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1. Weight Management Program
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What You Really Need to Know about Weight Management and Diets

Don't Make Weight Management So Complicated!

Hundreds--if not thousands--of articles, books, and even medical texts have been written on the subject.

In addition, a similar amount of diet products ranging from food to pills to "who knows what" have been put on the market.

Frankly, dear reader, in the mind of the author.. IT's OVERKILL TO THE EXTREME.

Why? Because weight control is very simple and boils down to one simple formula:

Calories/Energy/Food In (F) = Calories/Energy/Food Burned (FB) + Calories/Energy/Food Excreted (FE) + Food Stored (FS)

Abbreviated, we'd see it like this: F = FB + FE + FS

It just doesn't go anywhere else.. you take the calories in and you either burn them, store them, or flush them. Nothing else happens.

When you take more in than you burn or flush, you store them.. and when you store them.. they store as Fat.

Doesn't that seem simple? In essence it is.. and now here comes the big "IF"

That's true IF calories or F in is in the right form to be burned!

You see, there are many variables.. and that's why all the other books and articles on the subject!

Let's look at this another way.. like a car. Energy is energy, Fuel is fuel, and in this case, we are going to take it in as gasoline.

If we keep adding gasoline to a standing car, we start to store it in the gas tank... until it's full. If we keep adding gas (F), the tank over flows (FE). But if we start the engine, we start to burn some of if (FB). If we are sitting there with the car at idle, we burn very little, but if we start in motion, the faster we go (assume level surface), the more we use. And if we have varying amounts of weight in the car, for any given speed, we vary the amount of the burn. If we change the spark plugs or injectors and do a tune up; maintain tire inflation correctly, for any given speed, we also vary the rate of the fuel burn.

And if we put a good, optimized mixture of fuel in, as opposed to a cheap bottoms grade gasoline, we burn it at a varying rate.. and in fact, some of it, while technically "gasoline" or "F" is fuel being added we don't burn it at all.. it just goes to gas tank storage.

Are you beginning to see the picture? Simple formula, but so many variables.

And no two cars.. or no two bodies we have ... react exactly the same way.

That's why we have so many other books, articles, etc.

We all have many variables that are individual and specific to each one of us.

Let's consider what some of them are.. and what we can control:

F That's food and fuel. All has some caloric value, but not all is "burnable" at the same rate, nor has the same value. You see, the fuel we burn has essential constituents of carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and other elements. That which has calories alone has been referred to as empty calories, a term I'm sure most readers have heard of. The key in weight management is to not only limit the calories, but to take in the calories that are carriers or compounds of the carbs, the vitamins, the minerals and other essential nutrients. In theory, one could consume 5000 calories a day and virtually starve to death! And at the same time, they would look fat because they are not burning them; they can't excrete them all, and so they store them. Yes, the body can burn and use fat, but in turn it produces chemicals within itself that become toxic and one enters what is generally known as a state of ketosis.

Most diets concentrate all on providing one with the right source of F intake. The commercial diet products simplify the process, whether in some liquid form, such as a "shake", or in a pre packaged meal. Others such as weight watchers teach you how to mix and blend your food.

This is all good... as far as it goes... but only deals with the left side of the equation. But it's a start. What you need to know is that you only have a small part of the equation you need to work with.

Now let's move over to the right side.

The most important factor here is the FB, or food burned.

Like the car, there again are many variables. The first is the level of activity or speed. Like the car at idle.. the body at idle uses very very very little energy. If you are idle most of the time, you simply are going to store more of the F you take in than you are going to burn!

And here's a catch 22 and "good news and bad news".. Just like the car can burn at different rates whether in motion or at idle depending on circumstances.. your body composition has something to say about the FB rate. The more fat you have as opposed to the more muscle mass you have.. the less you burn. Fat consumes F slowly.. in fact, it adds to itself; Muscle consumes F more readily.

And the less you move, the more muscle resorts or morphs to fat; the more you move (and do so in the right way), the more fat burns and converts over to muscle.

But what about the "carubretion" of the body? That has to do with our individual metabolism.

Some of us burn much more quickly than others due to the unique chemistry we all possess.. and this is an area that most of us can not control. Hormones, genes, and a whole lot of other items that only some very specialized medical doctors think they understand.. can effect our metabolic rate. It's not something the unlearned want to mess with it, because as you increase your metabolic rate, you can do things like raising blood pressure or decease the rate of nutrient absorption. But for now, you need to understand that the metabolic rate plays a key role.

One of the by products of energy burn is heat. Makes sense..just like burning any other fuel. If your metabolism is relatively "high", chances are your body will feel warm a good part of the time. And conversely.

Lastly, depending upon your viewpoint, you might believe that God has created rather unique beings in all of us, and given us a unique gene pattern. Yes, there are some which are not quite "right" as in the cases of birth defects, and the writer can't explain that But for most of us, we have a rather well balanced machine with a pre written inherent basic control software program that results in a weight "set point". Our food cravings are set to a certain level, our metabolism is.

If we adhere to the basic pattern we are programmed for, which is to say a balance of F + FB, our FS will seek its own balance. If you are eating and exercising moderately, accept your weight, for any modification will only result in temporary change conditions as long as you are doing the behavior modification. After that, the equation rebalances itself.

Having outlined these principles, we hope you now have a grasp of the big picture.

If you have a weight management problem, now that you understand the variables, our advice is that you do NOT try to make any changes on your own by reading the latest book or trying the latest diet fad. You are probably only changing one variable, and unless you know of a way to permanently change the behavior, your results will be temporary at best.

During that change, you might also change the metabolic rate pattern you were programmed with.. so.. our final advice: Seek medical consultation to get your individual body diagnosis before ever starting the "Do It Yourself" major change. Hope this helps.

Joe Leech makes it easy to control weight when you understand the principles. In addition he provides a search topic rich information site full of hundreds of associated resources at http://weightmgt.ouronlinebusiness.com

The author has dealt with weight issues nearly all his life from high school to career years in the Air Force. He has studied the subject extensively and has tried nearly every diet or procedure known short of gastic bypass. He has succeed in his weight management and now shares what works and why.

"The Truth About Weight Loss." The 6 Biggest Myth's About Dieting!

IAll of our behavior results from the thoughts that preceded it, so the thing to work on is not your behavior, but the thing that caused your behavior, your thoughts. - Dr. Wayne Dyer

Let me preface this article with the notion that I truly, indeed detest the word diet, but for simplicities sake... I'll use it!

The stark reality is that sometimes eating too little can be a literal roadblock in attaining a lean fit and healthy body.

Eating less in daily calories (food/nutrients), than your minimum metabolic needs causes your body to burn muscle and store fat.

This is what is called the 'Starvation Metabolism' response, where the body, when deprived of adequate calories, will adapt to need fewer calories to function. As a result, dieters often regain the weight they lose almost immediately because they have starved their body into becoming a "fat-storing machine." Sadly the truth!

For most of its history, the human race was subject lock, stock and smoking barrel to the whims and fancies of dear old Mother Nature, especially where our nutritional needs were concerned. When the conditions were right, food was plentiful; when they were not, the populace starved. As a result, evolution shaped our progenerators bodies in such a way that during times of plenty, they were able to pack on layers of fat to provide them with the sustenance they needed to get through the lean times...not the 'fit' times, the 'LEAN' times!

And as evolution would have it, humans became adept at mastering their environment, nevertheless, famines grew rare, and the built-up fat reserves often went unused; our ability to manipulate the environment had exceeded nature's slow practice of adaptation.

At present, obesity is pervasive in wealthy nations like the U.S. So what in the heck happened to moderation and balance? Particularly impacted are those of us of European and Eastern African origin, whose forbearers needed bodies that could efficiently manufacture fat reserves to outlast the periodic famines. As a direct result, many of us have become corpulent, mostly because it's hard for us to fight the natural tendencies of our bodies to accumulate fat. Currently, some 64% of Americans are overweight and more than one third are obese.

With that being said, as contemporary living human beings, we don't have to allow nature to get the leg up on us (nature nurture then nurture nature). Being overweight and more specifically, over-fat isn't healthy, especially for those of us who suffer from conditions like hypertension, diabetes, heart conditions and other insufficiencies of adequate, abundant health.

But what's the best way to lose weight (fat)and to regain a healthy state of body composition?

As you might have guessed, there are to be nearly accurate, thousands of specialized or Doctor/Guru-ized diets, procedures, dieting devices, miracle pills, powders and the like out there, all of which promise you they'll help you get lean and sleek. Some of them actually work, but how can you tell which ones? How do you thread your way through the plethora of dieting on your way to a healthier, slimmer you, without setting off self-destructive behaviors that can incapacitate your dieting efforts?

The answer to that question is this: Very Vigilantly.

While persuasive and a little facetious, it's nonetheless true. Some things are palpably false, fraudulent, misleading or simply prey on our innermost desires; for example, there's no magic pill (never will be), grapefruit or otherwise, that can in an isolated form cause you to shed the pounds. New-fangled fad diets don't work, and neither do most of the "scientific" ones that are so fervently promoted. Despite this, Americans are willing to spend more than $50 billion a year on fad diets and gimmicks, when in fact the most effective dieting advice comes down to this: Expend more calories than you consume! What I refer to as the two (2) E's, Exercise and Eat Right! Get it! To Ease!!! To ease all that ails us. This, we know is true; it's just difficult to assemble the willpower necessary to... belly-up to such an audaciously unpleasant proclamation.

If you're adamant about your health and well-being and want to attain 'real-results', keep this truth in mind... "You can lose weight and keep it off". Peranent weight loss can happen. The intention of this article is to help you along the way as you edify and develop the management skills necessary to achieve success by identifying the most common weight-loss myths that can perplex you during your expedition. We've left out the miracle claims and preposterous matter in favor of presenting more reasonable-sounding myths that an intelligent person might be beguiled and enticed by. Let's start with the most omnipresent myth.

#1

THE MYTH: Avoiding meals can assist you in losing weight faster. THE TRUTH: Erroneous, Incorrect and Blatantly WRONG! This is Taking The Low Road!

It seems logical, just like its consequence ("the fewer calories you eat, the more weight you'll lose"), but it's not true. The effect is the opposite of what you expect. Dieting is based on the fact that if you burn more calories in a day than you take in, your body will begin burning fat. While this is true, if you expect to lose weight effectively, you need to maintain eating regular meals, especially breakfast.

Depriving your body of its necessary fuel and nutrients causes it to go into starvation mode; when this happens, your metabolism slows down so that you can get by on little to no food. Once your metabolism slows, it can be quite difficult to bring it back up to momentum, and until it regains its pace, normal eating will just cause you to gain more weight.

It can be a vicious cycle that's excruciatingly difficult to break. In addition, bypassing meals can make you feel lightheaded and weak, can have venomous effects on your cholesterol levels, and can be extremely perilous for diabetics.

In a nutshell, fasting and crash diets are forms of self-sabotage best avoided. What's more, eating frequently (and moderately) will leave you less hungry throughout the day and cause a satiated effect, so you're less likely to have or give in to your food cravings.

#2

THE MYTH: Starches are Fattening. THE TRUTH: False and Unsafe.

For one thing, it's difficult to completely avoid starches, since they're a major component of staples like bread, pasta, grains, fruits, potatoes, corn, and rice. Even if it were possible to cut out all starches, if you did so you'd be starving your body of the fuel it unconditionally needs in order to maintain proper body-system function. Food consists of only three basic substances or macro-nutrients: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Starches are carbohydrates; and carbohydrates, along with their metabolic products and core nutrients are your body's basic fuel.

Most of the fuel your body uses comes from a carbohydrate identified as glucose. Some glucose you might consume in the form of candy or sodas; some carbohydrates in substances like alcohol, quickly break down into glucose. Glucose is absorbed by your cells and used to run your bodily processes; any excess is stored in your liver or converted into fat, where it can be called upon at need.

If your body lacks glucose, it'll eventually start using any fuel source it can find. At first these might be fat cells, but as they shrink, your body may begin attacking the protein reserves in your muscles for the fuel it needs, referred to as catabolisys. This is a "last-resort" move generally saved for famine conditions, so if it happens to you, it's bad news. The truth is that your metabolism by virtue of your circadian rhythm is better able to digest, to process and to assimilate certain food sources at certain times of the day... Translation: Some foods are more efficiently assimilated at set points of the day because of the composition or complexity of the source and as our metabolism rises and diminishes throughout the day. More complex foods such as starchy carbohydrates become increasingly more difficult to fully take through the digestive process, without a 'diminished returns' effect occurring and fat storage beginning.

#3

THE MYTH: Vegetarian or Vegan diets are healthier than omnivorous diets. THE TRUTH: Not...

A diet (merely a regime of frequent consumption) consisting entirely of rice and french-fries, or of bananas and cheerios, can be considered vegetarian, but neither diet is healthy in the long run. If you're careful, you can get by just fine on a properly balanced vegan or vegetarian diet, but you'll have to manage your in-take very carefully. Vegetarian diets do tend to be high in fiber and low in fat, but the fact is that humans evolved as opportunistic omnivores. That is, our ancestors ate anything they could get their hands on: greens, tubers, bugs, and the occasional smidgen of meat and this dictated how our bodies today, still require nutrients for efficacy and fuel for performance, that's what we do... Perform! Preferably Efficiently! Poor Physical Performance is what we simply call... SICK!!! Emotionally, Physically, Spiritually...what-have-you!

The human body developed and evolved to expect a diverse and varied diet, one that could provide all the nutrients it necessitates in a variety of forms. Meat was an important part of their diet, perhaps the most important part because it was so uncommon. Vegetarians must always be sure that they eat enough protein; protein is easily available in meat, so few omnivores have to worry about getting enough, but it's scarce in most plant foods.

Fortunately, nuts, beans, and a few other vegetable products are ready sources of protein. If you go vegetarian, you'll also need to be sure you get daily doses of Vitamin B12 and Zinc, supplements often missing in vegetarian diets.

Most people can continue to exist as vegetarians if they're extremely careful, but it's a continuous mêlée, and guess what? You can be just as healthy and out-of-shape on a vegetarian diet as you can on a regular diet, especially if you don't exercise regularly.

#4

THE MYTH: Sweating facilitates weight loss. THE TRUTH: Absolutely... If the sweat is exercise induced!

Otherwise, all you're doing is losing water weight. Sweating is astonishingly effective at doing what it was meant to do: cooling the body by glazing the skin with evaporative fluids.

It was never meant to act as a weight loss system. Lose enough water, and you're toying with dehydration. Dehydration or progressive dehydration can occur if you fail to rehydrate yourself sufficiently after every workout. If you get sufficiently dehydrated, your electrolyte balance will get out of whack, your cells will be starved of the fluids they need, and you could die. Not a happy prospect, so avoid it.

For this reason, the old sweatbox and sauna are of no use for losing real weight. Neither are their modern "high-tech" equivalents, such as body wraps and plastic sweat suits, no matter how many people swear by them. All they do is dehydrate you. Yes, you lose weight: two pounds per quart sweated away. But that's weight, not fat. And the moment you drink enough water, you'll gain all that weight back. Like I have said... "Weight Loss is a LIE!"

#5

THE MYTH: Fat Free is... Calorie Free! THE TRUTH: YEAH... RIGHT!!!

All "fat-free" means is that a particular food has no detectable fat content. Sadly, however, is that fat and its related compounds that give most foods their flavor. Ice cream, butter, cheese, and a whole host of non-dairy products, including chocolate, are little more than specially prepared, congealed fat. When manufacturers design many fat-free products, such as bread, cookies, ice cream, and the like, they know these products will be mostly dry and flavorless without fat.

Some fat substitutes are available, but they can cause gastrointestinal upset, and most are expensive. This leaves one common ingredient that manufacturers can use to make their products taste better: sugar. And they use it liberally; so many fat-free products are high in calories.

Furthermore, plenty of foods like breads and pasta are low in fat, but rich in carbohydrates and we already know what that means. Carbohydrates break down easily into our friend glucose, which can result in increased fat when consumed in excess.

You always have to consider calorie and portion size; you're fooling yourself if you do otherwise. Moderation is the key to dieting success... Any ...long-term success for that matter.

#6

The Myth: You Either Diet Or Exercise, You Can't Do Both Simultaneously! The Truth: Don't Get Me Started!!!

Yes...you can do both together and you should, it is referred to as Synergy; the coordination of two effective components working concurrently to derive a greater benefit than if isolated.

The dieting myths and misconceptions explored in this article represent just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are thousands of them out there: some are ridiculous and barely worthy of notice-like the suggestion that eating standing up helps you lose weight, or that you can base a diet on your blood type or color of hair-while others are less obvious, like those discussed here.

Dieting isn't easy and, while it's human nature to look for a simple solution to a problem, that strategy just won't work in this case. So heed these hints, and take it easy. Don't skip meals, keep your diet properly balanced, and exercise regularly. Avoid all fads, pills, and extravagant claims, because if it sounds too good to be true...well, you know the rest.

It doesn't take more than losing a few pounds before you'll notice a difference in the way you look and feel. And, if you lose only a few pounds at first, even if you've been at it for a while, so what? Pick up a five or ten pound bag of flour and carry it around for a day, and you'll see how quickly you'll get tired of lugging that excess weight around.

Application of sound methodology is always the most effective means to achieve any objective, with that said, if you want to truly shed those extra kilos of fat, then do yourself a favor and draw up a plan, combine all the necessary elements of success and execute that plan...

Kurt Lee Hurley's clients refer to him as the "Secret Weapon" and after over 3,000 weight loss successes, his Provo, Utah Wellness Facility has become known as a "Results Factory" a "Living Laboratory" of Achievement, Enhanced Human Performance and a place to congregate for Empowerment and of course, the Success of attaining Weight Loss RESULTS!

Weight Loss Managment

The perfect diet should be combined with a healthy weight management or activity program. Weight management may conjure up that dreaded "exercise" word. And exercise to some means pushing the body beyond limits, experiencing painful in joints, muscles, bones - everywhere. No pain no gain, right? Wrong.

Instead, replace the word "exercise" with "activity" and incorporate this in your daily routine. And a general rule of thumb for guidelines about "activity" would be to strive for a minimum of 30 minutes for adults or 60 minutes for children of moderate physical activity daily.

Individual activity goals depend upon each person's health and weight goals and issues. Begin by checking with your medical advisor or healthcare physician to get a green light on which activities would be suitable for you, what your target weight range should be and a strategic plan to improve your health.

In a nutshell, during activities, calories are burned, pounds are shed in the long run. And the number of calories burned depends upon the duration and intensity or the activity. Slow and steady is the rule of thumb. And note daily progress.

For those who have never been very active at all, it may be advisable to begin slow like with walking 10 minutes each day, gradually building up time and distance with increased "brisk" pacing. Even if you can't get out to walk, bike or swim, take stairs instead of elevators and escalators. Clean your house. Clean your car. Wash windows. Wash your dog. Check out exercise videos, cassettes and workout books from the public library and put some of their ideas into action. Check out your local fitness centers, YMCA, community center, too, for ideas. Partner up with a neighbor to walk or join a community volleyball team. There are unlimited ways to be active and enjoy life at the same time without using painful weight loss strategies

Light, lean, low - weight-management products

Americans are forking over $33 billion per year on weight-loss goods and services, and billions more on weight-management products. The demand for healthy beverages, snacks and meal options is constantly increasing, so probably super-sized portions will continue to lose ground.

Americans are forking over $33 billion per year on weight-loss goods and services, and billions more on weight-management products. The demand for healthy beverages, snacks and meal options is constantly increasing, so probably super-sized portions will continue to lose ground.

According to trends, people are increasingly searching for healthy food: products with added vitamins, calcium and soy, high or added fiber, antioxidants and less or no caffeine, cholesterol, fat or salt. A winning approach means keeping food fresh with variety, taste and texture, as it helps consumers feel better about their food choices and meets their needs.

According to Information Resources Inc., Weight Watchers, Stouffer's Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice led the "light, lean, low and less of" meal solution category in 2002, with the category as a whole featuring more than 1,400 brands and with supermarket sales of $5.9 billion.

The rising weight-management beverage category, including low-cal soft drinks and light beers, amounted to $7 billion in supermarket sales across 303 brands.

The "better-for-you", or "wellness" category, totaled $5.4 billion in sales in 2002 and has grown an average of 18% per year within the past five years.

Paul Douglas