Mary was determined to lose the weight she kept for years after having her two children. In fact she was desperate and underwent a well-known Doctor’s Diet that was based on blood type and told people not to exercise while on the diet. She did lose weight but along the way she was losing her hair and when she finally stopped the diet she started to regain some of her weight. She also started to have other miscellaneous body pains, so much that she now questions herself for doing something so drastic. Wow! That sounds like a lot of women’s story in Manila.
Where Mary went wrong is that she thought that just because a doctor said this was how to lose weight, it would be safe. Other weight loss plans under MD supervision include HCG injections and other medication programs. WHEN WILL PEOPLE FINALLY GET SMART about this fallacy? Without going into the why all these programs are wrong, let’s focus on where to start doing things right. Stop looking at ways to just lose weight (at any cost apparently) and start directing all money, time and energies on fixing why people gain extra weight in the first place. Poor energy management.
The Law of Thermodynamics can be simplified to better understand the most basic truth that Energy eaten must be energy consumed by the body’s activities. (Read more on this: Thermodynamics) The BMR, basal metabolic rate, as a concept may not be well understood either because low calorie diets actually lowers the BMR, so that’s why when people stop the diet their lowered BMR makes it easier for them to regain the weight lost. What else lowers the BMR? Physical inactivity, skipping meals, some medications, lack of sleep, and diets.
Two things need to take place to safely lose weight:
1. You need to stop storing more fat to replace the fat you are burning up. How do you do this? Control the fat storing hormones in the body, namely Insulin and Cortisol. Stay completely away from refined carbohydrates (eat low glycemic foods – Glycemic Index) to lower Insulin levels and immediately slow down fat storage. Also, manage your stress with proper sleep/rest and exercise to reduce Adrenalin and Cortisol levels.
2. You must not permit your BMR to get lower, in fact much better that it increases. How to protect your BMR? Exercise! Sorry folks, but there is no way to effectively promote a higher BMR without regular, daily (yes daily) exercise.
Mary said that one of the reasons she was attracted to the “doctor’s diet” was the fact that they said she was not supposed to exercise on this diet. Her “take the path of least resistance,” that weak side of human nature, is how she got in trouble in the first place. Failing to understand the ENERGY MANAGEMENT aspect of her body is at the root cause of her poor choices.
Lesson to take away today? Do not start any diet, period, at all, ever and never. Is that too straight forward for you? Diets don’t work and you will just have to accept the truth that your lifestyle needs an overhaul to get your body right again. If you can’t answer YES to this question… better to never get started: “Can I do this the rest fo my life?” Let that guide you for now. More will be written in this blog about safe ways to normalise your weight.
Yours in real life,
docMIKE
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