Summary

To lose weight all you have to do is to exercise regularly and to take in fewer calories than your body needs. But it is hard because it is easy to say than to do. A government review found that two-thirds of U.S. dieters regained all the weight they had lost within a year, and 97 percent had gained it all back within five years. To lose weight you have to make right food choices, stop or drastically reduce some of your favorite foods, exercise at lease 30 minutes a day 5 days a week and break the sugar addiction. Yes, you can be addicted to sugar just like nicotine or drugs. If your body is used to have high sugar and high insulin after meals then your body and brain will react to them. You will crave for the same reactions otherwise you won't feel right and will have withdrawal symptoms. That is why you heard people said "I have to eat rice, potato, bread or pasta 2-3 times a day otherwise I will be weak, shaky, irritable or having headache." To stop sugar craving can be worse than trying to quick smoking. You can stop smoking completely, but you can't stop eating. If you have to eat then you don't know, or you just don't care about when, how and what to eat properly. I stopped smoking in 1982 and only felt bad for a few days. Lifestyle modification with regular exercise and good eating choices to achieve long term weight control was difficult, because I started in 2003 and didn't find the right way, my own way, to reach my desired weight until near the end of 2005. That is why I want to share my experience to help people lose weight in the right way.

The key is to take in fewer calories than your daily requirement, which can be enhanced by increasing metabolism with exercise, building muscle mass, eating proper breakfast, right timing and right kinds of food, plenty of salsa or hot peppers etc. When, how and what you eat can make a lot of difference because they can affect the metabolic rate and total calorie intake. Don't skip breakfast and replace with late night snack. Eat frequent and small meals. If you do have high glycemic index carbohydrates, mix them with vegetables, proteins or unsaturated fats, so they can be absorbed slowly. What you eat should consist of low glycemic carbs, lean meats (less red meat) and unsaturated fats (including Omega-3). Hormones (insulin, cortisol, Glucagon, Leptin, etc) response to behavior of eating also play a very important role in weight control. High fiber low glycemic index carbohydrates reduce calorie intake but slowly replenishing glucose and glycogen. Glycogen storage is depleted so fat can be burned, but shouldn't be too much for too long to preserve muscle, because both fat and protein will be burned as fuel. We have plenty of body fat to be used, so external fat (except good fat) intake should be limited. Protein comes from food, muscle and even internal organs (in self-imposed famine or anorexia), so adequate protein intake is important. The brain burns up about 60-70% of body glucose. Normally, brain can only use glucose, which can come from protein (not from fat) when blood glucose is low. In rare instance, the brain has the capacity to adapt to the use of ketone bodies from fatty acid oxidation during starvation and diabetes mellitus (glucose can't be utilized due to lack of insulin). Amino acids are also needed for strengthening and building muscles, further stressing the necessity of external protein consumption.

Omega-3 fatty acid reduces insulin resistance and along with other unsaturated fats can fight inflammation, decrease LDL, raise HDL, and reduce atherosclerosis. Large amount of vegetables, soups or unsweetened drinks will keep your stomach satisfied. Snacks will prevent hunger and excessive glycogen depletion since the meals will have much fewer calories than usual.

Remember, without exercise dieting alone will be much harder to lose weight, and other health benefits of exercise are as important as weight loss. Without dieting exercise alone won't help you lose weight either. In low glycemic state, dieting burns both fat and muscle, but exercise mainly uses fat as fuel. To lose weight dieting might be faster initially, but exercise is healthier. With firming and building muscles and burning more calories, exercise will sustain weight loss more effectively and last longer. Exercise may be especially helpful in reducing the size of fat cells around the waistline. Diet alone showed no such change even with the similar weight loss. That’s important, because fat specifically in the abdomen has been linked to the risk of heart disease and diabetes. What you don't want to have is a slim but unhealthy body like some people looked when they had quick weight loss without exercise and were thought to be anorexic. Actually, dieting is a negative and restrictive concept because you have to reduce some portion size and calorie intake, avoid some of your favorite food and eating food like vegetables and fish those are not the food most people like. Instead, exercise is a positive activity because it make you look better, feel better by releasing endorphin and make you want to do more, make you fit and improve your physical and mental health.