutrition that the body requires. Most diets require something to be cut out. Low Carb Diets require that you restrict carbs, the body needs carbohydrates for energy thus if there is restrictive carb intake the body will crave carb laden foods causing diet sabotage. Low fat diets require that you cut out fat, making people fear all fat believing that any fat is bad, and causing the body to crave fat laden foods.
Why is the diet industry going to set you up for failure and not tell you that you have a 98 percent chance that you will come crawling back to them yet once again. To get your money. It’s been estimated that $46 billion was spent on diet products and programs last year alone. The average diet plan cost over $80 dollars each week. If 98 percent didn’t fail the diet industry wouldn’t be needed any longer. Nobody would be overweight and everybody would know what would work to lose weight.
Sports Nutrition: the Lifestyle that is not a Diet
Have you seen an infomercial that has ever told you to listen to your body, eat what it needs and not force your body into craving foods that would cause fat storage because your starving it of essential nutrients? Probably not, because most information on sports nutrition is available for free and it’s something that you do for a lifetime, not a diet you go on for a certain period of time then regain weight and then again hand over your wallet once more to somebody with the latest promise that won’t say that 98 percent will be back again within five years.
Your body needs carbohydrates, your body does need fat. The key to losing weight is to eat a balanced diet and not to poison your body with the junk food that is abundant in today’s world. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats and lean meats are the staple of sports nutrition. Fueling your body to be able to perform what you require of it during the day is what will help you lose weight.
Fueling Your Body Means Eat
Yes you can eat food and lose weight. Healthy choices and knowing how many calories that your body requires to perform at optimal efficiency will keep cravings for junk food away. The brain alone requires 380 calories per day for the average 150 pound man just to be able to lay in bed all day, the liver requires over 500 calories per day. You have many other organs that also require a certain amount of calories each day. To determine how many calories you need per day just for your resting metabolic rate take the amount you weigh in pounds and multiply that by 10. So if you weigh 160 pounds that is 1600 calories required for your body just to perform basic functions like pump blood. Just to be sedentary you need to add 25% of 1600 to your daily requirements, so that would make it 2000 calories per day just to sit and watch tv, get up and walk to the bathroom and do other basic things without doing anything that would require work The more activity you do the more calories your body requires. The key is not to give your body these calories in the form of candy bars, potato chip, soda etc. Feeding your body with foods that are lower than 30% in fat will amaze you how much food can make up 2000 calories.
Eating more often:
Instead of eating just breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Have the basic 3 meals per day with a healthy snack between them. This will prevent mid-morning and mid-afternoon raids on the junk food machine and help keep your energy up.
For more in depth information on a Sports Nutrition Lifestyle the following books can provide a wealth of information:
Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook
Avery’s Sports Nutrition Almanac
Power Eating by Susan M. Kleiner
Any of these books will give you the information you need to stop supporting the diet industry and shelling over your money once again for a likelihood of 98% chance of failure. Enjoy food and don’t let anybody make you afraid of it, food is there for our bodies, it’s just the junk food that is bad and there are plenty of healthy alternatives out there that will satisfy any craving.
Josie Anderson is a personal trainer and is the owner of .weight-loss-program-101.com providing weight loss resources to help with many weight loss goals and newsletter to keep you up to date on the latest in the health and fitness industry.
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