Who Doesn't Want to Lose Weight Without Dieting

How to lose weight without dieting?

 So many of us have asked this question and would love to find the magical answer.


 First, let me say that the answer isnt magical.

 And second, allow me to define diet and dieting.

 I think when we ask how to lose weight without dieting?, what we are really asking is how can I lose weight without following a specific program and restricting what I eat?

 In this sense, diet refers to a program and food restrictions. With high protein diets, the number of carbohydrates you eat are restricted. With Weight Watchers, the number of calories in a day are restricted. With the Cabbage Soup Diet, calories and general nutrition are restricted!

 So that is one definition of diet. But the other way the term diet is used is on Superbowl weekend, I follow a strict pizza, chicken wings and beer diet! Another example, in my personal case, would be I follow a well balanced, high nutrition diet. No food is restricted on Superbowl Weekend (okay, maybe no tofu or brussel sprouts) and similarly no food is absolutely taboo the way I eat either.

 In my case, I have learned how to eat in a manner that pleases me emotionally (I love food and am happy when I eat it!), but it also meets the nutritional needs of my body. By doing this, I have a diet that allows me to lose weight without dieting.

 I know we have all partially fallen for, or at least wanted to believe, that there is some Secret Trick to weight loss:

 Drink this solution once a day and lose 9 pounds in a week! This one simple exercise will give you 6 pack abs, with just 5 minutes per day! The herbal weight loss secret your doctor wont tell you about! Eat this one simple food and never diet again!

 The truth of the matter is, your body is a complicated machine and no mechanism within it works in a linear fashion. In your body its more like: most of the time if you do THIS, then THAT will happen. But THAT cant happen if you also did that other thing as well.

 Most diets today work on the premise that if you burn more calories than you consume then you will lose weight. On the surface, that makes perfect sense, and that is why most of buy into that logic. But if that were true, and calories in, calories out was the only factor in weight loss, then why is it that 95% of diets fail within a year?

 Heres an interesting story from my own experience. When I was in my early 20s, I volunteered for 3 months in a developing country. During 5 of those weeks we were in the rainforest and the only food we had was: a big bag of flour, a big bag of rice, and a big bag of chick peas. We also had some yeast, salt, and a couple of other small items. But the bottom line was, we basically only had carbohydrates with no protein, fat, vitamins or minerals. At the end of those 5 weeks, all the men in our group had turned to stick figures while all the women had gained weight and plumped right up!

 We all ate the same thing. We all did the same work. We all got the same amount of sleep. The only difference was our sex. Because we have different hormones working within us, each of the sexes responded to this form of nutritional (not calorie) starvation differently.

 So let me explain what I have learned about nutrition and our bodys responses and how I now use that information to lose weight without dieting.

 First off, calories in and calories out cant be discounted. It is an integral part of the formula. Calories play a direct role in providing us with energy. But indirectly, calories are also usually accompanied by nutrition in the form of vitamins, minerals and trace elements. So when youre consuming calories are you consuming high energy (many calories)/low nutrition food or low energy (fewer calories)/high nutrition food?

 Equally important to the volume of calories is the breakdown of calories in protein, fat and carbohydrates. Im sure you can imagine that a 2000 calorie per day person will have a different physique consuming 15% of their calories in the form of protein as opposed to somebody who only consumes 5% protein.

 One super important factor that is usually overlooked is your hormone production. Human Growth Hormone (HGH) will burn fat, build muscles and strengthen bones. Insulin will block HGH. And Cortisol is HGHs arch nemesis and builds fat, burns muscle and depletes bones of nutrients.

 What you eat. The times you eat it. The amount of fat youre already carrying. Your sleep patterns. Your daily stressors. And the toxic load on your body are all factors in how your body produces these hormones.

 Then of course there is the level and type of exercise you undertake and your bodys base metabolic rate.

 ALL of these things play a role in your weight loss or weight gain.

 Think about this one weight loss fact: There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. So, if youve been maintaining your weight and then decrease your daily calorie consumption by 500 calories, then in 1 week youll have burned off a stored pound of fat.

 That make perfect sense and seems easy enough.

 But what if you replace a 600 calorie, high protein nutritious breakfast with a 100 calorie can of pop? What would happen to your insulin level? your HGH production? your base metabolic rate for the day???

 Do you still think youll lose 5 pounds on the week??? I would wager that you may actually gain weight!

 Stay tuned. In upcoming articles Ill go over each of these weight loss/gain factors one by one. By the end you should have the knowledge necessary to know how to lose weight without dieting!

 Monique LaFleche To compare and contrast today's top 25 diets side by side, check out our free e-book