The secret to weight loss is :

95% What You Eat (Your Diet) and only 5% Exercise.

You Are What You Eat. Your Weight and Your Life is the Result of Your Habits.

This may seem like hyperbole, but your diet is the foundation behind not only your weight, but also your IQ, stress levels, risk of disease, physical performance, aging, and even willpower. That’s because it’s easier to cut 500 calories a day from your diet than it is to burn 500 extra calories through exercise. You’d have to walk or run about five miles a day for a week to lose one pound of fat !

To lose one pound by exercising, you need to burn approximately 3,500 calories. It can take days of moderate exercise to do this. A better strategy for weight loss involves a two-pronged approach: exercising and cutting calories.

Do the math:

Start with this number: 3,500 calories. That’s how many calories are stored in a pound of body fat. With that number, you can tally up how much weight you can lose through increasing activity, cutting calories, or both.

1. Walking or jogging uses roughly 100 calories per mile. (Precisely how many calories you’ll burn depends on a number of things, including your weight and how fast you walk.) So you’d lose about one pound for every extra 35 miles you walk — provided you don’t change anything about your current food intake or other activities. If you walk briskly (at a pace of 4 miles per hour) for 30 minutes on five out of seven days, you’ll log 10 miles a week. That means it would take three-and-a-half weeks to lose one pound if the number of calories you consume stays the same.
2. If you altered your diet and cut back by 250 calories a day (½ cup of ice cream or two sugar-sweetened sodas), you’d lose a pound in two weeks. If you ate 250 fewer calories a day and walked for 30 minutes a day, it would take just over a week to lose one pound. Reducing calorie intake even more and exercising more would further speed the process.

Importance of Calorie Balance

Weight stability requires a balance between calories consumed (calories IN) and calories expended (calories Out). Managing calorie intake is fundamental to achieving and maintaining calorie balance—the balance between the calories intake from foods and the calories expended from metabolic processes and physical activity. The best way to determine whether your eating pattern is at an appropriate number of calories is to monitor your body weight and adjust your calorie intake and energy expenditure in physical activity based on changes in your body weight over time.

All foods and many beverages contain calories, and the total number of calories varies depending on the macronutrients in a food. On average, carbohydrates and protein contain 4 calories per gram (17 kJ/g), fats contain 9 calories per gram (37 kJ/g) and alcohol (ethanol) has 7 calories per gram (29 kJ/g) and organic acid 3 calories per gram (13 kJ/g). The total number of calories you need each day varies depending on a number of factors, including the your age, sex, height, weight, your build (muscular or athletic or average or overweight) and level of physical activity. In addition, a need to lose, maintain, or gain weight and other factors affect how many calories should be consuming.

Table 1. Estimated Calorie Needs per Day, by Age, Sex, and Physical Activity Level

Notes:

Within each age and sex category, the low end of the range is for sedentary individuals; the high end of the range is for active individuals. Due to reductions in basal metabolic rate (resting energy requirement) that occur with aging, calorie needs generally decrease for adults as they age.

These are only estimates, and approximations of individual calorie needs can be aided with online tools such as those available at www.supertracker.usda.gov ¹. To find out What and How Much To Eat, you can use a FREE, award-winning, state-of-the-art, online diet and activity tracking tool called SuperTracker ² from the United States Department of Agriculture Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion ². This free application empowers you to build a healthier diet, manage weight, and reduce your risk of chronic diet-related diseases. You can use SuperTracker ² to determine what and how much to eat; track foods, physical activities, and weight; and personalize with goal setting, virtual coaching, and journaling.

[a] Sedentary means that you do only light physical activity as part of your typical daily routine.

[b] Moderately Active means that you do physical activity equal to walking about 1.5 to 3 miles a day at 3 to 4 miles per hour, plus your typical daily routine.

[c] Active means a lifestyle that includes physical activity equivalent to walking more than 3 miles per day at 3 to 4 miles per hour, in addition to the activities of your typical daily routine.

[d] Estimates for females do not include women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

[e] If you need to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn or increase your activity level to burn more calories than you eat.

(Source: Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. Washington (DC): The National Academies Press; 2002. ³).

General guidance for achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight is provided below:

• Children and adolescents are encouraged to maintain calorie balance to support normal growth and development without promoting excess weight gain. Children and adolescents who are overweight or obese should change their eating and physical activity behaviors to maintain or reduce their rate of weight gain while linear growth occurs, so that they can reduce body mass index (BMI) percentile toward a healthy range.

• Before becoming pregnant, women are encouraged to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, and women who are pregnant are encouraged to gain weight within gestational weight gain guidelines ⁴.

• Adults who are obese should change their eating and physical activity behaviors to prevent additional weight gain and/or promote weight loss. Adults who are overweight should not gain additional weight, and those with one or more cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., hypertension and hyperlipidemia) should change their eating and physical activity behaviors to lose weight. To lose weight, most people need to reduce the number of calories they get from foods and beverages and increase their physical activity. For a weight loss of 1 to 1½ pounds per week, daily intake should be reduced by 500 to 750 calories. Eating patterns that contain 1,200 to 1,500 calories each day can help most women lose weight safely, and eating patterns that contain 1,500 to 1,800 calories each day are suitable for most men for weight loss. In adults who are overweight or obese, if reduction in total calorie intake is achieved, a variety of eating patterns can produce weight loss, particularly in the first 6 months to 2 years ⁵; however, more research is needed on the health implications of consuming these eating patterns long-term.

• Older adults, ages 65 years and older, who are overweight or obese are encouraged to prevent additional weight gain. Among older adults who are obese, particularly those with cardiovascular risk factors, intentional weight loss can be beneficial and result in improved quality of life and reduced risk of chronic diseases and associated disabilities.

• Some foods — vegetables, nuts, fruits, and whole grains — were associated with less weight gain when consumption was actually increased. Obviously, such foods provide calories and cannot violate thermodynamic laws. Their associations with weight loss suggest that the increase in their consumption reduced the intake of other foods to a greater (caloric) extent, decreasing the overall amount of energy consumed. Higher fiber content and slower digestion of these foods would augment satiety, and their increased consumption would also displace other, more highly processed foods in the diet, providing plausible biologic mechanisms whereby persons who eat more fruits, nuts, vegetables, and whole grains would gain less weight over time ⁶.

• You don’t have to give up all your favorite foods when you’re trying to lose weight. Small amounts of your favorite high-calorie foods may be part of your weight-loss plan. Just remember to keep track of the total calories you take in. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in through food and beverages.

Over the past century, rates of chronic diseases—many of which are related to poor quality diet and physical inactivity—have increased. About half of all American adults (117 million individuals) —have one or more preventable chronic diseases, many of which are related to diet-related chronic diseases due to poor quality eating patterns and physical inactivity, including cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and overweight and obesity , some cancers and poor bone health.

More than two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of children and youth are overweight or obese today. These high rates of overweight and obesity and chronic disease have persisted for more than two decades and come not only with increased health risks, but also at high cost. In the US alone, in 2008, the medical costs associated with obesity were estimated to be $147 billion. In 2012, the total estimated cost of diagnosed diabetes was $245 billion, including $176 billion in direct medical costs and $69 billion in decreased productivity.

• To find out about your body mass index (BMI), you can use a FREE online BMI calculators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – for Adults ⁷ and for Children ⁸

• To find out What and How Much To Eat, you can use a FREE, award-winning, state-of-the-art, online diet and activity tracking tool called SuperTracker ² from the United States Department of Agriculture Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion ². This free application empowers you to build a healthier diet, manage weight, and reduce your risk of chronic diet-related diseases. You can use SuperTracker ² to determine what and how much to eat; track foods, physical activities, and weight; and personalize with goal setting, virtual coaching, and journaling.

SuperTracker website ²

• To find out about how many calories you should eat to lose weight according to your weight, age, sex, height and physical activity, you can use a FREE online app Body Weight Planner ⁹

• To find out about the 5 Food Groups you should have on your plate for a meal, you can use a FREE online app ChooseMyPlate ¹⁰

Whilst Healthy eating (Nutrition) is the foundation and centerpiece for weight loss,  exercise is the tool to build your body into the fine, precision machine it can be.

This is because you body is an efficient energy storage machine due to millions of years of evolution where our (cavemen) ancestors used to live – by hunting and gathering – where foods are scarce and in natural forms. So our body has evolve to be super efficient with digesting natural foods and storing the excess food energy in the form of body fat. In order for our body to cope with food scarcity and famine.

This is the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors eat:

• Our ancestors’ diets were uncomplicated by agriculture, animal husbandry, technology, and processed foods.

In our 21st century living, foods are abundant and most foods that are tasty are processed foods –with added refined sugars, refined oils, and added salt. Because of the addictive nature of fatty foods, sugars and artificial sweeteners, the average body mass index for the general U.S. population is approaching obesity and even children as young as five are now getting bariatric surgery. Obesity metabolically contributes to insulin resistance because of free fatty acid spillover into the blood. Even vegetarians are, on average, overweight in the United States, but those eating more strictly plant-based diets average an ideal body weight.

Foods that are fatty, salty, and sugary that tap receptors in the brain that release feel-good chemicals like dopamine, which make us want more of that food. Typically, those foods are high in calories, too — and they don’t provide much in the way of nutrients. So you need SELF-DISCIPLINE in order to have a vibrant, healthy body. Without applying self-control toward what you eat and how often (and well) you exercise, the result is weight gain and eventually obesity. What we know is that when you grow your capacity for self-discipline in one area like healthy eating and doing regular exercise, that capacity generalizes to other areas of your life as well.

That is why it’s hard to stop at one bite, a chip, or spoonful – it’s not a mystery that foods high in added sugar, salt, and solid fat set us up to want to eat more. Furthermore, foods today have been scientifically formulated to target the ‘sweet spot’ in our taste buds making processed foods highly palatable, intensely addictive, that are sabotaging your brain chemistry, your waistlines, and your health. Sometimes the food is filling an emotional need brought on by feeling lonely or depressed. Even joyful and celebratory feelings bring on eating and overeating.

“Your hormones, taste buds, and brain chemistry have been hijacked by the food industry.”

Fast food is known for its large portions, low prices, high palatability, and high sugar content, and there’s evidence from studies in teens and adults that frequent fast-food consumption contributes to overeating and weight gain ¹¹, ¹², ¹³, ¹⁴, ¹⁵, ¹⁶. A study on the effect of fast-food consumption on risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes, for example, followed 3,000 young adults for 13 years. People who had higher fast-food-intake levels at the start of the study weighed an average of about 13 pounds more than people who had the lowest fast-food-intake levels. They also had larger waist circumferences and greater increases in triglycercides, and double the odds of developing metabolic syndrome ¹².

Scientists have now shown that Obesity and Binge eating disorder change your brain in almost exactly the same way as substance and behavioral addictions like compulsive shopping, heroin/cocaine/alcohol/nicotine smoking addictions, compulsive gambling, porn addiction, sex addiction, and internet/gaming addiction.

For instance, the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, sweets, and processed foods may make it harder for a person to maintain energy balance over the long term. Whereas the consumption of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables might make it easier ¹⁷, ¹⁸, ¹⁹, ²⁰, ²¹, ²², ²³.

There is now enough convincing evidence that sugar-sweetened beverages do not induce satiety to the same extent as solid forms of carbohydrate, and that increases in sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption are associated with weight gain and increased visceral fat ¹⁸, ²⁰. Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages every day was associated with an increase in a particular type of body fat that may affect diabetes and heart disease risk, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation ²⁴.

Drinking sugary drinks increase your risk of weight gain, obesity, and diabetes ²⁵, ²⁶, ²⁷: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 88 studies found “clear associations of soft drink intake with increased caloric intake and body weight” ²⁵. In children and adolescents, a more recent meta analysis estimates that for every additional 12-ounce serving of sugary beverage consumed each day, body mass index increases by 0.08 units ²⁶. Another meta analysis finds that adults who regularly drink sugared beverages have a 26 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people who rarely drink sugared beverages ²⁷. Emerging evidence also suggests that high sugary beverage intake increases the risk of heart disease ²⁸.

It’s important to note that fruit juices are not a better option for weight control than sugar-sweetened beverages. Ounce for ounce, fruit juices-even those that are 100 percent fruit juice, with no added sugar- are as high in sugar and calories as sugary sodas. So it’s no surprise that a recent Harvard School of Public Health study, which tracked the diet and lifestyle habits of 120,000 men and women for up to 20 years, found that people who increased their intake of fruit juice gained more weight over time than people who did not ²⁹. Pediatricians and public health advocates recommend that children and adults limit fruit juice to just a small glass a day, if they consume it at all.

Like refined grains and potatoes, sugary beverages are high in rapidly-digested carbohydrate. Research suggests that when that carbohydrate is delivered in liquid form, rather than solid form, it is not as satiating, and people don’t eat less to compensate for the extra calories ³⁰.

These findings on sugary drinks are alarming, given that children and adults are drinking ever-larger quantities of them: In the U.S., sugared beverages made up about 4 percent of daily calorie intake in the 1970s, but by 2001, represented about 9 percent of calories ²⁷. The most recent data find that on any given day, half of Americans consume some type of sugared beverage, 25 percent consume at least 200 calories from sugared drinks, and 5 percent of consume at least 567 calories-the equivalent of four cans of sugary soda ³¹.

The good news is that studies in children and adults have also shown that cutting back on sugary drinks can lead to weight loss ³², ³³. Sugary drinks have become an important target for obesity prevention efforts, prompting discussions of policy initiatives such as taxing soda ³⁴.

In a large population based study involving 120,877 U.S. men and women who were free of chronic diseases and not obese at baseline, with follow-up periods from 1986 to 2006, 1991 to 2003, and 1986 to 2006 ²⁹. The relationships between changes in lifestyle factors and weight change were evaluated at 4-year intervals, with adjustments made for age, baseline body-mass index (BMI) for each period, and all lifestyle factors simultaneously.

• Within each 4-year period, participants gained an average of 3.35 lb (1.52 kg).

On the basis of increased daily servings of individual dietary components, 4-year weight change was most strongly associated with the intake of:

• potato chips (1.69 lb),
• potatoes (1.28 lb),
• sugar-sweetened beverages (1.00 lb),
• unprocessed red meats (0.95 lb), and
• processed meats (0.93 lb)
• and weight loss was associated with the intake of vegetables (-0.22 lb), whole grains (-0.37 lb), fruits (-0.49 lb), nuts (-0.57 lb), and yogurt (-0.82 lb) ²⁹.

Other lifestyle factors were also independently associated with weight change, including physical activity (-1.76 lb); alcohol use (0.41 lb per drink per day), smoking (new quitters, 5.17 lb; former smokers, 0.14 lb), sleep (more weight gain with <6 or >8 hours of sleep), and television watching (0.31 lb per hour per day) ²⁹. The study concluded that specific dietary and lifestyle factors are independently associated with long-term weight gain. Aggregate dietary changes are critical for substantial differences in weight gain, with additional contributions from changes in physical activity and television watching, thus highlighting specific lifestyle changes that might be prioritized in obesity-prevention strategies.

Eat mindfully

One of the simplest things you can do to eat more healthy and sustainably is to practice mindful eating. Focusing on what you’re eating allows you to reflect on where your food came from and how it is nourishing your body. Additionally, by tuning in to your hunger signals you may learn that you don’t need as much food as you thought, and resize your meals accordingly. By paying more attention to how we eat and thinking about the “bigger picture,” you may alter your food consumption and reduce food waste, as well as become encouraged to seek out more sustainable food sources.

Choosing a diet that’s right for your weight loss

Hundreds of diets have been created, many promising fast and permanent weight loss. Remember the cabbage soup diet ? The grapefruit diet ? How about the Hollywood 48 Hour Miracle diet, the caveman diet, the Subway diet, the apple cider vinegar diet, and a host of forgettable celebrity diets ?

The truth is, almost any diet will work if it helps you take in fewer calories. Diets do this in two main ways:

1. getting you to eat certain “good” foods and/or avoid “bad” ones
2. changing how you behave and the ways you think or feel about food

The best diet for losing weight is one that is good for all parts of your body, from your brain to your toes, and not just for your waistline. It is also one you can live with for a long time. In other words, a diet that offers plenty of good tasting and healthy choices, banishes few foods, and doesn’t require an extensive and expensive list of groceries or supplements.

In the most comprehensive review (meta-analysis) conducted to date, a team of researchers ³⁵, analyse all available articles and randomised trials on all popular branded diets including macronutrient composition diets (low carbohydrate, low fat, high protein, high fat, etc.).

The branded diet programs being analysed were:

• Atkins Diet
• Biggest Loser Diet
• DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet
• Jenny Craig Diet
• LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships and Nutrition) Diet
• Mediterranean Diet
• Nutrisystem Diet
• Ornish Diet
• Pritikin Diet
• Rosemary Conley Diet
• Slimming World Diet
• South Beach Diet
• Volumetrics Diet
• Weight Watchers Diet
• Zone Diet
• Low Calorie Diet (LCD)
• Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD)
• Low Carbohydrate
• High Carbohydrate
• Carb Counting
• Low-glycemic index (Low GI)
• Low-glycemic load (Low GL)
• Low Fat
• High Fat
• Ketogenic
• Scheduling (meals & meal pattern)
• Meal replacement
• Portfolio Diet
• High Protein
• Energy Density Diet
• Portion Control Diet
• TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) Diet
• Vegetarian Diet

Conclusions:

• Weight loss differences between individual brand named diets were small with likely little importance to those seeking weight loss. For example, the Atkins diet resulted in a 1.71 kg greater weight loss than the Zone diet at 6-month follow-up.
• The largest and most significant weight loss was associated with low-carbohydrate diets (8.73 kg at 6-month follow-up and 7.25 kg at 12-month follow-up) and low-fat diets (7.99 kg at 6-month follow-up and 7.27 kg at 12-month follow-up) than no dietary intervention over a 12-month period.
• Behavioral support and exercise enhanced weight loss.
• There isn’t one “perfect” diet for everyone, owing to individual differences in genes and lifestyle.

This study supports the practice of recommending any diet that a person will adhere to in order to lose weight ³⁶.

What are the options ?

Unfortunately, most weight-loss diets are hard to stick to long enough to reach your weight goal. And some may not be healthy.

The sheer number of weight-loss plans can be overwhelming. There’s overlap, but most plans can be grouped into a few major categories.

In the review conducted by U.S. News & World Report with the help of a panel of 22 experts to make their choices to find the nation’s best overall diets for 2013 ³⁷. U.S. News evaluated and ranked the 38 diets, to be top-rated, a diet had to be relatively easy to follow, nutritious, safe, effective for weight loss and protective against diabetes and heart disease. The US government-endorsed Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet took the number 1 spot, while the Mediterranean diet came in second and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MND) Diet came in 3rd. The Weight Watchers Diet came in 4th tie with Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC), Mayo Clinic Diet and The Flexitarian Diet (casual vegetarian) ³⁷.

• A) Balanced
• Examples: Mayo Clinic, Mediterranean, Intermittent Fasting, Weight Watchers, Fast Diet (5:2 Fast Diet), Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC), Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships, Nutrition (LEARN), Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)
• Flexible ? Yes. Calories are controlled but no foods are off-limits.
• Nutritionally balanced ? Yes.
• Includes physical activity ? Yes.
• Sustainable over long term ? Yes. Emphasis is on making permanent changes.

• B) Fad or Crash Diets (aka Hollywood Diets)
  
• Examples: Cabbage soup, detox, grapefruit, raw food, clear liquid
• Flexible ? No. Emphasizes a single food or combination of foods; all others are limited.
• Nutritionally balanced ? No.
• Includes physical activity ? No.
• Sustainable over long term ? No.

• C) Glycemic index
• Example: Sugar Busters
• Flexible ? No. Foods that rapidly increase blood sugar levels, such as white bread and potatoes, are limited.
• Nutritionally balanced ? Deficiencies are possible on very restrictive plans.
• Includes physical activity ? Optional.
• Sustainable over long term ? Possibly. But the diet may be hard to stick to over time.

• D) High protein or low carb
• Examples: Atkins, Dukan, the Zone
• Flexible ? No. Carbs are limited; fats or proteins or both are emphasized.
• Nutritionally balanced ? Deficiencies are possible on very restrictive plans.
• Includes physical activity ? Optional.
• Sustainable over long term ? Possibly. But the diet may be hard to stick to over time.

• E) Low fat
• Examples: Ornish, Pritikin
• Flexible ? No. Total fat and saturated fat are limited. Because even lean cuts of meat, poultry and fish contain some fat, very low fat diets may ban these foods. Healthy oils, nuts and seeds also may be off-limits.
• Nutritionally balanced ? Yes.
• Includes physical activity ? Yes.
• Sustainable over long term ? Possibly. But the diet may be hard to stick to over time.

• F) Vegetarian
• Flexible? No. Meat is off-limits, and some people also restrict fish and dairy products. There are no specific limits on non-animal sources of food.
• Nutritionally balanced ? Deficiencies are possible on a vegan diet depending on the types of foods chosen.
• Includes physical activity ? Optional.
• Sustainable over long term ? Yes. But, some people may find it difficult to give up meats.

• G) Meal replacement
• Examples: Jenny Craig, Health Management Resources (HMR), Medifast, Nutrisystem, Slim-Fast
• Flexible ? No. Replacement products take the place of one or two meals a day.
• Nutritionally balanced ? Possibly. Balance is possible if you also make healthy meal choices.
• Includes physical activity ? Optional.
• Sustainable over long term ? Cost of products varies; some may be cost prohibitive.

• H) Very low calorie
• Example: Optifast
• Flexible ? No. Calories are severely limited, possibly 200-800 calories a day.
• Nutritionally balanced ? No.
• Includes physical activity ? No.
• Sustainable over long term ? No. Diet is intended only for short-term use with medical supervision. Diets that leave you feeling deprived or hungry may create irresistible cravings — or worse yet, may leave you feeling like giving up.

Ask yourself these questions when evaluating weight-loss plans

Before you dive into a specific weight-loss plan, take time to learn as much about it as you can. Keep in mind that just because a diet is popular or your friends are doing it doesn’t mean it’s the right approach for you.

So ask these questions first:

• What does it consist of ?
• Does the diet plan provide general guidance that you can tailor and adapt to your situation ?
• Does it require you to buy special meals, supplements, drugs or injections ?
• Does it offer online or in-person support ?
• Does it teach you how to make positive, healthy changes in your life to help maintain your weight loss ?
• Who’s behind the diet ?
• Who created the weight-loss plan ?
• What are their qualifications and experience ?
• Do they have solid research and science to back up their weight-loss approach ?
• If you go to a weight-loss clinic, what expertise, training, certifications and experience do the doctors, dietitians and other staff have ?
• Will their staff coordinate with your regular doctor ?
• What are the risks ?
• Could the weight-loss program harm your health ?
• Are the recommended drugs or supplements safe for your situation, especially if you have a health condition or take medications ?
• What are the results ?
• How much weight can you expect to lose ?
• Does the weight-loss plan claim that you’ll lose a lot of weight in a very short time ?
• That you can target specific problem areas of your body ?
• Does it tout before-and-after photos that seem too good to be true ?
• Can it help you maintain your weight loss permanently ?

Even then, you’ll likely always have to remain vigilant about your weight. Because most weight-loss diets don’t encourage permanent healthy lifestyle changes, the pounds you lose often quickly come back once you stop dieting. But combining a healthier diet with more activity is the best way to lose weight and keep it off for the long term.

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

BEHAVIORAL AND HABIT CHANGES ARE THE KEYS TO LONG-TERM WEIGHT-LOSS SUCCESS

This study found that the more group counseling sessions participants attended, the more weight they lost, and the less weight they regained. This supports the idea that not only is what you eat important, but behavioral, psychological, and social factors are important for weight loss as well ³⁸. Successful weight loss requires permanent changes to your eating habits and physical activity. This means you need to find a weight-loss approach that you can embrace for life. If you’ve been overweight for very long, it’s almost certain you have a blood sugar or a metabolic disorder. This means that refined carbohydrates-which include sugars, white flour products and junk foods that are such a whopping proportion of the American diet are slowly poisoning you. Those foods are bad for your health, bad for your energy level, bad for your mental state, bad for your figure. Bad for your career prospects, bad for your sex life, bad for your digestion, bad for your blood chemistry, bad for your heart.

A 2014 Gallup poll asked Americans about their consumption habits and found that more than 90 percent of American adults try to include fruit and vegetables in their daily diets. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables (2013) reveals that American adults eat fruit a mere 1.1 times per day and vegetables only about 1.6 times per day. Life is all about TAKING RESPONSIBILITY and CHOICE and ACTION and COMMITMENT. Yet, somehow, most people don’t make the connection between taking responsibility, making the right choices and designing the type and the quality of life they want.

Taking Full Responsibility for Yourself means being aware of the multitude of choices you have in any given situation.

Where you are is a result of who you were, but where you end up depends entirely on who you choose to be from this moment forward.

One of life’s simplest truths is this: If you want to be successful then you must take full responsibility for everything in your life and everything not in your life. Your results are yours and yours alone. If you want your life to improve, you have to improve yourself first.

Work on Yourself – you don’t just stumble into an amazing  fitter body and healthier you. It takes decision, a commitment to consistently work on yourself.

Your choices determined the body, bank account, and relationships that you have right now.

And as soon as you are willing to admit this, you are able to take the leap forward and elevate your life.

As soon as you take responsibility you realize that you also have the ability to change the way that things are.

>>> You are the cause of all your experiences of life and you are the cause of your reactions to everything that happens to you ! Nothing is realistic or unrealistic—there is only what you think about any given situation. You Create Your Own Reality. What you resist, persists.

• Avoid casting blame on an external force for your bad feelings about life. Nothing outside yourself can control your thinking or your actions.

• You can’t avoid pain, but you can say yes to the pain, understanding that it is a part of life. Your ability to cope effectively with the world around you corresponds to your ability to say yes to your universe, including the pain. Denial of pain can be incredibly destructive to your health, your relationships and life, if kept submerged. It is a matter of remaining conscious that you have the choice. You can’t control the world, but you can control your reactions to it. We think by now you’ll begin to see how “SAYING YES TO YOUR UNIVERSE” can work, not only to reduce your fear, but also to create meaning in your life.

• Saying “YES” means getting up and acting on your belief that you can create meaning and purpose in whatever life hands you. It means becoming alive to possibilities and channeling resources to find constructive, healthy ways to deal with adverse situations. It means acting out of strength and positive action, not weakness. It means having the flexibility necessary to survey many options and choose ones that enhance growth.

• STOP FEEDING YOURSELF NEGATIVE THOUGHTS. Negative thoughts take away your power and thus make you more paralyzed from your fear.

• POSITIVE THINKING changes everything in your life. You will have energy you never thought possible. You will laugh a lot and love a lot more. You will draw more and more positive people into your life. You will be healthier physically. You will be happy to be alive.
• As you begin to grow, you will notice that you no longer want to be around depressing people. Negativity is contagious and you walk away feeling lousy after spending time in the company of a negative person.
• Yes, there is pain in our own lives. We all experience loss and disappointment. No one is immune to pain and it shouldn’t be denied when it exists. Denial creates inactivity and so does hopelessness. What positive thinking does is offer a power boost to help you handle whatever life gives you. Your “bad breaks” do not dominate your life; your indomitable strength does. And when you feel that indomitable strength, you really can handle any of your fears from a position of power—the kind of power that really can make good things happen.
• Positiveness is also contagious and spending time with a positive person makes you feel as though you can sprout wings and fly. Soon you’ll become discerning. Your energy is tangible and as you become more aware, you will “feel” if a person is positive or negative and you’ll be automatically drawn to the more positive.
• The people in your life are a good indicator of where you are operating on an emotional level. Like attracts like. As you begin to change, you will automatically draw and be drawn to a different kind of person.
• The most important thing is for you to be your own best friend. Whatever you are doing—don’t put yourself down. Slowly begin to discover which, for you, is the path of the heart. Which path in life will make you grow ? That is the path to take, because once you have handled any of those challenging things in your life, you emerge a much stronger person.

And whenever you are not taking responsibility, you put yourself in a position of pain and decrease your ability to handle the problems (e.g. excess weight, over eating, obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, poor fitness, etc.) and fear in your life. Remember that underlying all your fears is a lack of trust in yourself.

• Taking RESPONSIBILITY means NOT BLAMING YOURSELF either. Don’t make yourself a victim of yourself. It’s simply part of the learning process and you are on the path toward greater self-fulfillment and it involves a process of trials and errors.

• Taking RESPONSIBILITY means NEVER EVER BLAME anyone else or anything else for anything you are being, doing, having or feeling — NEVER BLAME ! You are 100% responsible with what goes on in your head. When you blame anyone or anything outside of your head for any of your experience in life -> you are giving away all your power, thus creating pain, paralysis and depression in you.

• Taking RESPONSIBILITY means being aware of where and when you are NOT taking responsibility, so that you can eventually change. Ask yourself, “What am I doing in my life that I could be doing that I’m blaming others for not doing for me ?”

• Taking RESPONSIBILITY means handling the ‘Chatterbox’ (the little voice inside your head). We are all victims of our Chatterboxes at some point in our lives. Your Chatterbox is making you a victim and once you get rid of the negativity your Chatterbox brings, you will really begin to enjoy being alone. It is reported that more than 90% of what we worry about never happens.
  

• Taking RESPONSIBILITY means figuring out what you want in life and acting on it. Set your weight loss goals— then go out and work toward them. Check out your body. Determine what you need to do to create what looks and feels healthy . . . then make it happen. Most of us do not “design” our lives. We accept what comes our way . . . then we gripe about it. Many of us spend our lives waiting—waiting for the perfect weight, waiting for the perfect (soul) mate, waiting for the perfect job, waiting for the perfect friends to come along. There is no need to wait for anyone to give you anything in your life. You have the power to create what you need. Given commitment, clear goals, and action, it’s just a matter of time.

Be aware of when and where you play the VICTIM ROLE. Learn the clues that tell you that you are not being responsible for what you are being, having, doing, or feeling.

Don’t put off creating and experiencing the life— health, fitness, happiness, wealth, success, and love—that you truly want and deserve for another day.

Speaking of Happiness, happiness is, in and of itself, a choice that you make every day. And happiness is something you work on daily.

Signs you are not taking responsibility

• Blaming others or blaming something else
• Anger
• Pain
• Disappointment
• Helplessness
• Self-pity
• Attempting to control others
• Addictions
• Impatience
• Upset
• Joylessness
• Depression
• Feeling paralyzed

See if you can go one week without criticizing anyone or complaining about anything. You will be surprised how difficult this is. You will also be surprised to learn how much complaining and criticizing you do. By the way, when you ultimately stop putting down other people in your life, it may seem as if you have nothing left to talk about with your friends. Griping is a habit, and needs to be replaced by something more positive. This takes a bit of time and ingenuity, but it will be far more satisfying and joyful.

Taking responsibility means being aware of the multitude of choices you have in any given situation.

Your ability to choose is your greatest freedom and your greatest strength. No matter where you start in life, you will be presented with countless choices — and what you choose will make all the difference in the quality (and even the quantity) of your lives.

As you go through each day, it is important to realize that at every moment you are choosing the way you feel. When a difficult situation comes into your life, it is possible to tune in to your mind and say, “Okay, choose.” Are you going to make yourself miserable or content? Are you going to visualize scarcity or abundance? Are you going to put yourself down for getting angry with your husband or are you simply going to notice what insecurity you were feeling at the time and discuss it with him? The choice is definitely yours. Pick the one that contributes most to your aliveness and growth.

You can’t always choose what happens to you, but you can always choose what you are going to do about it. You are where you are in
every area of your life because of the choices you have made in the past. Put another way, all of the choices you’ve made in your life, put together, have brought you to this place, at this time, reading this weight loss article.

The Power of Your Choice

No matter what conditions you are faced with:

• You can choose your attitude toward your health and fitness (which is the single most important choice),
• You can choose to feel valued and appreciated,
• You can choose what to eat,
• You can choose what to drink,
• You can choose whether to exercise or not,
• You can choose how much weight to lose,
• You can choose to be self-disciplined,
• You can choose to have the high energy you need to do what you want,
• You can choose to wake up with enthusiasm every day,
• You can choose how to handle adversity,
• You can choose to appreciate others and let them know it,
• You can choose to handle your emotions,
• You can choose to mold and develop yourself,
• You can choose to confidently find solutions for the challenges in your life,
• You can choose to laugh easily and often, especially at yourself,
• You can choose to have a circle of warm, caring friends,
• You can choose your own purpose in life.

The irony, of course, is that by not choosing, you are choosing—to do nothing and remain in limbo. YOU are choosing to deprive yourself of what makes life a delicious feast.

By now you can really see that life is all about making the right choices and the choice is yours.

Be aware of the many choices you have—in both actions and feelings—in any situation that comes your way. Choose the path that contributes to your growth and makes you feel at peace with yourself and others.

Do the choices you make every day get you what you want ?   

You Have the Power to Change Your Story in an Instant

How long does it take to change your life ?

It’s possible to change your life and your story in an instant and with one single decision.

It is in the moment of decision that your destiny is shaped. There are NO limits to what you can Have, Be and Do with your life.

All change happens in an instant.

You have the ability to elevate your life and transform your story in a single heartbeat whenever you decide that enough is enough, whenever you realize that you physically cannot continue living life the way that you have been living – being overweight, having type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, being always lethargic.

Maybe your transformation will be precipitated by a divorce, a heart attack, a bankruptcy, a stroke or another catastrophic event.

Or maybe it will be something much simpler and (for you) more profound.

Your story may change one morning when you look at yourself in the mirror and don’t like what you see. It might come whenever your wife or girlfriend asks if you really love them. Or maybe it will come when you wake up with a hangover for the sixth day in a row and realize that there has to be more to life.

But for some of you, you will never have these life-shattering events or enlightened moments of self-reproach.

For some of you, you must make the conscious decision that you are going to change your story.

No matter where you are in your life, you have the power to change everything in an instant.

If you have strong enough reasons and a powerful plan of action, you will succeed.

Why be miserable when you can be happy ?

You can’t overcome frustration by behaving in frustrated ways. The idea is to transform feeling, not ignore it and not revel in it. One way to do this is to replace one emotional state with another: to substitute feeling for feeling, not thought for feeling.

Any stimulus that evokes calm, focused attention can be effective as a tool for shifting emotions (e.g. regulating your breathing, meditation, doing yoga, calm music, go for walk, etc.). The key is to evoke and sustain the calm focus—during periods of high frustration or discouragement. It is virtually impossible to sustain a worked-up state—anger, anxiety, and stress—when keeping yourself calm and focused. Even better, in the relaxed state, you’ll arrive at perspectives and insights that remain unavailable while you’re immersed in the flight-or-fight mode.

Fully taking responsibility for your experience of life is a long process that requires much practice. Working on it daily . . . and each day your life gets better and better and better. The point is simply to begin. You will start to feel better immediately.

When you are confronted with a difficult situation, sit down and write in a notebook all the possible ways you can act and feel about it. Each time you are upset, be conscious of the alternatives available to you. Again, make it a game. In no way should you put yourself down for being upset. It’s a great clue as to where you need to begin taking responsibility.

Researchers have found that writing in a journal or talking aloud for a half hour a day had a powerful effect on enabling people to cope effectively with challenging emotional circumstances, including traumas and crises. When we make implicit feelings explicit, we view them from different angles and place them into a different context. For example, dieter who has been angry and frustrated with herself over being overweight or excessive eating might journal about these thoughts and feelings at length. As she is writing and reading over her writings—she suddenly realizes, “Whoa; I’m being awfully hard on myself. I’m not that bad!” With that, she is able to throttle back her negative self-talk and turn her attention back to healthy eating and exercise habits.

When you fail to acknowledge emotions, you lose their information and thus the opportunity to shift perspectives. The frustrated, angry dieter who brushes aside her tensions and forges blindly ahead finds them easily triggered the next day. This is particularly the case when the frustrations are triggered initially by external events. Brushing emotions aside doesn’t change them. Ironically, acknowledging and accepting them, giving them free expression, sets the stage for your transformation.

Does that mean that we should give full vent to whatever we’re experiencing ?
No, psychological research also suggests that unbridled expression of emotion interferes with concentration and performance. Simply yelling
when you’re angry or pouting when you’re discouraged does nothing to alter the feelings and certainly does not place you closer to resolving the situations responsible for the upset in the first place.

In a notebook, list the many choices available to you that can change presently upsetting experiences into positive ones. The key is not to blame others for your being upset. This is not to condone the behavior of others, but simply not to allow it to be the source of your upset.
In every situation there are at least thirty ways to change your point of view. Make this another game—the “change your point of view” game. Play it with a friend; having a “growth buddy” is very nourishing.

Why Stress Causes People to Overeat

There is much truth behind the phrase “stress eating” ³⁹. Indeed, individuals attempting to lose weight often cite life stressors as reasons for abandoning diet plans, and following strict diet/exercise programs is a stressful endeavour. Rigidly restricting food intake often leads to compensatory overeating and psychological distress associated with diet-breaking may further increase disinhibited eating ⁴⁰. Researchers have linked weight gain to stress ⁴¹ and according to an American Psychological Association survey, about one-fourth of Americans rate their stress level as 8 or more on a 10-point scale ⁴².

In the short term, stress can shut down appetite. A structure in the brain called the hypothalamus produces corticotropin-releasing hormone, which suppresses appetite ⁴³. The brain also sends messages to the adrenal glands atop the kidneys to pump out the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). Epinephrine helps trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response, a revved-up physiological state that temporarily puts eating on hold.

But if stress persists, it’s a different story. The adrenal glands release another hormone called cortisol, and cortisol increases appetite and may also ramp up motivation in general, including the motivation to eat ⁴⁴. Once a stressful episode is over, cortisol levels should fall, but if the stress doesn’t go away — or if a person’s stress response gets stuck in the “on” position — cortisol may stay elevated ⁴⁵.

Stress also seems to affect food preferences. Numerous studies, granted, many of them in animals — have shown that physical or emotional distress increases the intake of food high in fat, sugar, or both. High cortisol levels, in combination with high insulin levels, may be responsible. Other research suggests that ghrelin, a “hunger hormone,” may have a role ⁴⁶, ⁴⁷, ⁴⁸. Stress-induced increases in ghrelin, which further stimulate appetite, might impede efforts to maintain weight loss. Interventions to prevent increased ghrelin levels in response to stress and weight loss are needed ⁴⁹ .

Once ingested, fat- and sugar-filled foods seem to have a feedback effect that inhibits activity in the parts of the brain that produce and process stress and related emotions. These foods really are “comfort” foods in that they seem to counteract stress — and this may contribute to people’s stress-induced craving for those foods. Of course, overeating isn’t the only stress-related behavior that can add pounds. Stressed people also lose sleep (sleep deprivation), exercise less, and drink more alcohol, all of which can contribute to excess weight.

• Stress Gender differences

Some research suggests a gender difference in stress-coping behavior, with women being more likely to turn to food and men to alcohol or smoking. And a Finnish study that included over 5,000 men and women showed that obesity was associated with stress-related eating in women but not in men.

Harvard researchers ⁴³ have reported that stress from work and other sorts of problems correlates with weight gain, but only in those who were overweight at the beginning of the study period. One theory is that overweight people have elevated insulin levels, and stress-related weight gain is more likely to occur in the presence of high insulin.

How much cortisol people produce in response to stress may also factor into the stress–weight gain equation. In 2007, British researchers designed an ingenious study that showed that people who responded to stress with high cortisol levels in an experimental setting were more likely to snack in response to daily hassles in their regular lives than low-cortisol responders.

• Steps to counter stress over eating

When stress affects someone’s appetite and waistline, the individual can forestall further weight gain by ridding the refrigerator and cupboards of high-fat, sugary foods. Keeping those “comfort foods” handy is just inviting trouble.

Here are some other suggestions for countering stress:

• Meditation. Countless studies show that meditation reduces stress, although much of the research has focused on high blood pressure and heart disease. Meditation may also help people become more mindful of food choices. With practice, a person may be able to pay better attention to the impulse to grab a fat- and sugar-loaded comfort food and inhibit the impulse ⁵⁰ .

• Exercise. Intense exercise increases cortisol levels temporarily, but low-intensity exercise seems to reduce them. University of California researchers reported that exercise — and this was vigorous exercise — may blunt some of the negative effects of stress. Some activities, such as yoga and tai chi, have elements of both exercise and meditation.

• Social support. Friends, family, and other sources of social support seem to have a buffering effect on the stress that people experience. For example, research suggests that people working in stressful situations, like hospital emergency departments, have better mental health if they have adequate social support. But even people who live and work in situations where the stakes aren’t as high need help from time to time from friends and family.

IT IS AMAZINGLY EMPOWERING TO HAVE THE SUPPORT OF A STRONG, MOTIVATED AND INSPIRATIONAL GROUP OF PEOPLE.

The kind of people that makes you feel wonderful about yourself. They will give and offer support to your learning and growing. So that when you say you want to lose the excess body fat, or go back to school, or get a new job, or whatever, your inspirational and positive friends will say, “I think that is a fantastic idea. You’ll do beautifully. Don’t worry . . . you have what it takes! Go for it!”

Among the new friends you make, include those who are farther along the journey than you are at the moment. If you are to find our way across troubled waters, you are better served by the company of those who have built bridges, who have moved beyond despair and inertia.

Life becomes more fun and less of a struggle when you don’t have to pioneer on your own. There is a lightness about positive people. They have learned not to take themselves so seriously and they are a joy to be around.

We can’t stress enough how important it is to begin now to have strong people in your life, in the form of an established group or simply a group of friends who are consciously in the process of growing. It is incredibly important to your peace of mind and sense of power to have some kind of support group.

When you are concerned with something bigger than yourself, your fears are greatly diminished. You sense yourself as being part of a bigger whole—you are not alone and you, perhaps for the first time, are aware of a sense of purpose.

How Does Sleep Affect Your Body Weight

Researchers speculate that there are several ways that chronic sleep deprivation might lead to weight gain, either by increasing how much food people eat or decreasing the energy that they burn ⁵¹.

• Sleep deprivation could increase your energy intake by

Increasing hunger: Sleep deprivation may alter the hormones that control hunger ⁵². One small study, for example, found that young men who were deprived of sleep had higher levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin and lower levels of the satiety-inducing hormone leptin, with a corresponding increase in hunger and appetite-especially for foods rich in fat and carbohydrates ⁵³.

Giving you more time to eat: People who sleep less each night may eat more than people who get a full night’s sleep simply because they have more waking time available ⁵⁴. Recently, a small laboratory study found that people who were deprived of sleep and surrounded by tasty snacks tended to snack more-especially during the extra hours they were awake at night-than when they had adequate sleep ⁵⁵.

Prompting you to choose less healthy diets: Observational studies have not seen a consistent link between sleep and food choices ⁵¹. But one study of Japanese workers did find that workers who slept fewer than six hours a night were more likely to eat out, have irregular meal patterns, and snack than those who slept more than six hours ⁵⁶.

• Sleep deprivation could decrease your energy expenditure by

Decreasing your physical activity: People who don’t get enough sleep are more tired during the day, and as a result may curb their physical activity ⁵⁷. Some studies have found that sleep-deprived people tend to spend more time watching TV, less time playing organized sports, and less time being physically active than people who get enough sleep. But these differences in physical activity or TV viewing are not large enough to explain the association between sleep and weight ⁵⁸.

Lowering your body temperature: In laboratory experiments, people who are sleep-deprived tend to see a drop in their body temperatures ⁵⁸. This drop, in turn, may lead to decreased energy expenditure. Yet a recent study did not find any link between sleep duration and total energy expenditure ⁵⁹.

Sleep is a Promising Target for Obesity Prevention

There is convincing evidence that getting a less than ideal amount of sleep is an independent and strong risk factor for obesity, in infants and children as well as in adults. Most of the research thus far, however, has consisted of observational studies, and it remains to be seen whether teaching children or adults how to get a better night’s sleep can lower their risk of obesity or help them lose weight. Randomized clinical trials that are currently underway may soon provide more answers.

Some researchers have cautioned against being too quick to promote sleep as an answer to the obesity epidemic, given the shortcomings of the research conducted to date. Yet from a public health perspective, there is little risk in encouraging healthy sleep through lifestyle changes, such as setting a consistent bedtime, limiting caffeine late in the day, and curtailing high-tech distractions in the bedroom ⁶⁰. Good sleep habits have other benefits, too, like boosting alertness at school or work, improving mood, and enhancing overall quality of life. That’s all the more reason to put a long night’s sleep on the short list for obesity prevention.

Excess Weight Related Diseases

Our modern-day diseases (e.g. type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight associated osteoarthritis) and potentially life threatening health issues (e.g. some cancers) are largely avoidable by simply addressing your daily diet and gaining an understanding of how what you eat, when you eat, and the way you eat impacts your bodies.

Regardless of your age or gender, your body and mind benefit from exercise. According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, there is strong evidence that regular physical activity can help to decrease the risk of early death, cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, weight gain, and depression among many other health benefits. Embracing a healthy way of living for permanent, lasting changes is vital for creating improved health and wellness.

The Secret To Weight Loss is about adding beneficial foods, creating new behaviors, and fostering a sense of responsibility to improve the quality of your life. Think about the value you’re adding to your life by reaching your health goals — whether it be weight loss or maintenance, reducing disease risk or managing current conditions, improved strength and flexibility, getting better sleep, or reducing stress.

Regular Exercise

Nutritionally sound diet and exercise are both important for maintaining a healthy weight. They are entirely different from each other, yet critical to each other just as cement and steel are the requisites of a well-engineered building. Exercise gives you strength and power. A sound diet provides the building blocks. One without the other will result in a deficient, inadequate body that is full of compromises, weaknesses, and potential problems as time goes on. Good exercise yields strength and minimizes the effects of a diet that sometimes is too rich in sugars, carbohydrates, and fats and is nutritionally deficient in vitamins and minerals.

You can do it. You can do anything you set your mind to do !

If you want your life to be different, you have to be willing to do something different first.

All you have to do to change your world is change the way you think about it.

Let Today Be The Day You Give Up Who You’ve Been For Who You Can Become.

Say YES to Life.

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