It is a known fact that 3500 calories is a pound of body weight and to lose one pound, you must reduce your intake of calories by 3,500. Given that information, if you want to lose five pounds in one week, you must reduce your calories by 17,500!
But the thing is, the average person only takes in about 2000 calories a day, or 14,000 per week, and that is pretty much what it takes to sustain your health. In other words, to diet away five pounds in one week you can't eat anything, ANYTHING, for the whole entire week, PLUS one day before AND one day after the week. An average daily food intake of 2000 calories would need nine days of zero, zip, nada, none, no food whatsoever to lose 5 pounds. The problem should be obvious at this point: You can't just diet fat off. It takes more than diet.
So if you eliminate food, you're in for a rough ride. Your body has this involuntary reaction which we refer to as hibernation, in bears. As good a name as any in people, but we usually call it metabolism. When the food stops coming in, your metabolism picks up on it and starts burning protein, which is your lean muscle. It's 75% water, and is your first line of weight loss. You lose your water. You ever see body builders with their protein drinks and protein bars and protein powder? Lots of muscle there, isn't there? But the next thing that your metabolism does is worse. It starts to burn carbohydrates, which means that your fat increases. You start to put more weight on!
You have to control the burn rate, not the caloric intake. I mentioned body builders a minute ago. They eat like they will never have another meal. For all the food they take in, they should weight 400 pounds, but they don't. They have learned to speed up their metabolism, so what they eat is going into muscle building, not fat storing.
One thing is for sure: Body Builders don't eat a lot of Big Macs and Whoppers. They have a totally different diet, and couple with some simple exercises, they control their metabolisms. If you like that sort of look, they are usually pretty hot, too. They eat like they will never have another meal. For all the food they take in, they should weight 400 pounds, but they don't. They have learned to speed up their metabolism, so what they eat is going into muscle building, not fat storing.
Fact is, you can't just diet and make fat go away, so you have to make a complete lifestyle choice. You want to lose weight? Start with a little exercise. Get your metabolism kicked up. Once that starts to take off a little weight, THEN you start your diet, and after that you increase your exercise. When you start AFTER you have increased your metabolism, the work will be more effective. The pounds will come off faster and more easily. The weight loss is a lifestyle change and more likely to stay off.
This isn't about trying to sell you a product; it's about what will be good for you. Wrap your head around the fact that you put your weight on because you don't burn everything that you eat. You store some of it, and over time, that weight becomes your weight problem. Storage is driven by consumption, and consumption is mostly about water. Protein is 75% water. When you go on a diet, after you clear out the water you burn protein from your storehouse.
You can't just diet fat off because your body will give away all of it's protein to protect itself, so you start to live on carbohydrates- and gain weight. When you lower your food intake, you lose protein, and this loss lowers your burn rate.
When your diet istaking too long, remember that 3500 calories is one pound of fat. Go ahead, come to my website at the link, or see my blog. There's lots of articles and the blog has some great stuff as well.
Related Reading:
