Want to lose weight fast? Read on…

What’s the quickest way to lose weight?

Don’t listen to hype and half-truths. There is no ‘quick way’ to lose weight effectively for the long term. There isn’t.

Think about it: more often than not weight gain is the result of eating too much food, or the wrong kind of food, combined with not enough exercise over a sustained period of time. Weight gain isn’t a quick process (even though we’d like to think so sometimes) and weight loss isn’t either.

I always ask clients to set goals. This is really important. How do you see yourself in 1 month, 3 months, next year, in 2 years? Most of my clients’ goals are not just about looking ‘thin’, they want improved energy levels, to be healthy and strong; and to reach their desired body weight and keep it there. Weight loss should not be approached as dieting for a quick fix. Proper nutrition and exercise are essential lifestyle changes that need to be made, not only for a good body image, but to lead an active, enjoyable and energetic life.

Whenever the term ‘lifestyle change’ comes up people roll their eyes and think they have to eat salad, never have dessert, and work out 6 days a week for the rest of their lives. Not so. The hard work is reaching your healthy goal. When you reach your goal you will have learned how to eat and exercise properly and you can relax the regime (a bit). We all need to enjoy food, to have our chips or chocolate, but the key is to have these foods occasionally not regularly.

It only takes 30 days for a new action to become a habit, so by the time you reach your goal you most likely won’t want to eat junk or avoid exercise. You won’t want to wreck how great you feel. That feeling and motivation isn’t achieved by popping appetite suppressants or following a fad diet.

Appetite suppressants. The logic here is that if you’re not hungry you won’t eat and if you don’t eat, you will lose weight. Well, ok what’s wrong with this, you may ask. I could write volumes about what is wrong with this approach, but I’ll keep it brief:

• eating too few calories encourages the body to slow the metabolism to conserve energy; the basal metabolic rate (BMR) refers to the amount of energy your body needs to maintain itself. BMR accounts for 50-80% of your total energy use.

• when you don’t eat enough nutritious food you lose lean muscle tissue, this further contributes to a drop in BMR. Total lean mass, especially muscle mass, is largely responsible for BMR. So, logically, anything that causes a reduction in lean mass will reduce BMR. Fact: lean muscle continues to burn calories even at rest!

• Many suppressants contain ingredients that are toxic to your body…not good for your liver. Some of these drugs have even caused illness and death.

Removing food groups. Some diets are based on lowering or removing entire nutrients from the menu, e.g. Atkins and South Beach: low-carbohydrate, high protein, low fibre and high-fat.

What’s so important about carbs? They are quickly and easily converted to blood glucose and are your body’s primary source of energy, and your cells’ preferred source of fuel. Your brain, in particular, must have glucose as a source of energy. It will not use other sources of energy except in the extreme case of starvation. Our bodies can’t store a large amount of carbohydrate– there is only a short supply available as glycogen in the liver and muscle fibres. We must replenish our carb stores daily!

Also: high fat, low fibre, high protein?!  A diet like that cannot be maintained for any length of time.  Short term side effects reported with this type of diet: constipation (lack of fibre), lack of energy and nausea. Long term: this diet that has been linked to heart disease, cancer, nutritional deficiencies (like calcium from dairy products and antioxidants from fruit and veg). Abnormally high protein intakes may also cause kidney problems and weaken bones.

If you have any questions you’d like to ask just send me an email, or leave a comment.