The methods that many people often employ to lose weight can actually be sabotaging their efforts. Tactics such as eliminating entire food groups, severely reducing your caloric intake or becoming overly aggressive with exercise can backfire and either stall your efforts to slim down or cause you to gain weight rather than lose it. Most keys, or secrets, to weight loss involve eating nutritious, balanced and healthy meals.
Don't Rely on Exercise
Attempting to eat whatever you want, then run it off later can very possibly give you the opposite results. A "Time" magazine article published in 2009 reported that a study in the journal "PLoS ONE" found that working out often did not result in weight loss. The explanation is that not only can exercise increase your appetite, but the number of calories you burn while working out is not enough to counteract a calorie-laden meal. Exercise is still an important part of the equation, and exercise has many benefits beyond burning calories. However, to really make progress in your weight loss efforts, focus on the type and amount of foods you are eating.
You Need to Eat
Fad diets that severely reduce calories can look attractive because they promise fast weight loss, but one of the secrets to losing weight is that your body needs food to function properly. When you eat too little or starve your body, you run the likelihood of suffering from fatigue, headaches, stress and irritability. The University of Maryland reports that eating too few calories can actually slow your metabolism, when what you want to do when trying to lose weight is to increase it. Women should stay at or above 1,200 calories and men 1,400; if you are physically active, you may need to add calories, depending on your particular workouts.
Six Meals Per Day
Another reason to eat plenty of calories during the day is that hunger can lead to overeating; your body can only stay in starvation mode for so long before your willpower and discipline are undermined. "Women's Health" magazine recommends eating six meals per day to keep a lid on hunger. An easy way to accomplish this is to split the total amount of calories that you would like to eat daily into six meals and eat every three hours, thereby avoiding extra calories.
Eat All Food Groups
Eliminating an entire food group can also backfire on you. For example, cutting out all carbs from your diet is not only unhealthy, but also difficult to maintain, and it may cause you to overload at a later time. Your body needs a balance of carbs, proteins and fats to function properly; the trick is that each food group contains both healthy and unhealthy options. For example, when it comes to carbohydrates, choose whole-wheat bread over white and fruit over sugary desserts. Lean proteins are better for you than those that contain an abundance of saturated fat, and healthy poly- and monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil and avocados, are more desirable than butter or cream cheese.
References
- Abs Diet: Eat More, Weigh Less
- "Time" Magazine; Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
- PLoS ONE: Changes in Weight, Waist Circumference and Compensatory Responses with Different Doses of Exercise among Sedentary, Overweight Postmenopausal Women
- University of Maryland: Common-Sense Strategies to Long-Term Weight Loss
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