HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT - 5 EFFORTLESS WAYS .

 

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT - 5  EFFORTLESS  WAYS .

If you understand the basic inner functioning of your body then staying fit or losing weight will never be at all complicated for you. My effort is to try to tackle the most important health & fitness issues  of the day in a natural , simple & safe way.

In this blog we will try to understand the truth about how to lose weight once and for all . Weight loss fails because people do it wrong due to some misconception. Eating less and going hungry doesn't work. You must address the reason you are hungry. If you do it right it won't be a struggle and you won't gain it back. Just because there is no such thing as instant weight loss tips, or quick fixes does not mean that weight has to be painful. The willpower only consists being willing to learn how it really works and choosing the right foods and eating patterns.

Millions of people try to lose weight and only end up gaining all back, why does it happen to 98% of the people ? Do they do not have strong enough intention or willpower or are they lazy ?  NO, it is because they are doing it wrong & then they are being lied to and told that you need to eat less & exercise more , & still if it does not work, then you are made to believe the reason of not working is - you do not have the willpower , the motivation , the character or what ever it is. After some time these people do not have anything alternative , so start doubting themselves, feel guilty and shameful , thinking "there is something wrong in me". But that is not how it works, the OBESITY epidemic is exponential , but it is not because the earth has been overwhelming with bunch of people who do not have a will power, it is because we have changed the way we eat & we have changed the way we live. There is hope , there is nothing wrong with your will power or your character , what needs to change is your understanding what the real problem is. 

We need to understand the 5 BASIC SECRETS :

                           

1) Don't ever go on a DIET - because it did not work last time and it hasn't worked for millions of people trying it over & over , diets don't work - when you go on a diet at some point you plan to go off a diet. The very idea that you are going to go ON something implies that you are going to get OFF it, then you will be right back where you started, & that's why we have such YO YO dieters. The problem is when you think eating less & exercising more , then you are going to get hungry and you can only  keep it up so long & then you fail , feel guilt , shame & end up stop trying , as a result you have fear of failure & you are afraid of going on diet next time as you are afraid of getting hungry , because that's what happened last time you tried.

Number one misconception that we have to get over is "CALORIES IN & CALORIES OUT". Yes, We all understand the first law of thermodynamics - energy remains constant in a closed system, but  we need to understand that Calorie is not calorie, they behave differently , they change your behaviour, some calories are going to stimulate hunger , some calories are going to satiate hunger - they are going to trigger different hormones , trigger different behaviour, you already know this - 500 calorie of stake is not the same satisfaction as 500 calorie of potato chips , you know there is a difference, your body responds differently. This concept of "Calories in & Calories out" is like doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.

It is OK to do a cleanse  for a week or 2 - 3 weeks once in a while , but should never go on a diet. We are talking about a life style change , that once you start implementing it , you only make changes that you plan to keep up for the rest of your life. Otherwise you are going to go ON & then OFF, and end up where you started.

                    

2) Address the ROOT CAUSE -  If your body is behaving in a certain way , there is a reason for that , there is a reason that you are hungry, there is a reason the food impacts you differently,  & those reasons that change your behaviour differently are called hormones . The hormone imbalance is the root cause , you can not keep the hormone imbalance & override it with willpower. 

The hormones here in question are primarily are INSULIN, CORTISOL, LEPTIN & GROWTH HORMONE. 

Insulin is a fat storing hormone, when you eat food your blood sugar goes up , insulin is released to take the blood sugar out of the blood stream , sugars & carbohydrates trigger the most blood sugar , so they trigger the most insulin , as a result they have the strongest tendency to store fat. Insulin promotes the conversion of carbohydrates to fat & prevents the conversion of fat into energy. If we want to get into fat burning you can not do it by exercising & eating less , you have to reduce insulin dominance , insulin resistance in your body .

Cortisol is another hormone , it is a stress hormone , that is when you have lot of stress your body does everything it can, it burns every bridge possible to get your blood sugar up , it perceives that there is an emergency when you are stressed & then you need more of the short term fuel called carbohydrate & blood sugar , but when your blood sugar goes up & you are not moving because you are sitting as you are stressed throughout the day , so there is no outlet for that blood sugar so the insulin has to put it back in to the cell & now we see cortisol drives insulin & insulin resistance.

Leptin is a satiety hormone , it regulates how full you feel & how safe your body feels in using energy , so when you are leptin sensitive then leptin signals that we have had enough & it is safe to burn off some for energy , but when you are leptin resistant then you are not sensitive, that is your brain is not sensing the message , then even though you have eaten enough but still you are not satisfied , but even worse is, it does not feel safe to burn some of that energy that you ate & that you have stored, you are still in eating mode & fat storing mode. It is Insulin that primarily turns off the sensitivity to leptin.

Growth Hormone is a fat burning hormone , it is also a muscle building hormone. It is primarily triggered by fasting that is when you don't eat , then the body feels there is no food so let's burn some fat , but insulin pretty much turns off the growth hormone . When we eat frequent meals or eat lot of food that triggers insulin then growth hormone will be always low . 

An imbalance in these hormones make you hungry. Hunger is not that with which you can fight for too long , certainly not for rest of your life. So if you are hungry , your body is screaming for food, the more you try to deny the need , the more the body is going to scream & it is not sustainable.  Calorie restriction diet is not sustainable , your own common sense  & experience will verify that. 

If we are ever want to get to a place where we are effortlessly living & losing weight , then the only way is to get these hormones in balance , that is with a life style & types of food that we eat , not the amount of food that we eat.

                 

3) Understand what food is , we have completely lost track , we completely lost all concept as a culture of what food is , we think that something we put in our mouth that gives you some sort of gratification for few minutes , that is not what food is . Let us think about it in this way - think of any other animal on this planet that has a widespread problem with obesity & weight control , of course not , elephants & whales are super heavy but they are not obese, they are suppose to be heavy , the amount of fat they have is appropriate for that species ,there are no over weight animals in the wild on a regular widespread basis, because they eat real food , they eat that is appropriate for their species , & because it is a real food it has dense nutrients, because it stimulates & promotes appropriate hormones and it is satiety, then hunger turns on & off appropriately, that is what real food does. We have lost that ability to determine what appropriate hunger & satiety is , we eat too much then slow down our metabolism , because we have eaten food that destroys our hormonal balance. We eat processed food , we eat man made food , the only other animals on the planet that have weight problem are the pets. Natural whole food provided by the planet promotes health & it does not create health imbalances or weight problem or hunger issues. 

Most people today would agree to minimising processed food , but disagree on what real or normal food is , especially about fat , because we have got this fat-phobia, somewhere down the line because of some wrong reasons we decided fat is bad - that was the monumental mistake , because fat is the preferred fuel for the body . So, those who oppose low carb high fat movement & the ketogenic movement , they think a high fat diet is unnatural , they say that it is extremely high fat & low carb diet so it is not sustainable - this is a misconception. Ever since we got the enormous boom in processed food our graph for obesity went on going up. So we need to understand that what they called extremely high fat & low carb food is actually normal food , it is a whole food because it is pretty much as it came out of earth.

                    

4) Take Action - the first action that we need to take is reduce sugar , because when it comes to health, sugar is the root of all evil. It  does the two things that are most detrimental to human health - glucose raises blood sugar & fructose clogs the liver and creates insulin resistance . Glucose speeds up your blood sugar fluctuations , it makes you hungry & fructose is a liver toxin . Table sugar is 50% each of the two worst things that we have ever come across, & what makes sugar toxic is the concentration, because it is a natural molecule , it is the molecule of plant life. When we eat vegetables we get 1-3% of sugar but it is packaged with lots of water , fibre , minerals & enzymes, and the things that we need to break that down.  So, it is the delivery method that is different, & we can never get more than 2-3 tea spoons of sugar that the earth produces, but when we refine it then there is no limit , now we are getting 10-20 times more sugar in a concentrated form & the dose makes the poison . Sugar is extremely toxic.We should never take more than 2-3 tea spoons in a day from all sources of refine sugar.

                    

Next we need to reduce processed foods & carbohydrates, now it depends on the person how far they have to go , if you are not terribly unhealthy , if you are not too insulin resistant , if your hormone system is not much out of balance , then it might be enough you cut out most of the sugars & most of the processed foods & go on and eat some of the other carbs like potatoes & rice , if this works for you then it's great. That means your weight wasn't stubborn on the first place , you were just eating too much of the wrong things that promoted hunger . But for lot of people weight is little more stubborn , so now it is not enough to reduce sugar & processed food, but have to go for low carb high fat diet or even have to go for a ketogenic diet where you are cutting the carbohydrate so low that you are forcing your body to re-evaluate to learn how to use fat for fuel again. In a weight loss process there is no quick fix , you have to take it as a journey , you have to make a commitment of what steps you are going to take , it does not mater whether you want to go slow or fast , that's more of a personality thing , some people are committed to do things really fast , but other people function better if they do gradually. The best way is to introduce it as a life style which you can do for rest of your life.

                

You have to develop new recipes & habits that you can take along with. Part of your action steps has to include EXERCISE , the reason you need to exercise is your brain needs it, your brain controls everything about body , the signals generated by movements feeds the brain , body movement or exercise is the number one signal nutrient , exercise thus promotes better hormone balance , promotes better circulation, detoxification and many more benefits when you exercise. Then you should also do MEDITATION, because meditation is a great way to reset your body , it de-stresses , it puts your body in a healing state . Think of the body as chemical, structural & emotional , with exercise you are addressing some of the structural , with better nutrition & food you are addressing the chemical & with meditation you are addressing the emotional aspect . Thus giving your body a well rounded solution.

               

5) DO NOT SET A WEIGHT LOSS GOAL - it is all right to know where you are & where you want to go , but do not force yourself into a time line because that's going to back fire , the reason that you are not going to use the weight as the goal because it is not the ROOT CAUSE , it is not the problem, weight is the result of the imbalance , it is the imbalance that you want to address. You should set goal in terms of health , set in terms of positive & quality of life , habits you want to develop , how you want to feel doing these things. 

If you set a weight loss goal - by so much weight by such & such date , that is not on which you have control over , if you want it to happen effortlessly in a balance & natural way , then first have to solve the root cause, then your body will naturally do things in proper sequence. What you can do is you measure & track your blood markers & weight but more like a positive observation, if it happens , then it happens, do not set time frame, let it unfold by itself in time.