Most people who want to
lose weight understand that they should eat less food and exercise more often.
The logic behind this course of action comes from the fact that, if a person
consumes fewer calories than he or she expends on a consistent basis, the body
will use its fat stores to compensate for this deficit of energy. Advice to
control calories rims rampant through the weight loss community, so much so
that when a person follows this advice and fails to lose weight, an assumption
is often made that this person must somehow be at fault. Surely, if he or she
ate less and went to the gym every day, fat loss would not be an issue. But
this assumption fails to consider that the body does not always respond
predictably to the law of calories, even when the dieter strictly follows a
diet and exercise plan.
Every person's body reacts
in different ways to food and exercise. Some people find that reducing or
eliminating starchy carbohydrates is the only way to get rid of stubborn fat.
Others would never dream of eliminating carbohydrates, instead choosing to
reduce intake of dietary fats, especially saturated fats. The fact that so many
costly different dieting systems have achieved popularity over the years speaks
to the fact that no boo people lose weight in the same way. Often, a dieter
must experiment with a few methods before finding an approach that both fits a
sustainable lifestyle and produces consistent, healthy results. Latching on to
one particular method and never experimenting or modifying it can be one of the
pitfalls that lead many dieters to think that dieting will not work for them at
all. The same is true of exercise. Just because your best friend lost twenty
pounds by jogging every day does not mean that you can't achieve similar- or
better results with interval training and weightlifting. It's your body, so
don't be afraid to experiment and find the method that works for you.
If you have experimented
with several weight loss methods and still struggle to shed fat, the issue
might be the severity of your approach. When food intake is dramatically
reduced and exercise is increased at the same time, the body has a tendency to
compensate for this sudden imbalance by altering the metabolism to hold on to
what it views as its alarmingly depleted energy supply. This altering of the
metabolism sometimes results in a diminished ability to continue to lose weight
on a plan that had previously been working well because the body has decreased
the amount of energy it uses on a daily basis. If this happens, you might not
be burning as many calories as you thought you were. In addition, this is the
point where cravings for fatty and sugary foods are likely to become more of a
problem, causing many people to break their diets. The body uses these cravings
as a way to tell you that it is losing energy too quickly and needs you to
stock up on high-calorie foods that promote fat storage. This is your body
attempting to keep you alive and healthy even if it is counterproductive to
your- efforts to fit into your skinny jeans.
Luckily, for most people,
the solution is simple. By removing one of the stimuli causing your body to
panic and hold on to fat, you can override this natural response. If you choose
to eat fewer calories, try skipping a few gym sessions per week and going for a
slow, scenic walk instead. Avoiding intense, strenuous exercise helps your body
understand that not all of the excess fat it carries is necessary for survival
and that some can be safely burned for fuel.
Or, if you shudder to think
of cutting back on your muscle gains and athletic progress, keep training as
hard as you like, but replenish some of those lost nutrients by eating more
food.
Choosing to eat more healthy protein and vegetables to lessen the energy
gap created by the calorie deficit is another way of communicating to your body
that its fat stores will not be necessary for survival because you are not starving.
It also allows your body to focus its resources toward building muscle in
response to your training sessions, keeping you fit and preventing much of the
muscle loss that almost always accompanies weight loss attempts. Keep in mind
that, if your lifestyle changes every so often, you can always switch between
eating fewer calories while reducing exercise and eating more calories while
training hard. Remember to experiment!
By trying several dieting
and exercise methods and tailoring your calorie intake and exercise level to
fit your chosen lifestyle, you will likely stumble across the approach that
works best for you. If at any point, however, you feel that your body is not
responding in the way it should, or that your health might be compromised, see your
doctor to make sure that you don't have an underlying health issue that could
be causing these problems.
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