QUICK FIX WEIGHT LOSS PLANS WON’T SUPPORT PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS.
Rapid weight loss schemes, if they work at all, try to exploit various aspects of human biochemistry, in an effort to produce sudden, drastic changes in weight.
But the general definition of “exploitation” : “to make unethical use of (something) for one’s own advantage or profit”, is usually all that a rapid weight loss scheme amounts to. The key word here is “profit”.....for the company selling you that “quick fix” weight loss package!
Fact is, there’s no such thing as a quick weight loss fix, that is, if you expect “fix” to mean permanent weight loss. That’s because human biochemistry can only be temporarily exploited, but it can’t be fooled completely. If you try to do that, your body will get even, often packing on more weight than you had before!
Why’s that? Well generally, our bodies prefer to use essential nutrients in a manner consistent with the needs imposed by human biochemistry. Though there’s always some individual variation, as well as mechanisms to compensate for nutrient imbalances, our bodies HAVE TO follow some general rules peculiar to nutrient metabolism. Those rules make a multitude of nutrients necessary on a daily basis, with some preferred functions established for specific dietary elements.
AN OVERVIEW OF ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS.
There are two main groups of essential dietary elements, called macro and micronutrients. Macronutrients form the bulk of our foods, and are the fats, carbohydrates and proteins that provide the calories our bodies either store or “burn” for energy. In addition to their energy content, macronutrients have other, very important roles in our bodies (see below), and the essential MICROnutrients are crucial to those roles being carried out.
Generally, despite having some functions in common, fats, carbs and proteins serve biochemically distinct purposes in our bodies. Proteins usually have structural roles, while carbohydrates and fats are the biochemically preferred sources of cellular energy.
More specifically, proteins form important components of every body cell, as well as the bulk of our bodies enzymes, which are the catalysts of life sustaining reactions, including the extraction of energy from the other macronutrients. Proteins can also be used as an energy source, though not as prolifically as carbs and fat.
Carbohydrates are the main fuel used to initiate any physical activity, and are the primary source of energy for rapid or intense exertion. Carbs are also the only fuel that your red blood cells can use for energy, and are the source of energy preferred by your brain cells. Furthermore, carbohydrates are actually necessary for the oxidation or “burning” of fats.
Ah yes, fats. Fats have been vilified as near poisons through the news media. But in addition to being our body’s only form of rich, long term energy reserves, fats are essential precursors to an important group of chemical signals used by every cell in our bodies. Those signals affect biochemical mechanisms that can either initiate or inhibit many different disease processes.
And even though your brain does not prefer fat as an energy source, fatty materials form a significant part of your brain’s physical structure!
MACRONUTRIENT STORAGE.
As you know, fat gets stored all over our bodies. We store fat to survive in case food becomes scarce. Our energy saving, survival mechanisms are biochemical systems, that are unable to determine whether a “very low calorie” intake is due to dieting or the threat of famine! So in addition to eating too many calories, eating too few calories can make body fat very hard to lose, and even contribute to INCREASES in fat storage! (More on how that works later)
As the preferred source of short term energy, carbohydrates are generally stored as such, mostly where they are needed, not all over the place like fats. Carbs are mainly stored in muscle tissue and in your liver, which is your body‘s biochemical maintenance technician. For instance, your liver will put some of it’s own carbs into your circulation, whenever your blood sugar gets low, mainly to keep your brain supplied with it’s preferred fuel, glucose, a carbohydrate. The liver has a very limited capacity to do that however.
Protein is also stored, though not as an immediate energy source. Since protein’s primary role is structural, it’s mainly used to make enzymes and cellular components. For instance, protein gets packed into muscle tissue, where it’s used to make up that tissue’s contractile mechanisms.
WHY IT‘S SO TOUGH TO LOSE WEIGHT.
In tough times, either due to real famine or a deliberate denial of preferred energy sources, your body will eventually dig out muscle proteins and send them to your liver, where they get converted to the glucose that your brain prefers and your red blood cells require as an energy source.
The use of body fat is also increased under such circumstances. But body fat is extremely energy dense, having more than twice as much caloric energy as either carbs or proteins. Fat carries 9 calories per gram, whereas carbs and protein only provide about 4 calories per gram. It can thus take quite some time to reduce stores of body fat, especially if done through diet alone, that is, without any exercise.
Unfortunately, the loss of muscle tissue due to calorie/carb restriction makes weight loss more of a challenge, because muscle is very active tissue; it can potentially use a lot of calories. Not only does muscle use calories for movement, it also uses calories to recover from movement, as well as for growth and renewal. Muscle recovery and growth are particularly enhanced in response to exercise.
And unlike proteins, fat can’t be converted to glucose. The form of fat your brain starts using when glucose availability diminishes, called ketone bodies, is not good for the health of brain cells or other body tissues over the long haul! Your body will thus use lots of muscle protein to meet energy needs during a very low calorie or very low carb diet, so that your brain will have to rely mainly on ketone bodies, ONLY as a last resort.
And as mentioned above, losing muscle reduces your ability to burn calories, which naturally makes it harder to lose weight. So if you experienced rapid weight loss on a low calorie/low carb diet, what you’ve likely lost most is muscle tissue and water, since fat is so calorie dense. You lose water because it’s bound up in muscle tissue. Water is also the end product of the metabolic processes necessary to convert protein to energy.
And even if your very low calorie/very low carb diet includes high protein, you’ll still lose muscle tissue, though maybe not as fast.
Also recall that very low calorie diets stimulate that energy conserving, survival mechanism mentioned earlier. So in addition to the decreases in calorie burning ability incurred by the loss of muscle protein, your central control mechanisms will slow down your overall metabolic rate, in order to protect against calorie deprivation - by tenaciously holding on to food energy! So the total calories you consumed before those metabolic shut downs kicked in, will more likely lead to fat storage, regardless of whether or not your diet emphasizes proteins, at the expense of fats and carbs.
Therefore, none of the aforementioned weight losses can support permanent weight reduction, because they will likely decrease your muscle mass; lower your metabolic rate, and ultimately lead to increases in your body fat stores!
Given such metabolic conditions, even protein calories will be stored as fat. Needless to say, given such metabolic conditions, lowering caloric intake still further would just start the loss/GAIN cycle anew. And under those conditions, suddenly returning to your normal diet will probably inflate you like a balloon....
BUT SCIENCE SAYS THE NEW DIET SHOULD WORK.....THIS TIME!
Not really.
Despite the popularity and commercialization of certain weight loss diets, despite the association of such diets with doctors, or the mention of the almighty “clinical study“, nutritional science hardly exists as a comprehensive set of immutable laws. It’s actually still evolving. It has to change, in order to address our bodies reactions to modern foods. Most modern foods are altered to satisfy our tastes and need for convenience, usually at the expense of essential nutrients. And of course, market competition has a lot to do with the state of common foods, since food manufacturers strive to make their foods tastier and more convenient than their competitors - in order to get hold of our money!
But obtaining the FACTS necessary to explain why modern foods are associated with “diet related” disorders, such as obesity, and how food and dietary elements can prevent such problems, is actually a GRADUAL process. That means many ideas will be subject to change. Don’t you remember every public health authority in America telling you that dietary fat, especially saturated fat, will make you overweight and clog your arteries to death; and that UNsaturated fats were way preferable?
Now, it’s gradually being revealed that scientists have fairly recently learned there’s a whole bunch of other factors, other than fat, involved in the etiology of heart disease; that some fats are absolutely essential, and that some UNsaturated fats actually contribute to serious, diet related diseases!
As for carbohydrates, those same public health authorities encouraged you to gorge on complex carbs, including stuff like white rice, potatoes and pasta, which are built into the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid. When folks gained weight out the backside eating lots of those types of carbs, the nutrient itself became the new dietary evil.
To exploit this current stage in nutritional information, you see “doctors” who design weight loss “programs”, that play on the new fears of carb related weight gain; satisfy our cravings for fat, and appeals to our desire to lose weight fast. These quick fix weight loss peddlers are quick to refer to whatever “scientific studies” may support some aspect of their dietary schemes.
But be careful; whatever studies are being exploited to hype today‘s fad diet, will likely wind up as tomorrow’s stepping stone. That is, it’ll help move us towards new and better principles for both weight loss and the prevention of diet related disease. Always keep in mind that a well designed, individual study is usually intended to answer a very specific, carefully chosen question, and as such will seldom be able to comprehensively address a field as complex as human nutrition and biochemistry.
And of course, poorly designed studies only confuse things; and actually, most medical doctors get very little training in nutrition. Unfortunately, “studies” and “doctors” are buzz words used to entice consumers.
In order to avoid the pitfalls of commercially induced food fads, you should first learn what principles a specific diet is based on; what types of foods are included in the dietary plan, then evaluate that diet’s chances of helping you to achieve permanent weight loss, and better health OVERALL. Also keep in mind that human biochemistry makes certain nutrients essential - period. Unless you have a unique genetic condition, that doesn’t allow you to ingest or metabolize an essential nutrient very well, you simply have to eat essential macro and micronutrients every day. Given that, under/over eating selected nutrients just won’t sit well with your biochemical requirements over the long term. So you have to evaluate any diet with that in mind.
Of course, there are times when stressors such as exposure to heat, cold, exercise, pollution and even strong, unresolved emotions - will increase your requirement for calories, carbs, proteins, fats or vitamins and minerals. In response to such stressors, your appetite may increase some, but given the state of commonly available foods, and the unique types of chronic stress to which we are exposed, it helps to have access to sound, unbiased nutritional information, in order to effectively resist stress and diet related diseases.
Sound, unbiased nutritional info is particularly important these days, since news hype and business marketing often obscures the fact that real nutritional science is telling you just what we went over earlier: Unless you’re a patient in an intensive care unit, extremes of food intake, such as very high protein or very low carb, can do more harm than good if you try to live with such drastic changes INDEFINITELY.
That’s what most of the “science” and “studies” referred to by quick fix weight loss entrepreneurs don’t address: the indefinite, lifestyle adaptations necessary to gradually lose weight and thus stay leaner for the duration.
I’ve thus made that my goal, providing you with the basically sound, unbiased nutritional info you need to reduce your risk of diet related diseases, including overweight and obesity. With the appropriate help, you can learn to identify the dietary elements and behaviors that contribute to the development of diet related disorders; then move towards finding solutions that are relevant to your unique situation and personal needs. That should include identifying better foods and appropriate nutritional supplements; as well as applying simple mechanisms to incorporate healthier foods and supplements into your lifestyle......
About Me: I’ve worked professionally in the biological sciences for over 15 years, and studied human nutrition for over 25 years. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to use that experience to help folks reduce their risk of diet related diseases, which are, by their very nature, some of the easiest diseases to avoid; that is, with the appropriate guidance and encouragement. Guidance and encouragement can be important, since a lifetime of behaviors and food preferences can’t be undone overnight.
At my Great Health site, accessible through the link below, you can acquire more specific insights into the causes of diet related diseases; as well as learn about specialized nutritional supplements that can help restore your health, in spite of the stress imposed by dieting and other lifestyle factors.
Click “Shop Online”, through two screens, and look for the “Info” and “Research Centers” for more specific health related information....
So, in summary, note that:
I) Large amounts of body fat can’t be permanently lost in only a few weeks.
II) All of the calorie containing macronutrients are essential, and should be eaten everyday in moderation.
III) Whole, unprocessed carbs, are our bodies preferred source of primary energy. Eaten regularly throughout the day, in moderate amounts, they spare muscle protein; supply our brains and red blood cells with their preferred energy source; and, in some cases, they can help to stimulate metabolism.
IV) Certain unsaturated fats are essential. The most important essential fat for us now, called omega 3 fats, are present in green,leafy vegetables; certain nuts and their oils, especially walnuts; and fatty fish.
A)Because those foods are generally underconsumed, and because many of us overconsume the other essential fat, called omega 6, as well as unhealthy partially hydrogenated oils, a carefully prepared omega 3 supplement may be beneficial.
B)The proper balance of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids in our bodies, can help us to lose weight, and reduce the risk and/or the severity of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and certain cancers.
V) Micronutrient vitamins and minerals are essential to our body’s ability to use the macronutrient carbs, fats and proteins.
A)Due to common food choices and lifestyle stressors, and the fact that many micronutrients are vulnerable to light, heat and even air, we can lose significant amounts of essential micronutrients from our bodies due to stress, and from our foods during preparation and storage. As such, a vitamin and mineral supplement can be beneficial.
VI) Moderate regular exercise, combined with moderate calorie restrictions, are the best way to lose weight and keep it off. Get medical clearance before you embark on any regular physical activity.
VII) Finally, one thing not mentioned above, is the fact that whole fruits, vegetables and grains, in addition to supplying our bodies with complex carbs, vitamins and minerals, contain nonessential elements, called phytochemicals, that can significantly contribute to our ability to resist diet related diseases.
If you need individual help with weight loss or lowering diet related disease risk, contact me directly through my Great Health site.
And Now,
To Your Great Health!
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