Fitness and Weight Loss Expert,
Phil Kaplan helps dieters understand how to lose weight once
and for all.
What
is a calorie?
More
accurately, that which we refer to as a "calorie"
is a kilocalorie. Oh, that sums it up, doesn't it?
What in the world is a kilocalorie?!?!? Well . . . it's
the amount of heat required to raise 1 kilogram of water one
degree celcius.
What Does That
Have to Do With Food!??!!? Bear with me. You'll
soon understand.
Energy
is actually heat production. Whenever muscle contracts
to initiate movement, heat is being generated thus calories
are being burned. If you were to measure your "temperature"
right now, you'd probably be in the vicinity of 98.6 degrees.
Your body maintains heat on an ongoing basis, and since a
calorie is a measure of heat production, it correlates to
the amount of energy a food is capable of providing.
When the number
of calories that you take in equals the number of calories
that you expend in energy, you are maintaining an energy balance
and your weight will not fluctuate very much. Conventional
"diet wisdom" (a contradiction in terms) dictates
that if you cut back on calories, you will be at an energy
deficit, thus you will lose weight. Unfortunately, if
long term weight loss is the goal, it's not quite that simple.
The best way for me to describe the trap dieters fall into
is to provide you with a real-life example of a diet experience.
I'll use a woman in this example, but it can be a man as well.
The
Weight Loss Victim
A woman goes
into the weight loss center. She's seen the ads.
"Lose 30 pounds in 30 days." "Lose weight,
lose inches." "Isn't it time for a new you?"
She's ready. She apprehensively walks through the door.
Within seconds a "professional diet counselor" greets
her and they sit in an attractively furnished conference area
as they begin to discuss food. After a bit of calculating,
the Diet Counselor begins the presentation, "It appears
as if you're taking in 2300 calories a day. We will
cut you back to 1200, give you (which really means "sell"
you) these packages of food and delicious shakes . . . and
you'll lose weight!"
A
week later the woman returns to the diet center after following
"the program" and the first thing they do is direct
her to the scale. She's thrilled! She lost five
pounds! In a week! She buys more packaged food
and a week later the scale tells her she's dropped yet another
two pounds! A funny thing happens in the fifth week.
She gets on the scale, just as she has every week prior, but
on this day the scale is no longer her friend. She's
stalled! She weighs the same thing she weighed the week
before! She begins to panic, but the diet counselor's
ready. "Don't worry, you just hit (here's the word
they always use) . . . the Plateau! We'll just cut you
back to 900 calories. It just means smaller packages
of food and smaller shakes."
Sure enough,
the woman begins to lose weight again. The only problem
is, this time the weight loss is accompanied by this little
voice inside her head that says things . . . like . . . "cheesecake."
"Ice cream." She's getting cravings and she
begins to question her own willpower. After a few days
of fighting those little voices, she gets back on the scale
and realizes she has hit the second plateau. Her disappointment
leads to submission. She gives in to the voices, and
while at first she intends to have just a few spoonfuls of
ice cream, she finds herself caught up in an all out binge!
All the weight comes back! Here's the worst part.
She questions her own willpower. She blames herself!
The
Fitness Truth Regarding Calorie Deprivation
The voices in
her head had nothing to do with willpower. They were
in fact the ganging up of these little chemical messengers
in her brain (neurotransmitters) with little enzymes trying
to drive her to that which she needs to survive. Food!
Her body, in its attempts to protect her from starvation,
doesn't understand she's dieting to lose weight. It
is trying to save her life, thus, those built in protective
mechanisms drive her the nutrient she can survive off of the
longest . . . namely fat . . . and that substance that will
provide the quickest energy . . . sugar. Once she gives
in to the cravings, her blood sugar skyrockets, her pancreas
begins kicking out massive levels of insulin, and her body
hormonally shifts into the "binge" state.
The binge was not only inevitable, it was CAUSED BY THE DIET!
There's something
else the diet counselor didn't tell her. When she was
losing weight she was losing three things. Firstly,
she was losing water weight. That is meaningless in
the quest for long term weight reduction, but a great trick
for the diet centers. They can put you on the scale
after only a week and lead you to believe the diet's "working."
Secondly she's losing a little bit of fat, but thirdly, and
most significantly, she's losing muscle tissue! The
diet is leading to her body cannibalizing her own muscle tissue.
Muscle is metabolically active tissue. Fat isn't.
That means muscle burns calories and fat doesn't. When
you sacrifice muscle, you in turn slow your metabolism!
Muscle is also the site on your body where fat is burned.
Starvation induced muscle loss reduced the body's momentary
fat burning ability. The end result of a program based
upon calorie deprivation is a slower metabolism, an unsupportive
shift in hormonally induced appetite, a reduction in fat burning
capacity, and an inevitable accumulation of fat. When
you embark upon a diet, you are literally programming your
body to get really good at accumulating fat in the future!
Conclusion
So, why have
you lost weight on many diets, and then gained it back?
Quite frankly, because that's what diets do! How can
you spot a "good" diet? Well, if it has the
word "diet," and that signifies "deprivation,"
it will not serve you in a positive way. A "good
nutrition program" is one that stimulates metabolism,
provides all the nutrients needed for survival, energy, tissue
regeneration, and health, and focuses more on what you "should"
eat rather than what you shouldn't.
Below you'll
find links that will give you information about the latest,
most popular, or most controversial weight loss "programs"
as well as some vital tips on doing this right.
Suggested
Next Page:
If you've been
confused by one of the new low-carb diets, read the article
referring to [ Atkins ]. If
you've tried or considered the "shake in the morning,
shake at lunch" program, read up on [ Slim
Fast ].
If
You Haven't Been There Yet:
Click
on [ Supportive Eating ] to
learn the keys to the "Right Nutrition."
Click
on [ Solutions ] to get some direction
on achieving results.
Click
on [ Fitness Superstore
] to get any of Phil's Proven products.
Click
on the [ MENU ] to explore other topics
and fitness truths.
Other
Pages to Explore:
[ Atkins ]
[ Slim Fast ]
[ Supportive Eating ]
[ Thyroid ]
[ Metabolism ]
[ Feedback
]
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Phil Kaplan
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Phil Kaplan's Fitness Associates
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