Dieting Tips for Healthy Weight Loss

Q. I have "dieted" my whole life. About one year ago, I finally lost the weight I wanted, and I finally felt I looked better than ever before (weight-wise), but I was so exhausted and drained that I was not able to enjoy my new body. Every time I diet, I get exhausted. I have tried every diet there is. What can I do?

A. Since you didn't mention your caloric intake, assuming that you are not eating enough. Follow the 10x rule: eat 10x your body mass per day in calories; 115lb individual should eat minimum 1500cal/day just to maintain a normal metabolic function. Walk the dog; clean the house, get the mail, your caloric needs and intake should go up accordingly. If you eat less, your body believes that it is starving and will hoard what you take in. Dieters who loose a ton of weight will rebound as soon as they start eating normal amounts of food.

Fatigue is often a sign of an iron deficiency in women - the fact that you're not fond of meat (red meat in particular) makes me think you're iron levels could be low. A simple blood test can tell you this right away. Eating more red meat and taking a good multi vitamin (daily) with iron can help with this. Other sign of iron deficiency include splitting or weak nails, dull hair, tiredness, lethargy and dizziness.

Here is some general advice anyone on a diet should follow:

1. Eat breakfast. It truly is the most important meal of the day. After a night's sleep, your body has been fasting (break fast) and it needs fuel to get things working again.

2. Ditch the sweets. Refined sugar wreaks havoc with insulin and blood sugar levels. Eat a sweet, insulin production spikes to offset the increase in blood sugar. After time, blood sugar will plummet and you will be hungry. e Nix that baked potato and replace it with a sweet potato. Contrary to the name, sweet potatoes are better for you than regular white potatoes. There is this little guide out there that is call the Glycemic Index. It refers to the effect a food has on your blood sugar levels. The higher the number or "g.i" a food has the more it will cause your blood sugar and insulin levels to rise. All foods were measured against white table sugar, table sugar having a score of 100 for 100 grams. A white baked potato has a score of 115 on the G.I. This means that if I sit down and eat 100g of baked potato and 100g of sugar, the baked potato is going to raise my blood sugar higher than the sugar. It boggles the mind.

So, what's wrong with raised blood sugar? "What goes up, must come down" When blood sugar crashes after a high glycemic high carb meal, you feel awful. You become ravenously hungry, you get moody and you feel tired and lethargic. Other things are also going on (bad things relating to cholesterol and triglyceride levels) if left unchecked and allowed to persist it can lead to Type II diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.
If you like sweets, eat berries such as blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries with a little bit of Splenda on them. They are low on the glycemic scale and in moderate amounts will not wreak havoc on your blood sugar. Low glycemic (good) vegetable source carbs are sweet potatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, cauliflower, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and green peppers. Stay away from peas, carrots and white potatoes.

3. Eat protein and fat with every meal. That being said, cheese, cottage cheese, cream, butter, red meat, lean pork, chicken, fish, are all ok in moderation. Your body will use this for energy. Think of carbs as gasoline and protein and fat as diesel fuel. Your body will always burn carbs for fuel first, because they are easily converted into energy.

Protein and Fat a.k.a. diesel fuel is harder to process and long slow 'burn'. You stay satisfied longer after a meal. When eaten outside the presence of simple carbs, protein and fat are used exclusively for building/rebuilding your body and as fuel respectively. Think of what a caveman would eat: green leafy stuff, berries, meat, nuts and seeds. You'll sleep better, have higher energy levels, and stabilize your blood sugar and weight.

Protein is different from carbs and fat. It is special. Your body will only use protein for fuel as a last resort; it's far too important a commodity for that. Protein contains the building blocks that your body uses to make and repair cells, to create hormones and enzymes. Protein is vital to our survival. Protein, unlike fat, is not metabolically neutral. But unlike carbs it does not affect insulin. It affects insulin's opposite hormone, glucagons - the fat BURNING hormone. By including protein in every meal, you allow your body to repair and build what and where it needs. You also shift the balance of hormones from fat storing to fat burning. It's a win / win situation. The fat tastes good and fills you up; the protein allows your body to work and keep you healthy; the carbs are slow burning and wholesome. The net result is you feel better because your blood sugar is in check and you can lose weight (if you need to - if you do not then you will not; your body knows where it needs to be). You do all of this eating real food that tastes great and fills you up.

Stop counting calories. Realize that your body needs fuel to function, good quality high performance fuel. You can't get that from a box or from something that comes shrink-wrapped. Think whole, natural foods and forget about the calories.

4. Stay away from all forms of simple carbs: refined grains (cereal, white bread), refined sugar, potatoes, and pasta. A simple carb is a trisacharide, which is sugar by any other name. (see blood sugar comments in point 1.) It's perfectly ok to have bacon and eggs for breakfast. Just stay away from the toast, jam, and home fries.

5. Try to eat 6x a day so your body has a steady supply of energy. Remember, no calories. Just eat more frequent, smaller meals. A few ounces of protein (cottage cheese, 1/3 of a can of tuna, 2 oz of chicken, 2 eggs) some good slow burning carbs that will carry you through a few hours a toasted 100% whole wheat English muffin, 1/2 cup cooked steel cut oatmeal, 1/2 cup of sweet potatoes, 1 granny smith apple, a grapefruit, a cup of raspberries, and eat some. The very act of eating raises metabolism - skipping meals lowers it and puts your blood sugar all over the place.

6. Stay away from low/no fat foods because they are loaded with carbs, fillers, and not a natural source of nutrition.

7. One more thing to consider is weight lifting. At 115lbs if you were 20% body fat you would look a lot different than someone who was 115 lbs and 32% body fat. While the two of you might 'weigh' the same, one of you would be wearing clothing a lot smaller than the other. Weight lifting allows you to build lean mass and trade it in for fat mass. It's how you recompose your body. You can spend 6 months lifting heavy weights and not lose an lb - yet you drop 2 dress sizes. Exercised.... and weight bearing is the best kind because it builds lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle you have, the more your body will burn fat. As you build lean muscle, scale weight may go up but your measurements will stay the same as muscle is denser than body fat.

8. Say this to yourself repeatedly "Fat does not make you FAT" - honestly, it doesn't. Eating carbs causes insulin (the fat storing hormone) to rise by increasing glucose in the blood stream. Eating fat causes NOTHING to change hormonally in your body. Fat is metabolically neutral. It is also satiating and self-limiting. There's only so much of it you can eat before you are full. By including real, whole, GOOD fat in every one of your meals you feel satiated and you can go for 3 hours between meals. Your body also loves you for it. It doesn't think 'stress' or 'diet' and it will allow fat burning and fat loss to happen.

© DoItYourself.com 2006