There is rising evidence that the American obsession with weight loss
is becoming unhealthy. Concerns with weight can lead to obsessions
about diet, weight control, dysfunctional lifestyles and eating
disorders.
Conventional weight loss programs focus on severly reducing calories
without proper nutrition. While most people can lose weight for 2-3
weeks on a low calorie diet, they will plateau after this point. This
plateau signifies a lowering of your metabolic rate because your body
thinks think it's in starvation mode.
Lowering your metabolic
rate promotes fat storage to promote health. Our bodies perceive a
state of starvation or low calorie diet as dangerous and the metabolism
slows down and holds on to body fat.
Low calorie diets without
proper nutrition will cause you to gain fat, and lose both muscle and
water. The key to keeping your metabolic rate up is to select a
moderately low calorie diet with proper nutrients. Then add some
weightlifting or interval training which significantly builds lean
muscle mass and raises metabolic rate.
Even a program of both
diet and exercise requires you to change up your workouts every 3-4
weeks. Your body adapts to a particular type of exercise and your
metabolic rate will again start to lower. Regularly changing your
workout will overcome this.
Losing weight is all about playing
the metabolic game. Low calories will lower your metabolic rates in 2-3
weeks. Thus you need to eat moderately and more nutritiously. Change
your exercise details every 3-4 weeks and you have the perfect
combination you let your metabolic fires burn.
About the Author: DR. Lanny Schaffer is an Exercise
Physiologist and the President of The International Fitness Academy.
For more savvy weightloss and fitness ideas go to http://www.aerobics-exercise-coach.com
