These days the goal of weight loss is all too common. The North American lifestyle of convenience, over consumption, unhealthy choices, stress, and lack of exercise has contributed to a continent wide pandemic of overweight and obese individuals.

According to Statistics Canada, obesity rates have increased substantially over the past 25 years. For Canadian adults between the ages of 25 and 34 the prevalence of obesity is 23%. Among the North American population, 65% of adults are overweight. Furthermore, there is a negative correlation between fruit and vegetable consumption and ones chances of being obese. Since weight loss is a common goal for the majority of exercisers, it is important to understand the nutritional implications to achieving such a goal.

At the end of the day, losing weight boils down to creating a negative energy balance. This means that your body is expending ("burning") more calories than it is consuming. This is referred to as a hypocaloric diet. Achieving a negative energy balance may occur in 3 ways. First, caloric expenditure (exercise) may remain the same while calories consumed (food intake) are restricted.

Second, caloric expenditure can be increased while calories consumed remains the same. Third, and most effective, combines the first two. Hence, a combination of lower food intake and exercise is employed, leading to a retained lean muscle mass while body fat is decreased. It is vital to remember that a combination of healthy eating and regular exercise is the ONLY way to maintain the weight you desire.

Determining the minimum number of calories you need to survive:

The most accurate method for identifying how many calories you should be consuming involves calculating your basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is the minimum number of calories your body (and its vital organs) needs to survive if you were to lie in bed 24/7. There are many ways of determining your BMR, some invasive while others more indirect.

The following is an indirect equation that I've found to be most consistent with the direct measures, mainly because it takes body composition into account. For this equation you will need to measure your percent body fat (which can be done at your local gym), and from that, your lean body mass (LBM).

Here is an example:
LBM = total weight - fat weight 1kg = 2.2 lbs
BMR = 370 + [21.6 x LBM (kg)]

Joe weighs 80kg and has a 15% body fat. Therefore, according to the equation above, his LBM is 68kg. We then plug that into our equation for BMR giving us a result of 1839 calories. Thus, Joe needs to consume (eat) 1839 calories/day to survive, simply at rest.

Determining your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE):

Once you have your BMR you then need to take into account your average Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). See table below for activity levels.
Sedentary (no exercise) BMR x 1.2 - Lightly Active (light exercise, 1-3 days/week) BMR x 1.375 - Moderately Active (moderate intensity; 3-5 days/week) BMR x 1.55 - Highly Active (intense exercise; 5-7 days/week) BMR x 1.725 - Extremely Active (intense exercise; 5-7 days/week; 2x/day) BMR x 1.9.

Once, you have determined your activity level (and be honest!) you then multiply your BMR by the activity multiplier to establish how many total calories you are burning on a daily basis. This number now accounts for the activity component to your days.

Let's assume Joe in our example exercises 4 times per week. Thus, he would fall into the moderately active category. Therefore, his TDEE would be 2850 calories/day (1839 calories x 1.55).

Determining your daily caloric intake:

Now that you know your TDEE you can determine how many calories you need to consume. Remember, the TDEE is not only a measure of caloric expenditure but it also serves as your bench mark for caloric intake. If the goal is to lose weight, you must create a negative energy balance and therefore consume less than your TDEE. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, it is recommended to reduce your caloric intake by no more than 15-20% of your current levels.

For example, if Joe were interested in losing weight he would be advised to reduce his caloric intake by about 570 calories/day (TDEE = 2850 calories x 20%) to a minimum total of 2280 calories/day. And since 1lb of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories, at this rate, it would take Joe 6 days to lose 1lb of fat (3500 calories / 427 calories/day)!

Now I know that counting your calories can be a very tedious process, and I don't necessarily recommend that you do it. What I do recommend is keeping a dietary log where you record everything you eat (and quantities of each) for a period of one week. You can then have this information analyzed to determine your average daily caloric intake as well as nutrient breakdowns.

Promoters of high protein, low carbohydrate (HPLC) diets such as Robert Atkins (Atkins Diet) and Barry Sears (The Zone Diet) have induced a popular trend in weight loss nutrition. However, have these HPLC diets come at a cost to its followers? The purpose of this article is to address the claims and health concerns surrounding HPLC diets.

Claim 1: Weight loss is attributed to the composition of the diet (ie. carb vs. protein)

To achieve weight loss one must attain a negative energy balance; meaning that there are fewer calories consumed than expended (hypocaloric diet). This may occur in 3 ways.

First, caloric expenditure may remain the same while calories consumed are restricted.

Second, caloric expenditure (ie. exercise) can be increased while calories consumed (food intake) remains the same.

Third, and most effective, combines the first two. Hence, a combination of lower food intake and exercise is employed and is truly the only sustainable means of retaining lean muscle mass while shedding body fat.

Unfortunately, HPLC diets have received much popularity due to their hypolaric nature, thus, facilitating weight loss. As an example, Dr. Atkins recommends that dieters consume 1,400 calories/day during the first two weeks of his diet (Boucher, 1999), however, this represents only 60% of the recommended energy intake for a 18-yr old female weighing 125 lbs. A hypocaloric diet of any sort will yield weight loss, therefore, it is a negative energy balance, rather than diet composition, that is the cause of weight loss.

Claim 2: Insulin promotes the storage of fat; therefore, by limiting carbs, dieters will decrease levels of insulin and body fat.

Insulin is an anabolic hormone released upon eating that allows the uptake and storage of carbohydrates and fat. High insulin levels are associated with obesity, yet it is inaccurate that promoters of HPLC diets have targeted insulin as the cause of obesity.

Instead, it is obesity that causes high levels of insulin to accumulate by decreasing the liver's ability to clear insulin from the blood (Bergman, et al. 2001). Studies have even shown that decreased levels of insulin do not lead to greater weight or fat loss (Golay, Allaz et al. 1996; Golay, Eigenheer et al. 1996).

Claim 3: Weight loss is result of fat loss
Research suggests that water loss is responsible for the rapid weight loss associated with HPLC diets. Cham et al. (1981) found that subjects lost 4 kg on a low-carb diet but regained their weight within 24 hrs of resuming their regular diets. This can be explained by a decrease in water retention resulting from lower carbohydrate stores, since 1 molecule of glycogen (carbohydrate stored in muscle) holds 4 molecules of water.

HEALTH CONCERNS
The American Medical Association (1977) has condemned the Atkins diet labeling it "potentially hazardous". HPLC diets in general have reported adverse health effects including:

- Calcium loss - via increased urinary calcium excretion

- Undesirable lipoprotein levels - higher LDL levels, and lower HDL levels predispose the dieter at risk of cardiovascular complications.

- Decreased immune function - via lower levels of vitamins and minerals in diet.

In sum, promoters of HPLC diets have based their claims on research using obese and hyperinsulimenic subjects. This is misleading and inappropriate information for the general population to utilize and as such should be taken into consideration when embarking on a weight loss regime.

If you want to lose weight and are ensure about what foods to eat then go now and get a copy of my ebook Eating for Energy. You can download your copy from http://www.EatingforEnergy.ca.

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A ton of research has been done investigating why some people lose weight while others don't, why some people succeed at keeping weight off once they've lost it while others don't, and what factors tend to influence your ability to successfully maintain a healthy body weight.

What it boils down to is your metabolism.

Very simply, thinner people have a higher metabolism than heavier people. The reason...thin people have more fat-free mass OR lean muscle than their heavier counterparts. Since muscle burns roughly 50x times calories than fat it would make sense that having more lean muscle would be a predictor of long-term success in weight management.

Take Home Message #1: Resistance training builds lean muscle and is therefore ESSENTIAL to boosting your metabolism and thus helping you lose weight and keeping it off for good.

Take Home Message #2 - Best Predictors for Keeping Weight Off...
A very interesting study out of the journal Obesity Research found that the best predictors for weight maintenance after weight loss were the following:

an increase in dietary restraint during weight loss,
a high baseline resting metabolic rate (as a result of resistance training),
a rather stable body weight (ie. no excessive fluctuations in weight gain/loss), and
a low frequency of dieting
Take Home Message #3 - It's All About Lifestyle

I don't know how many times I've said this in my life but it needs to said again...You can't maintain a healthy weight without a consistent effort towards improving your lifestyle. You need to make healthy eating and resistance training a regular part of your life, especially if you've been battling excess weight for most of your life.

Here's a simple reason why. A large meta-analysis on metabolism published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that formerly obese subjects had a 3-5% lower metabolic rate than control subjects.

Now many people would just say "Well, being fat is just in my jeans!" And that may be partially true BUT... the researchers in this study found that whether the cause of this lower metabolism was genetic or acquired, the existence of a low metabolism was likely to contribute to the high rate of "weight regain" in formerly obese persons.

These findings only further demonstrate the need for boosting your metabolic rate! And this doens't occur by spending endless hours doing cardio and following low carb diets!

5 Metabolism-Boosting Strategies:

Here are 5 ways that you can immediately start revving up your metabolism for the long run so that you can achieve and maintain your ideal for good!

1. Eat LIVING FOODS every day

High amounts of food enzymes found in living foods allow your body spend more energy on metabolism and less on digestion. Here's how you can start.

2. Spend more time RESISTANCE TRAINING instead of cardio

Lean muscle doesn't come about by doing cardio 7 days a week. You need to stress your muscles to develop them. Use your body weight, use resistance bands, use machines, use dumbbells, or any other form of resistance. The key is impose weight bearing resistance against your body! Use Fitter U if you haven't already.

3. Eat small meals throughout the day

We've all heard this before and for good reason. Keep your fire burning by adding small amounts of wood to it throughout the day - that's the analogy.

4. Spice up your meals

The following herbs and spices are well-known to speed up metabolism: cayenne pepper, jalapeno peppers, ginger, peppermint, and cinnamon - just to name a few.

5. Have a cup of GREEN TEA

Green tea has been shown to boost metabolism. Researchers believe that antioxidants in green tea can cause the body to waste calories as heat, which increases your caloric burn.

Yuri

References:

Vogels, N. et al (2005). Predictors of long-term weight maintenance. Obesity Research, 13: 2162-68.

Astrup, A. et al (1999). Meta-analysis of resting metabolic rate in formerly obese subjects. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 69 (6): 1117-1122

Wouldn't you agree that everything in your physical world began in your internal world?

Think about that for a second. Consider a lightbulb, a television, a car, or any other physical material thing.

They are share one thing in common...they started with an idea in somebody's head.

So what does that have to do with losing weight.

Everything!

To create your perfect body you must first envision your perfect body. What you focus on expands so by focusing on and mentally creating the body of your dreams your reality will become that.

It's simply the Law of Attraction.

Do your best to picture every inch of your body as you'd like it to be and feel how you would want to feel as you look at this newly formed perfect body of yours.

Smile. Feel happy. Feel confident. Feel everything that you think you would feel once you've lost the weight.

Thoughts lead to feelings which lead to actions. And actions lead to results. So by creating a clear mental image and feeling the positive sensations that come with your goal body you begin your body's engine on the road to losing weight and creating your perfect body!

Give it a shot. Trust me - it works!

Yuri