Fat Loss Simplified by S.L. Hominuk

Why are people so obsessed with fat loss? Is there a secret behind fat loss so results are long lasting? Fat loss can be simple. Fat loss can be permanent. :: Fat loss can be a way of everyday life! ::  One way to accomplish fat loss is through healthy, sensible eating. Yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard this all before. But, people wishing to lower their body fat will often go on strict fat loss diets, eliminating all fats from their diet thinking that will help them with their fat loss goals. This actually hinders fat loss. Fat loss diets should ideally constrict carbohydrate intake as 75% of ALL carbohydrates will cause your body to release up to 500% more insulin into your bloodstream than eating an equivalent amount of fat or protein calories. However, when too much insulin gets released into your bloodstream at one time, too many calories try to get moved into the muscle cells, but since the muscle cells only have enough room for a limited amount of calories at any one time, the excess calories are transported into the fat cells where they are stored as fat tissue. This is why the body stores fat causing people to be FAT.

Most people mistake nonfat and low fat foods to be ideal for efficient fat loss. WRONG! Nearly all nonfat and low fat foods are pure carbohydrates as when manufacturers take out the fat in these types of products, they are replaced with carbohydrates making fat loss virtually impossible. Low fat foods and nonfat foods will actually make your body store fat at the quickest levels, which as you have guessed, make these foods extremely fattening; not productive for fat loss goals! A much :: easier approach is to learn how to choose healthy foods which will accelerate your fat loss ::

An easy rule that I like to follow is to keep it “as close to nature” as possible (meaning, if it’s man-created such as pasta, ice-cream, bread it’s not a wise food choice). Man didn’t create vegetables, chicken, fish = wise diet choice. Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale’s Metabolic Diet book also teaches how to make healthy fat loss food choices to make your diet for fat loss successful. Dr. Di Pasquale has compiled a list of :: low carbohydrate :: food choices (pdf) to help you obtain your fat loss metabolic diet goals which coincides with the Metabolic Diet.

I often use the comparison of a burning fire to that of the body’s metabolism to help people understand how to eat for fat loss to lose body fat. If you add wood to a smoldering fire, what happens? The burning excels and you have a raging fire. As the wood is consumed and burned, the fire slows back down to a smoldering source once again conserving energy so that it doesn’t extinguish. Add wood once again – boom, an increase in strength and energy of the flames. Keep adding wood to the fire and it will burn at a consistent pace without slowing down. Consider your body as the fire, and eating as the wood which fuels the intensity of the flames. When you eat, it’s similar to adding wood to the fire, the body will burn it as fuel (energy). The science behind having six small meals a day is to keep the body in a constant burning momentum, instead of allowing it to slow down. Not eating slows down your metabolism. A slow metabolism is not burning calories for fuel, but instead the body conserves energy by slowing down, as the brain senses hungry (signal of requiring energy). The body then slows down to conserve all the resources it can and as it enters a “survival mode”. The next meal intake, the brain sends the message “hey guys, false alarm, party on!” Make sense? This is why starvation diets and infrequent eating backfires. Although a weight scale may indicate a lessened body weight, the lessened weight is sacrificed muscle mass as the body resorts immediately to muscle for required stores. This is not desirable as muscle cells burn fat. Fat cells don’t burn fat, they store fat!

Back to the fire. What happens when you throw a plastic bag into a fire? It quickly melts and disappears within seconds and so does the intensity of the flames. This can be compared to high glycemic and foods high in sugar and simple carbohydrates because that’s exactly how the body consumes them for energy, then crashes leaving you with the infamous sugar crash. On the other hand, consider a solid fire log to that of a flank of meat (protein) and notice how the fire/body works at slowly burning the material = energy. Dieting doesn’t have to overwhelming, it actually can be pretty simplistic when thought of in these terms.

An easy approach to initiate a fat loss diet to lose weight, is to start by making simple changes in your diet. Substitute certain things so that ‘dieting’ isn’t overwhelming. That’s why most people fall off the diet wagon or are in diet yo-yo hell. For instance, if you are used to starting your day by eating a bowl of cereal, instead of using 2% milk, switch to skim. Skim milk is better for you than whole milk (less fat and fewer calories). In a recent taste test by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, only 5% of the tasters were able to accurately identify whole, 2%, 1% and skim milk. At least 25% couldn’t even distinguish whole milk (the fattest) from skim, which has no fat. Skim milk can then be switched to vanilla or strawberry protein powder. Next step, skip the cereal altogether as most are sugars and grains, and just have the protein powder shake. Add to the protein shake, perhaps a piece of fruit, or egg whites. Like coffee sweetened to death by the popular sweet flavored syrups? Substitute the syrup for vanilla or other flavored extract. Enjoy hamburgers? Hamburgers are usually beef, so switch to lean ground turkey which is so much leaner. There are so many opportunities to make smart healthy food changes to your diet that after awhile, it becomes second nature and you don’t even notice that you are dieting. Get a craving every now and then? Satisfy it, have a piece of chocolate cake, get it over with. However, a piece doesn’t constitute eating a whole cake for every meal. That’s when eating becomes problematic and weight gain will ensue. Moderation is always key. Hooked on soda pop? Don’t think diet soda is doing you any favors. If the addication is the carbonation, slowing switch to carbonated flavored waters, then carbonated water, then down just to plain ol’ H20. Get the picture? The healthier you make your diet and notice the results in your physical and emotional being, the easier it is for you to want to stay on track. Making slight changes like this to your eating program will be so slight, that you won’t feel like you’re actually dieting and maintaining a healthy weight will be a snap.