Posted on | May 9, 2008
Today’s post will be about people concerning about their weight. I just want to share some knowledge after completing the Wellness Education Course in Open University KL. I don’t know how aware are my readers about weight management issues. So before reading further, try to answer the following questions.
Are you weight conscious and wish to know more about weight management?
Do you find yourself gaining weight even more easily when you resume normal eating habits after a diet program?
Do you want to look good always and maintain it?
If all the above question are ‘yes’, read on. Or else skip this post and feel free to browse through my other articles.
Nice Dorset cereal box that I stumbled upon for weighty matters
Today everybody wants to look great. You, me and everybody else. We are conditioned to feel good when we have good figures through the media, the movies we watch , the magazines we read and ..our friends around us. It’s an obsession. Thats why slimming products are making tonnes of money out of desperateness. Some even offer miracle painless and effortless slimming results. But, can you be guaranteed the safety and possible side effects? We don’t know. But did you know that some of the good things in the world are free? For those in need, it is not the products that slims you down, at least effectively. It’s not the starvation that keeps the fats at bay. It’s the knowledge and the lifestyle. Because it doesn’t matter how much expensive slimming pills or how dilligently you you diet. But if your knowledge and lifestyle is not right, it will never work! Still with me?
Side view of the Dorset cereal boxes
Understanding the anatomy
Let’s keep everything pictured as simple and fun as possible. Afterall this isn’t a medical article. Well, I’m not there yet..Let’s just imagine a Mini Cooper car as our body. As we all know, the Mini Cooper needs petrol for combustion and provide motion. So,the petrol can be view as the food we eat everyday. The Mini Cooper has a specific mileage on how far it can go on every litres of petrol it burns. Similarly, we have the same parameter called Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and it determines how well we burn fat and produce energy for our daily activities. The BMR is calculated in kJ. (KiloJoules) To illustrate things, our body works this way through this simple equation. I know some may not like math but please bear it with me.
Eat (kJ) - BMR (kJ) = FitFat
For example, if you eat 2 nasi lemak ayam telur a day which is totalled up about 1400 Kj and your BMR value is 1200 kJ, you will end up with an excess of 200kJ. So the question is, where the excess 200kJ go? It will be converted to FAT and stored in places where you don’t want them to be. On the contrary, if you eat less then your body BMR value, there will be deficit in the equation. So where do the body get this deficit fuel to burn the energy. From the present FAT in your body! That’s where you loose weight when you exercise and be fit.
“Hei I’ve already know about that! Big deal. My body metabolisme rate are fixed , so I cant do anything about it!”
That’s a myth that’s not true but we still hear it often these days. Basically, weight management is all about playing with the numbers in the equation. How is that so? The idea is to keep the Eat calory level low ( but not to the point of starving) and the BMR calory level high. How do we do that? Easy. The answer is exercise more. When we exercise , our body will adjust the BMR to a higher level to provide more energy to sustain the our activity. As a result, we always energetic but feel hungry more often.
Common diet blunders:
Eat very little, exercise more
But there’s a trap where most people got caught when they try to put down weight. Most people exercise and then also cut down their food intake excessively. It doest work that way. The body expects the food intake to be at normal level in order to adjust the BMR to be higher. If you restrict excessively , you tend to overeat after exercise and don’t get the results you wanted.
Eat less , no exercise
Another trap is to cut down food intake only and do not exercise. That’s even a greater blunder which is very popular among working females, don’t you agree? Most girls claim that it works.
“I lost 2 kg in a week ! I’m so happy!”
Actually, what they are losing it’s not fats at all. It’s water and a very important component…which is muscle. For your infomation,the hardest component to grow in your body is the muscle. It is also the easiest to get rid of. On the contrary,The easiest component to accumulate in the body is fats. It is also the HARDEST AND MOST STUBBORN component to get rid of! So when you eat less, you are loosing body muscle and water percentage.
That’s not the end of the dilemma. Some even noticed that they actually put on weight much more faster then before they go on diet. Why’s that so?? The reason is , when you cut down food intake. The body sense the changes and lower down the BMR to balance the energy deficit. So , when you stop the diet and just resume your normal eating pattern, you will gain weight even faster. Not only that, instead of reducing the % body muscle, the % body fat also increases. Scary isnt it?
Simple solution :
Exercise more and eat mindfully.
Are you still here with me? Good. So how can you properly manage your weight? I’m not asking you to eat only vegetables and fruits everyday and live like a rabbit. That’s wrong! Then what’’s the point of living !! Live is to be enjoyed because you only live once. But don’t grab the Double Bic Mac yet! The idea is to know what you eat, be mindful of what you put inside your mouth and eat in moderation. Let the brain think not the mouth! Take more high fibre such as rolled oats in your diet and have a appropriate amount of meat and fats as well. But remember to exercise and live an active lifestyle. That is also important and mandatory. It doesn’t matter how well you eat but if you live a seditary lifestyle, you might as well don’t practice a good diet at all at the first place. A 30-45 minute brisk walk daily is ok.
Nutty muesli and fruit nuts and seeds for breaksfast
Hope this posts helps. I’ll probably go into more details on the next post if there’s good response.
Comments
May 13th, 2008 @ 12:12 pm
GREAT information here. Thank you for your research.