Captain Ahab’s BodyBlog

One of the most serious, albeit silent epidemics we face is that of obesity. It plagues youth, adolescents and adults alike. We now have the fattest society of people to ever inhabit North America.
Despite countless books, movies and television programs and the efforts of experts the scale is still steadily moving upwards. Millions have tried dieting to lose their excess weight only to fail and with each failure comes disappointment, discouragement and even heartbreak. They turn from each new and highly touted “miracle” diet or pill in desperate hopes that this might be the one. The one that makes the fat go away.
In reality the solution is not really that difficult. It comes down to energy in versus energy out. You need to think of food and eating as energy in and if energy going into your body equals the same amount of energy that your body is putting out then you probably should and would maintain the weight you are now at. If the amount of energy going in is less than the amount of energy going out you will lose both fat and weight.
Here are a number of suggestions that will help you lose weight.
1)     Food: you should try eating whole foods and stay away from the fattening processed foods. A good rule of thumb (yes there are exceptions) is that anything in a box it is probably pre-packaged and processed and not the most optimal of food value. Taking these things out of your diet still leaves you with a multitude of choices such as meats, vegetables, fruit and nuts.
2)     Have a protein source with each meal. Your body works harder to process protein than it does with sugars or fats. Your body looks at protein differently than a lot of other things and does not store it as fat (unless you are eating an enormous amount of protein and not doing anything). Protein is the main building block of lean muscle.
3)     Eat 5 to 6 small meals per day. Instead of eating the 3 meals we have all previously been taught to eat we now should be having more and smaller meals. This serves to actually rev up your metabolism and the food you put into your body will not be stored as fat. Five to six small, high protein, low carb and low fat meals will keep you from the ups and downs of hunger pains and energy crashes during your day.
4)     Stay away from white starches. These include things like white pasta, white bread (actually any bread that is not made with a whole grain), white rice (brown is the rice of choice) and of course pastries. All of these products will probably be turned into fat, as these carbohydrates are going to be too much for your body to burn efficiently and your body will find a place to store them in the form of fat.
5)     Don’t use fat burning or diet pills. The solution is not in a bottle in the form of a magic pill. Other than making the manufacturers of them countless millions of dollars they are not going to do what you want, in fact many times by taking them your body will actually rebound on you and eventually slow down your metabolic rate. Most of these diet pills contain some form or another of caffeine, some less than a cup of espresso, and can lead to depression and many other undesirable side effects. While they may have a place later when you are much farther along on your fitness journey or are working towards a competition, I do not believe they have a place at the beginning and especially not until you have established a strong work ethic and have put in an appropriate amount of sweat equity.
6)     Exercise. Now that I said that the solution was not a fat burning pill I feel I better tell you what the best solution is and that is exercise. Each of us needs to lift weights and do cardio if we want to lose fat and look good. Lifting weights provides a multitude of positive effects for all of us, young and old, men and women. Things like better bone density, ease of mobility and added strength are just a few of the side effects of lifting weights. By doing cardio you are able to increase your lung and heart strength which will help you walk farther and do more before you run short of or out of breath. The best weightlifting sessions usually last close to an hour and cardio should consist of at least 20 minutes of continuous exertion.
I could have included such other topics such as getting enough “quality” sleep, drinking enough water, setting realistic goals as well as giving yourself at least 6 weeks for your weight loss program to show results, but I wanted to give you just a few of the things that worked for me and for my wife (bodyspace: judimax). I want you to achieve your weight loss and body transformation goals, get fit and be proud and happy with your body and I especially wanted to pass on some of the things I learned through trial and error.
I hope that you found something useful here and if you wish to contact me feel free because there is nothing I like better than to talk with people who wish to achieve their own body transformation and are embracing fitness.
Good luck.
Captain Ahab
 

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.