Health

Then what should we be counting? Should we
be counting calories, carbohydrates or fat?
If you look at carbohydrates and fat, it is the same scenario.Each gram of carbohydrates contains 16 kcal of energy, while fatcontains 37 kcal of energy. This is why watching how much fatyou’re eating is so important. It is almost twice that of proteinand carbohydrates.Much of the research on low carb diets such as the Atkins dietfound that people lost more weight initially and that the diet wasmore effective than the other diets. Research has also foundthat people who are on high protein diets also experience highersatiety levels, that is, they are not as hungry. One of the mainreasons that low carb diets induce weight loss is because of thesimple fact that they are just consuming less calories, but moreprotein and fat than carbohydrates.What it seems to boil down to is that some low carb diets restrictyour intake to mainly fat and protein, by eliminatingcarbohydrates from the diet. This has the effect of taking awayso many of the food choices that are available, as well as vitalnutrients that your body needs.You know, even lovers of protein and fat, find that the varietyand choices are taken away and what you are actually doing isactually limiting your caloric intake. So it works initially and thatis one of the reasons why people are so attracted to it.
The fact is however that 95% of diets fail and what it reallycomes down to is if you want to lose weight, lifestyle change isthe only way. A diet is only temporary, you go on it and you loseweight.But what are you going to do eventually? You are going to gooff it.In my definition, that is not a lifestyle change that is a temporaryfix. That is human nature. You go on the diet and eventually youare going to go off it and revert back to your old eating habitsand gain the weight back.It all comes down to understanding a little bit more about thefoods that you are eating and a choice to make a lifestyle change.Also almost all of these diet plans introduce a new way of eating,a way that is abnormal to the way that you are used to eatingand we are creatures of habit and we like the foods that we areused to.Because we are creatures of habit we don’t adapt very well tochanges like that. We can go on it for a while and because it isso abnormal it just doesn’t fit. It all comes down to the fact thatyou have to make a decision that you are going to change theway you eat.One of the things that I have noticed is that if you do somethingas simple as go out and walk 15 minutes a day, it will be easierfor you not to be tempted by unhealthy food. The healthier yourlifestyle choices, the easier it will be to stick to your healthy foodchoices.It’s almost like the unhealthy choices don’t fit anymore. They areincompatible with the healthy choices. You know, I have quotedthat adage that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Wellit’s almost the same applied to health and nutrition.As I kick around health and nutrition with people that are into itlike I am, I find that if you do exercise and have more musclemass you burn more calories when you are at rest. Lean musclemass has a higher metabolic requirement. When you are justsitting around doing nothing and your body has more lean musclemass you are going to burn more calories than if your bodycontains fatty tissue.It’s kind of a cruel injustice but the fitter you get even at rest,you are burning more calories.