Dieting

How many of you are still trying to lose weight as part of your new year’s resolution? How many of you made losing weight your new year’s resolution? Weight loss has become a major part of our society, and a major money maker too. Watch TV or listen to the radio and you’re sure to hear ads for different supplements, dieting centers, or low calorie meals to help you get that model figure. Yet while we are obsessed with weight loss, we certainly have trouble reaching it.

Despite all the information you hear in commercials and the new medical miracle secrets they come out with yearly, weight loss is a fairly easy concept. Let’s talk about cars…

Cars run on gas, and if you are driving much in the U.S. today, you might think your car runs on too much gas. Gas mileage differs from engine to engine, and even if you let them idle in your garage (keep the garage door open), they will still burn gas. If your car burned 15 gallons a day idling in your garage and you kept adding 20 gallons every night…some simple math would tell you that you will end up over flowing your tank. Your body is no different. You have a gas mileage too, but it’s called your BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate.

This is the key to weight loss or gain. This number will tell you how many calories you burn a day. Eat more, gain weight. Eat less, lose weight. Simple, huh? So what about all these supplements and special diets, why can’t we just eat a lot less, but eat Twinkies? We can! And guess what, you will lose weight! Is it healthy? Probably not. But no matter what you hear or are “sold” on, the simple truth is if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

What if you really don’t eat much, or have been dieting for a long time and you don’t seem to lose any more weight? Well, you could just eat even less…but there comes a point when your nutrition and basic body function is at risk. So instead…get a bigger engine! While we want our cars to be efficient and get 500 miles per gallon, we want our bodies to be inefficient. Several things slow your metabolism, which means your BMR drops. Dieting does this, which is why you plateau in your weight loss. Age does this too, and even your diet can change your metabolism.

Muscle burns more calories than fat, so increasing your muscle mass will boost your metabolism. While cardio exercises will burn a lot of calories, having bigger muscles will burn those calories too…even while sitting on the couch! Nice huh?

Your food can affect your metabolism. Insulin, which is critical to live, helps shove sugar into fat cells. So although it’s important, you don’t want much. Insulin is produced in heavy quantities from a rush of simple sugars. You can drink a sugary soda or eat a pound of broccoli, and even though they might have the same amount of carbs, you will produce more insulin with the soda because all of those carbs are absorbed at once.  Sorry kids, if you were trying to use this analogy to avoid eating your vegetables. Simple carbohydrates should be avoided.

Glucagon, which is the opposite hormone, is produced more when your body eats protein. This actually makes you burn fat! This is another reason the Adkins diet was so popular. But be careful, your brain can’t use protein for energy, so you need some carbs.

Remember, your body burns energy all day, even if you are watching the Rocky Marathon on the couch. Want to increase your metabolism? Exercise and stay active. Can’t get motivated to break away from the TV? Eat fewer calories! Knowing your body’s gas mileage, or BMR, will help you make good decisions when choosing food and maintaining your weight.