Weigh The FAQS

There is a prevailing myth out there that needs to be corrected: eating fat free products will help you become fat free yourself. But when it comes to dropping that extra squishiness around your middle the real trick is to fight fire with fire. That’s right, contrary to popular belief, you have to eat fat to lose fat. It’s time to get the facts about fat.

Fat Fact 1: You need fat. Certain essential vitamins, A, D, E and K, are fat-soluble, which means you have to have fat in order to absorb them. Want clear skin and shiny hair? Not only do you need the above vitamins for that, but the very fat in your body itself contributes to making you look glossy-cover perfect. Furthermore, fat protects your organs, helps you maintain body temperature and promotes healthy cell function. Oh, and when your body needs energy, it goes to its fat stores. Without fat in your diet you’ll be shivering, lanky haired, acne-skinned and too tired to do anything productive with your day (you know, how you feel when you’re on a fat-free diet).

Fat Fact 2: Not all fat is the same. When people cut fat from their diets, they cut out good fats along with the bad fats. While no diet plan should include hydrogenated oils, the fat found in nuts, legumes and avocados is not only good for you, its essential. All those things contain omega 3 fatty acids (which can also be found in certain kinds of fish). Omega 3 is needed for normal human growth, and can reduce heart disease, decrease depression and anxiety and has even been linked to cancer prevention. Basically, cutting this fat from your diet actually hurts your health.

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Too often people associate dieting with never eating anything good ever again. However, it’s not about limiting yourself to carrot sticks and non-fat cottage cheese. There are lots of ways to cut calories while still having the kinds of food you love to eat. Small changes can add up to big calorie savings.

Eat your calories, don’t drink them. The easiest way to cut calories is to replace sodas and sugar-filled fruit juices with water. In terms of nutrition value, you get more from eating a large orange at 60 calories than drinking an 8 ounce glass of orange juice at 120 calories. Plus the oranges and apples have fiber, something everyone can use more of. As for sodas, save them as occasional treats instead of making them meal staples.

Cut out the extra fat—literally. Notice we didn’t say, don’t eat fat at all. Some fat such as that found in avocados and nuts can be good for you! Simultaneously, look for leaner cuts of meats and poultry. Pick white meat chicken, breasts and wings, over dark meat. Pick steaks with the least amount of fat. Some of the most flavorful meat, like filet mignon, is also the leanest. If cooking yourself, always trim off any extra fat before cooking any meat or chicken. And finally, ditch the skin—that’s where most of the fat is.

Eat your veggies—steamed. Many grilled veggies add oil to your otherwise healthy carrots and broccoli. Steaming them not only preserves the flavor, it preserves the vitamins inherent within them, making them better eats overall.

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The wedding next month. The big company party in a few weeks. The high school reunion coming up. Whatever it is, the big day is looming just ahead, and you don’t want to greet it carrying those extra ten pounds right? You need fast, effective weight loss, and you’re looking for a miracle.

Sorry, there are no weight loss miracles. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can make REAL changes to how you look starting today! Before we get into that though, we need to get a few things straight:

Firstly, fad diets not only don’t work, they hurt your ability to lose weight. Most fad diets drastically restrict your calorie intake, and while in the short term that may help you shed some of those unwanted pounds, it puts your body in starvation mode, causing your metabolism to sloooow doooown. This makes it harder for you to burn fat, and makes you gain it all back faster than you lost it. Too-low calorie diets also make you hungrier for the high-fat, high-sugar junk foods you most need to avoid, which makes them that much harder to stick with.

Secondly, unless you’re obese and have just started a reasonable weight loss program, when you lose up to 10 pounds in one week you mostly lose water and muscle tissue. Water weight is not true fat loss, and losing muscle tissue also hurts long-term weight-loss efforts. You need muscle to burn calories; losing muscle reduces your ability to shed fat.

The quick weight loss fix is the same as the long-term solution: diet, exercise and supplementation. Eat less and move more—only when you’re on a deadline, eat a great deal less and work out a great deal more. How do you get this done? Well, here’s what I do…

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Don’t eat after eight. Don’t drink too much water. Don’t exercise on an empty stomach. Eventually, all the old wives tales begin to sound more like instructions on caring for a Gremlin than actually losing and maintaining weight. With the rise and fall of countless fad diets, you may be tempted to eat nothing but ice cream and grapefruit like your batty Aunt Sally always recommended. So what’s fact and what’s fiction?

Well, the most important thing to remember when losing weight is just as boring as you’d expect: dieting is about consuming fewer calories than you burn. There are a few disclaimers and qualifications, but overall, it’s as simple as that!

Do I need to avoid junk food? What matters most is your daily caloric intake: avoid it if it exceeds your daily target; otherwise, treat yourself (a little). Do I need to avoid food after 8pm? Ditto. Do I need to count the calories in drinks? How about in fruit? Ditto and ditto. See how easy that is?

True, not all foods were created equal, but generally the notion that there is some horrible fat-creating foods that will ruin all your efforts with just one bite is more often hype than help. For example, consider the typical villains: salt, fat, and sugar. The truth is you need all of these things to survive; however, you only need a small amount of each, so navigating that nuance is the secret to healthy dieting.

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