Weight Loss: The No-Diet Approach

 

Introduction to weight loss

Whether your weight-loss goals involve trying to lose 5 pounds or more than 50, the same principles determine how much weight you lose and how fast your weight loss will occur. Remembering the following simple healthy eating diet tips and putting them into practice can lead to weight reduction without the aid of any special diet plans, weight loss programs, fitness books, or medications.

Our body weight is determined by the amount of energy that we take in as food and the amount of energy we expend in the activities of our day. Energy is measured in calories. Metabolism is the sum of all chemical processes within the body that sustain life. Your basal metabolic rate is the number of calories (amount of energy) you need for your body to carry out necessary functions. If your weight remains constant, this is likely a sign that you are taking in the same amount of calories that you burn daily. If you're slowly gaining weight over time, it is likely that your caloric intake is greater than the number of calories you burn through your daily activities.

Every adult is in control of the amount of food he or she consumes each day, so our intake of calories is something we can control. To a major degree, we can also control our output of energy, or the number of calories we burn each day. The number of calories we burn each day is dependent upon the following:

• Our basal metabolic rate (BMR), the number of calories we burn per hour simply by being alive and maintaining body functions
• Our level of physical activity

For some people, due to genetic (inherited) factors or other health conditions, the resting metabolic rate (RMR) can be slightly higher or lower than average. Our weight also plays a role in determining how many calories we burn at rest -- the more calories are required to maintain your body in its present state, the greater your body weight. A 100-pound person requires less energy (food) to maintain body weight than a person who weighs 200 pounds.

Lifestyle and work habits partially determine how many calories we need to eat each day. Someone whose job involves heavy physical labor will naturally burn more calories in a day than someone who sits at a desk most of the day (a sedentary job). For people who do not have jobs that require intense physical activity, exercise or increased physical activity can increase the number of calories burned.

As a rough estimate, an average woman 31-50 years of age who leads a sedentary lifestyle needs about 1,800 calories per day to maintain a normal weight. A man of the same age requires about 2,200 calories. Participating in a moderate level of physical activity (exercising three to five days per week) requires about 200 additional calories per day. More strenuous exercise programs, such as those with cardio focus, can burn even more.

Diet Plans & Programs

It is important to look for a plan that includes strategies for maintaining weight loss. There is nothing worse than regaining the weight that took you an enormous amount of hard work and patience to lose.

Most popular diets are considered fad diets. There is no clear definition for what constitutes a fad diet. Merriam-Webster defines a fad as "a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal." Fad diets often promise quick results with a short time commitment. Long-term success requires permanent changes in behavior, diet, and activity.

How do you lose weight?

The best approach for weight loss is reducing the number of calories you eat while increasing the number of calories you burn through physical activity. To lose 1 pound, you need an expenditure of approximately 3,500 calories. You can achieve this either by cutting back on your food consumption, by increasing physical activity, or ideally, by doing both.

For example, if you consume 500 extra calories per day for one week without changing your activity level, you will gain 1 pound in weight (seven days multiplied by 500 calories equals 3,500 calories, or the number of calories resulting in a 1-pound weight gain). Likewise, if you eat 500 fewer calories each day for a week or burn 500 calories per day through exercise for one week, you will lose 1 pound.

Examples of calorie content of some popular foods and beverages include the following:

• One slice of original-style crust pepperoni pizza - 230 calories
• One glass of dry white wine - 160 calories
• One can of cola - 150 calories
• One quarter-pound hamburger with cheese - 500 calories
• One jumbo banana nut muffin - 580 calories

Any fitness activities you do throughout the day are added to your BMR (basal metabolic rate) to determine the total number of calories you burn each day. For example, a 170-pound person who spends 45 minutes walking briskly will burn about 300 calories. The same time spent on housecleaning burns about 200 calories, and mowing the lawn for 45 minutes consumes around 275 calories

How fast should you expect to lose weight?

Most fitness and nutrition experts agree that the right way to lose weight is to aim for a safe, healthy rate of weight loss of 1 to 1½ pounds per week. Short-term dramatic weight loss is rarely healthy or sustainable over time. Modification of eating habits along with regular exercise is the most effective way to lose weight over the long term. It is also the ideal way to ensure that the weight stays off.

Starvation or extreme diets may result in rapid weight loss, but such quick weight loss can be unsafe and is almost impossible to maintain for most people. When food intake is severely restricted (below approximately 1,200 calories per day), the body begins to adapt to this state of poor nutrition by reducing its metabolic rate, potentially making it even more difficult to lose weight. This also happens when dieters engage in fasting or skipping meals. It is also possible to experience hunger pangs, bouts of hypoglycemia, headaches, and mood changes from overly stringent dieting. These health symptoms can result in binge eating and weight gain. Since a highly restrictive diet is almost impossible to maintain for a long time, people who attempt to starve themselves thin often start to gain weight again when they stop dieting and resume their former eating habits.

The no-diet approach to weight control

By adopting sensible eating habits and practicing portion control, you can eat nutritious foods so that you take in as many calories as you need to maintain your health and well-being at your ideal weight. Often, weight loss occurs on its own simply when you start making better food choices, such as avoiding

• processed foods,
• sugar-laden foods,
• white bread and pasta (substitute whole-grain varieties instead),
• foods with a high percentage of calories from fat, such as many fast foods,
• alcohol.

While nothing is absolutely forbidden, when you do succumb to temptation, keep the portion size small and add a bit more exercise to your daily workout.

By replacing some unwise food choices with healthy ones, you'll be cutting back on calories. If you add some moderate physical activity, you have the perfect plan for losing weight without the need for special or inconvenient (and often expensive) diet plans. It's also important to follow healthy eating guidelines in general, even after you have lost the weight. This should include sufficient amounts of protein, vitamins, and minerals with limited amounts of fat and sugar.