After A Diet, Why Does The Weight Come Back?

Before many Australians recently, a devastating story unfolded on a popular current affairs program. We watched with compassion as the fattest man in Australia told of his most recent, serious attempt to lose weight. Approximately 12 months earlier and weighing close to 300 kilos, he under went life threatening surgery to lose weight.

I doubt there would have been one person watching not moved by this man's depression and plight. Despite undergoing the surgery, today he could barely get through each day, both physically and mentally. He shared with us his sense of hopelessness and wanting to end it all.

It was not only his size that was causing his depression. He had to deal with a heart broken by disappointment.

You see, the surgery had been a success.

He soon lost well over 50 kilos post operation and he and his family rejoiced. But then the unthinkable happened.

The weight came back. Today he weighs well <i>over</i> 300 kilos - more than before the surgery.

This is an extreme case, but nonetheless raises a question that so many people continue to battle with.

After a diet, why does the weight come back so quickly?

To answer this we need to understand how much energy a body requires. For each pound you weigh, each day you need 12 calories to maintain your body weight. If you weigh 120 pounds you will need 120 x 12 calories, that is, 1440 calories per day to maintain that body weight. If you eat or drink more calories than your body requires, the excess energy is stored as fat. It takes 3,600 excess calories to make one pound of fat.

In this example, if your typical daily calorific intake is 2000 calories, in around 30 days you would put on between 4-5 pounds of fat!

Let's say, you then decide to go on a restrictive diet and halve your calorific consumption to 1,000 calories per day. You stay on this diet for around a month and lose 10 pounds and now weigh 110 pounds. You feel fantastic about losing the weight but can't keep up such a restrictive regime because you are irritable and have no energy.

So you go off your diet and go back to your usual routine of 2,000 calories a day. Remember you are lighter now and your body requires less energy to maintain its new weight. You would now require 110 x 12, that is, 1320 calories per day.

In this instance, by consuming 2000 calories daily, because you are lighter than before, you would put the weight back on in just 24-25 days!

If you want to keep the weight off you must develop a consistent change in eating habits to ensure you do not consume more than your body requires. You cannot continue to eat the same quantities and/or combinations of foods that caused you to be overweight in the first place. This will require developing an understanding of the nutritional content of food and raising your body's metabolism through increased muscle mass and exercise.

Feeling Tired? No Pep? No Zing? Tap Into Breakfast Smoothies

I'm 40-something years old, and for 40-something years breakfast has been a pain. Some of my earliest memories are getting ready for school with my mother insisting I eat a bowl of cereal. It just never interested me. Once high school started I was skipping breakfast and grabbing two apples on the run for lunch. All my life breakfast simply wasn't something I got interested in or thought about until I made this discovery...

Someone introduced me to the most amazing concept for breakfast. By now I was well entrenched in not taking time over the first meal of the day (and sometimes the second meal), so anything that captured my attention was going to have to be fast, no fuss and delicious to warrant any of my attention.

Instead of cardboard cereal and bland milk, it's possible to start the day with power packed, nutritious, energizing and best of all, yummy smoothies. Smoothies have been around for ages, but I had never twigged they make a great start to the day. Imagine the delight of selecting from a range such as Chocolate Strawberry, Hazelnut Coffee, Peach Almond, Banana Bread & Apple Pie Surprise. Kid you not! You can make an endless variety to suit your own taste. Now this was interesting to me.

Not only did I start regularly eating breakfast, my energy shot through the roof! This changed my whole perspective on being 40-something. A period where I thought as a mother, wife, and corporate executive I was supposed to be tired all the time. Not true.

Here is one of my favorite recipes.

<i>Strawberry Parfait</i>

3 tablespoons vanilla flavored soy/whey protein powder
250g (6oz) strawberry flavoured fat free yoghurt
1 cup strawberries
4 ice cubes

Blend in hand-held or benchtop blender. Pour into your favorite glassware and enjoy.

Homemade Whey Protein Shakes: Using Bodybuilding Supplements Creatively

If you are serious about building muscle mass or sculpting your body you most likely supplement your diet with commercially available whey or soy protein powders (and possibly other supplements). No doubt within a short period of time you discovered the protein shakes whey powders produce may not be the best tasting drinks you've ever had. Despite this you try to stick with them because your goal is a better body and a supplement shake that doesn't taste so great is simply a sacrifice you make.

People find that the flavor of the protein shake powder they paid a good money for quickly gets boring. If you are taking your protein shakes two or even three times a day it can become a real chore. This is when people start to experiment a little by adding other ingredients to make their protein shakes taste a little better.

You can soon turn your boring, often tasteless, protein shakes into mouth-watering bodybuilding or dieting delights. All you need to have to get started is a blender and a little imagination.

<strong>Choosing What to Put in Your Protein Shakes</strong>

Before rushing off to your refrigerator to blend everything in site, let's go through some basic principles you will want to consider first. Not only do you want to create the best tasting shakes but you should also aim to make the most effective protein shakes for your dieting requirements. This is important because there is no point throwing full fat ice cream, chocolate sauce, peanut butter and full fat milk all together to create a wonderful tasting fat gaining shake. You need to be a little wise when choosing your ingredients.

So what kinds of ingredients make good choices for your shakes? I recommend using the following tips when getting your ingredients from the supermarket or refrigerator:
<ul>
<li><em>Try to keep as many of your ingredients as natural as possible</em>. A good example of this is using natural peanut butter instead of regular peanut butter. The natural version has better protein content and also natural fats that are important in your diet.</li>

<li><em>Fresh fruit should be used whenever possible</em>. Fruit contains the carbohydrates that will fuel your workouts and your day. The complex sugars in fruit are important to any diet (unlike the simple sugars in sweets, sodas, etc).</li>

<li><em>Think about ingredients that will boost your shake's protein content</em>. For example, you could throw a handful of nuts into the blender for a little extra protein without making the shake much thicker. You could add a few raw egg whites (if you are worried about eating raw eggs you may be able to find treated egg whites in cartons at your supermarket). You could always simply dump an extra scoop of whey powder in there as well.</li>

<li><em>Make sure you have enough liquids</em>. If you get a little too carried away you may discover your shake is easier to eat with a spoon then drink from a glass. When you first start creating your shakes it is a good idea to add your liquids (water, fat-free milk, fruit juices, etc.) in stages so that you get your desired consistency.</li>

<li><em>Examine the nutritional information for each ingredient and consider the impact it will have on your dieting goals</em>. For example, you may be opting for fat free (skimmed) milk if you aren't trying to gain weight.</li>

<li><em>Always know what your goal is and make your shakes accordingly</em>. If you are trying to shed the fat you will be skipping the types of ingredients that add too many carbohydrates and fats while trying to increase the protein content.</li>

<li><em>Think of how you might create a unique flavor</em>. You can try things like cinnamon, vanilla, honey, coconut milk, etc. Once you get the hang of this you will see the possibilities are endless.</li>
</ul>

<strong>Making Your Protein Shake</strong>

Once you have decided on the ingredients for your shake you are ready to start. It couldn't be simpler and if you can make toast you won't have a problem. It's a good idea to think about the order in which you will add your ingredients into the blender. Always add your main liquid source first so that everything else you add afterwards is easily blended. Following this, add your protein powder and give your blender a quick 'burst'. Now you are ready to add the rest of your ingredients and blend until you get the right consistency. At this point you may want to add a little more liquids to tweak your shake's thickness. Throw in five or six ice cubes to make your shake more refreshing.

Now you can let your imagination invent all sorts of bodybuilding and dieting concoctions that make your supplement shakes a great deal tastier. Don't forget to share your creations with friends at the gym and people across the world through the internet. You will also discover many ideas other people come up with to inspire you further. Visit websites and online forums for recipes and you can get some ideas from my site's homemade protein shakes using whey supplement powders section.

Happy blending!

Count Colors Not Calores to Lose Weight!

If you need to drop and few kilos and don’t know where to get started, stop counting calories and start counting colours. When it comes to losing weight, make sure your plate is piled high with a range of colourful fruit and vegetables. You’ll naturally create more balance and health-filled menus.

Why? Colour not only brightens your mood – but also your diet. Load your plate with fruit and veges like a box of crayons in colours such as red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, white and green and you’ll also be filling up on power packed phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are naturally occurring chemicals which combat disease, including cancer.

Go easy on the beige and brown foods such as pasta and startchy carbs. When there are too many of these drab colours on your plate, weight gain is almost certain. That's because these beige foods often are high in calories and can leave you feeling hungry later. A cup of beige or brown beans can be over 200 calories....but a cup of red or green vegetables is under a hundred! Add fresh greens, deep purple-reds and bright yellow-orange to a meal, and water the nutrient content go up, while calories go down! Plus, you'll get more enjoyment from eating when there's a variety of colours and flavours on your plate.

According to Dr David Heber, M.D., Ph.D. and author of “What Color Is Your Diet” the key to designing your colourful diet is to choose from a range of different colour groups:

Blue/purple fruits and vegetables contain varying amounts of health-promoting phytochemicals such as anthocyanins and phenolics. Choose from a range including blueberries, blackberries, eggplant, plums, raisins. These assist in memory function.

<b>Green group</b> includes broccoli; Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and bok choi. These foods stimulate the genes in your liver to turn on the production of enzymes that break down the cancer-causing chemicals in the body.

The <b>yellow/green group</b> includes green peas, avocado and honeydew melon. These promote eye health.

The <b>yellow/orange group</b> includes carrots, mangoes, apricots, rock melon and pumpkin. These contain carotenoids (beta carotene is one), fierce antioxidants that help prevent cancer and assist to lower heart-attack risk.

The <b>white group</b> includes bananas, white peaches, cauliflower, garlic, ginger, mushrooms and are helpful to maintain heart health.

The <b>red group</b> includes tomatoes, pink grapefruit and watermelon all of which contain lycopene. Lycopene is associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease.

The <b>red/purple group</b> includes grapes, grape juice, prunes, cranberries, strawberries and red apples. These foods contain anthocyanins which have a beneficial effect on heart disease by inhibiting blood clot formation.