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| Diets are not
the way to achieve your fitness goal. Your fitness goal can only be
achieved by a lifestyle change that includes properly balanced meals
and exercise. However, when most people think of dieting, they
immediately think of eating less, or doing without. Eating less to
lose weight is a flawed dieting technique that usually accomplishes a
short term weight loss, followed by a weight gain. A diet's success or failure is really
governed by the same laws of physics that rule all energy
transformations. The first law of Thermodynamics states that in any
process, the total change in energy of the system is equal to the
heat absorbed by the system minus the work done by the system. Now
because a calorie is actually a unit of energy and the law of
conservation of energy states that energy sources can neither be
created nor destroyed...the calories you eat must either be expended
or conserved. So if you eat too many calories the
excess is stored. If you eat too few calories to support your daily
needs, you'll have to reach into where your excesses are stored in
order to maintain an energy balance. Your body must maintain an equal
energy balance (Homeostasis) or gains or losses will take place. If
calories are restricted, your body will do whatever it feels necessary
in order to reach an equal energy balance. When calories are restricted, your body
will begin to break down other nutrients to compensate for the lack of
energy. Your body however, doesn't selectively break down just one
nutrient, it breaks them all down , stored fats, protein and
carbohydrates. If you are trying to lose fat, it's good that your body
is breaking down the fat stores, but it is also breaking down protein,
which is stored in your muscles and carbohydrates are broken down from
muscle glycogen stores. Your body breaks down all three to get the
energy supply that it needs. Your body can't keep breaking down
muscle forever so what it does is reduce your Basal Metabolic rate to
conserve energy. Your body will now need less energy to achieve its'
energy balance. Now the restricted amounts of calories that were once
helping you lose weight are no longer doing the trick. One of the more popular methods for
weight loss and most dangerous) is to reduce or eliminate the amount
of carbohydrates you consume. When carbohydrates are reduced or
eliminated you will lose weight, basically because one gram of
carbohydrates needs 2.7 grams of water for storage. When you restrict
the amount of carbohydrates you eat, you'll not only use up your
carbohydrate stores to meet energy demands, you'll also lose large
amounts of water during this process, not to mention the lean tissue
mass that will be lost. You should also know that you can't store fat
unless insulin is released by your body and the only way your body can
produce insulin is when you eat carbohydrates. About 24 hours after you stop eating
carbohydrates, your body begins to break down fat at a very rapid rate
in order to receive a substitute for the carbohydrates it is not
getting. This is extremely dangerous and could result in death if
allowed to progress too far. During this process of turning fat to
energy, Ketones are created and you are known to be in a state of
Ketosis. In a mild state of Ketosis, your body is depleting fat stores
faster than any other type of diet. You can even eat large amounts of
fat and protein while on this diet and still lose weight. Low
carbohydrate diets (50 grams or 200 calories of carbohydrates) can
cause weakness, apathy, fatigue, vomiting and dehydration. You should
not even consider this diet without consulting your family doctor. If you lose muscle mass, your metabolic
rate slows and you burn fewer calories. If you gain muscle mass your
metabolic rate increases and you burn more calories. In fact one pound
of Fat burns just two calories a day to maintain itself, whereby one
pound of lean body mass burns 30 to 50 calories a day to maintain
itself. Exercise, especially weight training,
will stimulate and maintain lean muscle mass if you are eating a
balanced diet. If you are exercising and not eating properly, your
body has no choice but to reach into your muscles and get the
nutrients it needs. This will cause you to lose what you are trying so
hard to build. Let's look at a hypothetical dieter and
see what happens . . . Our person starts out weighing 150
pounds with a 25 percent body fat level. (37.5 lbs. of Fat and 112.50
lbs. of lean body mass) For one reason or another, our person
overeats and gains 20 lbs. of fat. This person's body fat composition
changes so that they now weigh 170 lbs. with a 33.8 percent body fat
level. In a panic to lose the weight quickly,
a harsh diet occurs, with our dieter eating less than 1,000 kcal. a
day and skipping meals. When crash dieting to lose the 20 lbs.,
remember your body composition will change because the 20 lbs. you
will lose will not be the same 20 lbs. you gained. Your weight loss
will be part fat and part muscle. Your back to weighing 150 lbs. but
your body fat level is no longer 25 percent it's 30.3 percent. (45.5
lbs. of fat and 104.5 lbs. of lean body mass) Our person eventually falls back into
old eating habits and before you know it, they've gained back the 20
lbs. they lost. Once again the weight gain is fat, and they're back
weighing 170 lbs. with a body fat percentage of 38.5 percent. (65.5
lbs. of fat and 104.5 lbs. of lean body mass) Once again our person diets, losing the
20 lbs. and returns to their weight of 150 lbs.(53.50 lbs. of fat and
96.5 lbs. of lean body mass) The person is back to their original
weight, but throughout the years, their body fat composition has
changed from 25 percent to 36.6 percent! This person is getting fatter with each
dieting episode. Part of the reason for this is the person's metabolic
rate has slowed down because they have lost muscle mass. Yet they
continue to eat like they always did. Without changing your eating
habits and the number of calories you consume, you are doomed to gain
your weight back. Even when you look in the mirror, you may be your
original weight, but your body composition has changed so much through
years of dieting that you don't like your reflection. The feeling now
is that you must continue to diet to achieve a better image. As long as a dieter seeks immediate
gratification and tries to shed weight as quickly as possible, there
is virtually no chance they will ever achieve their fitness goal. Another pitfall is your bathroom scale.
It shows gains that aren't really there and can't tell the difference
between fat, water and muscle. Your weight also fluctuates by several
pounds throughout the day and weighing yourself too much is not only
confusing but discouraging as well. You can't help but be affected by
the numbers. If you must weigh yourself do it only once a week and at
the same time of day, in order to get consistent results. Don't let
the bathroom scale rule your mood or determine the degree of your
success and the key to your success is a strong foundation. Adopting a
healthy lifestyle doesn't happen overnight. If you want it to last,
you need to adopt healthy habits and enjoy them one step at a time. I know you want to get in shape and
look great. Whatever your fitness goal…to slim down…gain muscle…tone
your arms or flatten your tummy…I’m here to help you accomplish
your goals and to improve your fitness level. You will learn how to
select and combine your diet with exercise, so that you can be the
best you can be.
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