How To Lose Weight Safely
Weight loss is a common phrase.
It is generally associated with the process of reducing body fat.
Using a readily available bathroom variety scale a reduction or increase in body weight can be tracked simply enough.
As the phrase is generally used it is an attempt to improve appearance and or health.
A scale can not determine if weight loss is due to a loss of fluid, body fat, or lean mass.
So what one may ask.
The differences in both appearance or health effects are substantial.
This most of all over the life span.
The actual challenges of successful healthy weight loss are not that well understood by most.
The typical persons approach to weight loss programs is to simply eat less.
Let us assume this means only limiting calories.
That in a way that leaves the nutrition well balanced.
That is quite often not the case but I want to look at that first.
Weight loss with a near perfect diet on average would result in about a quarter of the loss being lean tissue.
Lean tissue loss means connective tissue, organs, glands, muscles and bones shrink.
Aging often results in the same kinds of lean tissue loss.
Calorie reduction with no exercise accelerates that phenomenon.
This kind of weight loss is a problem not a solution in more than one respect.
To begin with it lowers metabolic rate.
This means the body has less ability to burn calories or use up fat.
This making it easier to regain even more fat as well as harder to lose it.
The adverse health indication go far beyond lower metabolic rate.
Yet for the purpose of weight loss it means success less likely.
A body has needs for regular intake of nutrients.
Adding exercise helps avoid lowered metabolic rate.
Yet exercise can actually increase the requirement for some nutrients.
The brains evolutionary purpose for hunger is to avoid death.
The hunger alarm is more easily ignored during a busy day.
The hunger alarm can be shut off or with planning for the most part avoided.
That by eating measured lower calorie meals on a schedule.
Simply put if you are hungry a lot during weight loss you’re doing it wrong.
Some humans have better hormone and auto antioxidant profiles by genetic advantage.
This evolutionary advantage helped their ancestors survive.
This especially during environmental hardships including hunger.
The genetically gifted often do much better than many of their counterparts.
Still with age this advantage shrinks too.
Slowing down at night to sleep, the alarm of hunger is harder to ignore.
Hunger alarm is not something to ignore but to be avoided.
This by both scheduling and measuring the molecules that keep us healthy.
This is just the basic biochemistry of maintaining a healthy body composition.
Fitting just those details to an individual so as to mesh with lifestyle is another skill.
My objective is to keep these articles brief.
I have covered the biologic basis for attention to detail in weight loss.
I will cover the different aspects of how to address both macro and micro nutrients.
I will also cover the metabolic and lifestyle pros and cons of types of exercise.
These and the challenges of aging are all worth some focus for long term success.
It may be a different way of looking at weight loss for some.
Still no more complicated than many other aspects of your life.
With study and practice maintaining a healthy weight will become a skill.
It is a skill worth the effort.
Dan Hendrix
