It is the middle of the summer and most of us are in hectic preparation to look our best on the beach. For many of us, the biggest problem is the few kilograms/pounds that we have gained over the past winter and spring, and that is why we are looking anywhere around to find the fastest way to lose them. In women’s magazines, the Internet, even at bus/subway stations you can see all the weight loss ads promising you that you can lose around 22 pounds 10 kilograms per month without any effort or starvation.
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Actually,
to lose weight is really not that difficult there are so many diet plans out there that not only promise you to lose weight fast, but really provide a quick effect. Then, thank to the fast result from the diet, the advertisers build cheap popularity and start bragging about their good results measured in the quick loss of a few pounds/kilograms. But I want to ask, how many of these people have not gained their weight back in a very short term, and whether they have really been satisfied with the final outcome?
Nowadays the only measure in the
fight against excessive weight becomes the weight scale. The scale is our main way of finding out how effective our diet is. What we tend to do is to get on the scale over and over again, sometimes even a few times a day and get very frustrated when we see that our weight has not even slightly changed, or in some cases has even increased. The scale can be your worst weight measurement especially if you weight yourself too often.
First, Under normal circumstances, the weight of a person varies with plus or minus 2 kilograms per day (4.4 pounds), depending on how much food and water is still in the organism or how much is already out. It is totally normal that after eating a good piece of steak with salad and a bottle of water for lunch, you will right away weight 1 kg (2.2 pounds) more before your body has even digested the food.Second, the weight scale does not show the most important specifically how many of these kilograms/pounds we have lost are from fat,
muscle mass or water.
We must strive to lose weight through the reduction of fat mainly, and this is physiologically impossible to happen quickly. A pound (half a kilogram) of subcutaneous fat provides energy equal to 3500 calories. To burn that energy we should have a negative balance of 500 calories per day, achieved through a balance between eating healthy and exercising. A bigger deficit of calories would lead to the loss of muscle tissue and would slow our metabolism. The optimal weight lose is about 0.5 kilograms (1 pound) a week.
Exceptions are only people who are more overweight and therefore at the initial stage of the diet lose lots of water kept in the organism because of previous poor nutrition. Here is what and how much you actually lose when you are on typical diet which promises 10 kilograms (22 pounds) less per month.
Before the diet:
- Weight: 92 kilograms = 202.4 pounds
- Fat: 25% (23 kilograms = 50.6 pounds)
- Net body weight (weight without fat): 69 kilograms = 151.8 poundsAfter diet:
- Weight: 82 kilograms = 180.4 pounds
- Fat: 22.5% (18.5 kilograms = 40.7 pounds)
- Net body weight (weight without fat): 63.5 kilograms = 139.7 pounds
- Loss of weight: 10 kilograms = 22 pounds
- Fat Loss: 4.5 kilograms = 9.9 pounds
- Net loss of mass (mostly muscle): 5.5 kilograms = 12 pounds
Many of the people who have had such a diet “brag” about the final results but have not really been satisfied with their new appearance. Why is that? Although the weight has remarkably declined, the body is more relaxed because of the lost muscle tissue. But what is even worse is that the undesired body fat still remains. However, the worst comes after the diet when we restore our “normal” eating habits, and that happens sooner or later.
Generally, such diets consist of extremely low intake of calories and our metabolism slows down because it recognizes this process as a starvation diet. That is why we loss a lot of muscle mass because muscle is the biggest consumer of energy in our body.
Finally after about 2 months the situation is as follows,
Two months after the diet:
- Weight: 92 kilograms =202.4 poundsFat: 28.5% (26 kilograms = 57.2 pounds)!
- Net body weight: 66 kilograms =145.2 pounds
As we see here the whole composition of our body has overcame a change our weight is the same but we have lost a lot of muscle mass and have gained more fat. Our metabolism is severely weakened, which will lead to even a bigger increase of weight in future.
What to do? First, stop with these stupid diets and find a truly high quality nutrition diet plan and work out program. Second, do not weight yourself every day but only once a week in the morning on an empty stomach to see whether you are on the right track. Third, prepare yourself mentally that if you lose weight the fast way, you will even need to increase your food intake. Last but not least, keep track of the percentage of subcutaneous fat and whether you really lose fat or muscle tissue and water.
If everything goes as planned after 15-20 weeks (4-5 months) you will effectively get rid of the ten extra kilograms (22 pounds). This decrease in weight will not come from losing
muscle tissue and water but mainly
from losing fat. Remember that the best things in life take longer to achieve, but once achieved, are the sweetest!
