Got A Few Pounds To Lose? Healthy-Diet In; Calorie-Diet Out

If you want to lose weight and keep it off, a healthy diet is a better option than a calorie diet. This section is therefore not about low calorie dieting which slows down your metabolism, but how to educate yourself to eat healthily.  Why?  Most dieters wouldn’t keep up starvation routine for long. Imagine having to stick to 1000 calories for a year? The weight drops off definitely. But what happens afterwards is the issue. A calorie dieter is likely to return to his or her old eating habits, and when this happens, the weight inevitably comes piling back on.  There is also a double jeopardy scenario because while you lost both muscle and fat during the diet, what piles back is going to be fat.

Calorie Diet reduces metabolism

While the calorie dieter may be pleased knowing that they weight the same as they did at the start of the dieting, the snag is that there’s a lot more fat and lot less muscle than they did before the diet.  The consequence is a slower metabolism and  lower calorie needs.  Let’s even assume they go back to their pre-diet eating habits, they still need 500 less calories a day due to the muscle loss.  That is the major reason why dieters are vulnerable to regaining all the lost weigh plus some surplus.

Healthy Diet keeps metabolism high

In view of all the disadvantage of a calorie diet, the key to a long term weight management is an active lifestyle, which includes aerobic exercise, a solid weight-training program, and most importantly a healthy diet.  A healthy diet is based around whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables and lean protein.  A healthy diet keeps your metabolism in high gear with four to six meals a day.  It should be flexible enough to allow for a cake at a birthday party or a snack during an outing.  No food should be off limits, but sweets and high fat junk food should be eaten less often and in smaller quantities.  A healthy diet is realistic and permanent, not something you suffer through for a week or two, and then abandon.

Successful dieting rules

The goal for a successful dieting is to consume as many calories as you can while still losing body fat and maintaining or gaining lean muscle.  If your food intake is already below normal, don’t restrict it further.  What you need to do is to remain on your current amount and focus on becoming stronger and more active, as you gradually increase your calories to a normal healthy level.

If your food intake is already in a healthy range, decrease it only slightly, and only if it’s a must.  A small reduction of 10-15% less of your daily food total (perhaps cut out 2 slices of yam or bread, or snack, from your normal portion) is more likely to protect your lean muscle and less likely to trigger a slow-down in your metabolism.

If you follow this type of routine, it’s possible to gain about one pound of muscle per week and lose about one pound of fat per week - without going on a starvation diet.  The end result is that the scales will not shift at all, it may even go up because you have replaced fat with muscle and the latter is heavier, but your clothes will get loser and your self-esteem will get an elevation. 

Don’t despair at the scales not budging, because the truth is that when you are physically active it’s possible to get smaller and heavier at the same time.  A pound of muscle is like a chunk of gold bar, while a pound of fat is like a big fluffy bunch of feathers, which takes more space in your body.  At this point, just ignore the weighing scales and rely more on how you look, feel, and how your clothes fit.  The scale can be misleading and discouraging when you’re really doing great.

All in all, what you need is strong, healthy, positive changes rather than punishing your body and your spirit with starvation.  Your goal should be the sleek healthy body of a naturally lean person who can enjoy what they eat.  You must avoid the weak flabby body of a constant dieter who has to measure every morsel, unless you are 20% more than your normal weight which is obesity.

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