Principles of Diet and Weight Loss

A lot of people have a lot of different interpretations of what the word 'diet' means, some people think it's a general way of eating, some people think it's what you do when you want to lose weight.  Well, both interpretations are correct.  But I would like to focus more on the weight loss side of diet in this article.

There are two main reasons why people go on diets.  1) They have some medical condition that requires a better eating habit such as high blood pressure.  2) They would like to lose weight or slim down.

There are an awful lot of people out there who seem to think that losing weight is just that, subtracting pounds.  But, that is a double edged blade, paying attention to your weight more than how your pants fit can hurt your future progress.  This is due to the fact that poor quality weight loss also means that you are just as likely to lose weight in the form of muscle as you are in the form of fat.

I have a large problem with a lot of the mainstream diets out there in they although they help you lose weight, they are often fairly unhealthy and do nothing to help you keep the weight off once it's lost.  When a diet prevents you from eating a wide range of foods or forces you to eat a very low amount of calories you will have a much larger chance of failure.  You should avoid any of these extreme diets at all costs, both for your health and your long-term weight loss goals.

How Weight is Lost

I will talk a little bit about how weight is lost, and when I say this I'm talking about weight from fat, not water weight or muscle weight.  Essentially fat is energy that your body had too much of and is storing for use when food may be in short supply.  So, if you deprive your body of energy by eating fewer calories than it requires for its daily functions, your body will turn to other sources for that energy.  Those sources are typically fat and muscle.  This is why exercise is so important when you want to lose weight, if you don't use your muscles your body won't think it really needs them and will use a lot of muscle for energy instead of fat.

So, keeping all the muscle that you currently have, or even adding some will greatly assist you in your weight loss endeavors.  Unlike fat, your body needs to burn calories to keep muscle around, so, by adding some muscle through light resistance training, you will be upping the amount of calories your body needs to burn every day just to stay going.  So, by not exercising, your body will think that it doesn't need all the muscle you have, thus burning it for energy, and when that happens you will use less energy just to stay alive, thus making it even harder to continue losing weight.

So as much as we hate to do it, exercise is critical in losing weight, so do it.  Find a partner, find a sport or activity, anything you can do to keep that muscle around will greatly assist you in achieving your weight loss goal.