What's a calorie, really? Did you know that a calorie is really a kilogram calorie or "kilocalorie?" You must be like, "now it's all clear to me", right? What in the world is a kilocalorie?!?!? It's the amount of heat energy required to raise one kilogram of water 1 degree celcius. So what does that have to do with food??!!? You'll discover shortly.
Energy is in reality heat output. Anytime muscle contracts to start movement, energy is being yielded thus kilocalories are being burned. You burn energy just by breathing. If you check your body temperature this instant, other than being sick, your temperature should read 98.6 degrees. You radiate heat perpetually, and since a calorie is a measure of heat yield, it correlates to the amount of energy a food is able of providing.
If you take in the same number of calories that you give off each day, your energy balance is equal so most likely your weight will remain constant. Established diet wisdom (a contradiction in terms) says that if you cut back on kilocalories, you will be at an energy deficit, therefore you should lose weight,right? Regrettably, if long term weight loss is the goal, it's not quite that simplified. The best way for me to identify the snare that happens to dieters is to provide you with a true example of a diet experience. I'll use a woman in this example, but it can be a man as well.
The Unfortunate Weight Loss Dupe - After seeing this ad: "Lose 30 pounds in 30 days. Lose Weight, Lose Inches. Isn't it time?," a woman enters her nearby weight loss center. Apprehensively she walks through the door. Within moments, she's greeted by a professional Dietician. At a furnished conference area they sit and talk about food. After the interview, the Diet Counselor says, "It appears as if you re taking in 2300 calories a day. You should cut back to about 1200 calories per day, and we'll give you (which really means "sell you," right?) these bundles of food and delicious shakes . . . and you'll lose weight!"
After a week she's lost another two or three pounds! A strange thing happens in the fifth week. She gets on the scale, just as she has every week prior, but on this day the scale does not have good news. No difference! She weighs the same as she did last week! Feeling defeated she questions the Diet Counselor. "Don't worry, you've just hit (here s the word they always use) . . . the Plateau!" We'll just cut you back to 900 kilocalories. It just means smaller parcels of food and smaller shakes.
Sure enough, the woman commences to be skinny again. The only problem is, this time the weight loss is followed by this little voice inside her head that says things . . . like . . . french fries. Ice cream. She's getting cravings and she commences to question her own will power. After a few days of fighting against those little voices, she gets back on the scale and realizes she has hit the second plateau. She eventually just gives up. She gives in to temptation and although she intends to just "have a taste," her craving consumes her and she falls off the wagon hard. She eats everything that she depreived herself of and as a result, she gains more weight back than she lost to begin with. That's not the worst of it. The truly sad thing is she faults herself as the reason. That's not true though.
The Truth Behind Caloric Intake Reduction - The voices in her head had nothing to do with self-will. They were in fact the ganging up of these little chemical messengers in her brain (neurotransmitters) with little enzymes attempting to drive her to that which she needs to survive. Her brain was screaming "EAT"! Her mind, in its attempts to save her from starvation, does not understand that she's dieting to lose weight. It's in survival mode. Her metabolism slows down and the body force her to use that stored fat, the substance that she can survive off of the longest and the most ready energy source, sugar. Once she gives in to the cravings, her blood sugar skyrockets, her pancreas starts kicking out huge measures of insulin, and her body goes into a binge state. This binge is a direct result from the loss of calorie intake or what the brain perceives as STARVATION!
There's something else the Diet Counselor didn't tell her. When she was losing weight she was losing three things. Firstly, she was losing water weight. This is actually not helpful in the pursuit for long term weight loss, but a great trick used by diet centers. They can put you on the scale after only a week and lead you to believe the diet's working. Secondly, she's losing some fat, but thirdly, and most importantly, she's also losing muscle tissue!
What the mind perceives as starvation forces her body to eat her own muscle tissue as well as the fat, haphazardly . Muscle is metabolically active tissue. Fat is not. That means muscle burns kilocalories and fat doesn't. When you give up muscle, Your metabolism slows! Muscle is also the site on your body where fat is burned. When you starve your body you reduce the body's ability to burn fat. The end result of a program based upon kilocalorie deprivation is a slower metabolic process, an unsupportive shift in hormonally brought on appetite, a decrease in fat burning capacity, and an inevitable collection of fat. When you embark upon a diet, you are in turn programming your body to store fat in the future.
Conclusion - So, why have you lost weight on many diets, and then gained it back? Quite frankly, because that's what diets do! How can you differentiate the difference between a positive diet and a poor one? Well, if it incorporates the word diet, which indicates deprivation, its a bad diet. A good diet should stoke the metabolism, offer nutrients necessary to sustain energy, endurance, muscle tissue sustenance and over all wellness. it should focus more on what you should eat and less on what food to avoid.
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