Facts About Weight Loss

We wish you all a Happy Holiday Season! I know everyone is looking forward to a better 2023!

During this time please enjoy yourself, but resist over indulging and eating more than you need.

While we are going through these terrible times in dealing with the coronavirus, please make sure to keep your health at a high level. Being stuck in your homes and feeling overwhelmed, it is easy to resort to "comfort" eating but that will sabotage your health and weight loss efforts and make you feel worse in the long run.

With the sheltering in place rules, a lot of people are baking and improving their cooking skills. That is encouraging from a health perspective as eating at home is generally healthier and better for maintaining weight than going to restaurants. Just be thoughtful about your ingredients.

Millions of people are looking for ways to lose weight. Despite the growth of the diet industry and the fitness business and a constant flow of "hot" new supplements, the number of obese people continues to grow. It is going to be a great concern for our future well-being. The cost impact will also be enormous. There is an abundance of information everywhere - books, magazines, internet, friends and trainers. Much of the advice and research is contradictory. There are scams and bad ideas trying to make quick money off the frustrated efforts of dieters.

Much of what we know about weight loss is simply wrong. Every study’s findings contradict other studies. Most doctors don’t know much about it or nutrition. Magazines and other media feed us a stream of misinformation. Is it any wonder people are in the state they are in?

 

Gary Taubes has written an interesting article in the New York Times examining the dangerous effects of sugar and how that danger was covered up for years.  

There are so many schools of thought - the low carb side (Atkins, Eades, Paleo, etc.) present a good case and on the opposite side of the spectrum you have the China Study side (T. Colin Campbell, the Esselstyn’s, Dean Ornish, vegetarians, vegans, Raw, etc). We will look at the various schools of thought and the latest research by people like Gary Taubes. Get the best diet advice and avoid diet scams and dangerous diets.

We will also examine the impact of exercise and supplements on weight loss.

Please share your thoughts and experiences. We can all learn from each other as we try various approaches in our effort to lose weight and be healthy.

I have struggled with extra pounds myself. Like many of you, I have tried many diet plans and supplements and devoted much of my adult life to investigating the subject of weight loss. Lately I have been trying the Paleo and Keto approaches to dieting. I recently read "The BulletProof Diet" by Dave Asprey. So far, this approach, which at first glance many people might think is a bit extreme has really been working. There are a numbers of other factors which might by playing a role as well. I have lost more than 12 pounds in the last 3 weeks. In the past this never happened. I will give more details about my experiences on our BulletProof Diet page including how the diet works and how I have implemented it. I will also write about the other factors that may be having an impact and track longer term progress as it unfolds.

To learn more about fitness and exercise and impact of weight loss, visit Getting In Shape Guide.

Do you want to have your financial life to be equally fit? Go to Getting Prepared for Retirement to learn everything you need about financial planning for free.

 

"I am currently reading Grant Petersen's book, Eat Bacon, Don't Jog. I love it. It keeps things as simple as the title. There are other books that will give you more of the science and deeper information, but Grant keeps it at a level that tells you what you need to understand in a page or so for each topic. The book does go against a lot of the conventional wisdom that we have all been hearing our whole lives about nutrition and healthy eating.

One of my favorite sections is from the chapter If You Eat Sugar, You Can't Exercise It Off:

"Most doctors, nutritionists, and the government still say weight management is simply a matter of burning more calories than you eat. They're the Flat Earthers, the Continental Drifters, the Creationists of weight management. What they say - that eating less and exercising more is a sustainable way to lose weight - ignores the effects of insulin. Weight gain or loss is all about insulin. Any discussion of calories eaten versus calories burned must include insulin's role in determining whether you burn sugar or fat, and something called homeostasis."