Five cruel facts on losing weight
You might have discovered losing weight and burning fat isn't that easy. You already know there is no shortcut to get there quickly and once you have got there it isn’t that easy to stay there. Here are five facts you might not know but that will at least help you understand how to lose weight and why it is so hard.
Fact 1: Don't give in
Your body is stashing fat for harder times to come, building a fat reserve for cold winters with very little food, but in our modern world they never come there is plenty of food all year and we have heating. If you go on a diet your body is responding like winter has just started and it isn't gonna give up the fat that easily, you body thinks this might just be the beginning of a longer shortage. You body will slow down, get much more economical with the food you eat. And your body will urge you, scream for, trick you, convince you, to eat high calorie products, no matter what. As long as your body can hold on the fat reserves it will, if you give in your body wins. Be harsh on yourself, don't give in, ever.
Fact 2: Wear Light Clothes
The primary thing you do to burn energy is keeping your body warm. For an average person 70% of all the energy is just to keep warm, another 20% goes to your brain. The remaining 10% goes into “other” stuff like moving around. This is why an hour spinning class has so little impact on your energy consumption. But you can easily burn up to 5% more energy by wearing light clothes or reducing your environment temperature. Especially at night you can burn a lot by just taking off that extra blanket and opening the window. You will get used to the lower temperatures, but trust me; this therapy is as effective as it is hard.
Fact 3: Cold Showers
Taking cold showers is dreadful therapy to up your metabolic rate. A cold shower of at least a minute has a triple effect. First of all you are simply washing down body heat down the sink, a minute cold shower (10 deg celsius) is equivalent to 15 minutes jogging. Secondly your body will adapt itself for the next cold shower by pushing more heat to your skin, this effect will last for a couple of hours after the shower. Thirdly your body will start 'growing' brown fat, and that is the fat your should have.
Fact 4: High Intensity Training
Some of you might have already discovered that taking long runs, peddling for hours on the cross trainer just doesn't cut it. No matter how much you workout, you just get tyred and not losing any weight. Several studies have shown that doing small bursts of exercise have much higher impact on getting rid of fat. The small bursts only need to last opto 10 seconds but they have to be an all-out "running for the bus" kind of excersice.
Fact 5: It is forever
Once you have lost some weight, there is just no way you are gonna stay that way. To keep the weight you problaby have to work as hard as it took you to get there. Don't start a diet you won't be able to keep up for, yes, the rest of your live. The best diet is a new live style, not a heavy 3 month course.
Updated 17-11-2019 829 page views since 23-11-2023