Learning about calories to lose weight and gain weight
Most people who decide to lead a healthier lifestyle go on
traditional diets. The truth is, however, that 95% of those who go
on such
diets fail; what's worse, they often end up in worse shape than
when they started.
Diets are both ineffective and potentially harmful; long-term
health-oriented programs should replace them.
Low calorie diets, result in muscle loss, in preference to fat so
that the most useful tissue is preserved for times of starvation.
Fat
produces 9 cals of energy per gram compared with only 4 cal per
gram produced by your muscle tissue.
However, muscle determines the overall metabolic rate of the body,
so if muscle is lost, the metabolic rate will be reduced. This
means
that when the dieter returns to a normal pattern of eating again,
the lower metabolic rate will result in rapid weight gain.
The other problem with having a low level of lean muscle tissue is
the feeling of fatigue, when doing simple exercise tasks. The
muscles and the liver both store energy supplies, in the form of
glycogen.
This situation has developed simply because many people are looking
for an easy way to lose weight that delivers quick results.
No
such approach exists, yet the slimming industry continues to
misguide people into believing that fast weight loss can be
achieved with
minimum effort.
Achieving target weight requires lifestyle changes. These changes
include regular exercise, a sensible approach to healthy eating
and
the right mental attitude.
Why Dieting can make you FATTER
The conventional approach to dieting is a disaster. The first
mistake is to call a program a weight loss program. There are
many
weight reduction programs, which if followed can produce rapid
weight loss.
However, this weight loss is neither sustainable nor healthy as it
involves dehydration and loss of muscle tissue.
When you are ill and bed bound similar results are produced in only
48 hours, especially if you have a complaint like food
poisoning.
How much weight do you think is lost in the form of excess
unhealthy adipose fat tissue?
DEHYDRATION
70% of the body is made up of water. It is easy to design a
dehydration diet that results in losing 10 lb. of water within
several
days. Many naive people are encouraged by these rapid results.
Simply dehydration by 2-3 % of body weight can result in a
7% drop in physical performance.
LOSS OF MUSCLE TISSUE
If you lose weight too quickly, much of the weight loss will be
muscle tissue. It is estimated that when people lose over 2lbs of
weight
a week, 30-40% of the weight lost will be muscle.
This is a disaster for keeping the weight off in the long term
because muscle is five times more active metabolically than fat
tissue.
Exercise and Healthy Eating the First Priority
The aim of an exercise program is to lose fat without losing muscle
and without reducing metabolic rate. The exercise needs to be
customized to fitness level and to specific goal of fat loss.
Together aerobic exercise and resistance training are the ideal
combination of exercise to achieve fat loss and it should be part
of your
lifestyle.
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise metabolizes calories and raises the metabolic
rate. The heart rate needs to be raised to a comfortable level for
20 - 30
minutes at least 3 times per week. By exercising aerobically,
calories will be burnt at a rate of 300 + per hour depending on
your
weight and fitness level.
If you consider that just 1 pound of body fat has approx. 4,100
calories, then you can get a rough idea, of just how long it will
take to
shed those extra pounds permanently. Look again at how long it took
to put them on, normally years or a complete lifetime of your
own bodily abuse.
The debate of how hard to work: Personally I recommend that you
work at a level that you know that you can maintain for a minimum
of 20 to 30 minutes.
The debate comes in, when various fitness bodies suggest training
at a high heart rate 75/90 % of max, for short periods or 55/80 %
of
maximum heart rate for easier longer periods.
Im no scientist, but I have tried both methods on a number of
clients, and have found like most things in life, it may work for
one
person but not necessary for another.
In short try both methods, unless you are a complete beginner to
fitness, in which case I would recommend training at a steady
pace
for as long as comfortably possible.
Aerobic exercise will also raise the metabolic rate for approx. 24
hours after you have finished training. This helps to burn up
extra
calories and prevents the metabolic rate declining.
Resistance (or weight) Training
Look in the section on this web site dealing with weight training
for guidelines, or speak to a qualified trainer to aid you in both
the
correct exercises and techniques for yourself.
Inactive people lose about 10 % of their muscle mass every 10 years
after the age of 25. However with regular
resistance training it is possible to regain this muscle
mass.
Resistance training should be carried out 2-3 times per week for
approx. 30 minutes. Although not generally effective as
aerobic
training for burning calories, resistance training will still burn
about 250-500 calories per hour and will raise metabolic
rate.
Dont feel that by doing weight training that you will develop a
body that resembles a body builders, as these men and women spend
a
great deal of their time as well as strict diets and grueling
weight sessions to achieve the physiques that they have.
Another important point is that muscle will not turn into fat, if
you stop training. The muscle tissue will naturally break down
and
shrink in size.
Important point because lean muscle tissue weighs more than body
fat, your actual body weight may stay the same, during the
early
stages of your new lifestyle regime.
Dont be alarmed, the weight will come of, however if it does not,
your overall ratio of body fat compared to lean muscle tissue,
will
certainly be in a healthier ratio.
Try and avoid using the scales, unless they can monitor your body
fat as well, instead measure your body at various points e.g.
your
hips, chest, stomach and thighs. Using an item of clothing is also
a good way to measure yourself, as with a bit of time and
dedication,
you will find that the clothing fits you properly.
Healthy Eating
Good nutrition is very important for fat loss, and focusing on
health and health promoting foods is far more productive than
focusing
on fat loss and denial of favorite foods.
Adopting a whole food diet, avoiding salt, fat, sugar, additives,
preservatives, processed and refined foods, needs to become part of
a
life style change.
By increasing natural foods with a high fiber and water content
(fruit and vegetables) more food can be eaten to appease the
appetite
without gaining weight.
A whole food diet also has a much higher vitamin and mineral
content than a typical diet containing processed and refined
foods.
Dieting is such a negative term I like to think of it as eating
to lose weight.
The following charts compare the caloric value and expenditure
values of different foods and activities respectively. It is
important to
realize just how much work is required to burn off certain foods.
For instance, to burn the amount of calories in a chocolate
chip
cookie, it requires a person to walk vigorously for over 20
minutes. A cookie has a caloric value of 110 calories. A person
must walk
for a 20 minute time period to burn off that one cookie.
An excerpt from '6weeksrunningplan.pdf' found in
www.stewsmith.com reproduced with the authour's
permission.