Weight Loss Tips

Our tremendous prosperity and national blessings have made it possible (and easy) for us to worry about weighing "too much."

I recently did a search at my local library and found that they have 430 "weight loss books" in their collection. In comparison they only have 111 books on "religion" and 83 on "political science" (but 1,389 on "cookery" and 624 on "parenting").

Weight loss hasn't been a problem for most of human history (and the majority of human beings alive today are more concerned with getting enough to eat - not with how to lose weight).

New books are published each year promising to give us the "secrets" of weight loss. Most of these "fad diet books" simply don't work. Most "fad diets" ignore basic human physiology making them (at best) impossible to "stick with" or (at worst) dangerous to your health.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of very good "weight loss"/nutrition books. However, there is "nothing new under the sun" - you should beware of any new "fad" diet that promises to make you thin while ignoring the following weight loss tips.

WEIGHT LOSS TIP #1 - CALORIES
You will gain or lose weight based on how many calories you consume and "burn" on a daily basis.

Take in more calories than you burn off and you will gain weight. Burn off more calories than you take in and you will lose weight. Sounds simple, but we run into a couple problems.

First, your body needs a certain number of calories just to survive. If you go below this level your body will go into starvation mode and start functioning on fewer calories. Starvation mode allows people to survive hard times, but is not the path to permanent weight loss.

In fact, "starvation dieting" will actually make you fat. Since your body isn't getting enough nutrients, it will start consuming lean muscle tissue to survive. When you finally give up on the diet and go back to "normal" eating, you gain back the small amount of fat you may have lost and also have less muscle.

How many calories do you need?
A quick way to estimate you daily caloric needs:
Step 1 - multiply your bodyweight by 10
Step 2 - add 20% for basic daily activity (this is a minimum)
Step 3 - add exercise calories
Step 4 - subtract 20% to lose weight

EXAMPLE
A 100-pound office worker who doesn't exercise:
1. 100 x 10 = 1,000
2. (1,000 x .20) = 200 + 1,000 = 1,200 total calories
3. 1,200 + 0 exercise calories = 1,200
4. (1,200 x .20) = 240 - 1,200 = 960 calories per day

Of course our 100-pound office worker probably doesn't need to lose weight. This simply illustrates that eating less than 1,000 calories is going to put most people into starvation mode.

WEIGHT LOSS TIP #2 CALORIE COMPOSITION
Fad diets come and go. Unfortunately many of these "fad diets" are unhealthy. A registered dietician (which I am not) could dissect the many "fad diets" and explain "why" they aren't going to work.

I will simply point out that your brain runs on carbohydrates. You need carbohydrates to live. This is not a matter of "will power" this is just the human body works.

A diet consisting of the following percentages is recommended:
55-65% carbohydrate
20-30% fat
10-15% protein (0.6 to 0.7 grams protein per pound - 1.3 to 1.6 grams per kilogram)

WEIGHT LOSS TIP #3 EXERCISE
Exercise has many health benefits but it is very hard to lose weight by exercising alone.

It sounds logical that if you burn up 400 calories on the treadmill (or whatever your favorite exercise may be), that you will create a calorie deficit and therefore lose fat.

The problem is that appetite tends to increase as you increase your activity. In other words, people eat more when they exercise more. The body sends out "hunger signals" to compensate for the additional work.

This is another of those "survival" mechanisms that has helped human beings survive harsh conditions.

The caveat is that "resistance training" exercise (e.g. "lifting weights") that stimulates muscle growth has the potential to raise resting metabolism. Build more muscle and you will burn more calories 24 hours a day 7 days a week - which obviously would be a good thing.

(By the way: women should not be afraid of "bulking up" if they start lifting weights. You won't accidentally get to look like a professional female bodybuilder simply because you incorporate some resistance training in your workout.

If you are blessed with incredible genetics and respond to training in an undesired way (i.e. if you are in the 0.0001% of the population)- you can simply use back off the weights and the unwanted muscle will quickly disappear.

Bottom line = calories matter for weight loss no matter what you eat or how much you exercise.

WEIGHT LOSS TIP #4 THE SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE THING YOU CAN DO
Write down everything you eat.

Doesn't it sound simple? Keep a log of everything you eat, and you will find it much easier to lose weight.

This works for a couple of reasons. First it forces you to pay attention to what (and how much) you are eating. Keeping a running total in your head simply isn't going to work for most people (you will either under/over-eat).

Secondly, you will pay attention to when and why you are eating. Keeping a food/calorie log will help eliminate (or at least call attention to) "nervous eating," "boredom eating," and "whatever other kind of eating that isn't related to nutrition."

Bottom line = measure food portions, write it down, count up the calories and you are more likely to lose weight.

WEIGHT LOSS TIP #5 MORE INFORMATION
This short article doesn't is by no means "comprehensive." Here are some more resources to help you on your way to healthy eating.

• Good "general nutrition" recommendations are available at these two from the USDA:
  http://www.mypyramid.gov/
  http://www.nutrition.gov/
• How many calories are in X? Find out by using the "Nutrition Analysis Tool" (NAT)
  http://www.nat.uiuc.edu/
• If you are serious about weight loss (and are having trouble) then consulting a registered dietician is recommended. Find a registered dietician at:
  http://www.eatright.org/ (click on "Find a Nutrition Professional")
• Finally I'll point out that "food is not the enemy" - if you think you (or someone you know) might have an eating disorder:
  http://nationaleatingdisorders.org/