1,950 Things You Should Stop Eating So You Can Lose Weight

By Brad Pilon

3,900 - According to an article by Michael Pollan that was published in the New York Times, this is the amount of food calories produced every day for each American citizen.Think about this number for a minute. 3,900 calories is easily a thousand more calories than almost any of us will ever need in a day- but they are being produced so someone has to eat them. This is what I like to call the North American paradox. Food companies and food producers need us to consume more and more calories to keep their profits coming, yet we want to consume less and less calories to maintain our health and weight. This is why it is not an exaggeration when I say it is a constant battle to try to avoid overeating, and to make sure that the foods we do eat are healthy, nutritious foods. Imagine what would happen if everyone in North American suddenly decided to eat half the amount of calories produced by the food industry? That's 1,950 less calories per day and that's 1,950 calories worth of profit that food companies would lose out on. Most likely this would be financially disastrous. This is why we are bombarded with food advertising.

The best way to win this battle is to get closer to 1,950 than 3900. The key to doing this is always remembering that the foods you see in convenience stores and gas stations are there because someone wants you to buy them. Not only this, but they have spent a lot of time and effort to figure out what colors, names, and sizes will make you notice their products.So the way to win this battle is by not being a "good little consumer".

Try your best to buy only planned foods - The foods you plan to buy during your grocery run. Resist all unplanned purchases...gas stations, convenience stores, vending machines and checkout lines...these are all examples of places where we typically make unplanned impulse food buys.

Avoid the temptation to think that eating several meals in a day will "cause" weight loss. If you are eating too many calories, you are eating too many calories. It doesn't matter how many meals you eat.There are diet plans out there such as my book Eat Stop Eat that promote very brief periods of short term fasting as a method of weight loss. Plans like these teach us that we don't have to be constantly eating to be healthy. In fact, taking small breaks from eating every once in a while may actually be healthy for us.

By making at least one of these adjustments (avoiding "unplanned foods" and avoiding the urge to eat constantly) you will be one step closer to a healthy and nutritious diet. And remember, 3,900 calories per day is overeating for almost everyone.

Brad Pilon is a strength training and nutrition professional and author of Eat Stop Eat. You can learn about his new book "Eat Stop Eat" that is quickly changing the way people think about dieting, by visiting http://www.eatstopeat.com Brad Pilon is an expert contributor at eFit-Today http://www.efit-today.com/public/department59.cfm

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Tired Of Struggling To Lose Weight?

By Debbie de Leng

There are many factors that cause us to increase body weight, yet three stand out from the rest.

Our genetic make: Every cell in our body has a central control panel, that is a nucleus that contains our genes and chromosomes. This is the instruction manual for your body and this is inherited from your parents. It is this instruction manual that is largely responsible for how your body, and even your mind, behaves.

The environment in which we live: Our personal environment may also contribute or cue you to adopt poor eating or exercise habits. This is especially true in today's society, which is dominated by speed and convenience. For example, escalators, elevators and remote-control appliances make us less physically active. Also, greater availability and the constant marketing of foods that are high in calories, fat and added sugars, and larger portion sizes promote unhealthy eating behaviors.

There may also be personal reasons why you are consuming too many kilojoules from food and drinks, or not being physically active enough. For example, when feeling down or bored you may eat more than you need, or if you are feeling depressed it is more difficult to get active.

Knowing the reason why you may be consuming excess kilojoules or not participating in physical activity, is an important first step in changing your lifestyle habits to help you reach a healthy weight.

Our lifestyle: What we eat and drink and how active we are. This is the gradual gain in weight as a result of eating food and not exercising enough.

The extent to which we can affect our genetic make up and our environment are limited. However, lifestyle is the area in which we can significantly manage and if need be, improve our body weight to ensure we maintain a healthy weight for our height, age and gender. This is why learning a healthy nutritious eating pattern and adopting it for life, that is, lifestyle changes has a significant impact on our ability to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

Gaining and losing weight works according to some a simple biological principle. When you consume more energy in the form of food and drinks that your body uses each day you will gain weight. When you consume less energy in the form of food and drinks that your body requires each day you will lose weight.

Despite what some advertisers would have use believe, weight loss does not occur as a result of any of the following:

Supplements that will melt the fat while you sleep or while you wash
Exercises that don’t take any effort and cause no sweat
Unique food combinations that will allow you to eat what you want and still lose weight

In order to lose weight you will need to know approximately your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). Your RMR is the number of calories your body burns at rest in a 24 hour period. When your body gets about 500 less calories than it needs each day as a result of eating less or exercising more, you will lose one pound of weight per week. To illustrate how efficient the human body is in motion, the average female would need to go for a brisk walk for 1.5 to 2.0 hours in order to burn 500 calories.

When you consume 500 calories a day more than your body’s requirements, you will gain approximately one pound a week! To illustrate how easy it is to gain weight, one 7oz bag of corn chips has approximately 1000 calories. If you ate a bag of corn chips every day in addition to three square meals its possible you could gain 2 pounds in a week!

By Debbie de Leng © September 30, 2004

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About The Author: Debbie De Leng is a weight loss coach. To see what you can do to take control of your weight, or for a free consultation, visit her website at: http://shrink-district.org/?refid=Artcity-27182.