Why Diets Work

Knowing Why Diets Work might be essential for a successful weight loss regimen. Experts say any diet works if you stick to them. There are many diets each taking a different approach.

Diets seem to argue over the percentages of macronutrients you should consume each day. They also have ideas of which foods should be included and which should be avoided. It could be very confusing if you read everything.

Macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and fat. None are bad if you are selecting the right source and moderate in consumption. There are some essential results from consuming each.

The Basics of the Macronutrients

The biggest controversy is over carbohydrates. They are the best of foods and the worst of foods. Carbohydrates are a sugar. Sugar is harmful to our body. Therefore, there are sources that allow sugar to be absorbed slowly and those that travel directly into the blood stream.

The ultimate problem with sugar is that an excess may over whelm the insulin hormone charged with regulating sugar. It is a receptor that allows sugar to enter the cells. It is produced by the pancreas. The pancreas will produce insulin to serve the need. An excess of sugar can cause the cells to reject insulin. At this point, the sugar is stored in the body as fat. Insulin resistance can lead to the death of beta cells in the pancreas and the need to inject insulin.

Since an excess of carbohydrates increases fat stores, it seems advantageous to eat fewer. But fruits and vegetables supply essential nutrients for energy. The carbohydrates we want to minimize are those made with white flour and have sugar added. This includes pizza, pastries, desserts, and the greatest offender, soda.

Protein is an essential for several body functions including maintaining or building muscle. It is harder to digest than other nutrients and speeds the metabolism. Weight trainers and exercisers want to eat protein for both effects. It can promote weight loss and make the body stronger.

Fat is not a villain. It is an essential fuel. The body first looks to glucose converted from carbohydrates by the liver and then will seek fat and finally muscle. Training the body to burn fat as fuel is a major weight loss strategy. Runners train the body to utilize fat because the carbohydrates burn first and then there would be no energy. The “wall” in distance running brings the runner to a stop.

Other Key Players in Weight Loss

The metabolism is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. It serves the body by allocating energy to all the functions unconsciously to us. When resources are short, it reduces services to less essential functions. Top of its list are the brain, heart, and digestion. When resources are short, it holds onto fat.

Losing weight and working with the metabolism are essential. We don’t want it to think we are starving. As we are successful in losing weight, it does slow down and make it more difficult to lose more weight. Maintaining the support of our metabolism in the process of losing weight is important. The problem after we have hit our weight target is the metabolism doesn’t quickly accelerate as we try to resume a normal diet.

Water consumption makes it easier for the digestive process to consume energy and not seek water from food. Often hunger is the body crying for water. Drinking half our body weight in oz of water each day is a minimum (200-pound person drinks 100 oz of water) Weight loss is accelerated with more water. At 160 pounds, instead of the minimum of 80 oz., I try to drink at least 100 ounces and shoot for a gallon.

Exercise is essential and can be a trap. Too often dieters think they can eat more liberally because they rationalize they have exercised. A good blend is to exercise moderately burning 500 to 1,000 calories and reduce consumption by 500 to 1,000 calories. A pound is 3,500 calories so achieving a negative calorie balance of 1,000 plus calories a day speeds up weight loss.

Calories are certainly at the heart of the matter. We want to consume calories from non-dense sources like fruits and vegetables. The bulk is filling without having high calorie counts. They also have sugar. The sugars they contain are balanced by their fibers which slow sugar absorption. Juices have high sugar and no fiber.

If someone has insulin resistance, they will gain weight from consuming more carbohydrates than the insulin can neutralize. They will hit the thresh hold much sooner than a person without insulin resistance. This person wants to consider the Keto or Atkins diets with higher protein and fat and lower on carbohydrates. Check with your doctor if you seem to have uncontrollable weight gain.

This is a lot of pieces to put together. It requires a strategy for calorie balance, water consumption, and exercise. They are all important to make diets work.

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