How to lose weight - Calories
Have you ever noticed that it's really easy to put on weight and very difficult to lose it? Well, that's how it feels. With all the diet books and weight loss courses out there you'd think we have no problem with weight loss. But with our modern lifestyles it's a challenge.
At Tranzformations we want you to have every opportunity to lose weight easily and effectively. This means you don't have to grunt and groan at dieting and when you have lost weight the fat stays off.
This programme is based on three fundamental aspects of weight loss. Most diet books and diet courses don't address them fully, if at all. But whatever diet you follow you should at least consider whether the following apply to you:
- Calorie Balance
- Metabolism
- Attitude
Calorie Balance
You should eat fewer calories than you need - obviously your body gets the extra calories it needs from fat stores and you lose weight.
All diets utilise this - they may be low fat or low carbohydrate or portion controlled diets, but, one way or another, you will have to eat fewer calories than you need to lose weight.
Most diet books stop at this point. They'll give you recipes that are low in calories and if you stick to the diet you'll lose weight. But what happens at the end of the diet? If you go back to normal eating patterns you'll put weight back on - and if that happens the diet hasn't worked.
But counting calories can make you fat...
You have to be careful here about losing weight too quickly. Why is that bad? Well, if you lose weight too quickly you'll lose muscle as well as fat. And when you go back to you old eating habits you'll put fat back on, not muscle! So you end up heavier and fatter.
Losing weight quickly also only happens if you lower your calorie intake well below your normal requirements. When you do this for any length of time your body becomes very stingy with calories. As far as your metabolism is concerned, you are starving. So your metabolic rate drops to preserve the calories.
As a survival mechanism this is great, it allows you to live on reduced calories for a long time. In caveman days when we all had to survive famines this was a useful process. But it makes dieting all the more difficult because when you eat less you may eat fewer calories but you'll become better at surviving on those calories. And when you go off the diet your metabolism stays low. As far as you body is concerned you've just survived a famine and who knows when the next one will come along? So your metabolic rate stays low even when you go back to a normal calorie intake - and again you put on fat!
Lots of tips and tricks are available to overcome this problem, but here you need to look at the second aspect of dieting - Metabolism.
The approach at Tranzformations is to give you a good balanced diet based around the foods you like and the lifestyle you have. We then look at portion control and portion size so you'll have lots to eat but without too many calories. A computerised diet programme can be used to give us 'what if' scenarios so we can see the effects of changes in the diet. So if you are interested in this approach take a look at the Weight Loss Health Plan right away.
If you are not yet ready for this programme but would like to get my newsletter No More Rabbit Food- weight loss tips for people who love food sign up below. It doesn't cost you anything and you will get the mini ecourse Conquer Emotional Eating Forever as a gift to help you along your path to weight loss.
