The Rules of Weight
Loss
By Matthew Johnson Fifty-five percent of Americans are considered
overweight and two-thirds of them are dieting. We are fatter as
a society because of inactivity, increasing technology, larger food
servings, social eating patterns, early childhood addiction to unhealthy
foods, and just too many calories. Imagine if your body was a car
and you continued to fill the gas tank (even though it is full).
Eventually the excess fuel will spill out. Additional fat can be
thought of as excess fuel. A car can only use so much gas and a
body can only use so many calories.
Have you remained the same body weight after countless efforts to
lose weight? Fad diets have caused many people to lose the reality
of weight loss and to look for the wonder diet. If a wonder diet
existed, why isn't everyone on it? Believe it or not, weight loss
follows basic physiological rules. To help you achieve your weight
loss goals, those physiological rules are simplified and discussed
below.
Ever time you eat calories and nutrients are broken down into smaller
versions and stored in the human body. Those stored nutrients are
only brought out of storage when the body needs them to carry out
certain functions. These functions are carried out to sustain and
maintain life.
If you are genetically normal, without physiological or psychological
health problems, weight loss follows a basic rule. The calories
you burn must be greater than the calorie you eat! For instance
if you have stayed the same weight for a long period of time you
have arrived at your maintenance level. In other words, you are
eating as many calories as you are metabolizing. Imagine you're
burning 2000 calories, if so, then you are eating 2000 calories
and maintaining your current weight. The body is a biological species
that is governed by this simple physiological equation. Calories
eaten must be less than< calories burned = equaling weight loss.
Click here for our free tool that
calculates daily calorie requirements:
daily
calorie requirements
 |
Matthew Johnson is a personal trainer
and an on-line fitness consultant at Changing Shape. |
References
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Ward, Elizabeth M. "Winnowing weight-loss programs to find a match
for you." Environmental Nutrition Jan 1998: v21 n1 pl(3). |
