Weight Loss/Maintenance 101

The human body is an amazingly complex piece of creation. What initially may seem obvious and straightforward about the way it operates is seldom the case. This is especially true with calories to maintain weight or weight management in general.

For instance, a pound of fat is equivalent to about 3,500 calories. Based on this, if you cut back on your calories by 500 calories every week, in 7 weeks you'd think would lose one pound. Unfortunately weight loss isn't as simplistic as this.

Fat isn't the body's preferred fuel source--carbohydrates are. The body views the 500 calorie deficit as a period of starvation. Instead of making up the deficit by tapping its fat stores, it will get the energy it needs from protein. calories to maintain

Your body will get the protein it needs by attacking your lean body mass (muscle.) By a process known as gluconeogenesis, your liver will convert the protein into carbohydrates. So, although you will lose weight, it is absolutely the wrong type of weight.

Why don't you want to lose muscle? Because, contrary to what many believe, muscles are used by the body for many more activities than raising your arm or lifting your leg. Muscles cause your eyelids to blink, your heart to pump, and many other metabolic processes you are not even aware of. calories to maintain

Also remember, the majority of your bodyweight is composed of lean tissue. This tissue is metabolically active, burning calories. The greater your lean body mass, the greater the number of calories you will burn at rest.

Ideally you want to be able to burn fat calories 24/7. That means burning calories when at rest as well as when exercising. In order to burn calories while at rest, you need muscle tissue. Since you lose muscle as you age, weight training needs to be incorporated into your training program to maintain/build muscle. Read this article to get an understanding of how to lose weight by targeting your fat stores.

Muscle -- 24/7 Calorie-Burning Tissue

As I stated earlier, muscle, as opposed to fat, is metabolically active. This activity is sustained 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. calories to maintain

Ron Brown, author of The Body Fat Guide, compares muscle to an idling car engine. The engine burns gasoline even when your foot is not on the accelerator. Similarly, even while relaxing, your muscle tissue is 'idling', burning calories steadily and continually.

People who carry more muscle will burn more calories than a person who carries less. Bodybuilders are perfect examples. The tremendous amount of muscle tissue they carry makes their bodies effective and efficient calorie-burning machines.

Women in general carry more body fat and less muscle than men. A typical woman will therefore burn less calories than a man.

As a person ages, muscle tissue will atrophy. This is a normal physical process. This natural process can be reversed however. Weight training will prevent muscle atrophy and its associated decline in calorie burning.

Photo left is a picture of my flexed bicep taken at the Mr. New Jersey Bodybuilding competition in 2001. I was six months away from 50th birthday. If I didn't weight train, at that age my arm would have been mainly sagging fat with very little muscle.

Myths abound as to how many calories a pound of muscle burns. Some say as much as 50 to 60 calories. This is not true however. Studies have found that a pound of muscle burns anywhere from 5 to 6 calories. A pound of fat burns about 2 calories.

So muscle burns approximately 3 times as many calories as fat. Although 5 to 6 calories may not seem to be a lot, it all adds up. In addition there are other benefits to gaining and retaining muscle tissue. Some of these benefits are:

Avoid 'Low Fat' Products in Using Calories to Maintain Weight

The typical supermarket, fast food mart, and your average 'Mom and Pop' corner store are bulging at the seams with junk and low fat food. However, low fat products have failed to live up to their advertised promise and hype. And, sadly, many Americans are not aware that low fat products are worse for their health than the products they were designed to replace.

Food manufacturers have removed fats they were convinced were causing the explosion of heart disease and unwanted weight and replaced it with artificial sweeteners. The removal of fats also caused the undesirable removal of taste. To compensate, artificial sweeteners were used.

By the same token, no sugar and sugarless products have swamped the marketplace. Sugar has been replaced with low or no-calorie artificial sweenteners.

Studies have shown that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, and high fructose corn syrup disrupt the body's ability to count calories. Science has amply demonstrated that although counterintuitive, no sugar and low fat products contribute to weight gain. In other words, to successfully use calories to maintain weight, you have to avoid low fat and sugarless foods.

Artificial sweeteners are used in hundreds of products ranging from pharmaceuticals to diet sodas to dietary foods. Aspartame alone is present in over 6,000 low and no calories products.

Calories and their effect on your body is a lot more complicated than quantity. Numbers-wise it seems good sense to consume low-calorie food and drink products in order to lose weight. But the science for weight loss is not there as far as artificial sweenteners are concerned.

In order to successfully use calories to maintain weight, find your metabolic type. Everyone is different so nutritional requirements differ. Once you eat according to your nutritional profile, maintaining weight becomes much easier.

The second step is to avoid all processed foods. This will automatically eliminate all low-calorie products. Eat organic fruits and vegetables as much as possible, and grass-fed meat--all according to your metabolic type.

When you do have the urge for something sweet or to sweeten something, use the natural sweetener stevia. It is sweeter than sugar and has virtually no calories.

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