Time of the year that many will indulge in scrumptious meals, gulp drinks made from yeast-fermented malt or grapes, shovel down irresistible CNY goodies and charcoal-flamed slices of meat. Usually the aftermath is the dreaded figure that greets you ominously on a scale. So now you are one more step closer to 0.1 ton; feeling dejected, lost and in total disbelief.
You start a massive operation to excavate that elusive gym membership which laid nicely hidden under a pile of unavailing calling cards in your branded wallet. With much conviction, you hit the treadmill with all your might covering distances that will make an ultra marathon look like child's play, pump weights with such intense force utilising any last ounce of strength and swim like you had never swam before. As the lactic acid build-up quickly wears you down, you begin to question yourself if the prior gluttony was worth such self-inflicted torment later.
Ask any fifth grader, probably he or she will be able to recite all factors that make up a healthy lifestyle. "The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do, the hard part is doing it." - Norman Schwarzkopf. I fully understand the difficulties that anyone who is trying to lose some pounds will experience. So here are some myths debunked in some Dos and Don'ts to weight loss to make it just a teeny weeny little bit easier.
- Do Eat Supper If You Are Hungry At Night: Controversial as it seems there is actually some sense in that statement provided some conditions are fulfilled. Input - Output = Neutral, Weight Gain or Weight Loss, it is pure maths and eating supper DOES NOT automatically constitute to weight gain contradictory to popular notion.
Given that a normal healthy intake is 2000kcal a day, and your breakfast, lunch and dinner had taken up 1500kcal, so will a 500kcal supper make you fat? Answer is a big NO, when you eat matters less than the total calories you consume. By now, I guess you would be cracking your knuckles waiting to punch me the next time we meet for telling you such rubbish, as those pretty foreign ladies in the slimming centres had been equating weight gain with suppers all these while. Believe me or not please go and read up the information found on HPB website.
The real dangers with suppers are that healthy foods are hard to find as the usual suspects will consist of calorie rich Nasi Lemak, Instant Noodles, etc and these choices will cause you to overrun the 2000kcal limit fairly easily. Therefore if you must eat try healthier options like Kellogg's Special K breakfast cereals with skimmed milk, etc.
- Don’t Be Conned By Marketing: Always try to read the nutritional labels of the items that you grab off the shelves of the supermarket, especially those that have words like "Low Fat" prominently displayed. While they are technically correct to specify that, low fat doesn't mean low calories. The manufacturers may be "forced" to include a higher percentage of other ingredients like sugar or transfat to make up the shortfall.
- Do Reward Yourself: So does losing weight means that you must give everything up? Kissing goodbye to Ice Cream, Chocolate, Potato Chips, etc? This is another NO; ever seen me eating calorie rich food while losing around 20kgs since I started? The key is to reward yourself once an achievable target is attained; eg. losing 1kg in a 2weeks or improve your 2.4km timings by 1min. Starving yourself entirely off such treats will not help you and will only make your going even tougher. Remember if you deprive yourself you will end up having even more.
- Don't Rely Only On Reducing Food Intake To Curb Weight Gain: If you are fat or think that you need to lose some weight, chances are it is your dietary habits that had caused this. Ever heard of a Leopard never changes its spots? It will be extremely tough to only change eating habits while everything else remains status quo and expect it to work; if you don't like to eat greens no one could possibly force it down your throat. Exercise on the other hand will be slightly simpler to pick up; even activities like stair climbing or a slow walk around your neighbourhood will help as a little of everything adds up to a lot in the long run. Later as your fitness improves, proceed to more challenging workouts and that will burn even more fats.
- Do Get Support: Tell Every Single One Around You That You Are Trying To Lose Weight. This is really important if you are to succeed at losing weight in the long-term. Being surrounded by people who will eat the same foods and encourage you along the way is a good idea. Find a ‘buddy’ or someone in your family to boost your morale. This can really help if you are taking up a new exercise regime; it makes backing out much harder to do!
- Don't Follow Fad Dieting Methods: This is a sure-fire way to head for the junk food. Many fad diets promise great weight loss but are unbalanced, and only make you crave the foods that it advises against. One example of such fads is the Low Calorie Diet. Surely a Low Calorie Diet or in simple terms eating lesser is good for you, isn't it? The body is far more complex than that. There are hundreds upon hundreds of activities performed in your body at any given time - it needs fuel to perform these functions. If your body is not receiving the materials it needs from your diet, then it has no choice but to take from its only other source - itself. Most people assume your body will only use its stored fat for its various needs, but this is not true. Your body will also draw from your bones, muscle tissue and organ tissue. You may lose some fat, but it will be at the sacrifice of vital living tissues. This is not a good state to be in, so your body slows down your metabolism to prevent its own destruction. After all, your body has one natural instinct - to survive. A prolong Low Calorie Diet can also cause Water Retention problems making the weight issue worse.
