Overweight vegetarian

Charlotte Asks in Category Nutrition 101:

Hello! I'm seventeen, female, and overweight (5'6" and 160 lbs). I'm a vegetarian, and I'm desperate to
lose weight; I've struggled with it for years. I'm a student with a ridiculously rigorous course load and
no free time, but I want to exercise; I want to lose the weight. If I can only give, say, half an hour a
day, what type of exercise would you recommend? Can you suggest a diet program that would work
best? Right now, I'm on a low-calorie diet and only walk for exercise. Also, I was wondering, is it true
that raw vegetables (carrots, broccoli and mushrooms) may be eaten in unlimited amounts, say, a
pound a day? What's this "negative calories" thing? Thank you so much for your time!

Charlotte,

A lot of people assume that vegetarians will natuarally be thin but you prove this is not true. The fact
is, there are many fattening food options that fit the vegetarian 'all clear' list.

Yes, veges and fruits may be eaten in unlimited servings as per the Mayo clinic food pyramid, with a
minimum of 4 servings each. However, some fruits and veges do carry a caloric punch such as
bananas.

I teach power lunch workouts at a corporate location that lasts no more than 30 minutes twice per
week. Despite several pleadings, participants are not doing much beyond these workouts. Still, after 6
weeks, all of them dropped scale pounds, but more importantly, body fat %.

You will have to make your 30 minutes INTENSE!!! Try the Body for life program. I totally endorse it
and their cardio workouts are no more than 30 minutes including warm up and cool down. If you get
their program (FREE - you don't have to do the competition), you will get the plan and log sheets and
guidance in more detail than I could write here. www.bodyforlife.com

Low calorie diets that do not meet the needs of your Basal Metabolic Rate, ends up LOWERING your
metabolic rate. I like to explain the metabolic process as putting gas in your car.

If you are on empty, you wont go - or you wont go far. If you choose cheap yucky gas, then your
performance will be less than peak and may even sputter and be highly frustrating. If you put in just
enough to be full and use premium gas, that is like your metabolic function at its peak. If you insist on
putting in more gas than the car can take - even if it is premium fuel, it spills. In our body it spills into
our ever hungry fat cells.

The way most of us were raised was to eat 3 square BIG meals per day. Those sluge up the metabolic
rate because we go through a starvation period followed by a guzzling period. So when we do eat, we
fire up the engine, then put too many logs on before the spark can catch and flame properly.

There are only 3 ways to affect your metabolic rate: (a) drugs, (b) eating, (c) muscle mass.

Drugs such as caffeine, ephedra, steroids, etc. will affect the metabolism and that is why they sell so
well. Not the healthy route to go.

Eating. When you eat, that is like putting paper to a glowing coal. Eating means your body
immediately begins to process what you have eaten. The process of digestion is kicked on by the
food, and thus the metabolic process gets fired up from slow to fast. It is best to graze and eat 6 - 8
small meals per day. An apple in between breakfast and lunch is an example of firing up, but not
overpowering the metabolic system.

Muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories it takes to MAINTAIN your frame. The less
muscle you have, the fewer calories. Don't worry, women cannot get bulky without steroids, and

muscle makes us shapely. So if you build a little more muscle, you can actually eat more and not get
any bigger, or eat more and lose weight, because the muscle is using up the calories but you have not
eaten enough to supply any for storage.

A pound a day is UNHEALTHY weight loss and you WILL create a metabolic slow down as your body
attempts to preserve the energy needed for your everyday life forces - breathing, digestion, going to the
bathroom etc.

Negative calories is simply a mathematical calculation between the number of calories consumed and
the number used. If you need 1500 to keep you breathing, and you move around during the course of
the day burning another 500 calories, then if you consume LESS than 2000 calories you will be in a
negative caloric situation and begin to lose WEIGHT not fat.

There is a difference between how much you weigh (the total of your bones, skin, blood, organs,
muscles, and fat) and the amount of fat you have. It is the body fat % that we should be concerned
about and not what the scale says because the scale cannot tell if the 100 pounds is all lean muscle
(say a young musclar 10 year old), or a 100 pound fat 7 year old.

Please see a Personal Trainer, or refer to the body for life program which is a GREAT Free resource
for nutrition and exercise help.

Body for life is not the same as a program I might have designed for a client, but it is a FREE valid
resource worth your time.

Yours in health and fitness

Trudy Beerman

Health Coach

www.healthcoachplus.com

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