How to Lose Weight
Setting Targets
This page contains absolutely the most important information for you to understand about dieting. It is also often the most disappointing information for prospective dieters.
The first thing to understand is that your target is not to lose weight. Your target is to lose fat. Many people do not realise that when they are losing weight, they may be losing more than fat. They may also be losing muscle and in fact, this is very easy to do. This is the worst thing you can do for long-term weight control. Therefore, your target is to lose fat while keeping to an absolute minimum the amount of muscle tissue you lose.
Muscle is a major contributing factor in determining our metabolic rates - the rate at which our bodies burn calories. Muscle is constantly using energy and therefore burning calories, even when you are at rest. Fat just lies on your body and does not use energy apart from what it takes to carry the extra weight. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate and the more calories you are using without even trying. Therefore, losing muscle is one of the worst things you can do for weight control.
Now, here is the crucial bit. Study after study has shown that the human body will not lose more than one or two pounds of fat a week before it also starts to burn up its own muscle tissue. This is a process known as starvation mode. Your body wants to protect its fat reserves and will not give them up easily.
So to lose weight without losing muscle tissue, you must aim to lose no more than one to two pounds a week. This is disappointing news, especially if you need to lose 40 pounds. Still it is something that you must come to accept.
Crash diets are a disastrous way to lose weight. It is simple. If you lose more than 2 pound a week then you are losing muscle tissue. This means that your body's metabolic rate becomes lower so you are naturally using fewer calories than before. As soon as you stop dieting, you will put weight back on because your metabolic rate is less than it was before you started.
What is even worse is that as you become older, it becomes increasingly difficult to regain the lost muscle tissue. Once you are passed your mid-thirties your body's ability to build muscle tissue declines rapidly. You may never regain the muscle you lost by crash dieting.
As if losing muscle was not bad enough, excessive crash dieting can even lead to a loss of bone density. Again, the older you are, the harder it is to recover that lost bone density. There is a lot of research that suggests that excessive crash dieting for women may lead to osteoporosis in later life.
So now you can set the target for your diet. If you want to lose 10 pounds then aim to do it over five to six weeks. If you want to lose 40 lbs then give yourself 20 to 30 weeks. There are no shortcuts. Do not think you are different, you are not. You want to lose weight so be realistic, it takes time.
What is your Ideal Weight?
The first thing to say is that ideal weight calculations are a very inexact science. If Mike Tyson did one at his peak, he would be judged obese. They simply cannot cater for every different body shape and build. Still they are a good guide and a little bit of fun.
The calculator below will give you two calculations. Your Body Mass Index (BMI) and your ideal weight range. Give it a go and then see below for an explanation.
BMI - Body Mass Index
The BMI calculation dates back to the mid 19th century. It was created as a way to give a numeric measure of a person's weight based on their height. The score is categorised as follows:
| Underweight Normal weight Overweight Obese |
< 18.5 18.5 - 24.9 25 - 29.9 > 30 |
Don't feel too bad if it says you are obese. It would say the same thing about Mike Tyson. It is a simple calculation based only on height and weight so it does not take into consideration a person's natural build or muscle mass. The calculation is still widely used and for an average person it can give a good idea of your weight range.
Ideal Weight
The ideal weight calculation I have used is a little more sophisticated. It will take into consideration your gender, age and frame size to give a more accurate estimate of your ideal weight range.
| Next: Starvation Mode |  |
