Bodybuilding Fat Loss

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Why Calorie Counting Diets Are Doomed to Fail

Dieting sucks, especially in today's society where food is so readily accessible. Everywhere you look there is a stand offering food that is loaded with calories and is 'bad' for those trying to lose weight. Food companies - especially fast food companies have huge advertising budgets, and they spend millions on market research to see how best to tempt potential customers into purchasing their product.

It is almost like they are working against you personally, with that little voice in your head telling you it will be alright to just have a chocolate biscuit today because you can cut back on the amount you eat tomorrow. It is like you have a huge foe bombarding you with 'loaded offers' from close quarters and you have to stand and face this bombardment all alone - dieting sucks.

Not only are you being bombarded, but you are also being attacked from the other side because the people who promote diets are telling you that food is the enemy and to lose weight you must cut the calories.

Talk about dealing blows to your self esteem, one side promoting all these great tasting goodies and the other side telling you that you can't have them because if you do, you will be a failure. On top of this you look at friends and colleagues that seem to be able to eat what they like and never put an ounce on.

Dieting really sucks - and there must be a better way.

I don't know about you, but I have asked myself 'if calorie counting diets don't work, what does' there must be a better way. I may not be the most self disciplined person in the world but I certainly am not the worst in the world either, and the feeling of always being hungry is hard to put up with day in day out. I have also pondered why 2 people can eat basically the same things and 1 person becomes overweight while the other person does not, something doesn't seem right. I know a lot of factors can affect the preceding statement such as the amount of exercise that both people complete, but so often people that eat and do the same things end up vastly different in their weight.

I decided to do a little 'digging around' to find out why this might happen and I believe the answer lies in a person's metabolism. A person with a higher metabolism burns calories faster than a person with a slower metabolism, therefore 2 people eating the same things, the person with the higher metabolism will burn more calories in the same amount of time compared to the person with the slower metabolism.

The obvious next question was 'how do I increase my metabolism'? Do I have to become an elite athlete and be fit enough to run a half marathon. I found that fitness helps but is not the most important thing. I was glad to learn that my daily walk was sufficient because I really enjoy my 'mynd time' when walking. I know some people find it hard to exercise, so it is comforting to know exercise is not the be all and end all of increasing your metabolism.

What I did find was that the things that affect your metabolism the most are the kinds of foods that you eat, and the frequency that you eat food. I found this hard to believe, but you increase your metabolism by eating more frequently, which flies in the face of traditional weight loss programs. At last some dieting information that promotes eating and not 'food is the enemy'. Just don't tell the fast food companies or we will end up with the 'increased metabolism quarter pounder' being promoted all over the place.

To learn more about increasing your metabolism visit Increase Your Metabolism for Easy Permanent Weight Loss and forget about always feeling hungry.