Why Most Diets Prevent You From Losing Weight

How many weight loss diets have you been on? How many of those diets have been successful in terms of permanent weight loss?

Most of us equate weight loss to fat loss, when in fact they are two different things.

When we look in the mirror and see an over weight person starring back at us we automatically say, “I need to lose weight”. When in fact what we are really saying is, “I need to lose fat”.

The difference between losing weight and losing fat is this: To lose weight almost always entails muscle loss which directly effects our metabolism.

To lose fat almost always entails maintaining and building on the muscle you have and doing it in a manner that promotes rapid fat loss, which also directly affects your metabolism.

So from this point on whenever I speak about weight loss, I’m referring to fat loss, which is really what this is all about anyways. Our goal is to lose body fat.

The weight loss industry has exploded lately with all kinds of products promoting fast weight loss. Truth be told there is quite a few of these products that will help you lose weight quickly, and they are quick to tell you about it.

What they don’t tell you is the thousands of people, if not tens of thousands of people, who regain all the weight they lost and in most cases they gain more.

Not only is that discouraging in itself, but the next time you go on a weight loss plan it becomes more difficult to lose the weight than it did the first time and it will become even more difficult the third time and so on.

The reason for this is because unknown to you when you were on your first diet, the scale might have been showing you numbers you could be proud of but the weight that you lost was a combination of muscle and fat.

This is bad because your metabolism rate (which is what burns fat off your body) is determined by your lean muscle mass.

When I talk about “lean muscle mass” I’m not talking about looking like a body builder. I’m simply talking about having more muscle on your body than you do fat.

So when you go on a weight loss diet and lose a chunk of lean muscle you are in fact making it harder to lose weight, and the moment you go off your diet you start to swell up like the Michelin man.

So How Do You Lose Weight Consistently?

There are a couple of things that you can do to permanently lose that unwanted body fat, while maintaining and even building more lean muscle.

The first thing you need to understand if you want to permanently lose body fat is this: Your metabolism rate will determine how successful your weight loss program will be.

Your metabolism is what burns fat, so the higher you can make it the faster your body fat will disappear. Two of the best ways to get your metabolism high enough to effectively burn the required amount of body fat you want is:

Resistance Training – This type of training out performs all other types of training hands down, for burning the greatest amount of body fat in the shortest amount of time, while building more lean muscle which fuels your metabolism even more. Nothing can beat it!

One thing to keep in mind when doing resistance training is this…do Not use machines at all! Always use free weights. Using free weights helps build and tone your stabilizer muscles. Even more important is free weights promote compound exercises. Compound exercises will burn more calories and build more lean muscle faster then isolation exercises, which is what you get on machines.

Strategic Dieting – I’m not talking about traditional dieting where you need to count calories and do all that other junk that most diets make you do.

This is in fact where most diets fail. Whenever you restrict calories for more than a week or two your body thinks that there is a shortage of food and it goes into “starvation mode”.

Starvation mode is just a term used when your body shuts down its fat burning enzymes and lowers its metabolism. It does this because it thinks it needs to hang onto as much body fat as possible while it goes through this “food shortage” period.

This is exactly why you only see good results from a diet in the first week or two. After that it seems like you have to really fight to lose even a pound a week.

One of the best ways to combat this problem is through strategic eating.

You need to eat more meals per day. They are portion controlled meals (it is a diet that we’re on after all), but you need to simple eat more times in a day then just lunch and dinner. Your calories per day stay the same but your dividing them up between more meals.

Eating multiple meals a day helps:

• Preserve lean muscle mass
• Curve cravings
• Utilize more of the calories for energy
• Increases the thermic effect
• Stabilizes metabolism

These are all necessary when dieting and will prevent your body from going into “starvation mode”.

By doing both resistance training and eating strategically you can lose weight quickly and more importantly, you can keep it off.

See Also:
Weight Loss Secrets

Healthy Diet – A Guide To Weight Loss

Laxatives And Weight Loss

Lifestyle Changes For Rapid Weight Loss

The Importance Of Breakfast

5 Fat Loss Tips