PersonalDiets | How to lose weight & keep it off

Lose Weight & Keep It Off!
Carolyn Classick-Kohn,MS,RD

Science And Common Sense
As is often the case, science confirms what common sense tells us. The quickest solution to weight loss is not the best one. To understand why, let us review a few basic facts about energy metabolism, and dieting.

Sources Of Energy
Through the process of digestion, carbohydrate, protein, and fat from food are broken down in the body and eventually converted to glucose. Glucose is the fuel the body needs uses for energy. Fat is the most concentrated form of dietary energy, 225% as fattening as carbohydrate and protein. Alcohol also is a source of energy, but in contrast with fat, carbohydrate, and protein, it is not a source of nutrients. It provides only "empty calories."

Energy Stores
When the body take in more energy (in the form of calories) than it needs , the extra calories are stored in two ways: a) as glycogen, a form of glucose, in the muscle and the liver b) as fat tissue throughout the body. Glycogen can rapidly release glucose. It is the store of immediately available energy. Once it is depleted, extra sources of energy come from the oxidation of fat and, as a last resort, from the breakdown of protein in muscle tissue.

Metabolism
Metabolism is the sum of all the activities in the body concerned with growth, repair and maintenance. It governs the rate at which the body burns calories.

Factors which influence metabolism include:

1) Amount of Fat and Muscle in the Body...Simply put, our bodies are made of fat tissue and lean body mass (LBM) which includes muscle, water, and skeletal mass. Muscle tissue is very metabolically active, Fat tissue is not. Muscle burns nearly 90% of the calories we use in a day. The more muscle tissue, the higher the metabolism and the more calories needed.

2) Sex...Women normally have a higher proportion of fat--17% to 24% compared to 10% to 16% for men. This contributes to a naturally lower metabolism for women than for men and a lower caloric requirement for women.

3) Body Type and Heredity ...These cannot be modified.

4) Age...The basal metabolic rate generally decreases by 6% for every decade beyond the age of 25. But the decrease can be slowed down through regular exercise.

5) Eating Habits...A low fat , high carbohydrate diet helps retain muscle and lose fat.

6) Physical Activity... Increases muscle tissue and decreases fat.

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Why People Regain Weight...
Scientists are in agreement: crash dieting is not the best way to lose weight and to maintain the weight loss. There are many physiological reasons for this.

In starvation (For example when you fast) 68% of the weight loss is from lean tissue and 32% is from fat tissue. On lower calorie diets Fifty-four percent of the weight loss is from lean tissue, 46% from fat.

When calories are in short supply the body calls upon its energy stores. The fat stores are bypassed at first because they are the long range survival stores. The other energy stores are in the muscles as glycogen or glucose and water. Through the breakdown of glycogen the glucose is used up for energy and the water eliminated, accounting for most of the weight loss. Relatively little fat is lost. If caloric restriction continues, muscle tissue also is lost, along with water.

These type of diet plans are prone to fail because when people go on severe diets and lose weight the body reacts as it would to a period of famine. It slows its basal metabolism rate. The body needs fewer and fewer calories and losing weight becomes more difficult.

On a moderately reduced calorie diet, like the PersonalDiets™, some lean tissue is lost (33%), but most of the lost weight is fat (67%). If exercise is included, lean tissue loss will be minimal (20%) and fat tissue lost maximal (80%).
This will help protect against gaining the weight back.

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