A "diet" is simply your pattern of eating. Everyone technically is on a diet of some sort. Some are just raised into eating a proper diet and it becomes a good habit. Others have fallen into bad dietary habits. Your diet is either good or bad.
Popular thought is that people ate better and were healthier in the past, but is generally not true. American pioneers ate considerable amounts of meat and fat and relatively few vegetables. Even people who ate produce were limited by the availability during the seasons. True, the foods were not tainted with chemicals as they are now, but those chemicals are what make it possible for more people to afford fruits and vegetables and cut down on starvation.
While some chemicals added during the growing and processing phases of our food has helped to make a better diet possible, other chemicals, over-processed can create a whole new category of bad foods. This results in sugar, which is good in moderation when closer to its original form turned into something that is bleached and overused or worse, a chemical reproduction to make an unnatural sugar. Or the high use of fats that should not be used in such high amounts or artificial fats or fat free foods that are even worse than fatty food would be if you left it alone.
Someone who has a good diet knows they can eat "taboo" foods, but they tend not to eat as much of it as those with bad dietary habits. It is very rare that a person is overweight due to health problems, but it does happen. Most of the reasons which contribute to a bad diet involve lack of time to eat properly, lack of knowledge of the nutruitional value of food, lack of exercise, a low metabolism from a VERY bad diet, and low self esteem.
Excess weight or obesity happens when the body stores excess calories and converts them into fat. In a day, every move you make forces your body to burn a certain amount of calories. Some activities burn more calories than others. All foods contain a calorie content from 0 and up.
Think of your body as a machine like a car that needs gas to run. Everytime your car moves, it burns gas. If you don't want your car to burn out, you need to keep refilling the gas tank. Throughout the day, every move you make burns a calorie from the food you eat during the day. When the food supply in your body is exhausted, your body starts to burn your fat stores for more calories to burn.
Our bodies were designed to store fat just in case we were to face times of famine. In better times, our bodies would reserve some of the fats to help keep us from starvation in worse times. However, thousands of years later, our lifestyles tended to move away from a very physical short lifespan to one of ease and leisure, therefore we eat more food and burn off less calories so our bodies are constantly storing more fat.
In order to maintain a healthy weight, you must be able to eat enough calories to maintain your activities during the day. If you are overweight, then you must eat less calories than you burn in a day so your fat reserves are forced into melting itself away.
If you starve your body of too many calories, your metabolism will slow down which will make it harder to burn any calories, so when you do start eating normally again, all those calories you eat will burn off even slower than before.
Health consequences of obesity are associated with significant increases in both morbidity and mortality. More frequent medical disorders may occur in obese people.
Major health risk associated with being obese/over weight is mentioned below.
Disease
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Cause
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Hypertension
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Excess body weight puts strain on heart and blood vessels causing high blood pressure.
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Heart disease
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Overweight and high fat/high cholesterol diets are major causes of heart disease such as coronary heart disease.
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Type II diabetes
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Body does not respond adequately to insulin in obese person causing diabetes.
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Degenerative joint disease |
Excess weight puts added strain and wears on muscles, ligament and joints.
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Cancer
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Overweight causes risk factors for certain cancers such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, prostrate, ovary, biliary tract.
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Stroke
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Excess weight causes risk factors such as high blood pressure and tendency for increased blood clotting leading to heart stroke.
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Psychological disability
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Over weight is a major cause of psychological disorders such as depression.
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Digestive tract diseases
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Gall stones disease, reflux oesophagitis are associated with over weight.
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Hyperlipidemia
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High cholesterol and triglyceride levels are associated with over weight.
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Other disease condition such as endocrine disorders, increased hemoglobin concentration, impairment of pulmonary function, surgical and obstetric risks are high with obesity. Obesity is one of the most common disorders in medical practice and among the most difficult to manage.
An interesting thing about the way your body burns calories, the more you weigh, the faster you can burn calories, but the harder it is for you to get your body in motion. Since you have an excess of weight to carry around, movement will burn more calories, but the extra weight being as heavy as it is will make you want to move less. Kind of a double edge sword, isn't it?
Muscle mass also burns calories fast since it needs the fat fuel to maintain itself. The more muscle mass you have, the faster you burn calories to feed your muscle tissue. Therefore, weight training exercises to build muscles will help you burn weight faster.
To lose weight, you need to have a plan and a goal. Know how much you want to lose and make a decent, sane plan to get there. You have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound, or take in 3500 calories more than you burn to gain one pound.
Counting calories should go hand and hand with exercising when planning a diet to lose weight. You must eat less calories than you plan on burning in a day and being careful not eat so few calories that your body's metabolism completely shuts down. Keep a diary for a week and write down what you eat and what kind of activities you do. Subtract the calories burned from the calories you eat during the day (check the food labels for calorie count).
When you do that activity for a week, you may have a better idea on which areas of your lifestyle need to change. Perhaps your diet is fine, but you need more exercise, or you need to eat less and exercise more.
If you are extremely overweight, consult a doctor before going on a diet to rule out any dangerous health conditions that could make a diet dangerous. If you have diabetes without knowing and diet, you could send your body into a very dangerous, life threatening situation. If you have heart disease, some exercises could kill you. If you have high blood pressure and eat diet foods which are high in sodium, that could also pose a life threatening situation. So, there are actual reasons why you should consult a doctor before going on a diet.
EVERY DIET PLAN TO LOSE WEIGHT MUST INCLUDE EXERCISE!! This is the only way make sure you are building muscle which will not only help you to burn calories faster, but will make you look better, feel stronger, and have more energy in the long run.
EVERY DIET PLAN TO LOSE WEIGHT MUST INCLUDE WATER!! You must drink 8 - 8 ounces of water each day to maintain a healthy water balance in your body. When dieting, you should increase that intake to help you flush out toxins which occur when your metabolism is burning fats and creates ketones that can make you ill. Many diets very low in carbohydrates will deplete you liver of glycose and convert it to ketones and cause "Low Carb Syndrome" where one can feel weak, fatigue, mentally unstable and depressed. Water will help clear some of that toxic build up. Also, when you do extra exercises, your body will sweat off your water supplies if you don't replenish it often and cause dehydration which can cause serious health problems. And your new muscles will need plenty of water. Your diet plan should include 10 to 12 - 8 ounce glasses of plain water - not juice, coffee, tea, but just water.
EVERY DIET PLAN TO LOSE WEIGHT MUST INCLUDE A BALANCED DIET!! Even a credible fad diet that focuses on one food group will state the need to ease into a balanced diet. A balanced diet will include all food groups from the low end fats and sugars to the higher end of fruits and vegetables. You can eat junk food, but it must be in a lower proportion to the healthy foods you will eat. And if you cannot possibly take in the vitamins and minerals or fiber you need due to a pressed schedule, take a supplement to help catch up, but don't make this a habit.
BEWARE OF OUTRAGEOUS WEIGHT LOSS PROMISES!! Any diet plan that makes you take in less calories and burn up more calories than you eat will create a weight loss. Diets are very dangerous if you are promised anything over 2-3 pounds lost in a week.
What is normal is to lose more than 2-3 pounds a week in the first week or two of a diet plan. The reason is you will most likely be losing a lot of fluid and wastes your body may be retaining. This is why diets such as the Hollywood Diet and the 2 Day diet plan can make such promises. They were never meant for a long term solution, but will shed excess fluid and wastes quickly. The problem is when you get off the plan you will gain it back when you eat normally.
Fasting, eating under 1000 calories and mostly liquid diets equate to starvation to your body. When your body feels threatened with starvation it shuts down your metabolism and you burn calories much slower. To a certain point, after your body burns off your fat supplies it starts to eat your muscle tissue for energy. Short term fasting can be a cleansing experience, but it should be done sensibly, not more than a day or two. Other diets will guarantee outrageous weight loss claims due to water/waste loss. Those diets will cleanse out your colon and intestines and zap body fluid which can be quite heavy. The problem with that is the pounds will come right back immediately once you stop. And if you follow it too long, you will become dehydrated.
Almost any diet that has a balanced approach to eating foods and exercise will help you lose weight and keep it off. Some fad diets will help you burn calories fast, but you will have to temper that with some good judgement. The moment you stop the fad diet, or any diet plan, and return to your regular eating habits, you will regain your weight and gain extra. If trying a fad diet, try to ease out of it when you come near your ideal weight range and slide into a healthy balanced pattern of eating and exercise.
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