So I thought I might add my two cents on fat loss, since soon enough the Coast Guard is supposed to enforce this stuff. A lot of people think that losing weight = low fat foods + hours on a dreadmill/elliptical/newest fad in cardio machines weekly will be the most beneficial solution.
Well, I already babbled about Crossfit and I will go into detail more later about the benefits of circuit training over cardio. And I'm not trying to give the impression that you should do anything other that Crossfit. But you work out for maybe an hour each day and the other 23 are spent in a state of lower caloric demand. So let’s talk about diet.
If you were to ask a lot of older successful bodybuilders or athletes that don’t have the natural metabolism of a turbine engine, they would tell you that diet is about 70% of the equation. (I might even say that once your body fat gets really low it might be closer to 75 or 80%.) But if you aren’t after those six-pack abs, and just want to maintain and/or reduce your weight this is for you.
Most people don’t realize that science has created a monster in the food industry. Our foods are sweeter, larger, and more satisfying than ever. The food industry knows what we want, crave, and even smell. It's an addiction, and we didn't evolve to eat much of what's out there.
There is a huge hype out there about fats. Eat low fat. Fats make you fat. Fat free is life-giving, healthy, good stuff that you will surely live forever on. Garbage. What do we eat instead of fats? Those low fat weight watcher/special “K”/newest fad diet bars you heard about on T.V. or some other carbohydrate-laden bread or pasta. This spikes our blood sugar levels up for a few hours but then we crash. If you are like me, you are looking at the snack machine for some other sugary substance to get back to “full” soon enough.
How about a salad? Want to suffer through the day? Eat a salad with a vinaigrette or fat free ranch and see how “satisfied” you are an hour after the meal. Usually we reward ourselves for eating that salad two hours later, since we starved enough, with a nice treat effectively cancelling out the little good we did.
Fats, when eaten reasonably, make us full and help keep us from those binges. I make it a point to eat 30% of my daily caloric intake in fats. It definitely takes a lot less will power when I feel satiated.
What people don’t get is that Coke or Dew you had at lunch or those fat-free crackers you ate with your fat-free tuna sandwich gets processed by the body and stored as F-A-T. (I won’t get at the details here, but at the end of this rant I will make sure to post some links to back all this up.)
Same goes for protein-a lesson I had to learn recently is that if you have too much of those protein musclebuilding shakes it gets eventually stored as fat as well. I was always told by bodybuilders and the supplement industry that the more protein taken in, the more muscle you get. Protein, fat, and carbs all = energy. Energy that can be burned can also be stored.
The folks over at dietitian.com have a pretty clear cut Healthy Body Calculator that lets you see a good place to start. You don’t have to fill out all of the information and you still get a good idea of how much of everything you need to eat. I don’t agree with the level of carb intake they prescribe for athletes, but most adults want more to be trim and healthy.
Crossfit has a fairly cut-and-dry article more geared toward the athlete. But if they are too extreme for you, try out “The Abs Diet” from Men’s Health at first. (Warning-this looks like one of those “Fad” diets but is not.) I recommend it to starters, and you still get to have your cheat meals of things like pizza, bacon (actually good for you in small doses), and bread-just not the white bread that turns into sugar. (Yes, Coasties, we still get to drink beer.) It also has you break up your meals into 5-6 smaller ones throughout the day. Most people that I have started on this particular diet feel fuller than their usual diet. I would follow the diet, don’t buy into most of the supplements. Exception: Whey protein, if not consumed in massive quantities, is good for the athlete. Just my opinion. Oh, and buy the book or get it from the library. Don't sign up for the online thing, unless you have lots of money to throw around.
Finally, if you really want to read up on a good article about how the “low fat” diet is making us sick, check out Doc Enig’s article here.
Some additional reading that peaked my interest:
What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/18/science-and-carbs-a.html
What would be the very first step and would even shed a few pounds in the first week or so? Quit drinking soda or switch to diet soda. While you are making that adjustment and cursing my name for taking your a.m. “dew” away, you can read up on some of these links. Chiefs and BM's shouldn't have any trouble, everyone knows all they drink is coffee. ; )
There is a lot of information out there, and since I'm obsessive compulsive about diet and exercise, I won't bore you with the details. But, if you are serious about losing weight, and meeting those new BMI standards I keep hearing about, you need to do some research. Once you realize the garbage that you are putting in your body, you might be surprised.
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