It is sad but true...

Repetitive dieting trains your body to gain weight more quickly, to be more efficient at absorbing calories from what you eat, to increase your fat stores and to hold on to the fat you already have stored. All this time, you thought you were doing yourself a favor by dieting when what you were really doing was teaching your body to gain weight faster and better than ever before and to resist each new effort to lose weight. It took me far too many years to realize what I was doing to myself.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t watch what you’re eating. I’m saying you should make intelligent choices designed to promote your health and well being. If you consistently eat intelligently, rather than emotionally, you can live with it over the long term. You won’t be dieting, and that will go a long way toward defeating your weight problems.

I’ve tried almost every diet plan on the planet. In every case, attempting to remain on any of those plans for the long haul was an unattainable goal. Yes, I lost weight, but when I was no longer able to stick with those programs, I regained the lost weight PLUS additional pounds.

In essence, I dieted my way UP the scale.

It took a long time to learn that successful weight loss and long-term maintenance only come from a combination of healthy eating and increased movement. I regularly eat 1200-1500 calories per day. But, if I don’t move, if I don’t get out there and do some deliberate calorie burning, I just don’t lose weight. Years of repetitive extreme dieting have ruined my metabolism. My metabolic rate is so slow that I gain weight on 1500 calories if I’m not extremely careful. I can occasionally take in more calories if I am burning off a lot of calories through aerobic exercise and strength training. In my next post, I’ll tell you what combination worked for me…to the tune of 270 pounds lost! M.E.