Dieting Is Not A Product

Our society is a hypocrite. We hold up idols that spend enormous amounts of time and effort to look thin while we continue to shove cheeseburgers in our faces and rarely move from the couch. When we do try and lose weight, we inevitably take one of two paths: Stay lazy and barely eat enough to survive or start exercising and keep cramming food down our throats. We’ve gotten so good at finding excuses as to why we shouldn’t be fat that we don’t spend any time thinking of why we are.

The science behind body fat – and body fat is really what we’re talking about here, no one is crying over too much muscle mass – is very simple. There are 3500 calories in 1 lb of fat. Period. Metabolism makes people ‘burn’ calories at slower or faster rates, but 3500 calories is the absolute limit. Anyone that thinks you can gain 1 lb of fat from eating a Snickers bar because you have bad metabolism doesn’t understand the first law of thermodynamics.

Weight gain (and weight loss) works like a formula. Food you eat adds calories, exercise you do removes calories and your body removes calories by maintaining itself. If you are left with a positive number, you gain weight. A negative number, you lose weight. There are things that affect these numbers, such as different types of foods, different rates of metabolism and your current body mass, but the physics stay the same.

Knowing everything that affects your weight gives you a very strong tool to control it. Learn your Basal Metabolic Rate to determine how many calories your body needs. Learn how many calories you burn through normal activities. Once you add those numbers together, you now know exactly how many calories you burn every day.

Don’t try and diet your way to health. Don’t try and exercise your way there, either. Do both! Losing weight (and really, getting healthy) is a lifestyle change, not a quick fix. While it might sound easier to “just diet” or “just exercise”, you’re really making yourself do twice the work. Why jog for an hour or not eat lunch when you could have jogged for half an hour, still had a smaller lunch and gotten the same result?

Oh, and anyone selling you a pill to lose weight is lying to you.