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WEIGHT LOSS
FAQ’S
How much weight can I expect to lose per week?
To lose 1 lb a week, you need to burn 500 calories more than you eat each day.
Neither food nor exercise are the complete solution - The BEST way to lose weight
effectively is by journaling your food and activities and by burning more calories via
daily activities than you consume as food. Use your Base Metabolic Rate as a guide to
how many calories you should be having per day.
Why is it difficult to keep the weight off?
There are a couple of reasons for this. (1) your body has a set metabolic rate, and to
change this rate can prove difficult, especially if you have been at your current weight for
a long while. (2) fat cells never just disappear. They shrink, and they can proliferate in
number, but they never ever go away. This makes it easier to re-gain the weight you
have lost, because the fat cells are still there to store excess intake of calories.
Isn’t there a specific food plan that will make me lose weight?
Very simply... No.
First, most people can't stay on a “diet” for any length of time, because it is not
representative of their normal habit. With all of the requirements, pressures, and life
event that you encounter each day, it can be difficult to maintain. Also, when you go on
a “diet” ask yourself this question: What Happens When the Diet Ends?
Plus, even if you stick with it and lose the weight--you might still not learn anything!
How often you should exercise, how to handle a situation where you eat a "naughty"
meal or two, how to truly integrate lasting changes into your life to keep the weight off.
You have to learn what YOUR diet plan is, and what helps YOU lose weight sustain your
success. To do this, start with the diet you currently have and slowly integrate the the
diet you need for the long term.
How do I create a calorie deficit each day in order to lose weight?
Fortunately for all of us, your body burns most of the calories you need to burn by just
living! For example, a typical woman burns about 1,300 calories per day--even if she
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slept or sat and read a book all day. So, start moving around, doing a plank or a squat
here and there, going for a short elliptical ride or long walk, and taking the stairs.
A combination of exercise (more so for women) and diet (more so for men) if you are
trying to lose weight will help reach your goal of losing a pound or two per week and
achieving your benchmark goal.
How long does it take to lose one pound of fat?
The answer is a determined with a simple math equation. You must burn 3,500 calories
to lose one pound of body fat. If you burn 500 more calories than you eat for seven days,
you will lose one pound of body fat. If you burn 1,000 calories more than you eat for
seven days, you will lose two pounds of body fat. The key is to know how many calories
are going in and and how many you are expending, so you can accurately track your
progress.
How many carbohydrates can I eat per day?
The FDA recommends that you get 50% of your calories from carbohydrates. The NAS
(National Academy of Science's) Institute of Medicine, based on thousands recent of
scientific studies, recommend a slightly different approach. They recommend that
adults get 45-65% of their calories from carbohydrates. But, they both agree on the kind
of carbs you should eat:
Whole grains, starchy vegetables, beans, soy foods, green vegetables, and fruits--foods
served as nature grew them--are the carbohydrates that pack the highest nutritional
octane. They're rich in compounds that support good health, including fiber, nutrients,
and phytochemicals. A dietary pattern based on these foods lowers the risk of heart
disease, stroke, diabetes, and many major cancers.
Highly processed carbohydrates, which are stripped of their nutritious germ and fiber,
are another story. Unhealthful diets often contain too many carbohydrates processed
into concentrated forms (corn syrup, white flour) that provide calories and little else.
The bottom line: when you fill up with carbohydrates, use an “unrefined” approach.
I skip breakfast and have been for years. Is this bad for weight
loss?
Yes. One of the best natural calorie burning tools you have is your digestive system. It
takes 6-8 hours to absorb and fully digest a meal. This requires a ton of energy (calories
burned). If you eat dinner at 7:00 p.m., your digestive tract will be functioning until
around 3:00 a.m. Now if you get up and eat again a few hours later the whole process
starts over. But, if you don't, eat breakfast, two things will occur. First, your digestive
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system will lie dormant until you eat again. This causes you to slowly lower your base
metabolic rate (the amount of calories your body burns on its own). Second, your body
will begin to think that it is starving, and will slow the rest of your metabolism down as a
survival instinct. The end result is that you burn fewer calories naturally, and tend to
store those which you do consume as fat.
What do I do when I have a bad day?
Bad day? In other words, you ate too much? You skipped breakfast? You had that
basket of french fries? Three cookies instead of one (because why stop at two?)
Simple. Enter your food into a diet log and go on with life.
In other words, don't panic. It's over. It happened. Get rid of the fear or the feeling of
failure and just objectively look at the numbers. Many times it isn't as bad as you think!
You just need to adjust. Eat fewer calories for the rest of the day or week. Exercise a little
more. Realistically adjust your goal date.
The war against weight gain is never ending. And remember, your excess weight didn't
spontaneously appear one day. So don't panic. It is your long term habits that will help
you win the war on weight management.
What is “starvation mode” and how do I avoid it?
If you eat too few calories per day, your body could enter into a starvation mode where it
learns to store, rather than burn, calories and slow your metabolic rate at rest. It's a
simple "caveman" reaction that all of our bodies are conditioned to keep - weather,
availability of food and water, and survival mechanisms make modern-day weight loss
that much more difficult. that nature used to place on us--winter, drought, etc. But this
"caveman" reaction has no place in trying to lose weight.
To lose weight correctly and keep it off, you need to consume less than you burn each
day--but not enough to trip this mechanism. In general, woman should not go below
1,200 calories and men shouldn't go below 1,500 calories.
I gained weight this week! Should I panic?
Probably not. Losing weight happens over long periods of time, not overnight. Track
your weight by weekly trend rather than on a daily basis (though it doesn't hurt to check
every day). Never panic about one weigh in. Hydration, exercise, and sodium intake all
will play a part in any scale reading. Watch for long-term trends. If you gain weight
three weeks in a row, then perhaps it is time to change your weight loss approach.