Why 95% Of All Diets Fail
Most diets are not effective in controlling weight over the long term. When dieting you may get a temporary weight loss but you are 95% more likely to regain the weight you lost after you stop the diet. Not only will you ultimately gain more weight but also progressively have more difficulty in losing the weight again. As most of you know this is called the Yo Yo effect.
Unfortunately, our odds are high we will regain all the weight we lost back. Even if we gain just the weight we lost previously, the result is the weight gain will be more fat and less lean muscle. Why? Please let me explain.
Humans originated about 200,000 years ago, due to the harsh conditions, our bodies created a defense mechanism to protect itself from starvation. When the fuel (food) shortages are detected by the body, our body’s defense mechanisms will start. When this happens the body will assume that the shortage will last awhile, and our body then reprograms our system to protect itself by reprogramming for starvation mode. Changes in the metabolism, hormonal productions, and psychological systems occur. This reaction is hard wired for self preservation and cannot be fooled no mater what some information my state.
Decreases in metabolism, loss of muscle, increase in the fat storing enzymes & hormones and reducing the fat burning enzymes & hormones are the results of this self preservation or Starvation mode. Your body will begin to decrease the thyroid output, and increase the appetite, resulting in you feeling like you are starving. Due to the lack of fuel your energy levels will sharply decrease and you will find it harder and harder to concentrate. The body is not designed to work without fuel, so now the body is looking for other places to get that fuel.
The body doesn’t burn fat the way we would choose it to. Before I studied the process I thought that the body would first burn the fuel we have consumed recently, then burn fat stored on my belly and abdomen. No such luck! Don’t we all lose one of the best body attributes first! Like myself, I have an apple body, broad shoulders, round belly and thin legs and thighs. When I begin to loss weight, I begin to look like a basketball on stilts! UGH! I also notice it becomes harder to climb stairs because my legs are so weak. I now recognize I have loss lean muscle tissue! Not Good!
When you’re on a diet and the body senses a reduction in fuel, this reduction will cause the body to go into what is called Starvation Response mode. So now the body needs fuel, where does it go to get it? Muscles are metabolically active tissue. So reducing the muscle reduces the request for the energy it needs to move that muscle. It now becomes more efficient to burn lean muscle than to reduce the stored fat. Basically the body is saying lets become a more efficient machine, if we have less muscle we don’t need as much energy (Fuel). Go to http://MyDietForWeightLoss.com/Starvation-Mode for more info on Starvation Mode.
To have a calorie deficit, you must burn more calories than you consume in any given day. There are two ways to do so.
1) Decreasing the amount of calories you ingest. 2) Increase the amount of calories your burn.
The best way to acquire a calorie deficit is to burn the fat with exercise and reducing your caloric intake by a small amount.
Actually, it may seem backwards but eating more of the right kinds of food and exercise to burn off the fat is the healthiest way for you to diet. Exercise allows you to create the calorie deficit. It also burns the fat without losing muscle and slowing down your metabolism. Eating more gives your body the vitamins and minerals it needs were low calorie diets does just the opposite.
By using the three combo approach to permanent fat loss, nutrition, cardio, and weight training (both cardio and weight training also involve stretching) you can increase your results exponentially!