How do we keep up with the constantly changing information about the best way to lose weight? Are carbohydrates the source of all dietary evil – or is it fat? Are dairy products good for weight los these days, or bad? Has protein had its day in the sun, or is it just beginning? And is long slow physical activity the best thing for losing weight and the more the better?
If you feel confused it is no surprise. We are constantly bombarded with new fad type diets and exercise gadgets that promise to help us shed unwanted pounds. From the latest medical research to folk wisdom and much of it is contradictory or incomplete.
So we keep getting fatter. Two thirds of the population is overweight to one degree or another and as we get fatter our collective risk for many deadly and costly diseases increase. That is the bad news – the good news it that we are not powerless and helpless in the face of so much misinformation.
We do not need to let our lack of knowledge about fitness, exercise and better eating prevail over our common sense and our desire to live long and healthy lives. We do, however, need to rethink what we think we know about not only losing weight but keeping it off for good.
For starters, we need to forget about finding short term instant fixes for what is essentially a long term lifestyle problem. We need to stop falling for the ‘diet’ and ‘exercise’ myths that keep us fat and keep us on a merry-go-round of weight loss and weight gain.
As much as we would like a ‘magic bullet’ to get us slim, healthy sustainable fat loss does not come from extreme measures like ‘dieting’. Nor does it come from ‘diet’ type foods. These heavily marketed processed non-nutrient ‘so called’ foods have been shown to hinder fat loss efforts by increasing food cravings, undermining energy levels and messing up the metabolism (the body’s engine).
Old rule: To lose body fat, go on a diet.
New rule: To lose body fat, eat healthy.
Many old fashioned diets call for a dramatic reduction in caloric intake. But eating too little has an extreme downside. It pushes the body into a survival state that slows the metabolism and the brakes go on fat loss. To keep the metabolism cranking you need to supply it with quality nutrition, not deprive it of the very nutrients it needs to process and burn unwanted fat.
Old rule: Long duration exercise to burn calories.
New rule: Proper strengthening exercise boosts metabolism – and burns more calories round the clock.
Instead of being focused on simply burning calories during an exercise session we are now focused on what happens after the exercise session is over.
Strength training exercise is the only way to rebuild and boost metabolism as muscle tissue is the driver of the metabolic rate. So, effective exercise goes way beyond the per-session calorie burn. Understanding this concept will make a huge difference in how you approach your exercise routine.
Old rule: Losing weight is about changing your body.
New rule: Losing body fat is about changing your life.
Achieving a healthy weight and maintaining it involves both nutrition and proper exercise components and it starts in your brain. Think health first and losing weight as a by product – as only when you rebuild health in all areas – physical, mental and emotional will you have the drive, energy and motivation to make the necessary changes to your life and maintain them.
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