Enough of the Insanity
You have to do something different if you want different results. For weight loss the “same thing” is eat less and exercise more. Here is a shocking statistic for you to consider. Research shows that 95% of people who diet like this regain the weight, and 67% actually gain more weight! This yo-yo dieting is one of the most metabolically destructive weight loss plans, but that is what virtually all diets do.
You are still eating 1500 calories, but now you aren’t losing weight anymore – and worse yet, maybe you start to gain weight. This happens because your body now only needs 1500 calories instead of 2000. So now what? You figure, I must need to eat less and exercise more. So you repeat this cycle, and the body slows again. After a while you get sick of eating nothing and exercising like crazy, so you quit that diet. This is where the yo-yo comes in.
As you quit yet another diet plan, your body might be slowed down to a calorie requirement of let’s say 1000 calories per day. You go back to eating all the things you have been craving the entire time you were on the diet, stop exercising and in a matter of weeks you blow up like a balloon! The bad part is that while you dieted you lost fat and muscle. When you gain weight back it returns as fat, so you are flabbier than when you started. Your metabolism is also slower, thus making future attempts at weight loss more difficult. BE WARNED! Any diet that can’t be maintained for life- i.e. doesn’t help people make lifestyle changes, is ultimately going to lead to this yo-yo effect. Learning to eat in a way that keeps metabolic compensation at bay, while maintaining weight loss results is the key to being healthy and stopping the diet insanity. How do you do that?
First, learn to eat correctly. A lifestyle diet should focus on quality, whole foods that include plenty of high quality protein from a variety of sources. There should be an abundance of non-starchy, colorful vegetables. There needs to be adequate fat sources from fish, nuts, and other quality sources. The diet should include lots of water and fiber and a minimum of processed food, sugar and starch.
Next, instead of always sticking to a constant low calorie protocol the diet should be varied according to caloric demand. If you are only doing minimal exercise, then food intake can be lower. However, in times of intense exercise, the calorie intake needs to increase. This type of plan keeps metabolic compensation to a minimum and results more consistent. A plan like this means less metabolic and hormonal disruption and no more yo-yo dieting.
Finally, your diet plan should have structured flexibility. This means that you have some basic guidelines to follow, but you learn to adjust your eating based on your needs. Yes, this means that you will have to think, assess and modify your plan instead of blindly following the latest diet guru’s meal plan. If you learn to follow this type of lifestyle plan you will never have to go on another diet EVER. Interested? If so, you need to get in on the Body Transformation plan at the Canton Fitness Center. A limited number of participants can still join in 2014. For more information on this offering, go to www.cantonfitnesscenter. com or call 570-673-5813.