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New Weight Loss Program – How to Make Your Diet Work

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This is a continuation of the article entitled, "Making Diets Work." In the original article, I introduced the concept of Diet ShockTM and its role in weight regain.

Statistically, two out of three dieters (roughly 68%) experience weight regain, which is gaining weight immediately after stopping a diet (in some cases during dieting). Weight regain posses a significant health risk to dieters because it initiates weight cycling, or the Yo-Yo Diet.

Why is this bad? Weight cycling has now been shown to decrease life expectancy rates and increase mortality associated with cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. For you, this means you must lose weight without gaining it back and avoid the dangerous cycle of the Yo-Yo Diet.

How do you diet to lose weight and not gain weight back? It's not easy but I will share with you a few steps from my own research to help make it possible.

Diet Shock to Weight Regain

A quick review is in order before sharing with you the steps involved to prevent weight regain. Diet shock is the body's reaction to eating fewer calories and losing weight.

Unfortunately, diets on the market today employ the exact method of weight loss that causes diet shock … severe calorie restriction producing extreme weight loss in the shortest time possible (aka, fast weight loss). This type of dieting method will eventually cause weight regain.

Why do the current dieting plans promote a weight loss method destined to fail? It's what you want. Fast and extreme weight loss is what sells. Slow and low weight loss (the method I designed several years ago for my overweight patients) does not satisfy the immediate gratification mentality of our society. In a nut shell, slow and low weight loss doesn't sell.

Once in diet shock, your body initiates a series of reactions that ultimately slow down your metabolic rate. From there, weight regain is just around the corner.

Remember, weight regain is not good for two reasons …

1. Leads to the Yo-Yo Diet, which has now been shown to be as much of a health risk as obesity.

2. Weight regain results from a slower metabolism brought about by the breakdown of muscle tissue. The weight you gain back is all fat, replacing the lean tissue (muscle) that was lost due to diet shock. You're actually worse off then you were before starting the diet.

In order for you to lose weight and keep it off, you must make your diet work by adding five simple solutions. As a whole, the five solutions will prevent diet shock and weight regain. Without the 5 simple solutions, weight regain is inevitable.

Five Simple Solutions for Losing Weight and Keeping it Off

1. Keep, tone, and build muscle through resistance exercises using resistance bands.

This is an easy way to, at least, tone muscle. Additionally, I teach a little trick that can actually tone muscle faster, in about half the normal time. It's simple and quick with one training session lasting only 30 minutes.

2. Add more protein and raw vegetables to your diet.

Just keep your total protein intake under 1.5 grams per kg of body weight (1 pound = 2.2 kg).

3. Shape your weight loss goals and cycle your diet.

On average, you can double your chance for weight loss success by doing applying the two techniques (based on research collected from my patients).

4. Exchange it, couple it, and combine it.

Three more techniques to almost guarantee your success at losing weight AND keeping it off.

5. Follow a maintenance plan to keep it off (it's almost like a separate diet).

The simple maintenance plan that I developed is an absolute requirement for successful prevention of weight regain.

Don't even try to diet without applying these simple solutions. For details, check out my site at the URL given in my Bio section.

To Healthy Living!

Michael A. Smith, MD

Chief Medical Consultant

Diet Basics Website

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Source by Michael Smith, MD

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The Milk Diet – Is it Your Solution for Losing Weight?

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For sometime now, you've been hearing about the Milk Diet and it's benefit in helping you lose weight. I recently searched on Google for the Milk Diet and could only find vague references to milk as a supplement to help you lose weight.

To date, there is no actual Milk Diet. Instead, supporters of milk as a supplement to losing weight suggest adding milk to any diet. They claim the amount of weight loss will increase simply by adding more whole milk to your diet.

So, does milk help to increase the amount of weight loss? If so, how does it work? First, here are some surprising facts about milk …

  1. It's normal to be lactose intolerant. That's right, about 85% of the world's population is lactose intolerant. As an adult, the enzyme that breaks down lactose, the main sugar in milk, no longer functions. Milk fat, the main benefit of drinking milk, is only necessary for newborns. Once you're old enough to eat solid food, there's no need for milk fat and the lactose enzyme becomes non-functional. This is why a majority of the world's population is lactose intolerant. You do not need to drink milk as an adult. But why are some people lactose tolerant? Cultures that live at the most Northern regions of each hemisphere do not receive enough sunlight to convert chemicals near the skin surface to vitamin D. To provide themselves with vitamin D, they have retained the function of the lactose enzyme. This accounts for only about 15% of the world's population.
  2. There are many other sources of vitamin D and calcium. As a matter of fact, milk racks some where in the middle as a good source of calcium. Here is a quick list of good sources of calcium … -Bean sprouts -Spinach, cooked -Collard greens, cooked -Mustard greens, cooked -Almonds -Chestnuts -Walnuts -Raw oysters -Shrimp -Salmon with bones -Garbanzo beans, cooked -Soybeans, cooked -Tofu, firm

The Milk Diet

The evidence that milk can help you lose weight is inconsistent at best. A few poorly designed studies show a benefit and a few poorly designed studies show no benefit and may even reverse your weight loss efforts.

These studies are poorly designed because they are not rigorously controlled and compared to a group not taking milk. There are a few studies about to finish and report their findings within the next couple of months.

I have decided to wait and not make any conclusions until the proper studies release their results. Until then, follow a more traditional method of losing weight. Restrict calories gradually and moderately. Reducing your caloric intake about 250-550 calories from your baseline per day and exercising will result in about 2-3 pounds of weight loss per week.

For more on the Milk Diet, visit … The Milk Diet

To Healthy Living!

Michael A. Smith, MD

Chief Medical Consultant

Diet Basics Website

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Source by Michael Smith, MD

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Weight Loss Online — The Fastest & Easiest Weight Loss Plan

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My first article provided steps for fast healthy weight loss. This was followed by my easy weight loss plan. So, if you combine the two, you’ll have my Fastest Easiest Weight Loss Plan — that you should never do!

Weight Loss Online — Avoid Fast Plans

Fast weight loss plans cause diet shock. If you’re not familiar with diet shock, read the article found at this link, Weight Loss Online–Diet Shock.

The faster you lose weight the greater the subsequent drop in your resting metabolic rate. Your body thinks it’s starving and in order to conserve energy it will slowdown the metabolic rate. This translates into fewer calories burned on a daily basis, which in turn, creates a positive energy balance.

A positive energy balance is simply extra calories left over at the end of the day that you store as fat, yippee! Unless, of course, you eat less and/or exercise more to compensate for the extra calories brought to you by your own body’s slower metabolism.

So, as you can see, you really shouldn’t like fast weight loss plans…unless it comes from me. My plan allows you to lose weight at the fastest possible rate while minimizing your body’s efforts to slow your metabolism.

Weight Loss Online — Avoid Easy Plans

What’s wrong with easy weight loss plans? Nothing. If a weight loss diet actually makes the weight loss process easier without setting the stage for weight re-gain (the inevitable weight gain after dieting) than by all means go for it.

Unfortunately and especially true for weight loss online, easy plans mean bad plans and lots of weight re-gain in the future. How? Easy usually means fast (see above on fast weight loss plans) and fast is usually achieved by severely restricting calories. Since you are basically starving, your metabolism slows and the weight re-gain chain reaction is on.

My easy weight loss plan will not slow your metabolism because I think it’s wrong to starve. My plan is exactly what it’s supposed to be…easy. It still works, but the work is easier to do.

Here is the plan for Fast & Easy Weight Loss Online…

Week One — Cut calories by 100, do nothing else.

Week Two — Cut additional 250 calories (total=350) and add a protein shake with mostly whey protein. For most people, replacing a meal with the protein shake will give a net reduction of about 300-350 calories.

Week Three — Cut another 250 calories (total=600) and drink two shakes of mostly whey protein. The best time to drink them is in the morning and in the middle of your longest period of not eating. For me, I don’t eat from 3 pm until 8 or 9 at night. So I will drink a shake in the morning and one around 5 pm.

Week Four — Repeat week three.

Week Five — Repeat week two by adding back 250 calories and drinking one shake.

Week Six — Repeat week one by adding back 250 calories.

Repeat the entire cycle until you reach your ideal weight.

If you follow the steps outlined above, you will lose weight at the highest rate allowed for healthy weight loss (4 pounds per week). Plus it’s a breeze to follow.

We’ll that’s it for my fast and east weight loss plan. Now, once you start this plan, make sure you prepare for your real problem…weight re-gain.

To Healthy Living

Michael Smith, MD

Diet Basics

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Source by Michael Smith, MD