Looking for a Magic Weight Formula?

With the new year comes resolutions, that generally include losing weight. My friend, Dr. Chaney has given us his take on the choices of weight loss vehicles. I have begun a week early on my inch loss decision - ( I am making decisions this year, not resolutions. ) If you want info on Dr. Chaney's reccomended plan, let me know. Stay tuned to this blog for updates on my progress!

To Your Health,
Lisa

Dear Lisa,

Next week you'll be making your annual New Year's resolution that this will be the year that you finally lose those extra pounds and keep them off!

The good news is that you will have lots of choices for losing that weight.

The bad news is that most of those choices are bogus!

You see each diet book and Internet marketer will have a "magic formula".

Sometimes it will be a "magic" diet composition - low fat diets, low carb diets, high protein diets - or don't eat protein and carbohydrates together.

Sometimes it will be a "magic" food - grapefruit, cabbage soup, acai berries or chocolate.

All of these diets are hyped with a lot of scientific sounding mumbo jumbo and many of them have short term studies that seem to show that they work.

But whenever well designed scientific studies have been performed that compare these diets at equal calorie levels and look at weight loss over two years or more there is not a dimes worth of difference between them.

Despite all of the hype that you will hear, weight loss is solely dependent on the difference between calories in and calories out.

There is no "magic diet formula", no "magic diet composition" and no "magic diet food". Calories rule!

Did you really think that someone had repealed the laws of thermodynamics?

Once you understand and accept that the difference between calories in and calories out is the most important determinant of successful weight loss, you can start to understand the key principles of successful weight loss.

Principle #1: The diet doesn't have to be weird to be successful.

In fact the diet is most likely to succeed if it includes foods that are familiar to you.

If you're a "meat and potatoes" guy, a vegetarian diet is not likely to be successful for you (Some of my friends refer to that kind of diet as "rabbit food").

Plus, we are all different. Some of us will lose weight successfully on one diet. Other people will be more successful on a different diet.

That means that the diet that worked so well for your friend might not work at all for you. You will need to experiment a bit to find the best diet for you

And, before you ask me, your body type or blood type has absolutely nothing to do with which diet is going to work best for you.

I do want to add a caveat, however: You do need to make some changes to your diet. You will want to drop some foods from your diet and include some foods and diet drinks that are new to you.

You will want to think about what you are eating and make conscious choices about which foods are helping you fulfill your goals of losing weight and which are not.

Principle #2: The diet should be one that is healthy in the long run.

I'm particularly talking about the popular high fat, low carbohydrate diets here. It is clear that diets high in fat - particularly saturated and trans fats - are associated with increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Plus, high fat diets just don't work well for long term weight control. Fat has more calories than carbohydrate. This is not rocket science!

Just in case you don't believe me you just need to consult the National Weight Control Registry. The National Weight Control Registry was established in
1994 and has tracked the weight loss strategies of over 5000 people who have been successful at keeping their weight off long term.

While those people lost weight using every diet in the books, the vast majority of them that were successful at keeping their weight off long term followed a low calorie, low-fat diet to maintain their weight loss.

Principle #3. Don't forget the other part of the calorie equation.

That's right, I'm talking about exercise.

While you burn some calories every time you exercise, the real value of exercise is that it increases lean muscle mass - and lean muscle mass burns more calories than fat.

Again, if you consult the National Weight Control Registry, you will find that virtually everyone who has been successful at keeping the weight off exercises on an almost daily basis.

Principle #4: Don't start if you can't finish.

Once again, the National Weight Control Registry puts that in perfect perspective.

Almost everyone who was successful at keeping the weight off long term had stopped thinking of it as a diet. It was just a way of life.

It was how they ate. It was the exercise that they liked to do on a daily basis. It no longer required any conscious effort. It no longer required any will power.

This is perhaps the most important weight control principle of all.

When you make your resolutions this New Year, don't make a resolution to change your weight.

Make a resolution to change your life!


To Your Health!
Dr. Stephen G Chaney