Losing weight is all the rage these days.
And for good reason!
With the increased consumption of processed foods and lack of physical activity, we find ourselves in an obesity epidemic.
People’s fixation on losing weight has skyrocketed in the last few decades due to the mixed signals provided by the government and media.
To top it off, we have hundreds, if not thousands of fat loss “experts” selling false promises through the use of fat burners and cleanses/detoxes.
Do these products help you lose weight quickly??
OH YEAH!
But is it the right kind of weight?
Probably not.
It’s a good way to lose that wonderful tissue we call muscle though! When you rapidly lose weight, yes, the scale will change, but you’ve most likely lost a good amount of muscle.
If your goal is to look fit or be super strong, losing muscle is not the way to go!
The experts mentioned above will tell you that your body needs to go through a (painful) detox diet so that you can be healthy again.
But what does that actually mean??
Doesn’t your body contain a detoxification system of its own?
Here’s a great snippet of an article from Precision Nutrition:
“Several systems within the body break down compounds into other forms that we can eliminate via the toilet, sweat, or breathing.
And the body seems to do a pretty good job of this when placed in a balanced (i.e. healthy) environment.”
This balanced environment gets overthrown by the excess medication, lack of sleep, lack of physical activity, over-consumption of alcohol and processed foods, along with many other factors we encounter on a daily basis.
A recent conversation I had with a client of mine brought up another good point of why it’s not such a great idea to do a cleanse. Specifically a juice cleanse.
She was a day or two into the cleanse when she realized how much sugar was in each of the juices.
Now I’m not one to poo-poo on fruit as it is a great addition to a well-rounded diet due to its fiber content, but if you are only consuming fruit juices all day for 3 straight days, that’s a LOT OF SUGAR!
If you weren’t already aware, sugar has been one of the major contributors to the epidemic we are currently in.
Needless to say, she didn’t continue her cleanse.
So what’s the moral of the story?
Quick fixes don’t work if your goal is to be a healthy, strong man or woman. Losing weight is a process.
If it took you 10 years of inactivity and eating not-so-healthy foods to put that weight on, it will likely take a good bit of time to lose it.
That is, if you wanna lose it and keep it off for good!
A few takeaways from Precision Nutrition:
- eat reasonable amounts based on your body type and activity level
- make sure half of your plate is made up of veggies (organic if possible)
- drink your fluids (mainly water:)
- don’t eat too late (this will give your body enough time to process dinner and acts as a “fast” before your next meal
- exercise (remember, sweating can get rid of some of those awful toxins the experts talk about)
- eliminate foods from your diet that your body my not tolerate well
- check your body products for toxic chemicals (use all-natural products if possible)
Be smart with your body.. It’s the only one you’ve got!