It is well documented that the incidence of human obesity has been expanding steadily with each generation since about the time of the commercial revolution. As societies became more specialized, with constant advances in the fields of science, technology and agriculture, we became increasingly fatter. In addition, we now have alarming rates of child obesity essentially in all Western cultures thanks to television, computers, internet, video games, cell phones, etc. And the problem is spreading into developing counties as well. an additional one growing concern is the estimate of child obesity-related conditions that are present and expanding such as, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and type Ii diabetes. These are health risks that are related to heart disease in adults.
Surprisingly, agreeing to a study, a indispensable estimate of adults in their 30's and 40' spend more than 10 hours per week playing video games. Studies have shown that the midpoint American household watches over 4 hours of television daily. an additional one study suggested that adult internet users spend an midpoint of 13-15 hours per week on the Web. What it comes down to is: we have too much time on our hands. We spend most of our free time time participating in sedentary activities and we eat too much ready made foods from supermarkets and from fast food outlets. It's not difficult to settle the causes of this weight gain epidemic. As we know, body weight (including fat and muscle) is based on the balance of the input/output equation. Essentially we are eating too much, too much of the wrong foods and at the same time, we are too inactive. This causes an imbalance in the equation as energy or calorie intake (food) exceeds energy expenditure (physical activity) causing excess fat to be stored as fat (adipose tissue) in the body which turns in to weight gain.
Food And Dessert
Over the past any decades we have been bombarded with a multitude of weight loss philosophies together with starvation diets, high protein diets, high fiber diets, diets that consisted of moderate but frequent meals, many of which included assorted exercise prescriptions as well. The result? We are still, on average, overweight as a population. And obesity related diseases are reaching epidemic proportions.
Consider some of the newest diet trends that suggest eating smaller and more frequent meals. One of the key components of this diet religious doctrine suggests that human metabolism increases more than that of a diet which consists of fewer larger meals. Results from many studies any way have not supported this theory. In fact studies have shown that human metabolism (Bmr or baseline metabolic rate*) does not write back differently (i.e. Does not decrease) with diets that consist of 3 meals per day and which supply sufficient fat for the body to function.
Let's consider our Paleolithic ancestors - the hunters and gatherers - and their group behavior: Scientists have studied modern but primitive societies (in Africa and South America) for any decades now (and continue today), since these citizen closely look as if the lifestyle of our ancestors in the Paleolithic era**. They have discovered that these citizen are much healthier than their counterparts in advanced countries. One coarse statistic among these societies is the very low prevalence (if any) of obesity. Other findings show that diabetes, heart disease, and cancer in these cultures are roughly nonexistent. Their diets comprise carbohydrate sources from fruits and vegetables that are found simply in their environment, protein in general from hunted animals and dairy products from animal sources that in most cases have not been processed (although in some of these cultures this is changing as their perceive with the advanced world becomes more frequent). Typically, their physical activity consists of walking for fairly long periods mixed with fewer and shorter bursts of high intensity exercise as is indispensable during hunting expeditions.
Let's look at the lifestyle of the hunting and conference type of community in more detail here. Their diet consists of fruits and vegetables that are found simply in their environment. A few of these cultures grow their own using small scale (micro) farming methods that are similar to organic cultivation, absent of chemicals. Essentially their diet does not comprise white carbohydrate sources (stripped of fiber) such as white flour, rice and sugar. Their proteins consist in general of meat, fowl and fish that is cooked fresh as it's caught (unprocessed). The vegetable proteins come in general from natural vegetable sources high in fiber. In short, processed foods are virtually nonexistent in their diets. They do not consequent organized or planned calorie restriction diets and they don't have quarterly set exercise prescriptions. Not surprisingly, they feast when food becomes abundantly available (when the hunters are lucky sufficient to catch game). On the other hand, they often have to undergo longer periods with low caloric intakes, as they go through periods when minute food is available because of either unsuccessful hunting or droughts.
So when food is in plenty they eat a lot (high consumption). When food is sparse, they have to settle for less - in some cases close to what would be a starvation type diet for us. Their physical activity is low intensity in nature but frequent - as quite often any hours of walking per day is required to perfect daily tasks.
We can experiment by emulating the diet and exercise habits of our ancestors as it were, in order to see if we can accomplish suitable body weight combination and improved health condition.
I have a client named Julie, who wanted to lose 27 pounds. Julie claimed she had been going to the gym 4 times per week. She was on a weight training agenda and participated in cardiovascular exercise using assorted machines available at her health club. Also at that time, she was following a calorie based diet that included roughly 2000 total daily fat which she consumed in 6 small daily meals. She also had a slightly higher than normal blood cholesterol level.
I put her on the following plan: I advised her to avoid white carbohydrates, to pick whole grains and to begin eating more fruits and vegetables. The following cooking methods were to be very reduced or avoided: frying and barbequing (because that was her beloved cooking method).
The diet did not comprise a set estimate of fat and consisted of 3 meals per day. I simply asked her to stop eating when she began to feel full during meals and more importantly to ensure she did not overeat. A good way to know when you have reached the level of being favorably full is to eat slowly. Many citizen can envision the estimate of food they need to consume to reach satiety. When you eat slowly, as you get closer and closer to being full with each mouthful, you will be able to admittedly reflect on either you have reached the feeling of satiety (fullness). That is if you ponder on it, you'll begin to feel each stage of plenty so to speak, and you will know (feel) when you have reached the level of perfect plenty (satisfied and no longer hungry) at which point you can stop eating - without going too far (overeating), even though you may want to continue. Conversely, if you eat quickly, chances are you won't have time to reflect (as mentioned above) and you will pass that relax zone which will consequent in overeating. This method of eating takes a minute practice to get used to but is very indispensable in a weight loss strategy.
On weekends, for one day only (Saturday or Sunday, whichever day was better agreeing to her weekend plans) Julie was allowed to cheat, which meant she would still vocalize the diet - but she was allowed to add her beloved foods that were not usually allowed - for example sweets like chocolate, other desserts, etc. - as often as she wanted (on that cheat day) but not to the point of becoming overfull or stuffed - just satisfied (as mentioned above).
Julie worked as a middle boss in a mid size corporation, 8-12 hours a day, five days a week. At work she would take her lunch at the firm cafeteria or assorted other restaurants within or in close vicinity of the building. Because of her busy agenda however, she worked through lunch roughly 2-3 times a week. That is, there wasn't sufficient time to go to the cafeteria or to other restaurants. As a consequent she just grabbed a snack from the office vending machine and ate it in her office while working.
I advised against this practice and told her to do the following instead. I took the opening here to try and mimic the hunter and gatherer: during times of hunting for food they had to undergo long periods with minute or no food. So I told her to stop the snacking and go without food but to drink water instead. In fact, we agreed that she was not allowed to eat food outside of an eating area or environment (home kitchen, restaurant, cafeteria etc.). All she had to do was undergo the hunger pangs for a minute while until they disappeared with the tube of time and the aid of drinking water. This was not so difficult to accomplish, she discovered. As she was overwhelmed with work during these periods, after a while she admittedly did not think of eating. She would just reach for her extra large bottled water instead, which was a reaction that became automatic or unconscious if you will. This method essentially forced her to stop snacking on junk foods at work. She could then take a meal after work at home or at a restaurant. And this did not mean that she could eat 2 meals to make up for the earlier lost meal. It meant she could have a normal dinner later without overindulging (as stated above). Consequently, during these missed-lunch days she would have one less meal than normal.
Now let's get to the most dreaded part of the program: physical activity. Actually, you will examine that this part is not admittedly that bad after all. Her exercise designate consisted of slow to moderate pace walking (not brisk walking) 5 times a week for 90 minutes. It didn't have to be continuous either. For instance, she could break it up in to two walking sessions if she wished. Julie brought her sneakers to work and walked the first hour before she started. She walked nearby the downtown streets near the construction where she worked and often went to a nearby indoor mall and walked indoors through the maze of sell stores. After work, for the remaining half hour walk, she devised a route that ended at the subway center where she hopped on the subway car that would at last take her home. Other times she took the half hour walk after the subway trip home, in a route she had worked out nearby her neighborhood. Not so bad so far right? Ok wait, here comes the harder part. Once a week she would participate in high intensity training exercise (Hit). We chose running for the exercise as she adored this method over others.
The object this Hit session was to run as fast as you could for as long as you could - mimicking the hunter and gatherer during a high intensity hunting episode, so to speak. However, the goal in this particular case would be to perfect 20 minutes of continuous running without stopping in between. Of course she would have to gradually work up to this high intensity fitness level. First she began with a combination of walking and jogging intervals for the 20 minute period. Then we raised the level to walking, jogging and some running. Next we advanced to jogging and running and finally, as her fitness level had adapted accordingly, she would run for the whole 20 minute session. Again, keep in mind that this process involves a gradual growth in intensity levels, allowing the body to adapt to each stage over a duration of time as required to reach the target. In this case it took roughly 6 weeks to attain this intensity level. She chose to do this disposition in a high school outdoor track near her home on weekends, either on Saturday or Sunday as her agenda permitted. So again, to be clear, the weekly exercise designate included 5 days of low intensity exercise (walking for 90 minutes) and 1 day of high intensity training (running for 20 minutes). It's foremost to note here that if you wanted to try this exercise method, you should get clearance from your physician first.
After twenty nine days of participating in this agenda Julie had lost 20.5 pounds and her blood cholesterol level returned to normal levels. Twenty four days after that, she had lost a total of 31 pounds (31 lbs. In 53 days!). At the present time, however, Julie is simply trying to vocalize the weight loss. She still follows the agenda but not exactly in its original from. That is, she still maintains the diet part ("as best I can", she says) and she misses a walking session here and there (may miss up to 1-3 hours per week). Furthermore, she does not accomplish the Hit session every week but tries to do it at least once a month, sometimes twice. At the present time as I'm writing this record she has gained back 7 pounds. So 5 months have passed and Julie is still 24 pounds lighter than she was at the start of this program. And Julie claims that she is "very satisfied" with that.
How to Lose 20 Pounds in 29 Days While Avoiding Fad Diets, Pills and the Gym
