Featured Fitness Professional

"Die with a T = diet"

By Chris Hill

Think about it, if you are always on a diet have you ever reached your goal? I have fitness consults all the time where clients say they have done this diet and lost 25 pounds, done that diet and lost 15 pounds, or done the cluck and duck diet and lost 50 pounds, but they sit in front of me weighing 30-50 pounds above their ideal weight. By doing the math these people should weigh 15 to 20 pounds from all the extreme weight loss gimmicks they have tried.

If I hear a client refer back to a result they got on a previous diet again I think I am going to scream. Start thinking forward not in the past. Obviously the past did not work or we would not be here today. The dieting industry is a very tricky industry.

There are so many ways to trick the brain into thinking you are losing weight. If you go by the scale it is very easy to trick the brain. Water is the biggest trick of all when it comes to diet companies.

They have learned how to get you started on their products and magical methods and see a drop in the scale weight. Most of this drop in weight is from water and muscle (our most metabolic tissue). Our metabolisms and pocket books both go down the drain with this false scale weight loss.

There are a couple of ways to get the body to lose water, one is simply caloric deprivation, another is carbohydrate manipulation, or you can also take a diuretic. All these methods when put on a scale will lead you to believe ?the diet is working!?

When your body starts losing weight from caloric deprivation, or carbohydrate manipulation, you are more than likely losing three things. Water, muscle and some fat. If your goal is to lose body fat and long term weight loss, which it should be, then water loss means absolutely nothing. It is basically a way for diet companies to make money off of you.

If you stay in a caloric deprived state for long enough your body actually becomes protective of its fat. It will horde fat, and may even begin to work to store more fat for later use. Our bodies are genius at many things but it can't understand when we do not feed it enough.

When we starve ourselves, our bodies shift into a state where it will preserve and accumulate fuel for the future. This accumulated fuel is of course stubborn body fat.

If you remain in the caloric deprived state too long, then your body begins to cannibalize itself. It goes after your hard earned muscle tissue. Even though the scale is still showing weight loss, things are about to get ugly.

There is a point where all diets begin to stop working and it gets harder and harder to get those last few pounds off. The plateau is the term I hear often in the gym. The plateau usually forces people to decrease calories more and increase activity, which creates more of the starvation process.

Then it becomes a vicious cycle. Once you hit the plateau it gets a little harder to stay motivated, sweets begin to be a little more tempting. You start to beat yourself up about the lack of progress. Bad habits start creeping back into your life.

Before you know it you are right back into the old habits that got you on the diet in the first place. But this time the overeating and lack of exercise will affect you even more because the diet slowed your metabolism by eating up so much muscle.

It feels like weight gain is more rapid than ever, and it usually does not stop at the weight you started the diet with. After being overweight and feeling miserable a few months you are on to the next hottest diet craze.

The whole process begins over again. You look back and twenty years has gone by and you are still overweight, still looking for a quick fix, and it is more difficult than ever to lose weight.

You now go to your Doctor asking for thyroid testing or searching the internet for an answer to why you can not lose weight. You have been on every diet know to man and feel there is nothing out there that can help at this point. You truly feel as if something is wrong with you.

The truth is every one responds different to each food they eat. But if you develop healthy eating and exercising habits that you can consistently do your return for the effort will outweigh any quick fix diet in the long run.

The end result of die with a T is loss of weight on the scale in the beginning, hunger, loss of energy, disappointment, frustration, guilt, metabolic slowdown, residual weight gain, much easier to accumulate and store fat, and most important many increased health risk that leads to an early death.

The best advice there is for someone wanting to lose weight is to hire a professional. Find out from a true fitness or nutrition professional (not the diet center on every corner) where to start with what you have. Make some minor adjustments to start, and begin a lifelong journey at improving on your eating habits.

Each day strive to improve upon the day before. You will look back in 5 years and you will not believe the way you use to eat and the way you use to look.

From this day forward never go on a diet again. Learn how to eat healthy and your body will be healthy.

About the Author:

Chris Hill is a NSCA certified personal trainer. He is the owner of Personally Fit by Chris Hill Inc. His website is www.personallyfitbychrishill.com