14 Nov Your diet Isn’t working!
**this blog was originally published on November 14, 2011 but was updated on December 31, 2015**
Your diet isn’t working……..
Your diet isn’t working. You are exercising, you are counting calories, you are pre-measuring your food but it just feels like it isn’t happening fast enough! You are tempted to listen to that advertisement you just saw and drop big dollars on pills that are promising fast fat loss! You are considering signing up for that costly spa treatment that promises to “melt fat” and get you “thin quick!” You may even pick up a jar of that expensive cream that promises to “rid your body of cellulite”. Before you decide that your diet isn’t working and sign up for those expensive treatments, take a look at these facts:
So much of it is MATH. It takes 3500 calories to lose one poubd of fat. In order to lose 2 pounds a week you need to burn or deplete 7000 calories. 2pounds a week may not seem like a lot but that is 104pounds in a YEAR! WOW… when you lose more than 2pounds a week you are tapping into water and muscle and it is not a long term solution.
Starvation and severe calorie restriction will NOT work. If you eat too little over time you will actually slow down your metabolism and train your body to STORE fat. It is very dangerous to go under 1200 calories a day, ever. Eating this little puts your body in starvation mode and teaches it to store fat.
Output still must exceed input! If you eat more calories than you BURN, you WILL GAIN weight. If calories in
exceed calories out, you will gain weight. PERIOD. YES you should be eating protein, healthy carbohydrates, and healthy fats but PORTION SIZES still matter. Too many calories of ANY type of food will cause you to gain weight.
LIES. If it sounds too good to be true then it IS. The only way to LOSE FAT and to keep it off is to workout HARD and EAT REAL Unprocessed foods. Think simple ingredients, things you can pronounce. SIMPLE is good. Fruit, veggies, proteins, fats, SIMPLE. If you have to READ what you eating…chances are there are multiple ingredients in there you can’t define and they can create havoc on your goals…and you shouldn’t be eating it. Eliminating entire food groups, taking a certain vegetable out of your diet (no, carrots will NOT make you fat), Body wraps, cellulite reduction cream, gimmicky food restriction diets, juice fast, pills that promise things will all help you lose temporary WATER WEIGHT and MUSCLE but will NOT help you lose fat!
You have to SWEAT. I know what the magazines say. Long walks in the park, doing laundry and household chores, lifting your groceries are all exercise. Although all movement is good movement, unless you are working out with intensity and sweat, you will not make changes to your body. Think INTENSITY for you… what is intense for YOU may be different for someone else. The point is to challenge yourself if you want to change your body.
Are the exceptions to the above? YES, sometimes, but not always… if you DO have hypothryroidism or a slow metabolism read more HERE
Be Happy… Be Healthy… Be Fit!!
-Natalie Jill
