Why High Protein Diets Won't Help You Lose Weight

There are all kinds of diet recommendations all over the bodybuilding magazines, fad diet books, and websites that advise to divide your eating into different "ratios" and "percentages" for weight loss and fat burning.

Some recommend high fat, low carb, others say moderate carbs, moderate fat, high carbs, low fat, etc.

But the one thing that each and every one of these "weight loss" / "fat burning" diets say is it must be HIGH in protein.

Well, I'm here to tell you the TRUTH.

It is NOT necessary at all to eat a diet high in protein to lose weight.

Just about everything you read says to eat 1-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

Some even go as high as suggesting you have to not only eat high, but massive amounts of protein to lose weight and burn fat.

This MYTH is due to 3 reasons:

1) Everyone thinks that muscle tissue is made up mostly of protein

2) Everyone thinks that either high amounts of fat or high amounts of carbohydrates will cause you to get fat

3) Everyone thinks that protein has a "thermogenic" (inner-body temperature raising) effect, which helps burn fat

All three of these beliefs are completely wrong! (In this article I am going to give you a very brief explanation, but in later articles I will go into more detail)

First, muscle tissue is NOT made up of mostly of protein. Muscle tissue is 70% WATER.

The other 30% is made of GLUCOSE, and AMINO ACIDS.

Your muscles need just as much glucose (which is what carbohydrates are converted into), if not MORE than protein.

You should know that one of the KEYS to weight loss is to have a significant amount of muscle tissue (that doesn’t mean you have to look like a bodybuilder if you don’t want to, though) on the body.

Why???

Because the more muscle you have, the faster and higher your metabolism gets, meaning you can literally burn hundreds of calories a day even when you are just sitting around watching TV.

The more muscle you have, the higher the amount of calories that you can eat while still losing weight / burning fat (trust me, no one likes having to eat an extremely low amount of calories in order to lose weight).

So, whether you are male or female, regardless if you want to look like a bodybuilder or just be toned up and in shape, you need muscle!

Those that have medically studied the physiology of the human body know that amino acids are what make up protein.

However, the body uses whatever amount of amino acids it needs at that particular moment.  The rest it stores for later use.

It is NOT true that you need to be eating a "steady stream" of protein to lose weight / burn fat.........your body keeps a little "pool" of stored amino acids.

Protein is by far the most difficult macronutrient to break down and digest.

The higher the amount of protein you eat the more stress you are placing on your digestive system.

Oh, by the way, what do you think happens to any excess protein??? It turns it into FAT!

Have you ever noticed how you feel when you eat a huge burger or steak?

Even after several hours have passed, it still feels like you've got that entire piece of meat just sitting and rotting in your stomach.

How much benefit in weight loss do you think that's going to give you?

Have you ever drank those disgusting protein shakes or eaten those chalk-tasting protein bars?

You get gas, you feel bloated, and you might even get the "runs" (diarrhea).

That's a major sign that your body is NOT properly digesting all of that protein!!!

There are several real-life examples of athletes that don't consume massive amounts of protein to gain muscle weight, yet have tremendous physiques, have extremely defined and toned bodies, are in excellent health, are powerful, fast, and agile.

To just name some of them:

Andreas Cahling - Swedish champion bodybuilder and Olympic gold medalist in the ski jump

Keith Holmes - World champion middleweight boxer

Bill Manetti - Powerlifting champion

Stan Price - World weight lifting record holder; bench press

Art Still - Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs MVP defensive ends, Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame

Chris Campbell - Olympic wrestling champion

Peter Hussing - European super heavyweight boxing champion

You can eat all the protein in the world and not lose one pound of fat weight if you are eating too many calories!!!!!

Remember, it doesn't matter what we've been fed by the magazines, fad diet books, and companies trying to sell us their latest protein concoction. It all comes down to the calories!

In my next article I'll cover the 2nd and 3rd misconception everyone has about protein.

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Why Is It So Difficult To Lose Weight After 30?

Have you tried to lose weight after 30? Wasn’t that more difficult than ever before? Guess what? It’s even more difficult after 40! Have you ever wondered why your body reacts differently to the same regimes you apply in different stages of your life?

People that have never had a weight problem get flabbier after 30 without clear explanation. They start exercising and they don’t see any improvement. They eat less, and they still don’t achieve any significant change. What they don’t take into consideration is the aging impact on their body.
  
Aging is a Reason for Gaining Weight and the Obstacle to Losing Weight
There are more than 20 theories about aging but the most researched one is the “Free Radicals” theory.  Free radicals are atoms or molecules in which at least one electron is unpaired causing an instability (a stable atom contains a balance of paired electrons which encircle the nucleus).

This instability causes the electrons to be very reactive – they bond easily with healthy molecules and damage them. According to the free radicals theory, this damage is what causes you to age and to become vulnerable to certain diseases.

The most common free radical is an oxygen radical, which occurs in the mitochondria when an unpaired electron interacts with oxygen. Mitochondria are your cellular power plants, the tiny structures in your cells that provide energy in the chemical form of ATP.  This is your “fuel” for all your life functions. It helps your heart to pump and your lungs to distribute oxygen when you breathe.

When free radicals are formed in the mitochondria, they reduce the power of your cellular power plants to produce energy efficiently. You are not running out of energy because you’re aging. You are aging because you are running out of energy. Free radicals gradually shut down your power as if you are slowly turning off a light dimmer.

Free Radicals and Energy Reduction are the Roots of Most Aging Problems
Without energy your metabolic rate drops causing you to accumulate more body fat. You are losing muscle mass, bone mass, facial collagen and you are tired even when you have over-slept.

Energy reduction at the cellular level also decreases the hormone secretion in your glands. The most abundant hormone in the body is DHEA. It is known as the “mother of all hormones” because it is involved in manufacturing of other hormones, especially the sexual hormones estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

DHEA peeks at the age of 20 but afterwards declines sharply so at age 45 you have 50% of your high peek DHEA, and at the age of 65 you have only 10-20% of what you had at age 20. As the mother of all hormones DHEA represents a decline in other hormones as Human Growth Hormone, (HGH), Testosterone (in men), estrogen and progesterone (in women).

Studies show that as lower your hormone level is, as higher your tendency to accumulate fat.

Weight gain after 30 is a result of a vicious cycle of aging. Aggressive free-radicals decrease energy production which decreases hormone level and your metabolic rate to levels that most diets cannot help.


Anti-Aging Can Support Weight Loss by Neutralizing Free-Radicals
The most common way to fight free radicals is by increasing significantly antioxidants in your body. Your body produces antioxidants naturally or it gets it from food like fruit and vegetables.

Antioxidants are form of enzymes that attack free radicals by attaching to the unpaired electron and neutralize it. There are 2 kinds of antioxidants:


The first type patrols the body, blocking the formation of free radicals.
The second type disarms the already existing free radical before they bind with healthy molecules.

Studies show that today’s fruit and vegetables are not rich in antioxidants as few decades ago. It is impossible to get the recommended level without supplements as multi-vitamin, vitamin C, and vitamin E in the right dosages. But this by itself doesn’t make the difference. No one lose weight just by taking antioxidants.

Anti-Aging Can Support Weight Loss by Boosting Energy in Your Cells
You can increase your cells energy if you exercise regularly and supplement your food with energizers. Energizers are vitamins and minerals that increase the energy production in your cells. Well studied energizers are Lipoic Acid, Chromium Picolinate, Coenzyme Q-10, and others. Cardio training is the best exercise to boost your cellular energy. Cardio training is what you may know as aerobic exercise like jogging, cycling, rowing or other activities that ramp your heart rate.


Anti-Aging Can Support Weight Loss by Increasing Hormone Level and Accelerating Metabolic Rate

An expensive and still questionable way to increase your hormones is Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Hormone replacement therapy must be recommended and supervised by a doctor. But criticizers recommend staying away and not messing with the side effect risks of hormones.

You can boost your hormone level significantly without a doctor and for free if you engage in resistance training like free weights, weight machines, bands, cables or even body weight. 

Studies show without a doubt that resistance training stimulates secretion of HGH and testosterone. But that’s not all. Resistance training has many other benefits. It helps to gain muscle and reverses the aging damage of losing muscle. The more muscles you have, the more fat you burn because mussel growth accelerate you metabolic rate.

Aging is Not an Obstacle Anymore to Weight Loss
You reverse your aging damages backward and slow your aging forward when you burn fat and gain muscle. You can accelerate this process by reducing free-radicals and increase energy production using supplements. But there is no way to achieve it without special exercises that boost hormone level and nutrition that decreases blood sugar.

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Why Is Weight Loss So Hard?

Weight loss is a common problem millions of Americans today struggle with. Very few Americans have been successful at losing a desired amount of weight.

The main problem is that most cannot stick to the designated program. For instance, a general weight loss program includes both diet as well as exercise. Most of the time an individual trying to lose weight will at least attempt one of these. Often times what happens is that the exercise may be too strenuous for that person since they must have lacked exercise for so long going back to why they are in such shape.

Another perspective is the diet. Most people looking to lose weight are usually in this pandemic because of eating not only food with high amounts of sugars and fats, but also food in high quantities of these fats ans sugars. This becomes a significant problem because changing old habits for anyone is such a difficult process especially in America since you can’t walk two feet out your door without seeing a McDonald’s.

So in the end dieting or weight loss in general is such a difficult process because of the extreme new “way of life” you would have to adapt to. A recent statistic said that of those who fail to reach an ideal weight goal in a diet actually gain more weight trying the diet rather then losing.

 The reason for this is once you “give in,” you start “binge eating” meaning you eats almost everything in site with no restrictions. This is a one negative impact of dieting viewed by many. Of course most researchers/doctors say diet and exercise are essential for a healthy life, whether losing weight or not.

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Why Your Diet May Not Be Working

Jennifer, a middle-aged single mother with one six-year-old daughter, has been skipping sweets for a few weeks now.  She’s also become a stickler for portion control.  She feels as if she’s eating less than ever, and she’s been diligently exercising for an hour at a time at least four days a week.  Yet, she hasn’t lost a single pound.  The question is, “Why?”

       This is a dilemma which affects dieters the world over.  They think they are taking the steps necessary to lose weight, but nothing seems to be happening.  In essence, they are trapped in a dieting rut and they don’t know how to free themselves.  As a result, they become frustrated and depressed and may then engage in binge eating.

   

        Another reason that you may be failing at your diet is because of a lack of support.  You may have family members who can eat whatever they want and seemingly not gain a pound.  As a result, they may fill your refrigerator with junk food, leading you into temptation.  Also, you may feel as if you have no one to turn to in order to discuss your weight problems.  In order to solve this problem, many individuals look to psychotherapists to help them with their food-related issues.  This can be particularly important if an individual has turned to purging in an effort to combat their weight problems.  Bulimia is a serious disease which must be treated in order to ensure the good health of the patient.  Thankfully, there are a number of treatment programs throughout the U.S. specifically focusing on bulimia.

         Yet another reason for diet failure is hidden calories.  You may literally be consuming calories and not even realize it.  For instance, the frappucinos that are so popular today are loaded with calories—as many as 600 in a single serving!  You may also be indulging in sugary sodas—another source of extra calories.  By taking a few simple steps, such as eliminating the exotic coffee drinks from your diet and substituting skim milk for whole milk, you may be able to eliminate the hidden calories that are denying you dieting success.

         Lack of consistency can also be a diet-killer.  You might go on a diet for a while, then quit before you’ve made any measurable progress.  It’s only natural to want to see quick results.  The problem is that healthy weight loss involves losing only a couple of pounds a week.  That means you’ll have to stay on your diet for months before you see appreciable weight loss.  Discouraging?  It can be, but if you keep a positive attitude you can achieve your ideal weight.

        You may also be more successful in your dieting if you consider it to be a lifestyle change.  Therefore, your diet becomes a meal plan for life.  This means that you must change the way you look at food.  It is designed to be fuel for your body, and nothing more.  As a result, you should not turn to food to make you feel better or to provide you with a sense of comfort.  A lifestyle change implies commitment; it means that you are prepared to follow the plan for the long haul.  If you feel as if you cannot be on your diet for any appreciable length of time, perhaps it’s time to consider a different diet.   Your aim ultimately should be not simply to lose weight, but to become healthier.  A fad diet will not allow you to reach that milestone.   Therefore, you must choose your diet carefully.

   One of the problems with diets is that they are often standardized.  As a result, they don’t take into consideration your individual physiology and metabolism.  They provide a cookie-cutter approach to weight loss—an approach which may not work in your individual case.  As a result, an increasing number of people are turning to dieticians to formulate a person weight loss strategy for them.  This process has been made easier through the Internet, where you can correspond with a dietician any time of the day or night via e-mail.  The dietician can also act as your personal coach, helping you through your dieting dilemmas.

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Writing For Your Weight Loss Success

Motivation is one of the key variables for the equation that yields long term weight loss success. The question is how do you maintain the motivation to attain the ultimate goal? Regardless if your weight loss goal is 20 pounds or 100 pounds you must change your thinking to change your behavior and writing makes that happen.

Weight loss really does begin in your head. Every successful athlete understands that his thinking process is either working for him or against him. The same holds true with weight loss. If your internal dialogue is negative, your results will eventually manifest the same result! You can’t degrade yourself to a healthy new you! You must change your thinking to work for you, to build your resolve, and to maintain that all important motivational factor.

Writing is an exercise that will help your mind change its thinking! It allows you to process the negative emotions and helps to instill the positive changes. Start with these simple exercises:

1. The Negative Emotions Daily Dump: Many success coaches advocate writing out your negative thinking on a daily basis. Simply spend approximately 15 minutes writing out all the frustrations, bad feelings, and discouragement. This helps you to process these bad feelings out of your system so that you can make room for positive affirmations. Do not reread the entries and do not keep them. Write it out, and then throw it out. We call this the Negative Emotions Daily Dump.

2. Affirm Your Goals: Prepare a list of affirmations that will help your subconscious work with your conscious brain to make those all important behavioral changes. Then write your affirmations at least twice a day. Write them once after you have written your Negative Emotions Daily Dump. Don’t do the Negative Dump without filling it with the positive affirmations. You should always end with this. Write the second set of affirmations either right before you go to bed or first thing in the morning. Read your affirmations several times a day.

3. Understand your Motivations: In order to stay motivated you must understand your real reasons for losing weight. In other words, understand why YOU want to lose weight. Not why your spouse or friends want you to lose weight but why losing the weight is important to you. Do you really want more energy? Do you just love skinny clothes? Do you want to participate in an activity that would be easier if you were slim and healthy? Write these motivations out in detail so that you can solidify them in your head and they can continue to motivate you through the entire weight loss journey.

4. Accountability: Keep a food diary. Keeping a food diary has been proven time and time again to increase your weight loss success by as much as 50%! A food log is your accountability factor. It keeps you honest with yourself.

5. Visualize: Visualize yourself enjoying the portions of your weight loss program that you are currently struggling to do. For instance if you hate the cardio portion of your day, start seeing yourself loving it. See it as “”your time”. It can be your time to read while you’re on the stationary bike. Or your time to watch all those movies you feel guilty watching any other time. Once you begin to visualize positive feelings about a certain activity the easier that activity will become.

6. The Pat-On-The-Back: Keep a written log of your weight loss success. By writing down your weight loss on a weekly basis you are validating your efforts and giving yourself a pat-on-the-back. This will go a long way to keeping you on track.

Keep in mind that if you are utilizing the assistance of a personal fitness trainer or weight loss professional that they may use techniques to help you face your self-defeating habits. This might feel harsh and negative, however it isn’t. Honesty is necessary to motivate change and this is different than running yourself down! Sometimes we have to hear the hard words to make the hard changes. Keep in mind that these professionals are seeking your ultimate success. Your success is their success. Let’s face it, the weight gain started with you and to change that behavior you may have to deal with some uncomfortable feelings. A good trainer will help you feel cared about while still insisting that you deal with your bad habits. It’s a good thing to be pushed past your comfort zone to becoming a better you!

Writing is the new “exercise” that can make all the rest of your weight loss efforts including good nutrition, exercise, and resistance training work for you because you will be working with these principles instead of against them. You will start seeing these weight loss techniques as a positive and permanent part of your life, instead of a temporary device. That will result in faster results that last forever!

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You Are Not Doomed To Be Fat Forever

I know, you're probably thinking you have to diet to lose weight. But nothing could be further from the truth. With rare exceptions, most people were born into normal weight bodies. But then we learned to diet.

Dieting causes the body to go into survival mode. Dieting itself sparks the intense biological urge to consume large quantities of high calorie foods.  It causes the body's instinctual drives to override all intellectual controls. It primes the body to maximize food intake and minimize energy burned.

Diets have set us up to fight against our own physical survival, the body's most basic instinct. 

As a comparison, think of how difficult life would be if you had to go to the bathroom on a rigid schedule. What if you only allowed yourself to urinate 3 times a day?

At 8 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. you could release exactly 5 ounces. You'd measure it - of course - to be sure it was the right amount. If you needed to go more, you would force yourself to wait until the next scheduled time. And too bad if you needed to go at 10 am, hold it until noon.

You would be miserable. Your body would have a very difficult time complying with an arbitrary schedule. It would probably get ugly.

Overeating because your body refuses to starve doesn't make you a failure. It means you're human.
*It doesn't make you diseased.
*It doesn't mean you are flawed forever.
*It doesn't doom you to being permanently sick and trying to recover for the rest of your life.
*It means you did the best you could at the time.
*It means you can forgive yourself and move on.

Eating is the most natural thing we do and your body knows exactly what it needs to live at it's very best. All you have to do is practice listening and  ACT on the information. Your body knows what to do. Just as it knows how to breathe, reproduce, and heal.

Think of how children live, we can learn a lot from them…
*They rest when they are tired.
*They run, jump, swim, dance, and play as much as they can because it feels good and it's fun.
*They are picky about what they eat. They'll go hungry rather than settle for something they don't love.
*They eat when they're hungry.
*Once they feel full, they have to be tricked or bribed into eating even one more bite of food.
*They drink when they're thirsty.
*They love their bodies and they don't care how their thighs look or if their tummy isn't flat and tight.
*They don't have to think about all this. It just comes naturally and easily as a part of being human.

All of these natural instincts live in each of us, too.

We all have the inborn ability to take care of ourselves. We just have to remember. We just have to get back in the habit of listening to our bodies…of following their wisdom. Remember, a normal body weight is your birthright. It was stolen from you. Now you get to take it back.

So stop thinking of yourself as forever fat. You are not doomed to either being overweight or to being on a perpetual diet. Let overeating and overweight fade into the past. They served you well to keep you alive. Once you stop dieting and accept the body you were born with, you can return to your unique, normal weight.

I'm not suggesting everyone is going to be model-skinny. The endless, tyrannical pressure to be very thin is a big part of the problem. Some bodies are meant to be soft and curvy. Others are naturally sharp and angular. We are variously stocky, tall, fleshy, muscular, sinewy, short, etc. There is wonderful beauty in diversity.

Accepting and loving the unique beauty of your body will heal you and set you free. Be like a child and delight in the body you have. Cherish the power in your muscles. Enjoy the feeling of being alive here on this planet. Let go of having to look a certain way. Be yourself. Let someone else try to be like the models or celebrities. The world will be a better place if it gets to have the real, unique, special person that YOU are.

Believe in your own healing. Believe that you can live easily and naturally at your own ideal weight. That faith is a huge part of what will set you free. Eating normally is completely natural. Deep down you know how to do it.

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Your Weight Loss Program in as Easy as a Week

The idea of the weight loss program is to be able for you to develop a consistent approach to weight loss as well as a healthy endurance when exercising.  The weight loss program’s objective is to get rid of the excesses in your body, the excess fat.  Not the healthy and lean muscle tissues and body fluids. 

The weight loss program first requires your focus and dedication, so therefore you need to be prepared in both mind and – of course – body.  It is highly advised that you first visit your doctor for a check-up before embarking on any weight loss program. 

It is important that when starting on any weight loss program, one should be positive enough to work for the results.  Some people get impatient easily but long term effects are assured as long as one sticks to the weight loss plan at hand. 

Stretch and stretch some more.  Before actually doing those exercises and working out those muscles, a little stretching is needed in order to avoid any injury or soreness in your body.

It is also not advisable for anyone to try too hard.  Everything should be done in moderation.  Find the level of exercise and training that suits you.  It should be enough for you to be comfortable in but not too convenient that it will not be much of a challenge. 
The first week

The first day of the weight loss program involves a long and steady walk in a little over twenty minutes.  After the walk, follow it up with a good stretch.  This takes so little of your time for the first day.  In less than an hour you have taken that first step to a weight loss program that could work to your advantage.

By the second day, it is good to focus on an upper body workout.  This maintains your strength to be able to go through the whole weight loss program for the week.  On the third day, a brisk walk or jog for ten minutes is in order.  For beginners, a lower body workout should be done in the evening.

In the fourth day, a good rest is in order, as well as a good stretch.  This lag time should be used wisely though to sort out any negatives in your mindset.  The fifth day starts with a good ten minute walk.  Exercise the lower body in four sessions of workouts, follow this up with another ten minute walk, and another four sessions of lower body workout.

The sixth day should be spent on a low impact exercise such as swimming.  To avoid boredom, do not be afraid to try something new.  The last day of the week is a time to solicit the support of the people you care about.  Spend time with them or get them to be with you in your long walk.  Again, follow up your walk with a light upper body workout. 

This is just the beginning though.  If by this first week you are able to stick to the weight loss program, you have a great chance to further boost your weight loss and stay with the program until you achieve your desired result.  Try as much as possible to be unlike the people who give up easily just because they could not see the result they want at the time they want – like this moment, today, now!   Patience is a virtue.  The same way it took your body time to gain all that weight, think about it as the time your body will have to exert just to get rid of it. Stick to the weight loss program and you will lose weight.

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weight loss

Losing some weight and getting an ideal silhouette is not as hard as it seems. You should go over this article if you need some help with developing an efficient weight loss program.

Do your best to get some physical activity on a daily basis. You should go for a walk or ride your bike for at least thirty minutes a day. Small changes such as taking the stairs or walking around the building during your breaks at work can make a difference on the long term. Find some new hobbies and activities to stay busy in your free time rather than watching TV or surfing the Internet.

Develop a fitness program adapted to your needs. Start very slowly with some light exercise. You can do some abs at home to target your midsection and start slimming down. Developing your midsection will help you become more resistance and you should soon be able to work out more intensely. Create different workout routines so you can exercise every other day.

Working on your cardio will help you burn a lot of calories. Running, swimming or riding a bike are excellent cardio workouts but practicing your favorite team sport or martial art is a good choice too. Start slowly by working on your cardio twice a week for thirty minutes at a time. Try working on your cardio more frequently and for longer periods of time as you build more resistance.

Learn to recognize unhealthy foods. You need to avoid foods too rich in fat, sugar and sodium such as processed foods, fried foods and fast food menu items. These foods cause you to gain a lot of weight without providing you with the vitamins and nutrients you need. Always look at the labels of the foods and the beverages you buy to assess how healthy they are. Do not let fat free or light foods fool you; these items often contain large amounts of another unhealthy ingredient.

Adopt a well-balanced diet. You do not need to eliminate anything from your diet to get in shape. You will get an ideal silhouette if you eat recommended daily portions of different types of foods. Your diet should include six to eight portions of cereal a day to get some energy. Five portions of fruits and vegetables a day will provide you with the fibers and vitamins you need. Two or three portions of meat a day are needed but you can replace meat with another source of protein. Eat dairy products, fats and oils in small quantities.

Follow a more regular schedule. You will be less likely to snack on unhealthy foods if you get used to eating three meals a day at fixed hours. Have five small meals a day if you always get hungry between meals. Avoid distractions when you eat so you can stop when you are full. If you tend to overeat, put smaller portions on your plate and choose healthy filling foods instead of empty calories.

Adopt these weight loss strategies to develop your own program. You will get good results if you take the time to transform your lifestyle for good instead of going on a crash diet.

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