Nutrition Articles - The Last New Year's Resolution

The Last New Year's Resolution

by Gay Riley, MS, RD, CCN
NetNutritionist.com

A new year is upon us. It is clear that the past technology decade has revealed to us enough information about the benefits of exercise and nutrition to prevent disease and illness. We also have the scientific formula to mold the body into a lean energy efficient, fat-burning machine.

Information is available every where we look. Magazines inundate us with anything and everything anyone could need to know about having a beautiful body. So why is gaining and losing weight an American pastime? Some haute couture designers even claim that custom fittings for woman’s garment will take three to six fittings because measurements fluctuate so much from one fitting to the next.

Resolve to make 2001 your year for moderation; for maintaining or building muscle and losing body fat. Manage food behaviors instead of restricting food. Here are some other new behaviors to incorporate into your new healthier lifestyle:

Be your own positive coach. Say positive things to yourself instead of negative self-talk. You will soon start to think more positively about the world around you as well as your attitudes about food and your body.
Learn to manage your stress. One of the most common manifestations of stress is overeating. The two other most common signs of unmanaged stress are insomnia and overworking.
Make it a rule to eat at least three meals a day to avoid ever getting hungry and overeating. Eat most of your food throughout the day rather than late at night.
Make moving your body a way of life and recreation. Organize family and friends to participate in active time together like miniature gold, Frisbee, dancing, etc. instead of eating out and going to the movies. Stretch or do weights, Dynabands, or other activities while you watch television.
Don’t deprive yourself of foods that you enjoy. Make tasty and low-calorie modifications of your favorite foods and keep the ingredients on hand at all times. Try one delicious, healthy new food recipe a week. Being prepared by keeping snacks and foods that you enjoy and that don’t sabotage your fitness goals will minimize overeating, impulsive eating and bingeing on high-calorie, high-fat, high-sugar foods.
Eat about 5-10 grams of fat and 1-3 ounces of protein or high protein food at each meal to satisfy your appetite and stabilize your blood sugar. Don’t load up on non-fat, low-fat, or convenience foods or you may overeat your calorie needs.
Never eat fewer than 500 calories a day less than your maintenance calories or you’ll lose muscle that’s needed to burn calories. If you lose weight too quickly, you’ll end up gaining more weight than you lost, and it may be harder to lose next time around. As a rule, you should never eat less than 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. The reason? You’ll reach a point where you can’t lose or reach a weight-loss plateau -- and then what will you do?

If you know that you are eating the correct amount of food and are exercising, and you’re still stuck on a fat loss plateau, change the exercise and/or the intensity of the workout. Chances are you have become physically efficient at your current activity or your are no longer physically challenged by the current workload. If you’re walking, throw in some sprints or bike at a higher intensity. Also, include strength training and resistance work into your fitness plan. Resistance training will cause your metabolic rate to be elevated for a longer time after the workout is over because the body must repair the tissue damage t the muscle that is worked, causing calories to be burned. (This actually takes about 48 hours to complete.) (See related article: Overcoming Fat Loss or Weight Loss Plateaus)

It’s important to concentrate on fat loss over weight loss. The body is composed of fat tissue and fat free tissue (Lean Body Mass or LBM). Lean Body Mass consists of water, muscle, bones and organs. About 74% of LBM is water. If you had one hundred pounds of LBM, 74 pounds would be water! The other 26 pounds would consist of bone, muscle and organs. So really, all pure muscle is water inside of thin membranes of metabolically active protein.

In the absence of available carbohydrates, the body will break down muscle tissue (protein) and turn it into sugar. Once this muscle is gone, the only way it can be replaced is through strength or resistance training or gaining weight, which causes resistance to the bone.

Losing weight quickly (more than an average of two pounds per week) will ensure that a minimum of 25 percent of the weight you lose will be lean muscle tissue. If more than 25 percent of the weight you lose is from lean muscle tissue, you will not only easily regain the lost weight, but you’ll most likely gain additional weight.

Calories (i.e. body fat) are burned in muscle tissue. One pound of muscle tissue burns about 35 to 75 calories daily and consists of 450 calories of stored energy. Body fat stores calories. One pound of fat burns about eight calories daily and stores 3,500 calories of energy.

Muscle tissue weighs more than fat tissue because it’s 70 percent water while fat is 20 percent water. Rapid weight loss and undereating result in a loss of muscle tissue for energy and a decrease in metabolism.

Now that you’ve got a plan to work with, make a commitment to a healthier new year. Think of 2001 as a new and glorious beginning!