Weight loss should be easy. Eat less calories than you expend and
lose weight right? If only it were that simple. Over the past thirty
years this faulty logic has formed the basis of many weight loss
programs. Most weight loss programs restrict calories to a number below
what you will on average use. For a short time this undoubtedly works,
however, it is hard to keep on starving yourself and when the
restriction on eating ends you will most likely pile all the weight back
on again and some more for good measure!
So what is the answer? Well the answer lies not in the number of calories we eat but where those calories come from. Not all calories are equal and this factor is now becoming much more widely accepted and understood.
Every day I treat clients who are over weight, sometimes massively over weight. The simple advice that I give them is to cut down on refined carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, sugary treats and soda's and eat more fat. Many look at me as if I have landed from Mars at this point because this is the very opposite of any thing they have been told before. The truth is though that it works and when they follow my instruction 95% of them will lose weight and they will do so without any feelings of deprivation associated with dieting.
I would go as far as to say that cutting fat from the diet in an attempt to lose weight is the wrong thing to do and here's why. Fat is the most powerful appetite suppressant that exists. When we cut too much fat from the diet we end up not feeling satisfied with our food and we feel hungrier quicker. The very reason we have been told to avoid fat, ie because it has more calories per gram than other foods, is the very reason we should be eating it. Fat is an energy rich food that lasts us a long time, it is a slow burn energy.
Carbohydrates such as bread or sugary foods are very quick release. The big problem is that when we eat refined carbs and we get a sudden rush of energy, that energy is released far too quickly to be used all at once and so it turns to body fat. Dietary fat on the other had is released much slower and therefore used up at the same rate it is processed by the body.
Fat has two useful properties within the diet:
1, As I have already said, fat is the most powerful appetite suppressant there is.
2, When you eat fat your body begins to recognise it is a fuel. If you have been eating a low fat high carbohydrate diet then your body has been more or less exclusively burning glucose. When food is restricted it will then struggle to burn body fat, instead it will burn muscle first because protein from muscle can be converted into glucose very easily. This muscle loss is what contributes to you not only gaining the weight back after your diet but gaining a bit more for good measure too. Your smaller volume of muscle simply doesn't need the same amount of fuel to work as it did before, i.e. your metabolism has slowed down.
Good sources of healthy fats are foods such as nuts and nut oils and butters, seeds, avocados, eggs, olives and olive oil. Avoid polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, despite the health propaganda of recent years they are not healthy oils. Stick to mono saturates such as olive oil.
So my top two tips for melting fat from your body are:
1. Eat less of the foods that cause your body to store calories as body fat, ie refined carbs
2. Eat more of the calories that your body will use at the correct rate, ie fats, proteins and fibre rich vegetables. The calories from fat will also signal your body to burn body fat.
So what is the answer? Well the answer lies not in the number of calories we eat but where those calories come from. Not all calories are equal and this factor is now becoming much more widely accepted and understood.
Every day I treat clients who are over weight, sometimes massively over weight. The simple advice that I give them is to cut down on refined carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, sugary treats and soda's and eat more fat. Many look at me as if I have landed from Mars at this point because this is the very opposite of any thing they have been told before. The truth is though that it works and when they follow my instruction 95% of them will lose weight and they will do so without any feelings of deprivation associated with dieting.
I would go as far as to say that cutting fat from the diet in an attempt to lose weight is the wrong thing to do and here's why. Fat is the most powerful appetite suppressant that exists. When we cut too much fat from the diet we end up not feeling satisfied with our food and we feel hungrier quicker. The very reason we have been told to avoid fat, ie because it has more calories per gram than other foods, is the very reason we should be eating it. Fat is an energy rich food that lasts us a long time, it is a slow burn energy.
Carbohydrates such as bread or sugary foods are very quick release. The big problem is that when we eat refined carbs and we get a sudden rush of energy, that energy is released far too quickly to be used all at once and so it turns to body fat. Dietary fat on the other had is released much slower and therefore used up at the same rate it is processed by the body.
Fat has two useful properties within the diet:
1, As I have already said, fat is the most powerful appetite suppressant there is.
2, When you eat fat your body begins to recognise it is a fuel. If you have been eating a low fat high carbohydrate diet then your body has been more or less exclusively burning glucose. When food is restricted it will then struggle to burn body fat, instead it will burn muscle first because protein from muscle can be converted into glucose very easily. This muscle loss is what contributes to you not only gaining the weight back after your diet but gaining a bit more for good measure too. Your smaller volume of muscle simply doesn't need the same amount of fuel to work as it did before, i.e. your metabolism has slowed down.
Good sources of healthy fats are foods such as nuts and nut oils and butters, seeds, avocados, eggs, olives and olive oil. Avoid polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, despite the health propaganda of recent years they are not healthy oils. Stick to mono saturates such as olive oil.
So my top two tips for melting fat from your body are:
1. Eat less of the foods that cause your body to store calories as body fat, ie refined carbs
2. Eat more of the calories that your body will use at the correct rate, ie fats, proteins and fibre rich vegetables. The calories from fat will also signal your body to burn body fat.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Catherine_M_Blackburn
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