How NOT To Lose Weight

Did you put on a few pounds over the holidays? If so, you are not alone. It’s not the end of the world. But now it’s time to get rid of it. Carrying around extra pounds increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, diabetes and prediabetes, hypertension, STROKE, certain cancers, etc. It’s a long list. If you don’t take off those pounds now, you run the risk of adding to it later this year when we enter a new holiday season.

Let’s look at what you should NOT do to achieve weight loss…

Do NOT do these things:

1. Starve Yourself — sounds good, right? Eat fewer calories, or zero calories and you’re sure to lose weight. But your body needs fuel to function properly. How long do you think your car would run without gas, oil, transmission fluid, and all those other liquids? If you don’t feed your body over time you’ll develop heart problems, digestive issues, skin conditions, etc.  Plus, your brain will recognize that your body is in starvation mode and make your body start to store fat. You’ll start to crave nutrients, enzymes, minerals, calories, carbohydrates. Starvation doesn’t work, and it can be dangerous.
2. Use Laxatives — DON’T DO IT! People think laxatives will cleanse their body, removing carbohydrates and those extra calories. But that’s not the way it works. When you eat, the calories in your food enter your bloodstream and get assimilated into your body very quickly. Laxatives will mostly rid your body of water weight. They’re likely to make you dehydrated and dizzy. They can even lead to renal failure and worse.
3. Take Pills and Supplements — while there a few supplements, powders and pills that can help you lose weight, there are many ineffective and even dangerous options. Those that can help you lose and regulate your weight are still meant to be part of a healthy nutrition plan accompanied by physical activity and exercise. You may have heard that such and such a pill worked for your best friends’ neighbors’ sisters’ boss. Really? What’s in that pill? A huge amount of caffeine? Ephedrine? Not so safe.
4. Skip Meals — another method that sounds good, right? And hey, isn’t this just intermittent fasting, which is all the rage right now? Well, research has shown that skipping meals actually increases belly fat. And we know how bad belly fat is, don’t we? (If you don’t, you really need to subscribe to the Say NO To Stroke newsletter!) For intermittent fasting to help you lose weight, it should be done in a certain way, but I won’t get into that here. For now, know that skipping meals can screw up your insulin levels and make your body store fat because it doesn’t sense a steady consistent supply of food. Plus when you eat, your metabolic rate goes up. That means you’ll burn more energy. That’s why it helps to spread your daily calories out over 5 or 6 smaller meals.
5. Limit Yourself To 100% No Fat Foods — a definite no-no. Your body needs fat. Not the fat found in Hostess Twinkies. You need good fats. Think olive oil, coconut oil, the oil in fish like salmon and mackerel, and in almonds and walnuts. If your body senses that you aren’t taking in any fat, it starts converting sugar to fat and hoarding it. Besides, in order to make those fat free foods tasty, guess what they do? Add unhealthy sugar and/or chemical sweeteners. That won’t help you.

So, how are you going to lose those pounds? Step number one is to stop putting garbage into your body. You’ll have to exercise, too, but your diet determines 60% to 70% of your level of fitness. Start eating better. You’ll reach your personal, healthy weight, feel more energetic, and your brain will work optimally.