Weight Loss Information
How To REALLY Lose That Weight
You already know what I'm about to say, but there's no way around it. The fact is, and always has been, that you must watch what you eat and exercise more. We'd all like to be able to take a magic pill or believe those ads that claim, "Lose 10 pounds in 3 days", but science says that 1 pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. Plain and simple. In order to lose 1 pound of fat, you have to use up 3500 more calories than you consume. You need to BOTH cut your calories and increase your exercise if you truly want to get that weight off. It's a slow process, I know. I had no problem gaining ten pounds in a week, but trying to lose ten pounds a week was impossible for me. I did see one website that explained that it was possible to lose 1 pound of fat per day - if you walked 7 hours a day. If you have that much time and motivation, I say go for it. But for the rest of us, we should expect to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week.
Remember:
- Create a deficit of 3500 calories to lose 1 pound. Do this through both diet and exercise.
HELPFUL TIP:
If you're serious about controlling your calories and exercise, there is a phenomenally helpful website you might like to use. It's at http://www.calorieking.com. It has a comprehensive food database. You just enter what you eat, and it calculates the calories and nutrients for you. You enter what exercise you did and for how long, and it calculates the calories you've burned. There's also message boards and a variety of information. I use it and find it extremely useful.
NUTRITION TIPS
1. Calories Needed per Day: Calculate the number of calories you need each day to support your daily lifestyle here.
2. CARBOHYDRATES
There's a lot of hype about low-carb diets, like the Atkins Diet and such. If that's your plan of attack, then by all means go ahead. Check out their site at http://atkins.com/. However, I'm not taking that path, so I'm not discussing that here. There's plenty of research available about that plan online. There's a useful calculator at http://www.accu-chek.com/carbcounter/mn_how_many.html that helps you determine how many carbs you should eat each day.
Remember, there are two kinds of carbohydrates - simple and complex. Simple carbs include things like white sugar and refined things. You should try to cut these kinds of carbs from your diet as much as possible, since they cause your blood sugar to rise quickly, triggering a large release of insulin, which ushers the sugar into cells. Then your blood sugar can drop quickly, causing you to feel hungry or crave sweets again. That's not good, plus it puts a strain on your pancreas over time. It's better to try and incorporate more complex carbs into your diet - those found in fruits and vegetables. It takes your body longer to break these down into glucose, so your blood sugar doesn't spike as fast, and your pancreas isn't required to release a large amount of insulin.
3. PROTEIN
Protein is necessary for building and maintaining muscle, as well as taking care of your cells. Unlike fat cells for fat and muscle or liver for glucose, there is no place in the body to store protein. How much protein do you need? Well, the RDA represents the minimum amount of protein needed to fulfill protein needs in 97.5% of the population. This value is equal to 0.8 g of protein per kg body weight per day. (1 kg = 2.2 pounds). There's no need to consume more protein than you need, since it will be excreted by the body. One word of caution: When people start consuming too much protein (over 2.0 g/kg/d), the extra protein can become a stressful stimulus for the kidney. This is even more of a concern as we get older and our organs are less efficient and effective.
4. FAT
Some fat is essential in our diet, since fat is a necessary component of cell membranes. There are many types of fat, like saturated, unsaturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, etc. I'm not going into a detailed discussion of all that here, since there is a lot of info about that online. Just remember this: try to cut down on your saturated fats (i.e., those found in meat), since they raise cholesterol and aren't that healthy for you. Try to increase your consumption of omega-3 fats - those found in fish and flaxseed. I, personally, take a capsule of flaxseed oil every day. But that's just my personal choice. Try to keep your daily fat consumption to 30% or less.
Well, that's the essentials. Can I help you figure something out? email me