- Weightloss
- We at Body Builders Network welcome your requests for advice. Go ahead, ask us for advice by emailing us at mlewing@msn.com. You will find our advice replies to you requests here, in our Weightloss Column.
Weightloss
In my opinion, we have made an error in the
education of the American public in only promoting low fat foods. This ignores the calorie
content of foods in general. After all, it is the ingestion of too many calories -- fats,
proteins, carbohydrates -- that causes us to become overweight. Fat intake is very
important to help decrease cardiovascular disease, but people have to be educated on the
total calorie intake as well and know what their daily consumption should be rather than
pay attention only to fat grams. Note -- If you buy low fat ice cream -- what do you do?
-- eat twice as much, more calories added per day.
A second issue is exercise. The best exercise is something
that is aerobic in nature -- an exercise that increases your heart rate over 120 - 130
beats per minute. Certainly, walking is better than nothing, but not as good as aerobic
exercise. Also, it is much easier to control your weight with aerobic exercise. Remember,
overweight people who exercise live longer than thin people who do not.
Overweight and obesity is a major problem in our society. More and
more of our population are overweight, leading to increased incidence of diabetes, heart
disease, degenerative arthritis, increased risk for certain cancers, and even Alzheimer's
disease (increased fat in our diet increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease). To maintain
any weight loss, you have to exercise, preferably aerobic, increase your heart rate to
120-130 beats per minute, sustained for at least 20 minutes.
The following are some general ideas for weight loss and some
helpful hints:
- Count calories. Forget fad diets and know the calorie contents of the
foods you consume. How many calories do you need per day? Multiply your weight times 12
calories per pound in a male and 11 calories per pound in a female. Example: 220 pound
male times 12 calories equals 2640 calories per day.
- Exercise regularly. Walk or jog at least 3 days a week. If you are
going to jog 1/2 hour is sufficient. If you are going to walk, do so for at least 1 hour.
This will maintain any weight loss that you have. Without it, you can be assured you will
gain the weight back.
- Take your multi-vitamins. Very few people in our society eat properly
and eat the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables. Most of us are vitamin-deficient and
do not get the quantity of vitamins and minerals we need. I cannot tell you how many
people we have seen in the office that we investigate for fatigue and tiredness who
really, in fact, have vitamin deficiencies and are easily cured by taking a proper
multi-vitamin. For more information on vitamin issues, go to our Vitamin Page.
The hints that follow are what we recommend in our office for diet
therapy and the appetite suppressants we use to help people control their appetite and
lose weight relatively easily.
If you are trying to lose weight, here are some helpful hints and
ideas.
- 800 to 1000 calories per day, three meals. You can eat what you want
but no more than 800 or 1000 calories.
- You need to count your calories. You cannot eat any food if you do
not know the calorie count in it.
- If hungry between meals, you can eat fruit. Suggest you get organic
foods. No hormones in beef or chicken, range fed, no pesticides.
- Breakfast: 250 to 300 calories. you can have fruit, no muffins or
bagels, cereal (read the label on the box and it will give you the calorie count of the
cereal).
- Lunch: 250 to 300 calories. You can have yogurt, salads - green
salads as much as you want except do not forget to count the amount of calories in the
dressing.
- Dinner: 300 to 350 calories. you can have Healthy Choice, Lean
Cuisine, Le Menu, etc. It says on the label how many calories and do not worry about the
salt content. Have fruit for dessert.
- Keep a food journal. People who do keep a food journal are 100%
successful in losing the amount of weight they want. They have to write down everything
they eat and drink that day.
- It is better to cook meals from a low calorie book, however most
people find that it is very time consuming. That is why we suggest maybe using the Lean
Cuisine, etc.
- You need to be on a multivitamin and mineral -- ProVitamin take 2 to
4 a day.
- Take your medication one-half hour before breakfast and between 3:00
and 6:00 p.m. in the evening. You may get mild insomnia or increased restlessness or
nervousness. Usually this is gone in two to three days.
- Use Chitosan for those once or twice a week exceptions. You need to
take it with your increased-fat entree or dessert. You may take four tablets which may
bind up eight grams of fat or six tablets which will bind up 12 grams of fat.
- Exercise one-half hour three times a week with your heart rate over
120 beats a minute. If you are unable to do that, a 1 hour to 1-1/2 hour walk three times
a week will do just as well. You will not lose a lot of weight from exercising, but it is
a cornerstone in keeping the weight that you do lose off.
- You may feel terrific while you are dieting and this can be due to:
- The weight loss.
- The effect of the diet pills you are taking.
- The effect of the exercise.
- May be more probable that a lot of you have food allergies and hence
seeing as you are now on a low-calorie diet, not eating a log of the junk food that you
normally would eat and hence because of that you are removing some of these offending
foods from your diet, hence you will feel a lot better with lots of energy, no mood
swings, etc. Think of that as a cause for you feeling better while you are dieting. A way
to test to see if you have any food allergies is for whatever foods you miss the most, one
night, say on a Friday night, eat as much of it as you want and see how you feel.
- When you stop dieting, you need to increase your calories by 100
calories a day per week until you get to your ideal caloric intake for your weight
(multiply your weight times 11 calories per pound for a female, and 12 calories per pound
in a male) An example: 800 calorie diet and your end weight is 140 pounds, then your ideal
caloric intake will be 140 times 11 which is 1540 calories a day. What you need to do is
if 800 calories a day is the diet you are on at this point in time, then the first week of
your diet you would eat 900 calories a day, the second week 1000 calories a day, the third
week 1100 calories a day, the fourth week 1500. As you can see, this is a slow process and
this will avoid the sudden weight gain that most people experience after they stop
dieting. Also when people are off the diet, we suggest that they can continue taking their
herbal diet appetite suppressants to periodically help suppress their appetite and give
them some energy and this will allow them to continue to maintain their weight. If you
have not had a check up in the past twelve months, I suggest you get one done.
- We welcome your comments and suggestions. Please feel free to e-mail us and tell us what you would like to see, here on Body Builders Network.
Comments...
I wanted to tell you over the past 3 months I have lost 14 pounds, I feel so much better about myself!! Thank you so much for your advice!!! You are just such a helpful person!!!
T.K.
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