Losing weight has been a challenge for a great number of people and let’s face it, most of us hold on to a bit more weight than we should have. I have had the opportunity to do some public health presentations, and I have been able to share with people tips that they can use to get rid of those unwanted pounds. In this discourse, I am going to share these with some of you.
Diet vs Exercise
Many people first think about exercise when considering strategies for weight loss. In actuality, it is much more effective to focus on diet as it plays a more significant role in your ability to lose weight. Diet is about 70% more impactful than exercise, and for this reason we need to come up with dietary guidelines that we can use to help our body to get rid of excess fat.
How does the body store fat?
You cannot have a good understand of how to lose weight if you do not understand the process through which the body gains it. As you may know, Hormones play an important role in the human body, and are responsible for many activities that take place. When speaking about fat loss, one of the important hormones is Insulin which I am sure you have heard about. Insulin is not only a hormone responsible for prompting the storage of insulin, but it also causes the storage of fat as well. After you eat a meal and the fat is digested and enters your blood stream, if there is insulin present in the blood it is going to trigger the storage of fat. As a result, fat will be moved from your blood into the cells, and based on your metabolism you will begin to gain weight. Therefore, a simple dietary strategy to assist in helping you to reach your weight loss goals is to eat less foods which causes the rapid release of insulin. These would be your simple carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, potatoes, pizza and cakes. You need to significantly reduce or avoid these foods and replace these foods with healthy fats and proteins which do not cause this effect.
Won’t Eating Fat make me Fat?
This is a belief that I once had and this is what most people assume. Despite popular opinion, eating fat does not make you fat. As mentioned before a diet rich in healthy fats would not cause a release of insulin. Now, you might be wondering what would then happen to the fat that would then be circulating in the blood. Well the body has a perfect system to take care of that. Once there is a certain level of fat circulating in the blood the liver will begin converting this fat into what is called Ketone Bodies. Ketone Bodies are a clean and stable source of energy for your cells, which your cells can utilize without the presence of insulin. The reality is that the body can get energy from fat as well as carbohydrates but actually is more efficient when using fat (ketones) for energy.
Another Fat Storage Hormone
There is another hormone that also contributes to fat storage and would tend to affect women more significantly than men. That hormone is known as Estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone that causes cell proliferation which simply means an increase in the number of cells. Estrogen is the hormone that turns girls into women, and during puberty would cause the increase of fat in those significant areas that makes a lady more ladylike. If a woman is suffering from a hormone imbalance, and her estrogen levels are too high, it can be near impossible for her to lose weight. The hormone that balances out estrogen is known as Progesterone which is why products such as Progesterone creams have been shown to have an added effect of helping some women to lose weight as their hormone levels are brought back into balance. It may be a good idea to have your doctor assess your hormone levels if all your previous weight loss strategies have failed.
Exercise
We have established that diet is critically important to weight loss but what role does exercise play? Before we even answer that question, it is important to realize that exercise is very important for your overall health and you should look at exercise firstly as a contributor to your overall health and not merely a weight loss strategy. Many people begin exercise programs with the main aim of losing weight and therefore, if they are unsuccessful in dropping the weight, they stop exercising. It is important to set your priorities straight and look past the superficial. Now concerning exercise and weight loss, exercise helps to increase your metabolism and therefore, your ability to burn fat would be increased. Exercise also increases circulation and after a period of time as you are exercising, fat gets released from your fat storage cells into the bloodstream where your muscles will burn them for energy. Circulation then becomes important and it is here we can start to discuss why it is so difficult to burn that stubborn belly fat. Now heat increases circulation. The next time you exercise and you are feeling hot and sweaty, feel your stomach. I bet you that it feels cold! The circulation to that area is tends to not be as efficient as other areas of your body. You can help to increase circulation to this area by wearing an exercise or waist trimmer belt during your workout. It will heat up your abdominal area and aid in circulation to the area so the fat that is released can be faster moved through the blood to the muscles where it is burned.
Most people believe that you can exercise a particular part of the body to burn the fat in that area but your body does not work this way. The fat is released from the cells all over the body and the circulation to those parts of the body will determine how much fat would get to the muscles in time to be utilized.
Finally let’s discuss the type of exercise that is most effective for weight loss. Well you have choices here. High Intensity Interval Training seems to be a very good option. Not only does it cause your body to continue to burn energy even after you are finished, but it does not take as much time. Then you have low intensity cardio which has to be done for a long period. So taking a long walk at a modest pace. This encourages your body to utilize some of its stored fat because your energy demands are slow and the body can do a steady release of fat. There is also strength and resistance training which aims at increasing the muscle mass and tone. The idea behind this is that bigger muscles would require more energy and increase the energy demands as the muscle grows so you eventually burn fat at a faster rate the longer you continue this type of training. My advice would be to develop a comprehensive exercise program that encompasses all these ideas for optimal results.
In closing, you do not need liposuction, gastric bypass and all these ridiculous surgeries which do not address the root cause of your weight issues. Research the tips I have shared, gather more information and begin incorporating these ideas and I guarantee you that as long as you are dedicated, you will realize your weight loss goals.