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The first reaction of most people who discover that
they've gained some weight, is to eat less. It
sounds simple and reasonable. Since food is what
got you into trouble it follows that eating less of it
will make everything right again. Nearly every diet or
eating plan in the magazines or on the Internet says
pretty much the same thing: eat less food. Therefore the
answer to this problem is very simple and handy. Sure,
going with less food than usual is a challenge, but it
also carries with it a sort of expiation feeling.
Unfortunately for those who hope that lowering the
food intake would help them lose weight, this doesn't
work. Over the thousands of years of evolution the human
body had to face starvation many times and had to find
ways of surviving. We are the offspring's of those who
managed to survive periods of starvation by coping with
the lack of food. Therefore, a simple decrease in the
volume of food is not going to make a big difference
because the body will simply compensate for it by
lowering the amount of energy produced and limiting the
capacity for effort.
The best way to reach your weight loss goal is to
work around this defense system by eating smart instead
of eating less. Overweight people and thin people eat
roughly the same number of calories per day because they
share the same required amount of food. However,
overweight people eat far more fat than thin people, who
seem to prefer complex carbohydrates that are easily
broken down and metabolized by the body. This is the
biggest difference between the two groups and the best
point to start when considering what and how to change
in your eating patterns.
Good dieting always takes time. The excess weight was
not accumulated over night and will never go away in a
single day. Every year hundreds of thousands of people
are searching the Internet and reading magazines in
order to get dieting tips and to find the modern Holy
Grail: a pill that can make fat disappear in an instant.
Well, maybe this is an exaggeration, but you get the
idea. You have probably encountered by now a lot of
advertisements promising such amazing results with the
help of some quasi magic ingredient or other. And you
probably know that losing weight doesn't work like that.
The only way to lose weight for good is to avoid
eating foods that are rich in fat and to exercises on a
regular basis. Dieting without exercising is pointless
because all the weight lost by eating less food will
come right back in the following months. The sedentary
lifestyle most of us lead is one of the causes behind
the recent increase in the number of overweight people
around the world. Cars, office jobs and foods rich in
fat have brought us an unforeseen problem because the
easy modern life has a price tag, just like everything
else.
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