|
The first reaction of most people who discover that they’ve
put some weight on is to eat less food. It sounds simple enough
and reasonable. Since food is what got us into trouble it follows
that eating less of it will make everything right again. Nearly
every diet or eating plan in the magazines or on the Internet says
pretty much the same thing: eat less food. Therefore the answer
to this problem is very simple and handy. Sure, going with less
food than usual is a challenge, but it also carries with it a sort
of expiation feeling.
Unfortunately for those who hope that lowering the food intake
would help them lose weight, this doesn’t work. Over the thousands
of years of evolution the human body had to face starvation many
times and had to find ways of surviving. We are the offsprings of
those who managed to survive periods of starvation by coping with
the lack of food. Therefore, a simple decrease in the volume of
food is not going to make a big difference because the body will
simply compensate for it by lowering the amount of energy produced
and limiting the capacity for effort.
The best way to reach your weight loss goal is to work around this
defense system by eating smart instead of eating less. Overweight
people and thin people eat roughly the same number of calories per
day because they share the same required amount of food. However,
overweight people eat far more fat than thin people, who seem to
prefer complex carbohydrates that are easily broken down and metabolized
by the body. This is the biggest difference between the two groups
and the best point to start when considering what and how to change
in your eating patterns.
Good dieting always takes time. The excess weight was not accumulated
over night and will never go away in a single day. Every year hundreds
of thousands of people are searching the Internet and reading magazines
in order to get dieting tips and to find the modern Holy Grail:
a pill that can make fat disappear in an instant. Well, maybe this
is an exaggeration, but you get the idea. You have probably encountered
by now a lot of advertisements promising such amazing results with
the help of some quasi magic ingredient or other. And you probably
know that losing weight doesn’t work like that.
The only way to lose weight for good is to avoid eating foods that
are rich in fat and to exercises on a regular basis. Dieting without
exercising is pointless because all the weight lost by eating less
food will come right back in the following months. The sedentary
lifestyle most of us lead is one of the causes behind the recent
increase in the number of overweight people around the world. Cars,
office jobs and foods rich in fat have brought us an unforeseen
problem because the easy modern life has a price tag, just like
everything else.
|