Some statistics suggest that 60% of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight can help you control your cholesterol, blood pressure. It will also help you prevent weight-related diseases, such as heart disease, and diabetes. If you are overweight, and would like to change your life, this information can help you.
We’ve analyzed data from dozens of diet and exercise websites available on the internet and also have read countless books on the subject and have found similarities in what works for permanent weight-loss, and which programs to avoid. There are many, many different ways to lose weight but most are temporary solutions that offer difficult or unpleasant diets that you go on for a while and when you revert back to your old eating habits again you also revert back to your old weight plus more. There does seem to be an agreement, however, between the various methods for achieving permanent fat loss. Before we go into that we should explore the reason why conventional or fad diets just don’t work.
DIETS DON’T WORK!!!
One common thread among all the programs that we’ve reviewed is that for you to achieve permanent weight loss you have to adopt a diet system that you can do for life. Most people don’t want to eat meal replacement shakes or bars as a permanent solution. Other popular methods include drastically cutting your calories or completely cutting out certain foods. Cutting too many calories out of your diet will mean that you’ll be hungry all the time which only puts your metabolism in a state of constant fat storage. One thing about our bodies is that it doesn’t respond to what we think, only what we do to it. If we drastically deny it calories, it will act as though it’s in a state of starvation and needs to conserve more fat. That means it will use food as fat stores and you’ll have less energy. That doesn’t mean individuals that take 4000 plus calories shouldn’t cut down.
Moderation and sensible judgment must be used. (We recommend consulting a physician to help you determine the amount of calories you need for your level of activity and body type). People who are on an dieting cycle, or yo-yo dieting where you diet, lose weight, go off diet, and gain back even more weight, have trained their metabolisms to store fat for the times it will starve. So not only are you hungry all the time, your also gaining weight! If this sounds all too familiar to you, you’re not alone. If you are ready to break the cycle then keep reading. We have the keys right here that will put you on the path to permanent, healthy weight loss.
I hear from super skinny people once in a while that complain that they just can’t gain weight no matter how much they eat. Oh poor skinny people, right? They’ll eat all kinds of food and lots of it but can’t gain an ounce to save their lives. I tell them gaining weight is easy, just go on a diet! They can’t argue with me because time and again it’s one of the best PROVEN methods for weight-gain. I tell them to be careful though, dieting can be a tough habit to break once you begin the cycle. Also if you decide to cut out entire food groups, you will continue to have cravings for that which you deny your body and eventually most people will give in to those cravings and binge.
Diet foods or foods that have less fat and sugar can also be detrimental to your program if used the way most people do. Because these foods have fewer calories, most people think that they can eat more of it without consequence. On the contrary people often have to eat more to obtain satisfaction and end up consuming more calories. Used sensibly diet foods can and often do work but again, moderation is the key.
So what’s the answer to permanent weight loss? It’s simple. For your body to consume fat (lose weight) you must take in less calories than you burn. But you must do it the right way!
According to all the successful programs available, there are 3 key elements that you need take into consideration for lasting permanent weight loss.
- Nutrition and Supplementation
- A fun Cardio exercise program
- Weight Training
Can you achieve weight loss without any of these three? Sure, but with these three keys in use, your chances of rapid and permanent change are greatly increased.
Nutrition and Supplementation
To be able to have an active lifestyle you need to start with a good diet with healthy foods that you can enjoy and that will satisfy you. Once you start eating healthy after a few weeks you’ll have fewer cravings for foods containing sugar and fat. There are many programs and books available on the internet, that teach you how to make delicious healthy meals on your own, or there are many programs that make the meals for you and even deliver them to your door.
One of the best ways to determine what your body needs is to listen or pay attention to it. We all have cravings and when we eat healthy we tend to have healthy cravings. Sometimes we do have cravings for things that aren’t good for us. To avoid self torture and a possible binge later on, we recommend eating what you want but in extreme moderation. Again moderation is the key here! You may find that just a few bites of some of your favorite forbidden treats are all you need to curb your cravings. Once you are tuned into your body and what it wants, you should be able to eat whatever you want to as long as you follow a sensible level oriented eating plan such as the one below.
Level 1 Starvation
Level 2 Extremely hungry
Level 3 Hungry
Level 4 Moderately hungry
Level 5 Comfortable (Not hungry anymore)
Level 6 You can feel the food in your stomach
Level 7 Full stomach
Level 8 General Discomfort, you know you’ve eaten too-much
Level 9 You’ve eaten way too much. May need to loosen a button or two!
Level 10 Your stomach cannot hold the amount of food you’ve eaten!
Using this chart all you have to do to be able to eat whatever you want is stay within level 2 to 5. When you eat only up to a level 5 you may find after a few weeks that is takes less food to fill your stomach and the plan becomes easier and easier to follow.
There are many reasons why people overeat and it may become necessary to overcome those obstacles before following this plan. There is most often a level of depression that is associated with obesity that causes the individual to indulge in self-deprecation, and turn to food for comfort which just adds to the vicious cycle.
Supplementation can also play an important part in your diet. If you are not getting enough nutrients and protein from the foods you eat, you can use vitamins and pure protein foods to supplement your diet. Protein is extremely important to any weight-loss program especially when you involve weight training. The recommended daily consumption for intense muscle gain is 1 to 1.5 ounce per pound of lean body mass per day.
Cardio Exercise
The best cardio exercise you can do is one that you enjoy and can do consistently and regularly. It also doesn’t hurt to mix it up and do different exercises. You could even do intervals or one exercise for 15 minutes, or jogging for example, then move to jump-roping for another 15 minutes. You can do just about anything and call it cardio exercise as long as you can keep your heart-rate within your target range for a sustained amount of time.
To test your heart rate while exercising place your thumb on the underside of your wrist or on your neck to read your pulse. Count the heart beats for 15 seconds and multiply that number by 4. Your ideal target heart rate is 220 minus your age.
Walking, hiking, biking, swimming, rowing, jogging, boxing, and jump roping, are some of the most popular ways to get exercise. Sometimes you can get creative and turn work into a cardio workout such as chopping wood, housecleaning, mowing the lawn, walking the dog, shopping, etc. Sometimes all you need is a little enthusiasm!
Once you have a regular routine, one that you’ve been doing for about 4-6 weeks, you can use advanced techniques such as varying the intensity of your workout. You can approach your exercise routine in 2 ways. The first with low-intensity, or sustained “slow and steady” exercise which burns calories, which is best for burning fat. Exercise for 45 min. to 1 hr. at a time. The second is high intensity, or short bursts of high intensity with sustained steady exercise usually lasting 20 to 30 min. This type of exercise burns a lot of calories and boosts your metabolism. Here is an example of a high intensity workout:
Running on treadmill (intensity levels defined as 1-10 with 10 being maximum effort)
2 min. jog, warm up. Level 3 intensity
4 min. level 5 intensity
2 min. level 4
4 min. level 6 intensity
2 min. level 4
4 min. level 7 intensity
2 min. level 4
4 min. level 8 intensity
2 min. level 4
4 min. level 9 intensity
2-4 min. cool down
30 min. workout
There are many workout programs such as this on the internet…listing
Weight Training
Weight training is an important part of any weight loss program. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn throughout the day. Weight training is no longer just for people who want to get big and muscular. Everyone at every age level can benefit from weight training. There are programs available that involve gym quality exercises using machinery. Other programs involve using free weights while others involve techniques using nothing but your own body.
Beware of diet scams!
There are probably more quick-weight-loss schemes out there as there are legitimate, long-term weight loss programs. Some of these may include the following:
Fat or Carb blocking pills
Herbal teas or herbal metabolism-boosting pills
Diet patches
Body wraps
Any program that promises rapid weight loss.*
*Rapid weight loss is possible but it is usually accomplished through meal-replacement techniques that lower calorie consumption. Once individuals go off these diets they gain back what they lost plus 10 lbs.
The bottom line is that there really is no “quick fix” to permanent weight loss. It takes dedication and most of all persistence. Realistically, safe and permanent weight-loss will occur at 2 to 4 pounds a week. There are programs online available now that work with the principles that I’ve outlined in this article. I’ve compared them side by side and you can see the results here. There is also a blog you can follow that teaches the principles of 0-5 eating that you can access here. I can tell you on a personal level having struggled all my life with being overweight, that every sacrifice you make toward your weight loss goals are absolutely worth it! Just keep at it. If what you are currently doing isn’t working for you, change it today and most of all be persistent and never give up! Congratulations on making it this far and remember, knowing is only half the battle. The world belongs to those who act. Don’t wait another minute. Start today and good luck!