Failed Beliefs About Weight Loss Actions Trample People's Hopes of Losing
Posted: Sunday, July 05, 2009
by Gregory Ellis
Targeted Body Systems
During the last half century, diet success never met expectations. People attempting to lose weight have tried a multitude of weight loss schemes. The outcome is always the same and the dieter rarely loses much weight, failing to meet his goals or the promises of the particular scheme. In the early days, the weight loss is fairly rapid because the body loses a lot of water, often up to 5-15 pounds. Sadly, people do not know this fact that 70% of the initial weight loss is water and this "rapid" loss comes to a screeching halt at about week three. So, people delude themselves, thinking that all the weight loss was fat and not just weight, made up of fat and water.
What is the perceived reason for the failure to lose bodyweight: a low metabolism? Or do their normal weight friends just burn calories faster?
Many people believe that they can eat whatever they want and not pay a price for that indiscretion. They can't. Nobody can.
The fact as to why people don't lose weight is that they do not move as much as they say and they consume far more food than they think they do. Ah! So that's it; that's the answer.
Yes, it is the answer.
Finally, you have the answer.
Why is this true? It's because the Laws of Nature determine weight loss. If you fail to lose weight, applying the Laws will uncover the reason for failing. This is the conclusion of many recent studies using the doubly-labeled water technique and a calorimeter.
Doubly-labeled water is a heavy isotope of water that subjects drink. Several weeks later measurements of the amount of isotope remaining in the body are measured and provide an extremely accurate measure of the body's calorie burn over the previous weeks.
A calorimeter is a giant, self-supporting box that serves as a research laboratory so that scientists can make detailed measurements of exactly how many calories people eat and how many they burn. These two research modalities have upended all the previous decades of weight control research and created a chaotic situation.
The conclusions from the studies using these measuring techniques are clearly no surprise, based on more than 100 years of research. What's surprising is that people are still trying to figure it out, as if we don't already know the answer.
During one study, scientists evaluated the calorie burn of over 100 subjects in the research calorimeter. The tests "found there was no metabolic magic," said Dr. Paul Moe, research leader in the Energy and Protein Nutrition Laboratory. "We've yet to see any evidence that there is any difference in people's efficiency in the way food is metabolized."
He said, "Sorry folks, there is no free lunch." This statement sums it up. People must come to an understanding that the Laws are in operation for all of us.
The notion that one can lose 30 pounds in 30 days is ridiculous. These false beliefs provide a basis for misguided hope for most people who are sold on the idea that rapid weight loss is easily achieved.
The notion that there are large differences in metabolic rates just isn't true, and the study, above, proves the notion to be untrue. For people, this research removes the main excuse for why people don't meet weight loss goals; doubly-labeled water and the calorimeter don't lie.
But people do. They tend to fib, or forget, about how much food they really eat: "We find people are eating much more than they recall, exercising less than they claim, and convincing themselves that the number of calories they eat has no impact," Moe said.
Let's read that again: they "convince themselves that the number of calories they eat has no impact."
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Dr. Gregory Ellis spent his early years trying to understand how to control his weight. He then subjected himself to a PhD program and years of experimentation to uncover the facts. Fighting all the misinformation about weight loss programs is a battle. You can NOW get all the facts in one place by visiting his website.
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