By: Sean Nalewanyj
Submitted: 2009-11-05 04:14:18 | Word Count: 890
The rate at which people gain and retain body fat is built into their DNA. From our body's perspective, we are still the same hunter-gatherers who were living 40,000 years ago!
When our bodies sensed that the famine had arrived (alerted by a severe drop in daily calories), our metabolism adjusted to burn calories more slowly so that we could increase our chances of survival.
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Even now, when we subject our body to a crash diet, limiting what we eat to lose weight fast, it uses the very same survival tactic, storing fat instead of losing it, because it instinctively senses a famine. When this happens, our metabolism responds by slowing down and trying to conserve calories in the form of fat.
If you do not eat to lose weight fast, you are only gearing your body to burn fewer calories and store a lot of fat, neither of which will help you reach your weight loss goal.
Plus, the body prefers to store energy in the form of fat, so almost 40% of the tissue that you burn to compensate for when you don't eat to lose weight fast will probably end up being muscle mass. This is not a good thing! Muscle tissue is metabolically active and can burn calories on its own; you do not want to lose it.
Also, lean muscle is what gives our body the appearance of being toned and fit. Believe it or not, but a person weighing 165 pounds, most of which is lean muscle and little fat, will actually appear thinner and healthier than someone weighing as less as 125 pounds, but with a lot of body fat and little lean muscle.
After your crash diet, you might be surprised to find that you weigh less but look fatter than you did before the diet. Plus, you've programmed your body to store fat, thereby damaging your metabolism. It only makes sense that once you resume eating regularly, you will most likely gain weight.
Forget what weight loss marketers and diet pill pushers tell you, fad diets are a recipe for weight gain. When you don't eat to lose weight fast, you are in fact charting on the course for weight gain.
It is possible to find a healthy and effective way to eat to lose weight fast, but it may not be quite as fast as you've been led to believe.
A diet plan, which is realistic and "doable" for a sustained time period is the only way to keep off the extra pounds. It must be an option that can be a lifestyle change that you enjoy.
Start with a manageable exercise routine and clean up your eating habits such that you can lose no more than 2 lbs of fat per week. You will be able to improve appearance rather quickly if you focus on losing fat and keeping the muscle mass; it doesn't sound like much, but it works wonders.
