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See Also
Weight Loss Products Weigh Loss Information Weigh Loss Books etc. See Also
Understanding Your Weight (Products) Understanding Your Weight InformationVideos : Losing Control :
Related Pages : Carbohydrates : Glycemic Index (GI) : Glycemic Load (GL) : Exercise :
Related Articles : What Your Body Mass Index (BM) Means) : Calculate Your Body Mass Index (BMI) In Feet & Pounds : Calculate Your Body Mass Index (BMI) In Centimetres & Kilograms :
Blog : How I Lost Weight ::
Articles : "What If It's A Big Fat Lie?" - Interview With Gary Taubes :
Losing Weight
Losing weight is something most people would like to do, but few people achieve. Because of this it has turned into a multi-million pound industry, and everyone promises the answer. Unfortunately this has lead to a lot of misinformation, and a lot of confusion. Understanding how we gain weight in the first place is the first step.
Understanding How We Gain Weight
Understanding how we gain weight in the first place is important. If we can sort out the fact from the fiction, then we can see what we have to do in order to lose weight. There are so many popular ideas about weight loss that are just wrong, even ones that are currently being promoted in advertising and the medical establishment. It is a good idea to find out for yourself a lot more about how we gain weight, and this will guide you to a way of losing weight yourself.
The main way we gain weight is by eating too many carbohydrates and not having enough healthy fats and proteins in our diets. Junk food and fizzy drinks also promote weight gain. If you want to lose weight and keep to your ideal weight, you need to understand some of the the basics of nutrition, and eat better food. This will involve unlearning some of the common ideas about food that we are constantly brainwashed with, that are just plain wrong, and that are causing the obesity epidemic.
For the best information on losing weight see our recommended books on how to lose weight.
Losing Weight By Dieting
Everybody wants a quick fix to lose weight with, something that doesn't require you to do anything different or make any effort. The last thing anyone wants to do is eat better and exercise more. This makes lots of people try the latest weight loss fad, and when that one doesn't work there is sure to be another one to follow it.
Dieting doesn't work. Sorry, but there it is. In fact dieting makes things worse. If you go on a diet and reduce the number of calories that you eat then your body goes into starvation mode. The reason for this is that our metabolism still works in the same way it did for our caveman ancestors. Our body doesn't know we have gone on a diet, it thinks there is a famine and goes into survival mode.This conserves energy by slowing our metabolism, and hanging on to our fat stores for dear life. The energy we need for living is obtained by breaking down muscle tissue. We do lose weight, but it is muscle more than fat, and we come out of this diet/starvation in worse health because the proportion of fat to body tissue increases. If we try to repeat this cycle again in the future, then the situation is even worse. Weight is easier to gain, because with less muscle mass to be metabolically active, the basic metabolic rate slows, and for the same food intake of calories the body will put on weight because less calories are being burned. Low calorie dieting also has less muscle to break down for energy production, and so it is much harder to lose weight.
Losing Weight With Slimming Pills
There is a basic problem with any slimming pill. Even if it works, it will only help you to lose some weight in the short-term, and unless you change the reason why you put on weight in the first place, then the weight will just come back again. Slimming pills are at best a short term fix.
Prescription only slimming pills have had a horrible history, and now almost all of them been taken off the market due to safety problems. (Blog: Yet Another Slimming Drug Banned). The only one that is now available on prescription is also available to buy over the counter at a lower dose as Alli, which reduces fat absorption in the gut (See our video of how Alli works ).
Non-prescription slimming pills seem to have very little evidence that they work, though they are popular. Some are absorbents which work in the gut to absorb fat, so that it is not taken into the body, while others claim to work on the body's metabolism. They all say that they should be used as part of a healthy diet and exercise plan, and if they help you to lose weight and encourage a healthier lifestyle, then this is great. They all appear to be safe to use.
Special diet foods don't normally help. For example low fat foods are not normally a good option, because the fat is usually replaced by carbohydrate which can make the overall calorie intake even higher. You have to be very careful here. The problem is that there is a popular idea that eating fat makes you fat, and this isn't true. Over eating anything makes you fat, even the healthiest of foods.
The best way to lose weight is by healthy eating and exercise, and enjoying this as a healthy way of life.
The real goal of losing weight is to lose it and to stop it from coming back, and this needs a change in daily lifestyle to reduce the habits that caused the weight gain in the first place.
Even more important than losing weight is to improve your body fat percentage. In losing weight you can lose muscle and hang on to the fat. This is not healthy.
Losing Weight With Healthy Eating & Nutrition
Learning about healthy eating and nutrition is important for your weight and your health. Much of this information is wrong and only serves to make us fatter and unhealthier. There is no quick fix. An even bigger problem is that if you are overweight, then doing what you have always done won't change anything. It takes far more effort to lose weight than it ever did to put it on. Just as big a problem is that most diet and exercise information is at best misleading and at worst plain wrong.
Carbohydrates are the most important to understand, and their Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL). There is a huge difference in the effect on the body between unhealthy quick release carbohydrates and sugars and the healthy slow release ones.Low GI foods which release sugars quickly have a huge effect on insulin, and repeated consumption leads to insulin resistance, then metabolic syndrome, then diabetes.
Fats are not the enemy in weight loss, in fact they are essential for good health and weight loss. If you are avoiding fats in order to lose weight then you are misinformed. You need to learn more.
Protein is important to maintain health and to control your weight. The right balance of protein will also help to increase muscle mass as you exercise, which is what both women and men need. The Atkins Diet showed that high protein diets can help you lose weight, however, this isn't the way to also stay healthy.
The Luncbox Diet is different to the usual diet plan because it is based on the principle of healthy eating. This is one diet that we can recommend because it provides a shortcut to a healthy eating plan.
Losing Weight With Exercise
A certain amount of exercise is vital for health and weight loss. However, this doesn't mean that you have to go to the gym or be out in the rain jogging. It does mean that you need to properly examine your lifestyle and incorporate some form of physical activity on a very regular basis. You also need to learn more about how exercise works and how you can incorporate more exercise into your everyday life in a time-efficient way.
There is junk exercise, just as there is junk food. Most aerobic and cardiovascular exercise are not effective at helping you to lose weight or become healthier when they are done on their own. There are much better exercises you can do at home, in much less time, and with much greater results. For example, short bursts of high intensity exercise carry on burning fat and building muscle for many hours after you have done them, but you have to do then right, with the right amount of rests in between.
Other Factors In Losing Weight
Stress can cause weight gain. The stress hormone cortisol can increase the amount of fat you store around your waist. Minimising the stress in your life can help. Remember that tea and coffee also release stress hormones and should be used in moderation.
Food allergies and food intolerance can cause weight gain. You can test for these.
Hypnosis can often help with losing weight if the problem is with your relationship with food.
Some supplements can help weight loss. (More information on this will be coming soon).
Some Complementary Therapies may also help with weight loss.
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