Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss
In order to lose weight, your body must burn more calories than it takes in, but keep in mind that your body needs calories for energy and when you exercise; your body needs even more calories. Before I talk about energy, the first thing you must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not the same thing. Just because you lose weight, does not mean you lose fat, and just because you lose fat, does not mean you lose weight. When people talk about losing weight, what the really want to do is lose the excess fat on their body and obtain an attractive figure.
When you eat, the body uses most of the calories for energy. If you eat more calories than the body uses, it will get stored as fat. If you do not consume enough calories per day you will lose weight, but you will also lose energy. When you do not consume enough energy (calories) for your body, itwill start using up your energy stores to make up for the energy deficiency. Unfortunately, the energy stores used is not your stored fat, but instead it’s protein and carbohydrates (carbs) that will supply most of the energy (stored fat makes up a verysmall percentage). Your body will take the protein and carbohydrates from your muscle cells; causing your muscle mass to reduce (say goodby to that toned attractive look) which forces your metabolism to decrease (a low metabolism = slow or no fat burning). When this happens your body requires less energy to maintain its new lower body weight (remember the bodyweight is lower because you loss muscle), which is why your body conserves energy by slowing down the metabolism. In otherwords, the body has adapted to the new lower energy (calorie) intake which means that you will no longer continue to lose weight.
Keep in mind that the weight you had lost in the first place was mostly water weight and you will eventually gain it back in the form of fat, not muscle (in order to get your muscle mass back to the way it was before, you have to work on rebuilding it). When carbohydrates and protein that are already in your body are used as the energy source, your body will lose water weight because both carbohydrates and protein hold waterin the cells. In essence, you are dehydrating yourself to lose weight. So yes the scale will go down, but approximately 75% (if not more) of it is water instead of fat. And just so you know, exercising while consuming a small calorie intake just makes the situation worse. This is because when you exercise, you start burning off more energy and the more you workout, themore energy your body needs. I already told you above where the energy comes from, and if you do not give your body the energy it needs, it will just feed on your muscles even quickernow that you are exercising. So eat more food! In addition to this, when you cut down too much on your calorie intake, your body will start storing calories because it doesn’t know when you will eat again. The calories that are stored will bestored as fat. So in other words, when your body is storing energy, it’s basically storing more fat.
To summarize my point: Not eating enough calories results in muscle loss, dehydration, slower fat burning, and your body will always adapt to a lower calorie intake.
Bottom Line: if you can’t maintain that lower calorie intake for the rest of your life, you will gain your weight back when you get tired of starving yourself!
To lose weight properly (burning fat) you must increase your metabolism (weight training) and your need for oxygen (aerobics)while eating enough calories each day (nutritious diet) to give you energy and maintain the protein in your muscles becauseprotein helps build muscles, which indirectly burns fat. This brings up another good point: When you build muscle your weight will increase because your muscles are made up of mostly water, but your body fat percentage will decrease because building muscles increase your metabolism (in other words, muscles way more than fat, but take up less space than fat). So keep in mind that losing body fat can’t be measured by a scale; use a measuring tape and also look at yourself in the mirror, and then you will see the true results. One of the best ways to know if you are losing more body fat than water is by using a body fat analyzer.
Make sure that you focus on fat loss not weight loss. Your goalshould be to lose weight by burning fat, not losing water from your muscles. Remember this when you choose your weight loss program.
This article was written by Vernita Sherman of Ultimate Fat Burning Secrets. Ultimate Fat BurningSecrets is an online resource dedicated to exposingfat burning secrets that weight loss companies arekeeping from you. Vernita focuses on teaching youthe truth about how to permanently lose weight the healthy way at ultimatefatburningsecrets.com
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Changing Our Eating Behaviour
Changing our eating behaviour is one of the critical lifestyle changes necessary if we are going to successfully lose weight and keep it off.
For many people, changing eating habits is one of the hardest things they’ll ever do, as anybody who has gone on a diet and tried to stick to it can attest.
If you’ve tried to change your eating habits before and have failed, or if you’re about to embark on a weight loss plan of your own that involves a change towards healthier eating, the tips in this article are designed to improve your chances of success.
First things first
One of the reasons most people fail to stick to a diet is that they take the wrong first step.
There are broadly two ways to change your eating habits in order to help you lose weight:
1. Change what you eat
2. Change how much you eat
Ideally, in order to maximize weight loss over the LONG TERM we need to change both. But it’s not a good idea to change both at once.
This is where most people make mistakes. They try to change both at once or if they only change one, they change the wrong one first.
When faced with the above two options, most people take option 1 first when the best first option to take to help you lose weight is typically option 2.
Why? The reason is actually quite simple.
It is far easier for most of us to go from eating 3 to 2 pieces of fried chicken for dinner than it is to go from 3 pieces of fried chicken to a garden salad.
Sure, eating the salad will help us lose more weight than forgoing only one piece of fried chicken, but permanent weight loss is a long term process and going down to 2 pieces of chicken forever is far better than eating a garden salad for dinner for 1 week and then going back to 3 pieces of chicken for the rest of our life.
Remember, we are trying to make permanent lifestyle changes here and most of us won’t stick to these changes if they are too radical compared to what we are currently doing.
Food reduction tips
Here are some tips to help you reduce the amount you eat:
? Making small permanent changes are better than radical changes that you won’t be able to live with.
? Don’t worry about falling back to your old behaviour for a day or two, only the long term counts.
? Use portion controlled packaged foods to help you (prepackaged frozen meals and single serve snack packs for example).
? Use smaller plates than usual to serve your meals.
? When eating out, buy entr?e sized meals or share a full sized meal with your partner or friend.
? Separate a third or quarter of the food on your plate and move it to one side before you begin eating, then leave that third or quarter uneaten at the end of the meal.
? Eat small amounts of food every couple of hours so you’re not starving at main meal times.
? Drink plenty of water throughout the day – most people mistake thirst for hunger.
? Eat slowly and concentrate on your meal – don’t watch TV while you’re eating for example.
? Gradually reduce your serving sizes over time until they reach the ideal size.
? When eating take away, don’t buy super-sized options.
? Remember that to make these changes habit you are going to have to continue to practice them consciously for awhile (maybe up to 3 months) until they become unconscious.
? Be the last one at the table to start eating.
? Put your fork or food down between bites.
? Chew or swallow each bite before the next.
? Pause in the middle of the meal.
? Don’t eat while cooking – this increases your total serving size, often without being noticed.
? Place leftover food in small, single serve containers.
? Have soup or a salad with low calorie dressing to begin a meal.
? As soon as you begin to feel full, stop eating.
? Try to reduce stress in your life and other things that cause you to eat on emotion.
The second step
OK, you’ve gradually started to reduce the amount of food you eat and are starting to slowly (but surely) lose weight.
If you haven’t already, now is the time to start to become more active to improve your general level of fitness, increase your energy levels and of course speed up the weight loss process.
Now that these habits are well established, it’s time to start thinking about making minor positive adjustments to what we eat. Instead of eating a piece of fried chicken for dinner for example (we’ve migrated from 3 down to 2 and now down to 1) maybe we can have a piece of fried chicken without the skin or a piece of grilled or broiled chicken instead.
And maybe we can replace half of the chips that accompany our chicken with a corn cob or a handful of your favourite steamed vegetables. See how we’re making small positive changes that we can live with?
While changing what we eat is often more difficult that slowly but gradually reducing how much we eat, there are things that we can do to make sure that when we do begin to change this aspect of our behaviour that we are successful.
Healthy diet modification tips
Here are a couple of things to consider when improving our diet:
? A healthy diet is a balanced diet and a balanced diet has plenty of variety – occasional fast food meals are OK; just don’t make them the staple.
? Plan ahead – don’t be forced into choosing inferior food options because you failed to think ahead.
? Start by modifying your breakfast. Breakfast is so important that it is the logical place to begin when trying to improve your diet. Whole-grain, high-fiber cereals with low-fat milk are an excellent choice.
? Understand and read the Nutrition Facts labels on packaged food.
? Compare the nutritional facts of like products and if possible, opt for the choice with the lowest calories, sugar, salt and/or fat.
? Be adventurous; try new dishes whenever you can.
? Remember that the cooking method you use can increase or reduce the calories contained in food.
? Buy a new cookbook or food magazine for food and healthier choice ideas.
? Exchange healthy recipes with friends.
? Try new restaurants.
? Alternate alcohol with low calorie drinks (water is perfect).
? Join a healthy cooking class.
? Start a healthy cooking dinner club.
? Invite friends over for a vegetarian (or other theme) meal.
? Make meals delicious as well as nutritious.
? Remove temptations from your home.
? Become physically, not externally connected to eating.
? Shop using a shopping list and never shop when hungry.
? Be wary at cultural and social events – don’t let your guard down.
? Feel proud every time you say “no” to a problem food.
? Neutralize food. There are no good or bad foods – all foods are OK when eaten in moderation.
? Stop Dieting.
General Guidelines for behaviour modification
In addition to the tips above, try some of these general guidelines to behaviour modification:
? Be ready to change.
? Develop a plan.
? Set goals, track your progress, and reward yourself to stay motivated.
? Make change fun.
? Slow down your busy lifestyle.
? Understand your personal barriers to change so you can avoid excuses.
? Don’t look for quick fixes and easy options.
? Keep a positive attitude.
? Watch your language, especially when talking to yourself.
? Change your reward system so that it is not based on food and rewards behaviour modifications, not weight loss results.
? Enlist the help of qualified professionals (e.g. a registered dietitian, a physician, a personal trainer and/or a psychologist).
Good luck and remember you can do whatever you set your mind to!
For all your weight loss and healthy lifestyle needs, visit www.weightloss.com.au and become a happier, healthier you.
Scott Haywood
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