Critical Dieting Errors

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TweetCritical Dieting Errors
By Karen Sessions aka: MsFit

This is Part 1 of a two-part article. We will be discussing the million-dollar question, "How do I lose body fat?" Does it sound familiar? I'm not going to go into detail statistics and mathematical equations on how to lose body fat. All this is irrelevant unless you set a goal, make a commitment, and follow through with it. I will, however, discuss some of the mistakes made on the fat loss quest.

The biggest mistakes I see in those with weight loss endeavors are:

1. Jumping from one diet to the next, without giving ANY of them a chance to work.

2. Cutting calories drastically, far below one's BMR.

3. Eating correctly, but failing to make small adjustments to shock the body.

4. Scared to death to eat carbohydrates.

The most successful dieters are bodybuilders. They can drop the body fat and keep the muscle. How do they do this? Most would like to point the finger at drugs, but I can tell you first hand that what you put into your body accounts for 90% of your physique. You can weight train every day and do cardio for two hours every day, but unless you are eating correctly, you will keep running in circles, hoarding fat, burning muscle, and lowering your BMR.

Jumping From One Diet to the Next
This is basically being impatient with your current "diet". Most people stay on a diet for 4-7 days. If they fail to see results in this short time frame, it's left in the way side, only to adopt the current fad diet for the week.

Obviously, those trying to lose weight want immediately results. You did not gain weight in 4-7 days, so thinking it will come off in such a short amount of time is irrational. You cannot solve a weight problem in a week. You can, however, create healthy habits and make noticeable changes in a week.

If more people took the time and allowed the given program to work, they could make a fair assessment. If you keep jumping from one plan to the next, you will only end up being a professional dieter and not ever reaching your goal.

If you eat a balanced diet, exercise, and are consistent, you can make worthy changes in 10-20 days. If you continue your consistency, you can make outstanding changes in 20-40 days.

Drastically Cutting Calories
Far too many seeking weight loss will drastically cut their calories in hopes to shed body fat quickly. Sure, you may lose some weight in the beginning, but in doing so, your metabolism is lowered, your body holds on to fat, and you burn muscle. Muscle loss lowers your basal metabolic rate even more! This is the well-known starvation defense being enacted.

The starvation defense kicks in when your body thinks it is being deprived of nourishment (food). It is your body's way of conserving energy, so it burns fewer calories.

When the "diet" ends and you begin eating normally again, or worse binge, your body will rebound and you will gain even more weight due to the starvation mode the body thought it was under. It is actually absorbing more food for the next famine.

How to Manage
If your goal is to lose weight you must supply your body with fuel in order to burn fat. Beginning a "diet" on 1200 calories or less (starvation level) leaves you no room to lower calories later when you hit a plateau.

The best way to lower calories is to set them to your BMR plus activity calories and make small weekly cuts so your body doesn't react and slip into starvation mode. Eat balanced meals and rather forcing the body to change, allow it to respond.

Stay tuned for next months Part 2 where I will discuss mistakes number 4 and 5.
(C) 2004 Karen Sessions All Rights Reserved


Fitfully Yours,
Karen Sessions;
aka: MsFit

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TweetCritical Dieting Errors Part 2

Last month I discussed critical dieting errors many make in efforts to lose weight. This month I will wrap it up. The first two errors mentioned were, jumping from one diet to the next and cutting calories drastically. After reading last months newsletter, I hope you understand a bit better how neither of these tactics work.

This month I will discuss two more weight loss mistakes made by many in hopes of shedding that stubborn fat, and they are:

3. Failing to make small changes to shock the body
4. Scared to death to eat a carbohydrate

Okay, it's time to get a grip on reality. We want to lose weight and we do that by eating and making small, continual changes, not by restricting nutrients and overloading our bodies with hours of endless cardiovascular exercise.

Your body does a wonderful job of playing mind games with you, and in order for you to get the body you want, you have to play those mind games right back. You CAN fool the body, but only for so long. It's programmed to adapt FAST!

Bodybuilding programs are so successful because they are an eating program that changes weekly and/or bi-weekly, depending on the previous weeks results. This constant change keeps the body off guard and always responding.

Another reason bodybuilding programs are so successful is because cardio is not targeted in an all-or-nothing effort. It begins on the lower end and increases weekly, and therefore, no crash-and-burn effect or plateaus.

Let's discuss these detrimental errors a bit more.

Failing to make small changes to shock the body
Many are making the correct nutritional choices but just keep running around in circles, not making any progress. This is what is known as a plateau. Basically, your body has adapted to the same meal and exercise plan you have been doing on a day in and day out basis. There are no changes to cause your body to work or burn fat.

Making a simple change such as carb-rotation will send your BMR soaring through the roof and get that fat burning process in full force again. This tactic keeps the body off guard on what you are doing, while actually feeding it at the same time and not storing fat.

Making small changes to your cardio regimen is another way to keep things on the upbeat. Many start their cardio plan 6 days a week for 45 minutes. Yikes! That is a lot to begin with. Your better choice would be to start at the low end and progress weekly so your body doesn't adapt. I like to call this Progressive HIIT. I use it successfully and it's proven to work wonders every time! An example would be:

Progressive HIIT
Week #1 - 3 days a week for 20 minutes
Week #2 - 4 days a week for 20 minutes
Week #3 - 4 days a week for 25 minutes
Week #4 - 4 days a week for 30 minutes
Week #5 - 4 days a week for 35 minutes
Week #6 - 4 days a week for 40 minutes
Week #7 - 4 days a week for 45 minutes
Week #8 - 5 days a week for 45 minutes
and so on...

Scared to death to eat a carbohydrate
Mistake #4 is the fear of carbohydrates. This can be attributed to almost 95% of the population. The media and diet gurus have made people so afraid to put a carbohydrate into their mouth that it's almost to the ridiculous point. The carb scare mimics the fat-free frenzy back in the late 80's and early 90's.

For those of you who have How To Lose Weight; FOREVER! and are still trying to lose, you really should look into doing the carb-rotation. Give it at least a 6-week trial, although you will see changes much sooner. I am a bodybuilder and use this method for losing fat for contests. I would not promote something that I haven't tried or wouldn't use myself.
(C) 2004 Karen Sessions All Rights Reserved