How to Actually Lose Weight

Young Again.org

How to Actually Lose Weight

- Roger Mason

Americans have the cheapest and most plentiful food on earth, and this is one of the reasons we are also the fattest people on earth. Go to any other country and you will see how expensive food is compared to the average paycheck. In Canada, all of Europe, Australia and New Zealand food is very expensive compared to the average paycheck. Only in America can you go to a $4.99 lunch buffet and get all the delicious food you can eat. Only in America do you see bargain prices on everything in the grocery store.

It's not possible to eat much less food as the hunger instinct is stronger than the reproductive instinct- you can go all your life without sex, but try to go 24 hours without food. Will power is an illusion and hunger will overpower the best of intentions. Is it really possible to eat all you want and actually lose weight? Yes, it is. For example read Dean Ornish's "Eat More, Weigh Less", Terry Shintani's "The Hawaii Diet", Susan Powter's "Stop the Insanity", Gary Null's "Get Healthy Now", Neal Barnard's "Eat Right, Live Longer" or my "Zen Macrobiotics for Americans". It's not how much you eat- it's WHAT you eat. DON'T EAT FAT! Fat has almost twice the calories of protein or carbohydrates. Fat, not food, makes you fat. The rural Chinese actually eat more calories than we do, but have no obesity problem. Yes, they work more physically, but they eat grains, vegetables, beans and fruits basically, with animal products only making up a small portion of their diet, as they just cannot afford them. They simply cannot afford to eat rich, fatty foods.

First of all, test and balance all your basic hormones especially if you are over 40. This would include melatonin, pregnenolone, DHEA, testosterone, estrone, and estradiol. Women should include estriol. Have your thyroid T3 and T4 levels checked as well. A low T3 or T4 thyroid level can cause you to pack on the pounds as well as increasing your appetite. Make sure your fasting blood sugar is 85 or less to see if you have insulin resistance. Get a one draw GTT (glucose tolerance test) if it is over 85. You can take growth hormone if you're over 50 and willing to spend about $120 a month for real Jintropin 30 IU per month.If your endocrine system is unbalanced, gaining weight may not be completely your fault. Remember that all our hormones work together, so all of them should be tested and balanced as much as possible.

You can go to a health spa and arrange a water only fast for a week or two. Unfortunately short term fasting of one to three days just doesn't help you lose weight surprisingly- it goes right back on when you eat again. This will also get all the toxins and poisons out of your system and allow your body to strengthen any weaknesses. Fasting is the most powerful healing method known but, unfortunately, only helps with weight loss on long term fasts of a week or more.

You could go on an all fruit diet for a week and lose weight, but you'd get a terrific sugar load, predispose yourself to diabetes, and get very tired of fruit. Actually, fruits basically contain simple sugars and water and have very little nutrition and aren't necessary in our diets at all. If you don't believe that look at the nutritional profile of the fruits you eat and you'll see they are almost devoid of any vitamins or minerals. Read Fruit Has No Nutrition in our library.

This column has already suggested you eat a bowl of hot soup at least once a day, and preferably twice a day to lose weight. Make this a way of life. Now we have a bowl of good hot soup every night before dinner and often at lunch and when we go out to eat.

Hot watery food like soup and even stews and chowders fill you up on less calories. In a recent column discussing this, a comparison was made between a box of Cheez-Its® with 2,560 calories- which wouldn't get you thru the day- and ten cans of Progresso chicken rice soup with only 1,800 calories- which you probably couldn't finish in a day. You can go on a soup only diet for a week, and it certainly doesn't need to be the famous cabbage soup diet. Get a soup cookbook from your local library. Yes, you can even put red meat and poultry into the soup if you feel you need to eat meat and poultry.

You can lose weight by taking dangerous stimulants like amphetamine, cocaine, and ephedrine, but you'll end up a nervous wreck after a week and suffer from paranoid schizophrenia after a month. The prescription drugs for weight loss are also useless. It may be possible to lose weight with guarana and yerba mate, but this is NOT the answer to weight loss- LIFESTYLE and diet are the answer to lifelong slimness.

You can go on a ketogenic or Atkins/Eades/Heller diet and eat no grains, beans or other carbohydrates and suffer from the disease condition "ketosis"- which the diet is named after. When a diet is named after a pathological condition doesn't that tell you something? You will lose weight in the beginning, but not after the first month. Have you even seen anyone continue to lose weight on such a high fat, meat, poultry, egg and dairy product diet? Your cholesterol will skyrocket, your insulin will rise and the cancer cells in your body will be celebrating on the insanity. Anyone who goes on an Atkins-type diet has a death wish in the first place and no common sense at all.

What can do you? You can MAKE BETTER FOOD CHOICES- that's what you can do. Americans eat twice the calories they need, twice the protein, eight times the fat and 160 pounds of simple sugars. We live off of red meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, milk, white bread, white pasta, white rice, white flour, chemicals, coffee, alcohol and an endless array of junk food. Women only need about 1,200 calories daily and men about 1,800. That isn't much is it? That's all we need to be healthy and happy biologically. We only need about 15% protein and 5% fat calories for ideal health. And we wonder why we lead the world in coronary heart disease with almost every form of cancer as well. You can eat all you want and never be hungry and never have to deny yourself if you simply MAKE BETTER FOOD CHOICES. Your food can be fun, tasty, delicious, and satisfying if you'll just eat whole natural foods and learn some basic recipes from cookbooks. You do not have to deny yourself or go hungry at all.

You can also start eating two meals a day rather than three. We don't need three meals a day. Eating three meals a day is totally unnecessary. Breakfast is not "your most important meal", and you can do without it completely. Or you can eat breakfast and skip lunch every day. Eat hot and cold whole grain cereals and whole grain breads for breakfast. Take your lunch to work every day and don't eat out anymore. Dinner is your main meal and you don't have to be a vegetarian. If you must eat meat and poultry cut them into small portions and stir fry them with vegetables and lots of flavorings. Eat brown rice and whole grain pasta with lots of beans and green and yellow vegetables. Get international cookbooks and see how easy it is to make delicious, highly flavored vegetables. Eat seafood in moderation. You can actually eat more, enjoy your meals immensely and lose weight, while never going hungry and eating all you want if you just MAKE BETTER FOOD CHOICES. Please go read my book Zen Macrobiotics for Americans and you'll see how you can enjoy your food, eat all you want and stay slim and healthy.