Weight Loss, Dieting & ObesityAnother WebTrev.Com Health Services specialist sub-site. |
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Maintain Muscle Mass & Lean Body Tissue to Burn Body Fat.One of the most common errors made by overweight and obese people in their desperation to lose weight is to focus too heavily on weight loss, rather than more specifically on body fat loss. In particular, those who seek rapid weight loss most usually fail to achieve rapid fat loss. By making this mistake, many diet or adopt lifestyles that produce (usually temporary) weight loss from dehydration and loss of lean body tissue (loss of muscle mass). Why is this a mistake? Put simply, muscle mass burns calories. Even when at rest, muscle mass burns calories. Although different sources quote different estimates, by the more conservative estimates each pound of muscle tissue burns around 100 calories per week. Therefore, if your weight loss includes loss of muscle mass or lean body tissue, your metabolic rate drops. Your body simply will not burn as many calories as it did before you lost the muscle mass. Thus begins the dreadful self-defeating slide of the dieter.... The overweight person seeks to lose weight and adopts a diet/program that not only loses some body fat, but also results in loss of muscle mass. Suddenly, the diet no longer works. Even while sticking to the diet, the body starts to gain weight because the reduced muscle mass means your metabolic rate has dropped. Eventually, you regain all of the weight you lost - even though you are no longer eating as much as you were in the first place. The dream of rapid fat loss suddenly turns into the nightmare of rebound weight gain. You've become one of the 95% of people for whom permanent weight loss remains elusive. What is an overweight or obese person to do? The first thing to do is refocus on what really matters. What really matters is body fat loss - not mere weight loss. The need is to focus on lifelong dietary, exercise and lifestyle patterns that promote both:
There are at least three simple things you can do support, maintain and even build lean muscle mass and therefore increase the rate at which your body requires calories by burning body fat. Incorporate these three things into your overall life-long dietary, exercise and lifestyle change to support your muscle mass and you will dramatically enhance your permanent weight loss / body fat loss efforts: Firstly - Amino Acids and Proteins:Building muscle mass require proteins and amino acids for their health and development. (This is, at least in part, why high protein diets are producing better weight loss results for more people in current times than low protein diets.) The most prolific and diverse source of the full spectrum of amino acids nature provides is found in egg whites. Not all eggs are created equal. The healthiest eggs are laid by the healthiest hens. Shop for eggs that are labelled as both free range and organically fed. Another little discussed fact about eggs is that they are healthiest for the human body when eaten raw. This is for many reasons, the three most important being:
Another valuable protein related substance that supports muscle mass while reducing body fat (and enhancing your immune system, amongst other benefits) is Conjugated Linoleic Acid. Although not actually an amino or protein, CLA is only found as a component of certain protein-rich foods. A one year study published in the June 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has shown that supplementation with CLA reduces Body Fat Mass and increases Lean Body Mass in humans, independently of diet or exercise. Although trace amounts of CLA is found in all red meats and dairy products, modern farming, feeding and production methods unfortunately have dramatically reduced the level of CLA in the foods we usually eat. The best sources of CLA come from wild game meat - not farm-raised. In the USA, for example, Bison amongst others is a good source if you can find a supplier. In Australia, Kangaroo meat is also high in CLA. As an additional advantage, such wild game meats are much lower in saturated fats and cholesterol than farm raised meats, and contain around five times the level of Omega 3 fatty acids, too. Wild game meats generally contain tens times more CLA than farm raised meats. If you cannot find a supplier of wild game meats, your next best alternative for CLA is to find organically raised, grass fed beef, and raw (non-pasteurized) dairy products sourced from organically raised grass fed cows. Secondly - CalciumCalcium is a vital mineral for building muscle mass and maintenance. Recent research from the University of Tennessee* compared two groups of dieters in a controlled study. With equal calorific intakes, one group was assigned a high calcium diet (three serves of yoghurt per day), the other a low calcium diet. After twelve weeks, it was found that the high calcium group lost almost double the weight of the low calcium group. The high calcium group also had a significantly lower level of loss of muscle mass. The lesson here is that, although many diets recommend eliminating dairy to eliminate calories from fats, that advice is counter-productive. Dairy is a vital part of the dieter's armory as the calcium supports muscle mass retention and it's resultant weight loss through higher metabolic rates and increased body fat burning. A word of caution - it is very unlikely that "calcium supplements" would produce the desired benefits. The rock-form of calcium found in most calcium supplements are not easily absorbed by the human body. Some estimates suggest an absorption rate of as little as only 5%. Food sources of calcium, particularly dairy, are much more rapidly and easily absorbed by the human body. * Zemel MB et al. Dairy (yogurt) augments fat loss and reduces central adiposity during energy restriction in obese subjects. FASEB. 2003;17(5):A1088 Factiva / Metabolism: study finds yogurt may help burn body fat. Obesity & Diabetes Week 12 May 2003 Thirdly - Strength Training ExerciseWhile walking is a common enough (and valuable) exercise activity for dieters, and while it certainly does exercise leg muscles, the upper body muscles gain little benefit. Exercising muscles is an essential part of maintaining and building muscle mass. The old saying applies: "If you don't use it, you'll lose it." In fact, research indicates that weight loss through diet alone without exercise will reduce your muscle mass by one pound for each three pounds of fat lost. Stated another way, 25% of the weight loss will be loss of muscle mass. You do not require the types of extreme measures that will turn you into a Mr. Universe candidate. Just simple, appropriate upper body "resistance training" exercise for 15 minutes per day is all that is required. Firstly, though, an explanation is needed as to what type of exercise this means. It means weight bearing exercise, or exercise that puts your muscles under pressure. This type of exercise is generally done in a repetitious fashion and of itself burns few calories. It does, however, pump up muscle mass - which in turn burns calories even at rest. Many people ignore upper body strength training, thinking that it requires a Gymnasium membership or all sorts of expensive and heavy, bulky equipment. It doesn't require these at all, though if available they can certainly be used for resistance training. In fact, some of the most effective types of upper body resistance training require absolutely no equipment at all - Push-ups & Sit-ups. It is acknowledged, though, that past a certain level of obesity, the human physique may not be capable of performing Push-ups. (Belly hitting the ground even when arms are extended, arms not being strong enough to even hold the grossly overweight body, and so forth.) Push-ups & Sit-ups should pose no problems, though, for most people who are not obese, but "merely overweight". As with all exercise, start off with just a few a day and each day add one more to each session. Another popular option is to work out for 15 minutes per day with hand weights / hand dumbells. These are readily obtainable from any sports store and generally come with a set of instructions with sample exercises. Start with a light weight set (1kg / 2lb) until your sessions get too easy and pose no real challenge to your muscles. At that point, you will need to invest in a heavier set of hand dumbells. (Say, 2kg / 4lb). Eventually, you will also find that these no longer challenge your muscles and you will have to purchase yet another, heavier set. My preferred option may cost a little more at first, but will be a once-only cost - certainly cheaper than several sets of hand dumbells of varying weights. It is fully scaleable to handle heavier workloads as your muscle mass and strength develops. The product is called a "Bullworker". It is suitable for both men and women, and at all stages of upper body resistance training from absolutely untoned beginner through to body building champions (not that the should be the goal of people seeking weight loss). The "Bullworker" comes with an instruction manual detailing 40 different types of muscle building exercises covering all muscle groups, particularly in the abdominal and upper body regions. As always, when using a "Bullworker", start with low levels of intensity and increase the intensity as your muscles adapt to the workload. For people seeking to maintain or build muscle mass to support their metabolic rate, a daily 15 minute session with a "Bullworker" is all that is required. (Click the advertisement in the column to the right for further information, pricing, delivery and ordering.) Minor CautionDo not get discouraged if, while you are honestly and diligently sticking with your dietary, exercise, stress management and other support mechanisms, you discover that you actually gain a little weight - or hit a plateau - while strength training. This is to be expected as building muscle mass means heavier muscles. Not only to be expected, it is to be desired. The weight gain or the plataue will be only temporary, while muscle is building faster than body fat is burning. Muscle weighs more than body fat - but remember that your objective is not merely to lose "weight" but to lose body fat. Any short term rise in weight due to improved muscle mass sould be treated and considered as good news, as it will accelerate your ongoing efforts to lose body fat. There will be periods where the weight loss is slow. There will be periods where you will experience more rapid fat loss as you continue building muscle mass. |
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