The weight loss formula

by Rich Strauss

The

Weight Loss

Formula www.The-Weight-Loss-Formula.com

The Weight Loss Formula Second Edition Š 2011 Rich Strauss www.the-weight-loss-formula.com This booklet was designed to give correct and helpful information, but there may be typographical errors and mistakes in content. All content in this publication is provided for information and educational purposes only. Individuals wishing to make changes to their dietary, lifestyle, exercise or medication regimens should do so in conjunction with a competent, knowledgeable and empathetic medical professional.

I try to keep information in this publication as accurate as possible but accept no responsibility for errors or inaccuracies. The author and publisher of this book shall not have liability nor responsibility to any person or legal entity in regard to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by the information contained in this booklet.

Please Note: This is a sample chapter taken from The Weight Loss Formula.

The full product is available at www.the-weight-loss-formula.com

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Contents Introduction

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Chapter 1 - Why diets don’t work What is a diet (as we know it)?

The Starvation Response

8 8 9

Chapter 2 - What is the best diet plan?

How to make it work

11 12

Chapter 3 - Optimize Your Metabolism Raising Your Metabolism

14 14

Chapter 4 – Know Your Body How To Define Your Body Type Genetic Heritage Differences between Men and Women Spot fat reduction

16 17 18 19 19

Chapter 5 - The Weight Loss Formula Step 1: Know where you are, and where you want to go.

Step 2: Set a goal Step 3: Determine your calorie needs Step 4: Create a meal plan Step 5: Create a workout routine

20 20 21 22 22 22

Chapter 6 - Work Out, Exercise: DO IT! Improve Your Body Composition or Percentage of Muscle vs. Fat Prioritize Get into the habit Understand the different types of exercise Starting out Keep changing – Variety is KEY

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A few tips in conclusion It’s all about you Escape Emotional Eating Feel Good About Yourself Staying on track Stay Motivated

27 27 30 31 32 35

Whats Next?

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Chapter 1 - Why diets don’t work The aim of this chapter is to save you from the mistakes that lead to the calculated figure of 95% in diet attempt failures. We are concerned with life long weight management here, not quick and temporary weight loss.

Diets can be so restrictive that you are set up for failure from the word “go”. Some are so low in calories that you literally don’t have the energy to continue with them. And while most diets produce quick weight loss in the beginning, they most often cause your metabolism to slow down. Follow almost any diet plan and you will lose weight. This is because whether you are counting calories, fat, or carbohydrates, or restricting certain types of food, you are ultimately restricting the number of calories that you are consuming. The formula for losing weight is very simple: Consume fewer calories than you burn.

Household name diets entice, and lure us with promises of quick weight loss. But the people we know, who have lost weight successfully, and who are keeping it off, who eat well and look healthy, aren’t dieting at all. They have simply adopted good eating habits, within a broader, active lifestyle. Long term weight loss is the result of an alteration in lifestyle.

What is a diet (as we know it)?

A diet, as we know it, is a short term strategy to lose weight. There are many diets out there that are perfectly capable of getting weight off you, but the weight you lose with these diets come mostly from muscle, water and bone. Also, the loss of weight is temporary.

There are a substantial number of choices out there. High fat or low fat? High carbohydrate or low carbohydrate? High protein or low protein? To make it even more confusing, there are countless variations and combinations to each of the above. It seems endless and causes many people to become discouraged and give up.

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Why these diets don’t work Low calorie or fad dieting have automatic and unavoidable consequences: it sends your body into “starvation mode.” They may help you to lose weight initially, but it will most certainly lead to failure in the long run. The reason for this is because us humans are genetically protected against starvation. During food shortages, our bodies slow down our metabolisms and burn less energy so we can stay alive.

The first thing that occurs during a severe calorie shortage is a decrease in your metabolic rate. The lower your calories, the slower your metabolism becomes. It is as simple as this: when you eat less, your body burns less fat. When you eat more, your body burns more fat (Obviously, WHAT, HOW MUCH and HOW OFTEN you eat is important).

The Starvation Response When you drastically cut back your food intake, your brain thinks that your body is starving, and in an effort to preserve life, it slows down your metabolism (the driving force of effectively losing weight is an active metabolism). Soon you stop losing weight, grow more hungry and uncomfortable and then eat more.

The Starvation Response can be defined as a reduction in metabolism, in response to the reduced availability of food. When faced with a sudden drastic shortage of food, the human body reacts as it has been developed by evolution: it reduces its metabolism (or the rate at which it uses calories for energy) by slowing down physiological processes. This is just a normal reaction to conserve resources.

Why drastic calorie reduction does not work Each individual has a BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). Your BMR depends on certain factors: gender, height, weight, age and activity level. It is therefore a highly individual figure. Your BMR indicates the amount of energy that your body uses for everyday biological functions, to keep your body functioning, and is used to determine your caloric requirements, to maintain, lose or gain weight.

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Say your daily basic caloric requirement to maintain your current weight is 2500 calories (what is required to maintain your Basal Metabolic Rate - just to keep your body functioning) and on average you consume 3500 calories a day, with no added physical activity. What will happen to that 1000 excess calories that your body has no use for!?

You then decide to reduce your calorie intake, but because you go on an uncontrolled low-something diet, you take it too far - you reduce your daily intake by 1000 calories below maintenance needs and eat just 1500 calories a day. In three and a half days you have cut off 3500 calories (each 3500 calories is equivalent to one pound of fat) - at this rate you should theoretically lose about 8.5 pounds a month (1000 calories per day x 30 days / 3500 calories).

Initially you might see a noticeable loss of weight, but soon your body’s starvation response kicks in - slowing down your metabolism. This means you no longer need 2500 calories to keep your body functioning, but less - so your supposed reduction of calories is not as great as you once thought and this leads to a reduction in weight loss over time (i.e. weight loss slows down).

Disadvantages of drastic calorie reduction As already discussed, your metabolism slows down as a result of starving yourself but there are other implications as well:

1. When you reduce calories this drastically, you will also lose

valuable lean body mass (muscle weight) - the weight that you lose by going on such diets consists of about 25% muscle. This makes sense for the body, because muscles are not easy to maintain and cost the body more calories to maintain than fat. Losing lean body mass then becomes a double problem: you are not only losing something that is valuable and difficult to grow but you are losing something that would have been a valuable aid in helping you lose what you really want to lose: fat. Why? Because developed muscle need more calories just to sustain itself. In other words: You burn more calories simply by carrying more muscle, even while resting.

2. Diets that severely restrict calories or the types of food ‘allowed’ can lead you to be deficient in the nutrients and vitamins that your body needs.

3. Say you achieve some sort of short term success (“some sort” because you

have lost weight, but not fat) and have reached some acceptable weight. About 95% of people will then go back to their old way of eating, but guess what: with a now reduced metabolism comes the rebound: gaining back the weight they lost and more.

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Please Note: This is a sample chapter taken from The Weight Loss Formula.

The full product is available at www.the-weight-loss-formula.com

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