Hello Everybody,
Why don’t you lose body weight? You have tried everything but you still stay the same. You just yo-yo from one diet to the next and your body weight comes back every time you stop. The answer is that you haven’t tried everything. You have just tried different forms of the same thing. The old business maxim applies - ‘do the same thing, get the same results.’
There may be reasons you have not thought about. Age can be a factor. To lose weight we need to do two things, consume fewer calories and take more exercise. If, for whatever reason, you exercise less as you get older you will need to eat less just to maintain your usual weight. If you want to lose weight without exercise you will have to eat a lot less. It can be done. There is no reason why you cannot weigh the same as you did when you were twenty years old. It is just a matter of wanting to do it.
Stress can cause a build up of fat around the midriff. Stress causes the production of cortical. This, along with adrenalin, is one of those ‘fight or flight’ hormones which our ancestors released when they saw a sabre toothed tiger. Now we release it when we see a sabre toothed boss, but the effect is the same. One of the results of long term stress is that cortical stores fat around our middle in order that it is easily available for extra energy. It also slows down our metabolic rate, so we do not burn up fat as quickly.
Another result of stress is comfort eating, which puts on fat everywhere. So a stressed person can be a fat person.
Some medication makes you fat. Steroids are a particular problem and are prescribed for a lot of illnesses. They do not themselves make you fat, but they do make you hungry and it is eating more that makes you over weight. The smaller the dose the less hungry you will become, so doctors do try to limit your intake. But steroids are bad news for weight loss.
That might explain why you cannot lose body weight, but for most people it doesn’t. The usual reason is that when they stop their diet they just go back to eating what they ate before. It’s wonderful now the diet is over and they have lost some weight. Why not celebrate a little? Or maybe a lot. Soon they are eating what made them fat in the first place. Remember our business maxim - ‘do the same thing, get the same results.’ It is about to be proved right.
I am back to advising a change of lifestyle. After all the old one didn’t work so it may be time to try a new one. So what should you do? Start slowly and do not expect rapid results. Look at what you are eating. Fats, sugars and fizzy drinks will make you put on weight. Increase your consumption of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, lean meat and fish. Phase out fried food and drink less alcohol. Easiest of all, be like the slim French. Eat smaller portions. If you only lose a pound a week that is fine. Keep it up and in under four months you will be a stone lighter.
Your more healthy diet should be combined with exercise. As we said, losing weight just by eating healthy food is possible. But it is slower than combining it with exercise and nothing like as good for you. Aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging, swimming or cycling strengthens the heart and burns off fat. The easiest exercise for most people is walking. Anybody can do it, whether they live in a town or in the countryside. Try to do an hour a day at a moderate speed. This can be split into two half hour sessions if it is more convenient. Do this every day - try to get into the habit of going for your daily walk.
That is all there is to losing body weight. Do not become obsessive about what you eat, just know what’s in it. Beware of labels telling you something is healthy. Check the calories on the label - if you can find the figures in the small print - you may be amazed at the number of calories in a ‘healthy’ sandwich. But do not spend all your time counting calories, that way madness lies. Try to walk to the shops rather than drive and use the stairs rather than the lift. Just remember to exercise every day and eat more healthy food. This way you will become slim and, more importantly, you will stay slim for life.
See you soon,
Peter Stockwell
23 May 2010
Photo. gspss (Flickr)
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