Do I Need to Go on a Diet?

I get the question "Do I Need To Go On A Diet?", at least twice a month from potential clients. I always respond with a smile and the same statement, "You are already on a diet".

I know what they are trying to say, "Do I Need To Lose Weight?", but as a society, we have associated the word 'diet' with meaning 'lose weight'. Actually, this is not true. A diet is actually the food that you would eat regularly to sustain life. Let me explain. If you hear the phrase "the black bears diet consists of berries, fish and small rodents", does this mean that the bear is trying to lose weight? I think that you get my point. A diet is only the food that you eat to keep your body operating. This is why I always smile when people state that they need to be "on a diet".

So what does this all have to do with diets or weight loss? To truly understand your weight loss needs, you have to understand your diet and its key components. So let us get started and break down what all diet plans consist of.

Body Maintenance and Calories

All diets are made up of calories that exist in (almost) everything you ingest. How many calories you ingest directly affects your body and weight. The human body is an incredible machine and it only needs a certain number of calories each day to maintain your current weight. This is known as the "Maintenance Level". You will lose weight if your diet supplies fewer calories than this level. The opposite is also true, if more calories are added then you gain weight.

If you were to leave right now with this information and put it into practice, you would already be ahead of the game. Most people just do not realize how to control their weight and armed with just this information they could start making healthier diet choices.

Okay, so what are calories? Calories are made up of Protein, carbs, and fat. Let us go over each of these and discuss their importance to your diet.

Protein

Protein is a very important part of your overall diet. Have you ever heard of a low protein diet? Me neither but they do sell high protein supplements at health stores. Your body requires a lot protein to help build and maintain your muscles and other organs. If you were to ingest 1 gram of protein, you would be taking in about 4 calories. Therefore, if you know the number of grams of protein in your food, you know the number of calories that the protein has provided (grams x 4 = total calories).

Carbohydrates

I find that carbohydrates are the most confusing for people starting a diet plan. The reason usually is that it is everything you eat and makes it hard for people to manipulate within a diet plan. Carbohydrates also work out to the 1 gram of carbohydrates being equal to 4 calories (grams x 4 = total calories). So, you can now see how the calories start to add up when you include the calories from the proteins as well.

Fat

Here is the most misunderstood of the three calorie producing elements. First, let us get the calorie calculation out the way. Just 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories (grams x 9 = total calories). This is why most high protein foods are considered low in calories and high fat foods are high in calories. Does Fat make you Fat? Nope... as I stated earlier in this document, it is ingesting more calories than your "Maintenance Level" requires. Fat is just the unlucky element of the three with the higher calorie level. It does not matter were your excess calories in your diet plan are coming from, too many calories are what make you fat.

Will simply reducing or removing fat from your diet alone work at reducing your weight? Normally no. What usually happens is your diet ends up replacing the fat calories with additional calories from protein or carbohydrates. Some times people actually see an increase in their overall body weight!

Now that you know the true story about your diet, you can start making wiser shopping decisions in the grocery store, and you will be well on your way to a healthier, happier you!