In the following Knowledge Links, we will review the basic facts on the accumulation of excess body fat; why many diets and weight loss products won't keep the weight off; and some basic principles of nutrition and exercise that you should know in order to stay lean, including information on nutritional supplements that can help support permanent weight loss. The insights provided here can help you to devise a more effective, permanent weight loss strategy.
WHY OUR BODIES ACCRUE EXCESS FAT; AND WHY IT'S SO TOUGH TO GET RID OF IT.
The fact is, PERMANENT weight loss is NOT a rapid process, since significant amounts of body fat is not something that is acquired overnight. Excess body fat is usually caused by many months or years of a habitual intake of certain foods, as well as activity levels that, combined with one's age, gender, hormonal status, enzyme activities and metabolic rate, can lead to the incremental deposition of unused food energy into your body's adipose tissue. The continued addition of unused food energy into adipose tissue can cause your body's fat cells to enlarge and fill to maximum capacity. Beyond that, your body can even generate new fat cells to accommodate continuously incoming, unused food energy.
The aforementioned adipose tissue is LIVING TISSUE that is part of our bodies. In addition to fat cells, it has it's own blood supply and connective tissue, as well as it's own complement of enzymes and relevant hormones. The amount and activity of all this stuff increases as the fat stored in adipose tissue increases. The fat in adipose tissue can increase if you eat more calories than you use daily (unused food energy), or are relatively inactive physically and eat a lot of foods that are easy for your body to store as fat, such as concentrated, simple sugars in candies and pastries; or fat itself, from ANY food containing fat, particularly saturated fat.
Why Many Weight Loss Plans Don't Work
Quick weight loss diets, pills, powders and liquids don't allow our bodies to GRADUALLY decrease the size of fat cells and their support tissues. What most rapid weight loss plans and products do, if they work at all, is force your system to suddenly use some of your stored body fat for energy. This MAY cause a decrease in body fat mass. Once the changes are noted, or the diet becomes too inconvenient or stressful, the tendency is to stop applying the weight loss plan or product and get back to business as ususal, and BAM, the weight piles back on, plus some! Why did THAT happen?
Well, the sudden weight loss made your body use some of only one component of your adipose tissue, the stored triglycerides (fat), without GRADUALLY establishing permanent conditions in your body that would ultimately make excess adipose tissue inappropriate and unnecessary.
And, if you really deprived yourself of calories and nutrients during your weight loss effort, YOU COULD'VE ACTUALLY CAUSED YOUR METABOLIC RATE TO DECREASE, which makes it even harder for excess fat to be lost. You could've also INCREASED the activity of lipoprotein lipase, AN ENZYME THAT FACILITATES THE DEPOSITION OF FAT INTO ADIPOSE TISSUE. This enzyme's activity can remain elevated even AFTER you've finished your weight loss effort, resulting in the accumulation of even more body fat than you had before. These mechanisms kick in with very low calorie diets because such diets are, in a sense, perceived as starvation threats by your body, which will put back extra fat as security, in case you are faced with another "starvation threat" again in the future.
Note that, if you've been over weight for a while, your body will actually defend the adipose tissue to which it has become accustomed, as it would any other tissue that is part of YOU! If your skin is suddenly injured for instance, your body will mobilize cells, nutrients and bioactive chemicals to fix the injury and heal up the wound, making the injured tissue stronger upon repair.
In a similar sense, making a sudden, drastic, temporary change in either the types of foods you eat or how much you eat won't do didly in terms of PERMANENT weight loss, since your body will strive to put the weight you lost back - repairing the "injury" - once you return to your old eating and activity patterns. In view of this note that:
Barring any unusual genetic condition , metabolic or physical disorder, the best way to permanently lose weight is to establish ongoing metabolic conditions in your body that gradually diminishes body fat stores, and ultimately renders excess body fat inappropriate and incompatible with your new lifestyle. This means that you CAN'T use sudden, drastic weight reducing plans or products to lose weight permananetly. Such diets often call for significantly reducing the intake of certain nutrients, which can lead to serious nutrient deficiencies if followed for an extended period...
So if you've been trying to lose weight for a while, the facts given above can help you to feel less anxious and frustrated with your unsuccesful weight loss efforts, and further help you to patietnly establish the foundations for a successful, PERMANENT weight loss effort.
In summary, note that:
We ALL naturally store body fat.
Genetic patterns initially determine individual metabolic rates, which, in turn, determines how lean we are and how readily our bodies convert concentrated simple sugars or dietary fat into body fat. The tendancy to store body fat can change due to natural life conditions such as aging; pregnancy or a sedentary lifestyle combined with a high caloric intake.
Adipose, or fatty tissue is part of YOU. If you've been overweight for a while, your body regards that tissue as "SELF", and will struggle to protect and reinforce it if it is "injured" by sudden, drastic dietary manipulations.
In view of the above, note that the BEST way to PERMANENTLY lose weight is to GRADUALLY develop a new lifestyle that is incompatible with excess adipose tissue....
See the following Knowledge Links for diet and activity pricniples you can use to change you lifestyle and ultimately keep excess weight gone for good. Also see Knowledge Link _____ for recommendations on nutritional supplements that can support your weight loss efforts, as well as info on the effectiveness of popular weight loss supplements.
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