Reaching Your Diet Goal is Only the Beginning

fitness1It may be hard to believe, but losing weight is the easy part of your journey to your ideal body weight and form.

Unfortunately most people do not consider how they are going to handle their new life after they actually lose their excess weight. In other words, how in the heck do you keep that hard-earned weight-loss off your body once you have reached your goal?

Without knowing that ahead of time you are entering into an unfinished plan and dangerous waters. [Read more…]

Are You Busy “Weight-cycling” Rather Than Losing Weight Permanently?

yo-yo dietingWeight cycling…a term that experts use to define what others call yo-yo dieting is becoming a national pastime.

Truth is the world is obsessed with dieting and bottom line is 99 ½% of diets simply do not work because you are taking yourself into a temporary plan. Temporary plans are just that…temporary. The results are going to be temporary when you engage a temporary diet…one that asks you to change your diet…temporarily.

Have you figured out that the keyword here is “temporary”?

Unfortunately, no matter how good we are on our diets…no matter if we stick to the diet to the end, if your diet is not a complete lifestyle change that takes you into the future then your temporary results disappear after a short while.

Most people simply regain what they have taken off when dieting and this kicks in “weight cycling” or yo-yo dieting and the reason a typical dieter begins a new diet plan as many as 4 times a year. The results simply don’t stick around.

The problem is…your waistline is not the only thing taking a hit when you yo-yo. “Repeated crash dieting increases metabolic hormones such as insulin, and elevates levels of sex hormones, including estrogen,” says Andrea Pennington MD. These types of changes cause you to add weight to your middle section…not a good thing because it is linked to insulin resistance, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. [Read more…]

Thyroid Dysfunction and Yo-Yo Dieting

thyroid-weight-lossHormones are chemical substances produced in the body that control and regulate the activity of certain cells and organs. Life would not exist without hormones doing their jobs; they essentially affect every activity of life…digestion, metabolism, reproduction, growth and mood.

Thyroxine, one of two thyroid hormones (the other is triiodothyronine) is incredibly important because it controls the rate at which our cells burn energy…in other words, our metabolic rate.

Thyroxine is also called T4 and is made up of the amino acid tyrosine and 4 iodine atoms. Even though T4 has little effect on our cells, enzymes in the liver and kidneys convert T4 to T3, an active hormone that stimulates our cells and thyroid receptors which in turn affects our metabolism. [Read more…]

You Can Beat Yo-Yo Dieting

Weight cycling is the cycle of repeated loss and gains in weight.

Anyone who repeatedly loses weight and gains it back again is “weight cycling”. These losses can be anywhere from large loss/gains of 50 lbs. or more to smaller loss/gains. Often when people diet they end up in “weight cycling” and when this happens it becomes “yo-yo dieting” and the more you go through this type of dieting, (gaining and losing cycles) the more you’ll be convinced that you can ever be free of this constant depressing motion. [Read more…]