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Do you want to diet or do you want to LOSE FAT???

Part One

by Laura Brand

We’ve all seen them.  You may even be one of them.  There are still those people who stubbornly attempt to either lose or maintain their weight through drastic dieting.  Then they feel deprived, eat whatever they want, feel guilty, and diet, yet again.  This is called “yo-yo” dieting.  What a self-defeating pattern.  Eventually, you begin to feel like a hamster on a wheel in a cage, running in circles, yet not getting anywhere.  How exhausting.

If you are ready to get off that wheel, then I have good news for you.  There is hope!  This is a 2-part series on how to lose body fat for life without “yo-yo” dieting.  This article will give you the reasons not to go on drastic diets to try to lose weight.  In the next article, I will give you some eating tips to help you get the fat off & keep it off for life.

Reasons why you should not “yo-yo” diet:

a)      Dieting alone is not an effective means to losing fat.  In order to lose fat, you must actually gain lean mass.  Lean mass is everything else in your body, except fat.  The way to gain lean mass is to gain muscle.  The way to gain muscle is through progressive resistance training.  As you increase your lean weight, your metabolism also increases, both during exercise and at rest.  Remember, bigger muscles burn more calories all day long than smaller muscles. 

b)      Research shows that dieting does not reduce the number of fat cells you have, but it can reduce the size of these cells.  It is believed that your number of fat cells may be genetic, and can be increased by overeating during early childhood.

c)      Many people try to lose weight through “starving themselves”.  By doing this, your cells learn to conserve energy (fat) more efficiently.  So, your body’s fat-storing process becomes extremely efficient – at the expense of your body’s calorie-burning efficiency.

d)      You must eat to lose fat.  If you lower your calorie intake too much, your metabolism will slow down through a loss of lean body mass, and you will be defeating your sole purpose of dieting.  It will become more and more difficult to lose fat.  This occurs even if you are exercising regularly.

e)      It is important to know what to eat, when to eat, and how to adjust your meals to fit your upcoming activities.

f)        There are 3500 calories stored in one pound of fat.  In order to lose fat at the rate of one pound a week, you must consume on average 500 fewer calories than you use for fuel each day.  When you are attempting to lose fat, never try to lose it more quickly than 1-2 pounds per week.  Losing weight faster than this will greatly increase the likelihood of losing lean body mass, which we now know will slow down your metabolism.  Permanent fat reduction takes time, but losing weight at this rate will result in 52-104 of fat lost in one year!