Losing weight has become a global phenomenon especially in America where we also have an obesity epidemic on our hands. It is no surprise that we are getting bigger and bigger because the food industry is marketing us to death and the food lobbyists have heavy influence on the government agencies that are supposed to protect us, like the FDA.
Junk food is a billion dollar business, grocery stores are jam packed with items that are heavily processed, unnatural, and contain tons of ingredients that most of us cannot even pronounce much less know what they are. We no longer eat real food, everything is artificial and the food industry has been conducting an experiment on us for the last 50 years.
The results are starting to filter in, processed foods with artificial ingredients are not good for us. We now have higher rates of chronic preventable diseases than at any other time in our history. These include heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, obesity, and respiratory diseases.
It is so bad that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention actually issues annual reports that discuss all of these preventable conditions and their causes. According to the CDC itself the leading causes of these diseases are lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco, and alcohol.
This is no longer a controversial issue, the evidence is in, and our poor choices and sedentary lifestyle are literally killing us faster and faster every year.
So does it surprise you that there is a weight loss phenomenon happening right now? People are trying to combat obesity with all sorts of things and paying big money to do so. The weight loss industry is a billion dollar industry as well.
We can some up every weight loss program very easily — eat less and exercise more. But is it really that simple?
Well, yes and no, let’s examine.
Eating Less
Almost all diets focus on lowering your caloric intake and most of these diets fail simply because they fail to take into consideration that not all carbs are equal. What you eat is more important than how much you eat.
In a study conducted by Kekwick and Pawan, three groups were put on calorically equal diets of 90% fat, 90% protein, or 90% carbohydrates. The outcomes were not what you would expect.
Group 1: 1,000 calories at 90% fat = weight loss of .9 pounds per day
Group 2: 1,000 calories at 90% protein = weight loss of .6 pounds per day
Group 3: 1,000 calories at 90% carbohydrates = weight gain of .24 pounds per day
This is at 1,000 calories mind you. The USDA recommends men consume 2,000 to 2,600 calories and women to consume 1,600 to 2,000 calories each day IF they are sedentary. As you are more active the recommendation increases.
In the US 72 percent of men and 64 percent of women are classified as overweight or obese, that means the average person consumes more than the USDA recommended calories. The 1,000 calories used in this diet, most people would feel like they are starving eating at least ½ less than normal, yet when carbohydrates make up 90% of those calories, people still gained weight on average.
Imagine going on a diet, eating half the food, but still gaining weight. Carbohydrates are just terrible and dangerous at the same time. You have to cut out all sugars, breads, grains, and anything else you find that is loaded with carbohydrates. A single can of soda can throw you off your dietary plan and move you from losing weight to gaining weight.
Exercising More
The other spot people fail on is exercising more because it is extremely misleading. The more you weigh the more calories you burn for exercise. The problem is most people exercise for 20 minutes 3x a week without realizing how much exercise it actually takes to burn off excessive calories.
For example, 20 minutes of a general Aerobics workout at 180lbs will burn about 177 calories. A typical can of soda has about 150 calories in it, yep that’s all you’ve burned off with your 20 minute workout. So if you’re eating about the recommended calories each day, which most people are eating way over on, then you might lose very small amounts of weight.
The general rule of thumb is that when you burn about 3,500 calories more than what you consume, you will lose 1 pound. If you’re eating the recommended calories and only do aerobics 3x a week it will take you about 7 weeks to burn off 1 pound.
Exercise alone can fail but when it is combined with proper caloric reduction, the results start to amplify. It is very important to realize that you can’t just do a little bit of one thing and expect amazing results.
Supplements
Because dieting and exercise are hard for most people to do there are literally thousands of supplements that range from medical to all-natural. Most of them focus on ingredients that help increase metabolism and/or provide energy which is supposed to help you workout.
Consider supplements a boost, they give you energy to workout, curve your appetite, and increase your metabolism, but they are not miracle cures either.
If you don’t workout and continue to overeat you will also not see much results from taking any “safe” supplement as most are designed to work with your body and aid you in the weight loss process.
FitTeam Fit has created such a supplement, it’s called a Fit Stick and it is basically an all organic supplement that you pour into a drink and take twice a day. It is designed to increase your metabolism and give you energy.
But to achieve maximum results with this or any other product it is best that you follow a calorie restricted diet high in protein and fats with no carbohydrates and that you exercise frequently for as long as you can, walk for an hour each day if you have to.
Summary
To bring this all together and something you can take away. We have an eating problem in America that has to be solved not just by eating less, but by eating the right kind of foods. We need to get back to eating vegetables and meats while removing breads, grains, sugars, and dairy from our diets.
We need to start exercising again, real exercise, not just 20 minutes a day. When you don’t find time to exercise you aren’t finding time to be healthy and if health isn’t important to you then you might want to reconsider your lifestyle. You owe it to yourself and your body to eat good food and exercise regularly.
To make this whole process of undoing all the damage, we can use supplements to boost metabolism and provide energy for workouts.
The theory of weight loss is easy to understand, the act of doing it is the challenge.
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