Chronic Dieting

I came across another article today that caught my eye. It is featured in Women's Health magazine: "Losing Weight Help: Why Fat Comes Back." Many people trying to lose weight seem to restrict their diets severely and force themselves into very strenuous exercise patterns that very few people will ever be able to maintain. This may work in the short term, but then when the dieting period is over, the weight may come right back. This article has some good points in it in regards to this issue.

Some important things to remember: eating less often leads to the body maintaing stores of fat. Our bodies have not evolved in all the ways we may think it should have. In the past, humans went through periods of not being able to find sufficient supplies of food. Our bodies react to this by storing up the fat we have existing on our bodies and burning off muscle for energy. If you are eating too little, you might have a more difficult time maintaining muscle and burning fat. Skipping meals is also dangerous. Always start out your day with breakfast to get your metabolism going. Again, skipping a meal, particularly at the beginning of the day, can trigger the body to go into "starvation mode" and hold onto your fat. If you cannot manage several small meals throughout the day, aim for your biggest meal to be around midday. This is when the body is in it's peak calorie burning time.

If you do decide you need to lose weight, try to listen to your body. If you are craving something, eat it. Maybe you need some nutrient in that food. Otherwise, you're wasting energy stressing about those "bad" foods. Try to find a diet and exercise plan you can maintain, otherwise the weight will always come right back.