To Lose Weight: Is Eating Less Better?
When people want to lose weight they think about pain, hunger and food depravation. At first, most will reduce their food intake and see that in the first week they lose ten pounds or so of weight. They say: "Great! In order to continue to lose weight more rapidly I need to eat even lesser."
After a few weeks they notice that they don’t lose weight as quickly as they had hoped for and they get frustrated. If they are really determined to continue to lose weight they will begin to starve themselves even more. Before we continue, let’s stop right here and explain what is going on inside the body.
Why Eating Less Is Not The Answer!
During the 1st week the subject lost weight as their metabolism got shocked by the decreased food intake. However, most of the weight was water and probably 3-4 pounds of fat. The 2nd week the body, still not adjusted to the shock, continues to lose weight (even though not as rapidly as the 1st week). By the 3rd week the body starts to take counter measures in order to adjust to the lowered caloric intake.
What do you do when your bill goes up? You probably start to save electricity in order to prevent losing too much money. The body is just like you. When it senses that its metabolic costs are too high (in other words that is when you lose weight because the metabolism is too high), it decides to save energy and lower the metabolism in an attempt to keep the save fat from being burnt.
Therefore, the subject sees that the weight loss either decreases or just halts The way you save on electricity bills is by turning appliances off etc. The way the body does it is by sacrificing muscle since it is the most expensive tissue to maintain.
So, by looking at the scenario mentioned, let’s see what may potentially happen to the subject who is determined to lose weight but that doesn’t know how to go about doing it.
As the subject sees that the weight loss comes to a standstill, he/she decides to lower the calories again. For the 1st few weeks this works but afterwards the weight loss comes to a halt again. After a few cycles of the same thing, the subject continues a spiral downwards. By this point most people just forget about dieting and start eating everything in sight.
They gain back all the weight that was lost and then some more (remember it will be easier for them to gain weight now as they have decreased their metabolism by using the wrong dieting practices). Other dieters, unfortunately, turn anorexic or bulimic.
Then you ask, what is the correct way to lose weight? The 1st step that will lead us in the right direction is to re-arrange our goals. Instead of thinking of losing weight we must think of losing fat and increasing or maintaining muscle (depending on your goals).
Here is what the subject on the example above should do:
1. Arrange his/her dieting program to contain 5-6 meals a day composed of 40-45% Carbohydrates, 35-40% Protein, 20% Fat.
2. Eliminate all junk foods and processed foods from the diet and opt for unprocessed natural foods instead.
3. Cut down on bad fats and simple sugar calories.
4. Increase water intake.
5. Incorporated a sensible weight training routine (three-four times per week).
6. Added twenty-thirty minutes of aerobic activity, 3-4 times per week to his training regimen.
7. Have patience and allow some time to burn off the unwanted bodyfat. Typically, you will only be able to decrease body fat by 1.5 pounds per week at best (depending on starting bodyweight), without sacrificing muscle.
So, please remember that when you are aiming to lose weight, don't make the most common mistake dieters make, thinking that eating less is better. Think instead of losing fat and building muscle through proper dieting and exercise as this is the path that is going to lead you to the body of your dreams (lean & toned).
http://www.pt.com.sg/articles/lose_weight.html
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