part0009

Regardless of what method or diet you followed in the past, this used to be known as the true secret of weight loss. You were told, “There is no way around it,” and although the theory sounds simple, it doesn’t actually work well at all.

In truth, I did this so much! It drove me crazy counting every piece of food and every drink! I thought I was made up of numbers. Like a strange math puzzle or something. When I realized through my research efforts that balance was key… I stopped doing it! I literally couldn’t cope with the numbers game anymore, and my friend Elise said, “Oh, thank God, I was going to slap you soon!” Of course, she was only joking, but I was so thankful when I focused more on portion size. It was so much easier and made me feel freer in my plan.

One pound is equal to 3,500 calories, so losing ten pounds in one week means that you’d need to burn about 5000 calories per day for the 7-week period!!! This figure lessens to 4200 for women and men , per day, due to the decrease in calorie intake per day, of around 800 calories for each gender. But, the recommended new calorie intake would be 1200 calories per day, for women, and 1700 calories per day, for men, approximately. Imagine trying to eat that little… and do over 4 hours of exercise per day?? It’s just not a workable option, and it doesn’t work anyway, because the body becomes fatigued and usually places fat around the middle section of the body to compensate. It’s also not good to stress the heart by crazily exercising, either.

You were probably told, “The calories will be burned from any activity you do” - and not just purposeful exercise. Breathing, walking around, or even climbing stairs are all going to contribute toward this magical number value of 4,200 calories!! It’s craziness to think of even doing this to your body. It is a massive contribution, but it is a contribution, nonetheless. No way, it’s not okay!! We don’t need to do it.

Even before you started a ridiculous calorie counting/exercise game, you already know it is going to be difficult, because burning the necessary calories in a day this way, would be a lot of hard work. Crazy-hard!! A prime example is a person who weighs 160 lbs. They would burn around 1,000 calories playing a highly competitive sport for 90 minutes. If you calculate this, you would have to play this sport for six plus hours to burn the 4,200 calories. #OMG!!! No!

An average woman will usually consume around 2,000 calories per day, and the average man will consume 2,500 calories, approximately. So, if you continue with this figure, you will neither lose weight, or gain weight (was the old thought on this). So, we were told that when you are aiming to lose weight, and you reduce your calorie intake to around 1,200 calories (women) and 1700 (men) per day, a difference of 800 calories is given. And so now you need to only burn 4,200 (women and men) . We already worked out that six hours of vigorous exercise would need to be maintained daily!!! This is impossible unless you are an athlete training for The Olympic Games?

A calorie is a unit of energy, and that much is true. However, how these calories or units of energy affect your body is very different. Varying foods pass through various metabolic pathways and affect hormones that regulate body weight and hunger.

A good example is consuming 100 calories of chocolate. This would have a much more significant and negative impact on your body than 100 calories worth of healthy salad. Additionally, a protein calorie is not the same as a carb or a fat calorie. The body utilizes the vitamins and minerals in certain foods differently. So, we need to stay with foods that boost vitality, and aid in weight loss, not fat storage, as a necessity.

This is not true, some days you will go up a little, and other days you will drop to compensate. This is one reason they say not to weigh yourself every day. In the case of women, they might have more water retention during their menstrual cycle.

Most supplements, when studied against their claims of weight loss, are shown as not as effective as their claims make out. Most people fall for marketing, and they fall under a placebo effect where they are conscious of what they eat as a result. It’s usually not due to the product being viable, though.

It is a fact that low-carb diets will help you to lose weight, and can do so - without a dramatic reduction in calories. As long as you keep carb intake low and protein consumption high, you can lose weight, but it will take time. Not all carbs are equal. It is true that refined carbs like sugars and grains are linked to obesity, yet whole-wheat carbs are, infact, healthy.

People who skip breakfast have been shown to weigh more than people who eat breakfast; your body needs morning fuel for a healthier lifestyle and for safe weight loss.

Many types of junk food are portrayed and marketed as being healthy. These include gluten-free foods that are processed, fat-free foods, and low-fat foods. They appear healthy from the labeling, yet the actual ingredients tell a very different story.

When you count your calories, and you have reduced them, don’t be tempted to cut them even further, because you will feel hungry, and you might become very irritable. That doesn’t help the cause at all. The one advantage of the keto diet as part of your goal-reaching, is to make sure you feel satisfied, and that you are able to resist the urge to quit.