WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

When looking at all aspects of weight management, the first thing to look at is the main principles. Strangely some of the principles will even work for those who have a problem gaining weight as well as loosing weight

We've all been told, if you eat less or you exercise more, what you eat minus what you burn offends up as a lump of fat around the middle. Calories in, less calories out but that's the old view. Even if you sit down and do absolutely nothing you burn up a basic amount of energy, just staying alive. This is called your basal metabolic rate, and this is measured as calories. Then on top of that is the energy that you consume doing any kind of movement or exercise. So ideally the energy that you need for your basal metabolic rate plus your exercise should be equal to your food consumption. So for e.g. If your metabolic rate might be 1,500 calories and your exercise 800 calories, total 2,300 calories, well in this thinking if say Fred had 2,500 calories per day, he will gain 200 calories a day. Well that's the notion that is generally believed in, but in reality it doesn't quite work like that.

Yet Dr Michael Colgan who works with Olympic athletes found that some of his athletes were burning 7,500 calories, yet were only eating 3,500 calories, so what is happening?

Well the answer is not just "food in and energy out", it's rather a more complex system. As you learn "what you eat' you realise this is often the key to success of a weight management regime. when your body lacks cert~ nutrients in your diet it craves for others, when you eat the wrong foods, suddenly you have all the calories but you didn't get a chance to get hungry.

Often with weight problems there is a reason behind this, one of the reasons for this could be the blood sugar levels. How often do you wake up craving for your first cup of coffee or tea, this is a stimulant, and this means your blood sugar levels are low. So let's look at some wonder diets, and one reason why you can be fooled into the false pretence of "what a great diet I've lost 6 lbs in one week". There is a simple and obvious reason for this, your body has an instant supply of fuel in the blood, your blood sugar, and a secondary back up fuel called glycogen, stored in the muscle cells and liver. The third back up fuel is your fat! Now glycogen is stored with water, so when you starve yourself you start to break down the glycogen to use it and you loose water, and that's why these diets boast a 6 lb weight loss in the first week.

If you went to the butchers and asked them to give you a pound of fat, it's the size of a small brick, so do you think the body can burn 6 lb's of brick size fat in a week? In fact in reality and scientific evidence we can only lose about 21b of fat a week.

So let's go into more detail with the blood sugar levels, and how we can help someone to loose weight slowly.

Blood sugar is controlled in the body by two substances, the hormone, insulin and the glucose tolerance factor (GTF) both of which are needed to transport blood sugar to the cells to make energy. Insulin and GTF are dependant upon chromium and vitamin B3 and a chromium deficiency is virtually epidemic, as chromium is related to weight problems, getting enough chromium with Vitamin B3, B6 and Zinc are all important in making sure you convert blood sugar into energy and not fat. Also please note that as we get older the levels of chromium get lower. 

Very significantly recently new research that concerns how the body turns glucose into fat, the exciting news is that the enzyme system that does this is effectively turned off by a naturally occurring compound called hydroxycitric acid or H C A. This comes from the tamarind plant, Garcinia Cambogia, and has been used in oriental cooking for hundreds of years. H C A is closely related to the citric acid you find in many fruits, and in fact it's safer than citric acid. A Swiss company Hoffman La Roche spent many years researching and testing this product, but because you can't get a patient on a natural product, they did not pursue it. Recent years, there has been an enormous buzz in the nutrition and medical circles on this new product H C A, it has been shown clearly to inhibit the enzyme that converts that excess blood sugar into fat, it also reduces the synthesis of flit and cholesterol.

"Citrin" the H C A source that has been used for all human trials and is higher in H C A than any other on the market.

So, let's look at a few keynotes on how to achieve an ideal weight, and the problems that can cause the weight gain, and eating the rights foods and taking the right supplements for energy.

1. Take at least 250 mg of H C A with each meal

2. Take at least lOOmg of chromium per day

3. Make sure you take a B complex, Vitamin C, Magnesium, Iron and Zinc

4. You may benefit from digestive enzymes to ensure you are digesting your food.

5. Eat slow releasing carbohydrates

6. Eat essential fats

7. Drink plenty of water

8. Eat plenty of foods containing a high water content (fruit and vegetables)

9. Try to cut down on tea' coffee and chocolate.

10. Always eat a breakfast

11. Check for allergies

12. Colon cleansing

13. Eat regular light meals.