The idea of dieting is simple-the reality is harder.

Our body gets energy or calories from food and if we burn more calories than eat then we lose weight.

But wait. If you burn up lots of fat without careful replacement, the brain then begins to search around for other fuel to burn in order to get necessary energy and soon turns to burning body glucose before consuming body fat if it appears a “famine” situation is present.

The body holds onto fat in case of further famine signals from body to brain.

And diets often present the brain with this famine situation.

Since water weighs more than fat, weight loss shows almost immediately but some of the symptoms this can cause are depression and hunger as the body systems demand more calories.

The signals increase in strength and hunger grows more urgent often causing the abandonment of dieting.

So with the semi-fasting of the diet over, the body begins to replace and store the water/glucose lost and your weight shoots up again, sometimes well past the starting point.

The fat is still there and wouldn’t have been burned off until the glucose had been depleted.

So the solution is to burn up more calories than you put in, constantly replenishing water and maintain a consistent vigorous exercise program to increase blood flow.

This increased blood flow will allow the supply of higher amounts of energy contained in fat rich blood to the muscle groups as they increase in mass. 

Any exercise regime needs to be 3 to 4 times per week of approx 45 minutes each time and raising the heart rate by up to 60% for much of this time.
Along with the doing some sort of exercise, water and food intake need to be monitored.

The average daily calorie requirement for most adults is around 2500 to 3000 calories per day which is normally reduced to around 1500 calories by a diet.

It will be very important to get the correct food types and portions including fats, carbohydrates, proteins etc during the period of dietary weight loss and continue with at least a modified intake of these after reaching your desired weight.

If your diet can be based around foods you enjoy then diet life will more comfortable and more easily sustained.

If you're looking for ready made diet food solutions go there now. Visit Bariatric Choice Diet Foods to see a whole range of diet foods from entrees to desserts.

What do you need?

Foods that supply Vitamins and Minerals are always necessary and if your calorie intake is lowered by dieting and you may need to take a Vitamin and Mineral supplement.

You need Protein to prevent the breakdown of skin muscle and repair body tissue can be found in meat, fish, poultry and nuts.

Carbohydrates can help stop fatigue and fluids imbalance and you can get Carbohydrates from cereals, fish and pasta. 100 grams is the average daily amount.

Fibre is required for correct bowel function and maintenance; 20 to 30 grams per day. Bran cereal, fruit and vegetables supply fibre but the day to day diet of the average person doesn’t contain this amount so a fibre supplement should be considered, especially as we get older and the risk of bowel cancer increases.

Calories from fat need to be kept down to around 30 grams of your total daily calorie intake and only a very small percentage of that being from saturated fats. Watch the cholesterol levels here as from middle age on we run a higher risk of heart disease. 

Fats  will be the hard one to reduce as fats supply a lot of taste in daily meals. Lower fat, lower taste, so more demand to satisfy hunger cravings.

And most important of all, don’t forget your Water intake to reduce the risk of dehydration now that you've started a vigorous exercise program. Up to 8 to 10 glasses of water per day.

The main styles of diets are;

Prepackaged Diets. Meals prepared and containing correct calorie count. Often associated with well known weight loss companies but generally costly and you’ll learn little about food selection that you'll need after the diet program ends.

Formulae Diets. Replacement meals of a mixed formulae requiring little digestion and leaving little residue in the intestines. Teaches nothing about food choice and often leads to considerable weight gain when normal meals are resumed.

Exchange type Diets. A set of servings from each of the major food groups where each portion contains a similar calorie count so that the servings can be swapped around to keep the diet more interesting and still correct.

One Food Diets. E.g. Banana Diet. This type of diet centers on one or two foods eaten singularly or in combination. It will probably  reduce calories and so probably reduce weight but these type of diets are rarely sustainable and when you finish the  program on goes the original weight or more.

Flexible Diets. Definitely the type of diets to pursue. These diets generally teach you to evaluate food groups, calories and teach good food habits. Once you get to your perfect weight, with exercise this diet is the easiest to make part of daily living especially if there is some sort of follow-on assistance plan.

Most diets are not easy to stick to since they generally differ so much from the pattern of eating that we have been accustomed to, be it bad or very bad.

What is needed instead is a sustainable diet -- a food consumption and exercise plan  -- that lets you live a normal life and eat normal foods in a normal way.

An excellent guide to food, nutrients and all sorts of details regarding Food Groups, benefits and risks, can be found here www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid at The United States Department of Agriculture. 

The Department of Agriculture site has a huge amount of information regarding healthy weight.

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