What is the best diet to lose weight?

As you can see, this is a similar question as last weeks about losing weight. Let’s face it, I am in the health care field, the weight loss field, and the nutritional field, this is a common topic of my consultations.

I seem to find myself spending an abundant amount of time researching the latest and greatest FAD diet out that everyone seems to be so crazy over. I constantly hear about the amazing results of this new diet plan that will shed the weight in no time. Lose 10 dress sizes in three weeks. As I stated in the previous blog, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

To sum up the vast majority of miraculous diet systems out there, I would say you could put them in a few categories:

1.        Calorie counters: These diets are based around the premise of counting every calorie you eat and try to stay at a certain low level to ensure you lose weight. It seems so obvious, a pound of fat is about 3500 calories, so if you eat 3500 less calories than you burn, you will lose 1 pound, right?
2.        Appetite suppressors: These diets are all about decreasing your urge to eat. They use miracle supplements that just keep you from putting food in your mouth. This will decrease your calorie intake and ensure you lose weight. This is the same regard as trying to burn 3500 calories than you eat to lose weight.
3.       Metabolism boosters: I am sure you have seen a plethora of supplements that claim to boost your metabolism. The idea is, if you boost your metabolism, your body will burn more calories at rest and you will lose weight. This diet seems so easy. I can eat whatever I want, and take this metabolism boosting supplement and let it do the work for me.
4. .      Restrictive plans: These are designed to create a diet that restricts a particular food group. The low fat diets, zero carb diets, etc. The theory is that some food groups are responsible for your gaining of weight, and if you stop eating them, you will lose weight. I know you have heard of the anti-carb Atkins Diet. Everyone in the US has been brainwashed about how bad FAT is to eat. So, cut the bad out and you will lose weight, easy peezee.

Do you want to know the biggest problem with all of these diet systems????

They work.

Yes, the problem is they work. You do lose weight. The catch is, its temporary.

Sure, you shock your body by doing some radical change to your diet and you will lose some weight. There is a certain expense to this though. The Yo-Yo effect of dieting and weight.

Fun analogy time!!!

Think about losing weight as if you are trying to improve the gas mileage on your car.

A calorie counting or appetite suppressant diet will only decrease the amount of gas you put in the car. Sure, when your car runs out of gas and you are coasting along without the engine running, you will have a dramatic increase in your gas mileage. BUT> that car comes to a screeching halt and your car is sitting there without any fuel to run itself.  This is what happens when you restrict your calories to an extreme 1200 calorie a day or less diet. Yes, for a brief time, you will lose weight, but every functioning part of your body is being depleted of the fuel it needs to work properly. After time, you will shut down, and just like the car, you will start to fill that tank back up because your car, and your body demand fuel to function.  Now to get your body out of this extreme depleted state, your body is going to overfill its tank and you will add the weight back on, and typically plus some because the body is worried about a crash like that happening again.

Appetite suppressors are very similar to trying to water down the gas you put in your tank to get more out of it. Sure, you are going to use less gas, but your car is not going to run as well on this watered down replacement. End of the day, your car will get less miles per gallon per each gallon you put in because the fuel you are putting in it is just not what the car needs to run at its potential. Appetite suppressant supplementation basically make your body run at a less than optimal level because it doesn’t want to use up all of its stored fuel. And what happens when you run a car on watered down gas for long periods of time? Things start to fail and it eventually shuts down. You do not want this to happen to your body, because to get it started again, it is a lot like the caloric restriction diets, it will add weight back on to protect itself.

Metabolism booster supplements simulate the process of putting some super high octane booster additive into each of your fill ups at the pump to supercharge the energy that your car can burn. This is very effective; your car will run better, faster, and much more efficiently. The problem is this. Are you planning on putting this same additive in your car FOREVER??? Losing weight with a supplement that boosts your metabolism is great, but as soon as you stop taking this premium product, guess what happens? All of the weight you have lost, comes screaming back, plus some.

Restrictive plans are just ridiculous. The human body requires 3 forms of caloric intake to survive; protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Each of these macronutrients play their own vital role in the health and wellness of the body. If you cut one of these out, it would be like telling your car, sorry, your don’t need oil anymore. Sure the car will run a little while, but eventually, it will go bad, very bad.

So, back to answering the question. What is the best diet plan?

These questions that I am setting out to answer are some of the most complex things to answer in my world, but I will do my best.

How do you get better fuel mileage out of your car?

Every car will get better fuel economy out of premium gasoline. Sure we all of the expense of 87

octane gas at the pump, and when we make that discounted purchase, we know that we are hurting our fuel mileage. Unfortunately, the body is not much different. If you try to purchase low grade food due to a budget, you are going to struggle with weight loss because your body just will not run as optimally as it could. More importantly, you have to plan on putting the more expensive, premium gas in your car for its entire life. You can’t just put the good stuff in for a while, feel the amazing effects, and then expect those results to remain after you go back to the 87 octane junk.

So, to wrap up the longest analogy of all time.

If you want to lose weight, stop looking for a diet plan. Stop looking for something to help you lose weight in the next 3 weeks.  You have to start looking at what you need to do to get your body running as smoothly and efficiently as it can. You have to fuel it with the best of fuel, and you have to understand that every time you go to a fast food joint, you are just putting watered down poor octane gas in your body and it will have a very negative effect on your goals.

I will repeat this and hopefully make it clearer.

There is no special diet plan that is going to be released to make you miraculously lose weight. The body needs fuel, good fuel, to make it function at its best. You need to plan on providing this premium food for the rest of your life if you want to keep any weight that you lose off for good. Yo-Yo dieting is detrimental to your overall metabolic function and it is a major struggle with so many of us. Overcoming the idealism that there is something wrong with your genetics and ability is an important step to becoming your biggest benefactor for your health.

I wish I had some happy ending to put here with a miracle diet plan, but I don’t. If I did, I would be the wealthiest man in the world, but after all of the hours of research I have done, I can assure you, the only person that will help you lose weight is you. You have to take charge of your health and plan on making this a lifetime life goal.

~Dr. Trent Mozingo

Visit www.NewStartHealthCenter.com TODAY!

Why Can’t I Seem to Lose Weight, and Keep IT OFF?!?!?!

Why Can’t I Seem to Lose Weight, and Keep IT OFF?!?!?!

This is a pretty serious question, and as most of the American population can relate to the epidemic of obesity, I feel it is a question that is not only misunderstood, but misguided. Weight loss has become a very profitable industry, reaching $60.5 billion in sales in 2014. With 69% of America’s 20+ year old population being overweight (according to 2011-2012 CDC) and climbing, I would say the industry that has set out to make $BILLIONS$ has some explaining to do.

 So, what do I mean by a question that is misunderstood and misguided?

We have an entire weight loss industry that has put themselves in place to answer this easy enough question, and it seems, they are simply failing to either figure out what people are asking, or failing to provide a relative solution to the problem at hand. People are getting more overweight while using these products. Or even worse, people lose a ton of weight on a special product, and as soon as they stop taking it, BOOM, an additional 15 pounds gets added.

No sustainable weight loss miracle has been created, and yet, the industry keeps their Dr. Oz recommended, green tea, miracle berry, super protein powder, crap on the shelf of every supermarket, gas station, bus stop, and car wash to ensure to the masses that they, in fact, have the secret weapon against the invading fat cells.

At the end of the day, everything that is in our face about weight management is a big misconception to ensure ongoing profits for the industry. I spend a lot of time researching the metabolic functions of the body. I have a clear understanding of the plethora of hormones that are involved in weight loss, and it almost astonishes me that these companies continue to market complete fallacies. To be honest, weight loss is a complex subject, with many different interpretations. Some try to blame it solely on genetics, and others try to blame it on bad luck. With the research I have found, these two excuses just do not work for me.

So, the big question remains… Why can’t I seem to lose weight and keep it off?

Well, I can assure you that lack of effort is not the issue. It seems that everyone that is a client to the weight loss industry has tried absolutely everything. I have seen patients taking a miracle pill that is supposed to shed the fat, and no effort is necessary on their part. The problem persists in the effort given. It seems that we will spend a fortune, put faith in every single cockamamie diet pill, and try so hard to believe that they will work just like it shows on TV or the advertisement. We are putting in so much effort to keep us from actually having to put in effort? Yes, I understand that sounds ridiculous.

Newsflash… If a product or weight loss solution tells you that you do not need to make any lifestyle changes, and their product is the end all beat all, no effort needed to lose weight, or if they tell you that you do not need to change your diet and the product will just curb your appetite. DO NOT BUY THIS GIMMICK. Yes, that product does sound too good to be true, because it is.

EEERRRT. Get back on track here…

I am always asked this question, and I always have the same answer. If you want to know how to lose weight, first you have to understand what causes weight gain.

• 1.       Diet: The quality of the food you eat is the most important factor in regards to weight loss. 80% of the responsibility for weight gain and weight loss has to do with what you put in your mouth. If you are thinking you are eating the right foods because it says it is ZERO CALORIES or FAT FREE, you are probably eating the exact foods that cause weight gain. Processed foods that are loaded with sugars, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and any amount of crazy scientific ingredients are the foods that are causing your weight gain issues.

• 2.       Stress: The hormone cascade involved with elevated emotional stress will only wreak havoc you your metabolic function.  Please understand, stress plays a vital role in how our nervous systems react. If you are in a stressful situation, it will stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, and your flight or fight response kicks in. During this time, the parasympathetic nervous system is shut down, digestion is shut down, and every other metabolic function is shut down to keep your energy focused on running or fighting a stimulus. Which takes me to my next bullet point.

• 3.       Digestion: I understand that most want to blame their weight struggles on a faulty thyroid gland, but I can ensure you, your digestive function is vastly more important, and a sluggish digestive system is possible the root cause of your thyroid woes. If your body is unable to digest food properly, (given that you are actually eating food that is, well, food) you will not be able to break down these foods and assimilate the vital nutrients that the body needs to function. If your body is void of the vital nutrients, it is in stress (see previous bullet). Thyroid, adrenal, cardiovascular, and every other function of the body needs a constant influx of vital nutrients, if your diet, and your digestion system are not providing these building blocks, your weight will suffer.

• 4.       Exercise: Understand that the time spent at the gym, or the calories burned while you are on a treadmill, plays a minimal part on your weight. Exercise is beneficial in the form of a system for increasing muscle mass in the body. The body’s resting metabolic rate (RMR), or the amount of calories you can burn at rest, is directly related to the amount of muscle mass you have. If you want to increase your RMR, you need to increase your muscle mass. This is what exercise if for. If you are not active, your muscle mass will diminish and your RMR will crash.

As I stated, if you truly want to know why you can’t seem to lose weight, first you have to understand what is causing you to gain weight in the first place. This is where I stand behind the comment that if a product tells you that all you have to do is take their miracle pill and change nothing, IT WILL FAIL. Sure you might lose some weight initially, make yourself a true believer, and then it all comes crashing back on. This is because you have failed to remove the one thing that is causing the problem at hand.

To be clear, if you eat processed foods, even just one a day, you gain weight. If you do not exercise at all, and your muscle mass is going down the tubes, you gain weight. If you are going through a stressful time, and you know that you are having a difficult time dealing with it, you will gain weight. If you digestive system is not working properly, you have heartburn, you have intermittent diarrhea or constipation, you gain weight.

I do understand that you know someone who went through a tough time and they couldn’t eat and they seemed to wilt away to nothing. Or, sometimes a digestive system is all mixed up, and people seem to be unable to gain weight. And I also have seen those pesky people that seem to be able to eat ANYTHING THEY WANT, and never gain a pound. Rest assured, this is a major point that we address at New-Start Health Center.

I will not go on and on about the unhealthy relationship between weight and health as we all have seemed to become accustomed to. But to be clear, if you know someone who is not overweight, but they seem to eat sugary product after sugary product, iff you know someone that is too stressed out to eat and they are wilting away, they are not healthy. Sure, they may appear to be at a healthy weight, but their metabolic function is in distress. Each person’s body fat storage function is different. But I have to encourage you not to envy someone who can eat whatever crap they want and not gain weight. Their health is struggling and due to the vanity of America, we still allow them to assume a healthy status. This is dangerous.

So, the first part of answering the primary question is this: You need to understand what causes weight gain if you ever want to stop it.

Fun Analogy Time!!!

Think of weight gain or being overweight as a pink room. You are not interested in the room being pink anymore. In fact, you want to change it to a white room (lose weight). To start this process, first you have to realize some very important factors. How the room became pink? What you have to do to get it to turn white, and finally, what you need to do to keep it from turning pink again? Now, it is easy to understand how that room became pink, right? Someone took the pink paint, put in on a roller, and painted to their hearts content. And you obviously know to turn the room white. You take white paint, put it on a roller, and paint to your hearts content. The biggest disconnect between being overweight and weight loss, and getting a pink room to turn white is the simple step of, what do you need to do to keep it from turning pink again?

The current model we have in place for weight loss is missing this important step. If you have not learned what has made your room turn pink, or made you gain weight, if you do not understand how to keep it from coming back after you lose weight, then you are in a winless battle. Every single diet plan that I have researched, and every single miracle pill that tells you that you do not have to change anything is like painting your wall with white paint and then your friend coming in right behind you and accidently dripping bright red paint into your bucket without you even noticing. You just keep trying and trying to get a pink wall to turn white, but the material you are using, will only leave it the same color. Depending on how many coats you try to apply, you could even end up with a darker shade of pink. (The analogy here is that you will actually end a diet weighing more than what you actually started)

OK, that was fun. Now, let’s clean up this answer, shall we?

So many people are struggling with weight gain, obesity, and overall poor health in America. So many people are searching high and low to figure how why them, why are they overweight, how did they get this unlucky? To be honest, it is on you. It is not all your genetics fault, your doctor’s fault, or even your personal trainer’s fault.

You have to understand that your lifestyle is the predominant cause of weight gain. The food you eat,

the stress you have around you, the amount of exercise you perform, is all on you.

If you want to lose weight, you have to start by addressing the cause, AND GET HELP. You need help from your family, friends, loved ones, coworkers, etc. You need the people around you to understand your goals, and understand what it is going to take for you to get your weight on track. YOU HAVE TO STAY FOCUSED.

So many people go into The New-Start Solution with intentions of losing 50 pounds in 5 days and then they get to go back to eating pizza and Doritos. This is just not a reality. The New-Start Solution is a Lifestyle Change. A rebirth into a healthy style of living. Call it what you want but it is not a diet or miracle system. It is simply the most basic form of eating that makes your body more efficient.

With all of my research, it all comes back to this one simple rule:

If you want to lose weight, and I mean truly lose weight… Look at yourself in the mirror. When you start to think about what you want to change, do not even think about the vanity standpoint of getting into a smaller size of pants. Do not waste your time thinking about what you ideal weight is. Instead, think about what you want to change to get there.