Why Weight Loss Diets Fail

FACT: The United States Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) has come hard on the weight loss methods because of the FALSE CLAIMS of providing you with Permanent Weight Loss

FACT: The FDA has done so because well over 90 percent of the people who buy into the popular weight loss programs on the market today end up gaining most or all of the weight back within a year or two. Why is this so?

ONE MORE FACT:

During the past 40-5O years there have been well over 2OOO weight loss strategies/ programs marketed in this country. This remarkable statistic gives vivid testament to the "thin is in" mentality most Americans have grown to espouse. It's good that we feel this way. Most of us are painfully aware of the many health risks associated with obesity, and woefully ignorant of how to avoid it.

Almost all of the weight loss strategies fall into the following few categories:
a. Medical (drugs) therapies b. Psychological strategies c. Nutritional supplements d. Food (diet) manipulation e. Surgical techniques f. Exercise techniques g. Calorie restriction h. Herbal therapies i. Various therapeutic modalities

If the truth be known: Almost none have worked on a permanent basis.
No fat loss system has ever managed to PERSONALIZE everyone's fat loss strategy because, for reasons related to marketing constraints, no one has ever considered it to be possible (profitable). Yet personalizing your approach is crucial to the success and permanence of your fat-loss efforts. The answer lies in taking an integrated approach, with each element matched to your specific situation.

Genetic (hereditary) factors Your medical history Your unique biochemistry Your unique metabolism Your current state of health Your financial status The environment you live in Your tastes in foods Your current level of fitness Your unique psychology Many personal lifestyle considerations.

These are the dynamic, and ever-changing elements which determine the permanence and effectiveness of your fat loss efforts. The science of fat loss has never been exploited on a broad-based level because of the complexity of the problem.

So, let's review things a bit. There are really only three ways to lose weight: 1) dehydration, 2) fat loss, and 3) lean muscle weight loss. Fat loss is the ONLY acceptable route for you.
Dehydration is never healthy or acceptable, and losing lean muscle is totally counter to everything that a healthy, fitness-oriented lifestyle stands for.

According to conventional theory, fat loss can only be accomplished three ways: 1) with exercise, 2) through reduced caloric intake, or 3) through a combination of the two. But the long list of factors mentioned above tells us that conventional wisdom is woefully inadequate.

THE ZIGZAG -METHOD OF FAT LOSS
"I eat like a BIRD, and I still gain weight!" , "No matter WHAT I do, I get fatter and fatter!" , "All I have to do is SMELL food and I put on weight!"

Anyone who has been around the fitness world for any length of time has heard these complaints before. Even athletes and bodybuilders preparing for competition often have trouble shedding those last couple of pounds of third place rendering muscle-masking ugliness called adipose. Everyone’s body has a set point for metabolism and it is difficult to get past this point on a long term basis.

Scientists have long known that stringent dieting causes a corresponding drop in resting metabolic rate (called "basal" metabolic rate, or "BMR"), making it difficult, and often impossible, to continue the fat-shedding process. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania performed a 48 week research study which explored this phenomenon. They came up with some intriguing findings that you - elite athlete or couch potato - can definitely benefit from.

The study involved 18 women weighing an average of 216 pounds at the beginning of the research period. Half received a 1,200 calorie per day diet, and the other half received 16 weeks of a common meal replacement liquid followed by a conventional weight reducing diet. All of the fat women walked to increase their caloric burn.

While the BMRs of both groups fell after 5 weeks, it fell significantly more for those taking the meal replacement supplement (the more stringent of the two experimental treatments). Their BMRs quickly returned to a level considered normal for their new (lower) bodyweight. After the 48 weeks the BMRs of both groups had dipped an average of 9 percent, and their percentages of bodyfat had dropped an average of 16-19 percent.

Now, what's interesting about this study findings (other than the relatively predictable outcome that the crash dieters weren't any better off than the moderate dieters After 48 weeks) is that scientists had previously assumed that any drop in weight triggered a permanent, corresponding drop in BMR. A permanently lowered BMR would mean that a dieter would not burn calories as rapidly and might therefore regain the lost pounds or have real problems shedding more pounds.

Of course, the mechanism responsible for this highly undesirable turn of events is the loss in lean muscle. It's simple: bigger muscles burn more calories than little muscles. If you are losing weight from both fat and muscle your ability to continue losing fat - and keep it off - is literally sacrificed.

Scientists are finally beginning to gamier some hard data supporting what we of Irondom have known for a long, long time. That is, there's a way to lose fat and still maintain a reasonably high BMR so your fat loss process can continue smoothly. It's called the "zigzag" method of fat loss, and it works better than any fat loss method there is. Why? It's permanent. Permanent, that is, if you continue to eat 5 or 6 smaller meals per day and exercise regularly. It also allows you to maintain (or improve) your lean muscle mass.

The Zig-Zag method keeps your body off guard so it never knows what caloric level will be intaken for the day. It will burn calories as it assumes that there will be more coming in when in fact there may be only a limited amount for that day so fat stores are used for energy!

Let me explain. Please refer to the following tables. You'll notice that as you reduce your caloric intake and increase your caloric burn your percent bodyfat drops correspondingly. But so does your BMR. Then, to force your BMR back to a normal level, you begin eating normally again for a brief period
.
What happens is that your bodyfat level again begins to climb, but not so high as it was at the beginning. Then you lower your caloric intake again; down goes your bodyfat. Eat normal again, and up the bodyfat goes - again, not so high as it was before. This process continues until your bodyfat percentage is at healthful levels.

By zigzagging your caloric intake like this, you ultimately allow periodic BMR adjustments to take place, bringing it back to a level corresponding to your new (lower) body weight. Then it's easy to begin losing fat again, and again. If you simply trying going down, down down in bodyfat, your BMR never has a chance to adjusted and your fatloss efforts 90 become harder and harder until, in thorough frustration, you binge out and get fat again - forever.

The key to the entire process, is weight training. Without the weight training your lost weight will be from lean tissue, NOT only fat! And don't try to do it too quickly! Even with weight training starvation diets will cause too much lost muscle rather than only fat.

Walking is OK for those considered "chronically" fat. For those of you who are only slightly overweight other forms of aerobic exercise are excellent for maintaining great cardiovascular fitness. Even for such people weight training stands out as the single best method there is for ensuring that gradually lost weight will come from fat stores, and not hard-won muscle tissue. This is because aerobic training simply does not build muscle to the extent that weight training can.

Further, when you couple the zigzag method and weight training with moderate aerobic exercise and a careful diet and supplement program, you will be amazed at how easy it is to lose fat, and how utterly enjoyable it is to keep it off forever. Your new lifestyle will ensure that!

Finally, for you diehard athletes or fitness freaks out there who insist on getting fat between contests or during the winter months of inactivity, I have only a couple of things to say: 1) change your slovenly ways, or 2) if you don't, be prepared to suffer-the indignation associated with being overweight, always "on a diet," and in a rut wherein you never quite realize your true potential as an athlete.