Eat Foods To Be Slim
A M Lucas
PUBLISHED BY:
A M Lucas
Eat foods to be slim
Copyright 2011 by Ann Marie Lucas
ISBN No:
License Notes
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Disclaimer
For legal reasons we are obliged to say the following
The publishers have carefully checked the contents of this book to ensure that it is as accurate as possible at the time of publication.
This book is for information only. Please be advised that the information on these pages is not necessarily representative of the views of health professionals and physicians. Do not treat this as a substitute of medical advice from qualified doctors.
If you are pregnant we advise that you seek professional advice before you make any dietary changes. In the case of any emergency, such as an accident, high fever or heart attack, please seek medical attention immediately. If you are worried that you may have a serious illness, please consult a medical professional before following any tips in this book.
Introduction
Chapter One
Why We Gain Weight
Chapter Two
The Body's Weight Management Master: The Endocrine System
Chapter Three
The Master of Metabolism: The Thyroid Gland
Chapter Four
How Fat Is Formed and How to Break It Down With the Right Foods
Chapter 5
Eating to Keep Your Glandular System Healthy
Chapter 6
The Link Between Weight Gain and Inflammation
Chapter 7
Virgin Coconut Oil and Weight loss
Chapter 8
The Mind and Losing Weight
Chapter 9
Eating to Lose Weight: Foods that Attack Belly Fat
Chapter 10
Facts You Should Know In Order To Lose Weight
Chapter 11
Exercising To Lose Weight
Chapter 12
Special recipes
Conclusion
Eat Foods to Lose Weight
Introduction
We don't recommend a diet.
So with diets out of this book, how then to lose weight?
By looking after not only the body, but also the mind and the soul/spirit.
We look after the mind by understanding how it is that we lose weight, we need to understand how our dear body functions… what are its positive stimuli and what are the negative ones? We have to study the endocrine system and how metabolism elevates or declines.
We have to understand what foods to feed the body, in order to make it healthy.
We have to give the body the physical exercise that it needs to maintain an optimal lifestyle
We have to feed the Soul with what it wants and read the metaphysical signals that it is giving out through the untidy placement of fats in our body. We have to understand these signs in order to tackle them.
Why do we gain weight?
The no 1 reason is stress and an inability to cope with stress.
The no 2 reason is a lack of self esteem.
The no 3 reason is because of bad habits.
The no 4 reason is a lack of discipline.
The no 5 reason is our inability to cope with frustration.
The no 6 reason is laziness.
It’s time to get a grip on your life. Let’s get started.
There is no quick fix. Simply taking some pills or fad diet concoctions will not change the habits and lifestyle that has placed you in the situation you find yourself in.
Make this lifestyle a habit and keep the weight off.
Chapter One
Why We Gain Weight
We all gain weight. Or at least there are times when we fail the weight-gain game.
It goes up and then down and then up again. Oh the frustration! And sometimes it remains up and does not come down.
This book is all about how to win the weight game. Let it remain down, but here's the difference - we will not do so by dieting!
Diets are self-defeating. The minute you say you want to be on a diet and the word “diet” registers in your head, your whole focus is on food that is labeled sinful. And the mind establishes a great concentration on foods and a dislike to any “healthy” foods.
It is interesting to note that the word "die" is within the word "diet. The resistance to die or diet is very great. It's the survival instinct that kicks in.
Diets Can Actually Make You Gain Even More Weight
Diets put the body on starvation mode. What does this mean? Let me explain it to you.
If you eat 2500 calories per day, then your metabolism will adjust accordingly. Therefore if you eat 2500, then the body will burn 2500 per day.
So if you are on a diet and you suddenly reduce your calorie intake to 1000 calories per day, then your metabolism will adjust itself so that your body begins to burn only 1000 calories, not the 2500 that you expected it to burn.
So in the end you don’t lose weight: only because your body is too clever for you.
The body figures out that you are starving it, so it says to itself, "Let me save on the calories burnt today, let me not do too much of work today. Perhaps today is not the day to burn that excess fat because I must save these calories for all the activities for living, such as digestion, sleeping, eating, walking, breathing etc…"
When a person is starving, the body needs to live and it actually stinges on the calories that it has in a day. The calories become precious and are very very carefully spent in order to save the calories for survival mode.
So if you diet, you think you are doing your math cleverly and you think that if instead of eating 2500 calories a day, I cut down to 1500 a day, that means a deficit of 1000 calories and therefore I should logically lose weight.
Well it doesn’t work that way. The body works with what it has. If you give it 1500 calories, it will cut the cloth accordingly. In other words, it will function economically.
It is just like you with money. If you earn $2500 a month, you would be able to live on Saturday night outs, maybe buy a fancy mobile phone, or buy expensive clothes.
But if one day, you suddenly got a pay cut and you now earn $1500 a month, you would have to cut out luxury items and instead of expensive clothes you would go to the local department shops to buy cheaper clothes.
You still survive. You suffer a bit, but you survive.
Your body does exactly the same.
Yo-Yo Dieting Is A Sure Way To Becoming Overweight
When you starve, you lose muscle and so you cannot burn your calories. When you go on a serious diet and you cut down about 400 -500 calories a day, your body knows that you are starving yourself and it will shut your metabolism (BMR) down and in the end you don't lose weight at all instead you gain.
When Can Weight Gain Happen?
Weight gain can happen at any age. But really look at the zeros… the years that you age that ends with a zero..30, 40, 50, 60. Those would be telling. At 30 you are depressed because the beautiful swinging twenties are behind you and you go on an eating binge…this is weight-gaining time.
When you are in your thirties, you are busy with the stresses of the workplace and for many of you starting a new home, new family. In the forties, you may be stressed about being in a mid life crises, and the need to reinvent yourself. In the fifties, for the ladies it is menopause and for the men that you are losing power at work as the young ones compete with you.
Basal Metabolic Rate And Its Implications
The base metabolic rate (BMR) are daily rates of energy expenditure. It estimates how many calories you would burn if you were to do nothing but rest 24 hours. It represents the minimum amount of energy required to keep your body functioning, including the heart beat, breathing and maintaining body temperature and maintaining fluid levels in the body.
As you age the BMR goes down and you will need to eat less and exercise more in order to maintain your weight.
Although for every individual, depending on the type of activities they do in a day, the BMR is different, on average we burn about 70 calories an hour (despite having no physical activity).
By adjusting calorie-intake (cutting down on food intake of about 100 calories per day) and increasing activity (preferably by burning a hundred calories per day) you are able to lose weight in a reasonable and constant fashion.
The basic equation is the same. The number of calories taken minus the number of calories consumed equals to what’s left over to be stored as fat.
Let’s do a hypothetical and simplified example. Let’s assume that your BMR is 1680 a (24 hour) day. And you consume 2000 calories of food. You take your dog for a walk for an hour- you would have consumed about 250 calories extra a day. This would mean that you have burnt 1880 calories and that the remaining 120 calories that you consumed will be turned into fat.
Imagine this scenario happening for a month that’s 120 (calories) x 30 (days) = 3600 calories that’s about the slow addition of a pound a month and in 2 years 24 pounds!
Instead do the exact opposite, take in 100 calories less of food and exercise to lose 100 calories and you would lose a little more than one pound a month.- and in 2 years you would lose 24 pounds. That’s a nice reasonable figure! And you don’t need to suffer at all. Just a very slight adjustment to food intake (perhaps eat one slice less of bread in a day and take away a can of sugared soda) and then some walking activity. You would have done your part in losing weight steadily!
If you want access to a BMR calculator, go to http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php2
Why Does It Get Harder To Lose Weight, As You Get Older?
Metabolism closes down by 5% each decade,
Women stop making testosterone as you reach menopause. Ovaries make testosterone as well as estrogen. And in Males testosterone is the hormone that is also decreasing, as men get older. Testosterone is the hormone that is responsible for muscle mass. So muscles are losing mass and muscles burn three times more calories than fat and probably even more than that when it is being used. So with a significant reduction of muscle mass, calories are not burnt so promptly.
We must maintain muscle mass because muscle is the largest consumer of calories.
On average at 35, you can burn 100 calories less than at 25
At 45, you burn 200 calories less than at 25
So the foods that you ate when you were 25 years old caused no problems for you. At 45 however, you, cannot eat the same kind and amounts of food that you ate at 25. At 45 you need to eat less than at 25.
The body’s capacity to burn calories becomes progressively less as you age. It’s a mental redefinition of how much food you need to eat as you age. Its also a physical definition of how muscles mass decreases as you age.
We need to rethink food portions and be smart about foods that can help you lose weight and the same time be able to energize you.
Trick Your Body Into Losing Weight Consistently
If you want to act smarter than your body, then trick your body system into believing that you are eating as per normal and then it will maintain metabolism levels. Here's how you do it:
Take away just 100 calories a day and exercise to lose 100 calories a day and you will lose 1 pound a month. Perhaps instead of a soft drink you replace it with water. That's all you need to do to cut down a 100 calories a day.
The body doesn't know any better and your metabolism will go on as normal. This is why the weight loss of a pound a month is great. If this weight loss of a pound a month continues, in 2 years you would lose 24 pounds. Effortless and Easy.
Chapter Two
The Body's Weight Management Master:
The Endocrine System
The primary objective in the evolution of the human body is survival. Survival means the quick adaptation of the body to external aggressive circumstances. So when the body thinks it is being starved and there is not enough food for it to survive, it quickly adapts in order not to be starved and therefore burns fewer calories.
Plus really, if you eat less and are conscious of hunger… won’t that make you miserable and won’t your focus be on food and food only? In the final analysis, the diet can go to hell and I will eat only because my body craves food.
It is a vicious cycle - the concept of a diet. Give it up.
But here's the exciting part:
There Is A Way To Trick The Body Into Burning More Calories
If the body is always ready to be in survival mode and thinks that it must burn the right amount of calories given the daily intake of food, then there is a way to trick the body in releasing more fat burning hormones.
This is to eat more foods that stimulate these fat burning hormones. It is also to educate yourself on which foods these will be.
But before we find out what these foods are, you need to know how all of these hormones work and in which ways.
The Body Has 6 Fat Burning Hormones
These are the
1. thyroid,
2 . adrenaline,
3. glucagons,
4. testosterone,
5. human growth hormone
6. insulin-like growth factor.
While the body has fat burning hormones, the body also has fat storing hormones. There are less fat storing hormones than there are fat burning hormones. But in terms of potency, the fat storing hormones are stronger.
How Each Of These Hormones Work:
1.The thyroid (thyroxine and T3) works by increasing the rate at which muscles cells use up energy.
2. Insulin and Glucagon are both fat storing and fat burning hormones. They regulate the amount of blood sugar in your body.
3.The Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is powerful. It burns fat instead of sugar for energy. It rejuvenates the bodily system.
4. Testosterone regulates fat production. Actually it builds lean muscles that assist with fat burning. It is testosterone that shapes your body into one that you would like.
5.Insulin Growth factor (IGF) is a fat burning hormone stimulated by the HGH. It gives fuel to your body between meals by releasing stored fat as well as stored sugar to create energy.
The Endocrine System
All these hormones are a result of the endocrine system. The endocrine system consists of glands that work interdependently: the two adrenal glands, located on the top of each kidney; the pancreas, found in the abdominal cavity behind the stomach; the parathyroid and thyroid, located at the base of the neck; the pituitary, located at the base of the brain; and the ovaries and testes, the female and male sex glands.
The endocrine system affects weight, metabolism, sexual development, hair and bone growth and a host of other functions.
EXERCISE AND LOSING WEIGHT
We've heard it all before, in order to lose weight, we have to burn stored fat and in order to do that, we have to exercise. But some of us conscientious people have tried that in moderation and have still found that we are not able to lose weight.
So many of us lose the battle of the bulge, but that may be because we are not armed with the right weapons. And the right weapons are your hormones.
How to produce more hormones that will give you more lean muscle and less fat storage? How to produce fat burning hormones?
The answer lies in healthy glands function. If your glands do not work well, your body will stubbornly hold on to excess fat..
Aim To Be Healthy, Not To Lose Weight
The point to note here is that in order to get healthy, the first step is not merely to lose weight, rather the first step is to have healthy functioning glands.
What is the glandular system? It is made up of the endocrine system that includes the pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, thymus, adrenals, pancreas, and sex glands (ovaries and testes)
We think that in order to lose weight we have to lose the fats in our body. But actually it is the other way round. In order to lose weight, you have to be healthy and have a healthy glandular system and only then once the glands are functioning well, the glands can then produce enough fat releasing hormones to make you lose weight.