Trying to lose weight can be an incredibly frustrating experience for most people. The most aggravating part is that rebound effect. Sure, you lose weight … but as soon as you stop dieting, it just piles back on — and then some!
The problem is the usual focus on cutting calories. It seems obvious that, if you take in fewer calories, you’ll shed the pounds. To some degree, that’s true, but it isn’t the whole story. In fact, it’s probably not even half of it. The primary problem is that, even if the weight is lost, it does no good if it returns.
[amazon asin=B0012C2GFM&template=*lrc ad (left)]So, the question is, why does that happen? The answer is really quite simple. You know that initial early rapid weight loss? The part that makes a new diet seem so great? Most of that isn’t actually fat. It’s water! Then, if you restrict the calories too much, which is what most rapid-loss diets demand, your body’s metabolic rate slows down. Part of that slowing is done by cannibalizing your own muscle tissue. What’s worse, that slow-down can become permanent!
The result of many low-calorie diets is less muscle and a slower metabolism, a double whammy that sets you up for weight gain the moment you go off the diet. The result is that well-known rebound effect, of course, but also the much worse problem of a near-permanent change in your body’s caloric need.
However, you can reverse those changes by taking a different approach to weight loss. First, forget about those super-duper quick[amazon asin=B0018G4ZEW&template=*lrc ad (right)] weight loss diets. They simply don’t work, and though experience has likely told you that fact, now you know why.
How to Lose Weight: the Fundamentals
Muscle burns calories, both day and night. So you need to increase your muscle mass. That, of course, means that you should exercise. There are two main types: aerobic, which increases your metabolism, and resistance, which builds muscle mass. [1] You need both.Aerobic exercise improves your overall health, but to lose weight, you need to increase muscle mass, and that requires resistance exercising.
[amazon asin=B003AYEHOI&template=*lrc ad (left)]Resistance exercises often utilize weights, but that isn’t the only way. Any exercise that increases your strength will also increase muscle mass. Therefore, any exercise that involves working against gravity, such as push ups, will also work.
The Nutritional Element
Muscles require lots of protein, so any good weight loss diet includes a large amount of it. Instead of focusing on calories, focus on types of food. You need protein-rich food, and, contrary to what you’re generally told, you also need fats—lots of fats. Of course, they need the right kinds of fats—but they aren’t what mainstream medicine wants you to believe. [2]
The Fat Equation
Your body requires different types of fat, and the one that’s most reviled is probably the most important for health: saturated fat. The[amazon asin=B001CDP6EE&template=*lrc ad (right)] myth that saturated fat is bad comes from junk science that confuses trans fats, which are artificially saturated, with naturally saturated fats, like in butter and meat.
Trans fats should be avoided at all costs. They replace naturally saturated fat in the body. Half of all cell membranes consist of saturated fats, and trans fats can destabilize them, resulting in nutrition being unable to enter cells and toxins being unable to leave. Obviously, if you want to increase muscle mass, you need saturated fats.
Beyond saturated fats, your body also requires omega-3 and omega-6 fats. It’s easy to get enough omega-6 fat, but the problem is that nearly everyone eats far too much, because it’s the sort that’s routinely used in fast and prepared foods. It is nearly always hydrogenated, which makes it shelf-stable in supermarkets, but also makes it extremely unhealthy. If you eat a diet that avoids processed foods of all kinds, whether from supermarkets or fast food joints, you’ll get all the omega-6 fats you need in your diet. Omega-3 fats are found in high concentrations in fish, nuts, and oils made from nuts.
If your diet focuses on getting lots of good quality protein and fats, you’re well on the way to both good health and weight loss. This isn’t the whole story about weight loss, but it’s the background for the fun part of this article: 3 crazy ways to burn fat while you sleep. So let’s get to it!
