Eating and Weight Loss
North Americans are spending 30 to 50 billion dollars annually on weight loss products and services, yet experts show that our population is getting more obese. So what's really happening?
According to research, there are several things contributing to our ever-expanding girths.
- Our fast paced lives lead to fast food choices, which are loaded with sugars, fats, and chemicals.
- Rather than eating for hunger, we are eating to soothe and comfort ourselves.
- Genetics can play against us (look to your parents, not just for fat cell distribution, but habits and beliefs around food).
- The dieting industry is big business, and we shell out millions to buy into that magic pill.
- Dieting (and the pain of denial) leads to overeating, as feelings of deprivation and resentment trigger overeating.
- For every diet we go on, we are lowering our basal metabolic rate or BMR (our bodies ability to burn fat), so when we eat, our bodies become sluggish at burning fat, and better at hoarding it. Yikes!
So what's the answer? How can we learn to stay slim and trim throughout our lives? Once again, it's never one answer, but a multifaceted approach that yields the best, and most permanent, results.
- Exercise by using a combination of weights (to increase your BMR) and cardio (to burn fat) is a sure-fire way to weight loss success.
- Take your daily caloric intake and spread it out over 4-6 meals.
- Eat protein and complex carbs at every meal.
- Eat when you are hungry.
- Stay away from diets and diet supplements.
- Change your mindset. View your new lifestyle as a positive move toward good health, not as something that is drudgery!
- Be consistent.
- Get started.
- And keep going!