Weight Loss Goddess » Dieting

Diets Damage Metabolism

Admin — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:54:51 +0000

When we see beautiful models in magazines and svelte actresses in movies, we are tempted to cut down on our eating in order to lose weight and look more like them. We decide to stop eating as much so we can drops some pounds. Less food taken in should mean you’ll lose weight quickly, right?
Not necessarily. Our bodies are very efficient at storing food as fat as a defense against starvation. When you cut your calories, and if you do it drastically enough, your body panics. Think of it in terms of an army and its rations.
Body:         “Danger! Danger! There’s not enough food! We’re starving!”
Metabolism:    “Cut down on production, we’re going into survival mode! Slow and steady! Emphasis on the slow!”
Body:         “Just make sure we have enough fat stores to get through this famine.”
Metabolism:    “Aye Aye, Captain!”
Orders have been given and the next thing you know, you have are miserable because you have not only NOT lost weight on your diet, you have rebounded and GAINED. You have also gained any number of unattractive fat stores which get created in order to make sure that your body doesn’t starve.
Think of it as the general of an army, laying in stores for a very long winter. When your body is in survival mode, it takes fewer calories to sustain itself, to maintain its current weight.
Excess calories are stored as fat, and the rations are parceled out to the soldiers reluctantly and very slowly in order to make sure the resources last as long as possible.
Severe restriction of calories is a sure fire way to cause your metabolism to slow down to a crawl. So if you’ve been crash dieting for years without exercising, then your metabolism most likely has been affected.
Dieting like this burns muscle, and the less muscle mass you have, the less calories you burn, and the slower your metabolism. You will now need fewer calories to maintain your current weight. This means that if you consume more calories, your body won’t need to use them for energy and will store them. You will actually rebound and gain weight, and it will be that much harder to lose it. Remember, it only takes 2000 calories to gain a pound, but 3,500 to lose one.
When you put the weight back on, and you will if you’ve been crash dieting, then it will be put back on as fat. This means that your metabolic rate has probably dropped a little bit each time that you’ve crash dieted.
Putting on more fat and losing muscle will cause your metabolism to slow down even more. It seems like a cycle of doom, doesn’t it?
It can be if you don’t break that feast or famine cycle. But you can learn how to increase your metabolism in order to burn the most calories possible, even when you’re sleeping.

Excess weight in middle age boosts chances of developing Alzheimer’s

Admin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:47:31 +0000

Here is an interesting article posted today in Yahoo about the link between belly fat in middle age and the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease much later in life.

Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia, and a great deal of research recently has linked it to inflammation in the body, particularly inflammation related to heart disease.

Also, recent research suggests that fat is not just a bunch of excess weight on your body that sits there and looks unattractive. It is actually releasing various toxic substances into the body which then add to the inflammation.

For more information on the latest findings on the link between belly fat and Alzheimer’s disease, see:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080327/ap_on_he_me/belly_dementia;_ylt=AtHYNmW1_OBWh.1_R1agdI0_cbYF

For more news and information on Alzheimer’s disease, and good nutrition and weight control, you might also be interested in:

Johns Hopkins Memory Topic Page

Johns Hopkins Nutrition Topic Page

Johns Hopkins Weight Control Topic Page

Johns Hopkins Nutrition and Weight Control White Paper

Stopping Insulin Resistance Before It Leads to Diabetes

Admin — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:56:17 +0000

Johns Hopkins Diabetes Health Alerts recently reviewed new research on type 2 diabetes, in which a fat cell protein has been identified that may predict insulin resistance.

In a healthy person the pancreas makes enough insulin to keep the supply and use of glucose in balance. In diabetes, the glucose balancing system is disrupted, and when the body’s cells do not respond to insulin normally — a condition called insulin resistance, the result is an unhealthy rise in blood glucose levels.

Diabetes is often linked to being overweight.

This biomarker could help doctors to prescribe treatments to slow the development of type 2 diabetes and thus avoid the many side effects of diabetes.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/03/prweb779154.htm

Avoiding Portion Distortion, To Help Yourself Lose Weight

Admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:09:25 +0000

How large is a portion?

A lot of us think we are reading the food labels correctly, or eating right in a healthy way, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

First of all, how many servings are actually in the box/can/bottle? I had a discussion with my mother recently, a smart woman, who said “Oh, there isn’t that much sodium in a can of tomatoes.” Well, the number may seem small on the can, but when you see that there are 11 servings in it, it adds up! Especially if you have high blood pressure and have to watch your salt intake.

It even happened to me the other day—a little tiny protein brownie, the serving size was HALF the pack, I ate the whole thing and was wired on sugar and chocolate for the rest of the day!

So it is easily done!

What about those large bags of potato chips? No matter what the brand, you know you can never eat just one!

Not to mention the fact that the large the bag, the easier it is to just keep dipping into it, and then say oh, it was only ONE bag.

When it comes to calculating the calories of food that is not prepackaged, we are not very good at quantities.
And yes, a tiny gram of fat or two CAN make a difference. The New York Times, of all institutions, ran an article by some male twit that said there was not much difference in the fat content per ounce between breast or white meat turkey and thigh or dark meat turkey.
White=1 gram per ounce
Dark=3 grams per ounce.

There’s only one problem.
HOW MUCH IS AN OUNCE?

One ounce of cheese, meat, turkey=2 dice

Then we come to a second problem—what American EVER eats only one ounce of turkey? Or meat etc. some of the burger chains are offering 4 to 6 ounce burgers.

Going back to our turkey example, even if you only ate 3 ounces of turkey, your grams of fat and calories from fat would go from 3 to 9 if you chose the dark meat turkey.
6 ounces, from 6 to a whoppping 18 grams of fat.

So we need to be better judges of what we eat

One ounce of cheese, meat, turkey=2 dice
A cup-the size of a closed fist
A medium piece of fruit or vege like a potato-the size of a closed fist
3 ounces of meat-the size of a deck of cards

This article from the Utah Dept of health gives you the sobering statistics about the number of Americans who are overweight. And how being overweight puts you at risk for many dangerous diseases:

http://www.checkyourhealth.org/nutrition/nutrition_pd.htm

If you think you are lacking in willpower, or just hate to count calories, one solution might be to get a portion plate, small, partitioned plates to help you measure a portion accurately (so long as you don’t go heaping it too high!)

Some of them are quite colorful and are useful reminders of all the different food groups you are supposed to eat each day.

http://www.nutrawize.com/perfect_portions.htm

http://www.theportionplate.com/

So if you want to lose weight and keep it off, avoid large bags or cans of anything, and when cooking for yourself, avoid Portion Distortion by carefully and realistically calculating how much you are actually eating.

Do you still believe in a magic pill for weight loss? Part 2

Admin — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:08:32 +0000

How do you lose weight successfully?

The average man is supposed to take in 2500 calories a day, for a woman, 2000. If you want to lose a pound a week, you would need to shed 3500 calories from your diet, as an example.

So, there are two ways to do it. One is to shave off 500 calories a day.

This will be more or less easy to do depending on what your food diary says. Can you cut an extra snack or two here and there, cut down on portion sizes, or give up the coffee with full cream in it, and go for skim instead? Every little bit helps.

Another way is to do more physical activity, and also eat less or shave off those little unnecessary calories here and there.

You will feel a bit less deprived with the latter method, and also be building a better body at the same time.

In addition, muscle burns fuel more efficiently than fat, so the more you do to build muscle, the more your body will run like a well-oiled machine, rather than one clogged with grunge. Fat is the grunge in your body than clogs your arteries and makes you feel so sluggish you don’t want to exercise.

Physical activity will also improve your mood, and if you do it out of the house, it will keep you away from the fridge and TV remote.

If you can burn 500 calories a day by, say swimming 10 laps, and cut back a bit on some of the extra calories you see yourself putting into your mouth when you review your food diary, you should start seeing the pounds come off in no time.

Keep to your goals, and you will feel fit and fabulous, and while easy weight loss may be just a fairy tale, being fit will help you live happily, and healthily, ever after.

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