Secret to weight loss II

Sorry for the cruel trick I played on everyone last week.  Although the title was absolutely amusing (at least to me), it was inspired by completely random but related events:

1. Instead of teaching strength and conditioning class for swimmers like I do every Thursday, my head coach decided to talk about nutrition

2. One of the lifeguards was asking me about losing weight.

The common theme between both of them was the most basic formula in the fitness industry:

CALORIES IN = CALORIES OUT

Studies have shown that one diet is no more effective than the next.  The Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet, the Hollywood Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, etc.  None of these work.  Yes, most people have had short-term success, however, very few, if any, have had any long-term success.  Why?  Mainly because diets only deal with one side of the equation.

Diets are set up where all they do is constrict the intake of calories.  You would think that's all it takes.  Wrong!!  You cannot change one side of the equation without changing the other side. 

Physiologically, our bodies haven't changed much since we were cavemen.  Ever hear of people actually gaining weight while on or after their diet?  Here's why: when the body realizes its calories are being restricted, it thinks its in starvation mode (winter time for cavemen).  This triggers an automatic slow-down of your metabolism, essentially slowing down the rate at which calories are burned.  The less calories burned, the more calories that are stored as fat.  Hello weight gain!!!

The correct and healthy way to lose weight is to focus on the formula above and from Thursday's post.  If you want to lose weight, you must focus on BOTH sides of the equation.  So you should not only safely restrict your calories, but also increase the number of calories you burn duing a workout.  For example, if you need to cut 500 daily calories, don't just decrease your food intake.  Play around with the math.  It could be an even split: ingest 250 less calories from food and attempt to burn an additional 250 calories per workout.  It might not be this easy but play around with the math and see what works the best for you and your metabolism. 

As in life, there are no short-cuts, especially to accomplishing anything worthwhile.  Sit down and start a food log.  Don't cheat yourself.  Include EVERYTHING...even those small snacks that you think don't matter.  You might realize that all you need to do is change the type of snacks you're having.  But you'll never know until you write it down and see it in black and white.