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Diet and Weight Loss Center
- Need to Lose Weight?
- Apple or Pear: What’s Your Body Type?
- Can Dieting Make You Fat
- Healthy Protein for Weight Loss
- Fill Up on a High Fiber Diet
- Fiber Up
- Defining Overweight and Obesity
- Eat to Stay Healthy: Tips to Boost Your Immune Power
- Top 10 Super Foods
- Good Fat Vs Bad Fat
- Building Strong Bones
- Building Your Best Bones Forever!
- Benefits of Healthy Eating
- Help Your Kids Lose Weight
- Stop Supersizing Your Meal
- Healthy Snacking for Kids
- About BMI for Children and Teens
- CDC: Tips for Parents – Ideas to Help Children Maintain a Healthy Weight
- Your Weight Loss Rx: Exercise
- Eliminate Junk Food for Your New Weight Loss Plan
- Resources and Supporting References
Home & News  Diet & Weight Loss
Can Dieting Make You Fat?Vital Healthcare GroupOver the past 10 years, studies have shed light on the impact of very low calorie diets on weight loss. The findings have consistently held true: diets alone don't work for weight loss. Muscle Loss or Fat?In fact, if anything, strict dieting can make you gain weight by training your body to store fat rather than burn it. Yes, a strict diet can help you lose weight initially. Yet for most people who eat less, one third of this loss is reduction of muscle--not fat--and lean muscle (as opposed to body fat) is what helps burn calories.Scientific studies show that fat burns 2 to 3 calories per pound while muscle burns 50 calories per pound. Muscle mass is metabolically active tissue. This means that it's tissue that burns calories. The more muscle mass your body has, the more calories you burn all day, even while you are sitting around. Studies show that approximately 95 percent of people who go on weight loss diets will gain all or some of it back within one year. In fact, some studies have found that after a period of five years, not one "advertised" diet program was successful in keeping the weight off. Move More to Lose WeightThe best way to maintain or reach an ideal weight is to burn more calories than you take in through exercise and activity. A problem that obese people are confronted with is that many underestimate how much they really eat, and they may actually need to increase exercise more than slightly overweight adults in order to burn enough calories for weight loss. This problem with energy consumption may continue even after the obese person gets closer to a normal weight.Dietitians find that of those people who are successful at keeping off the weight, more than 95 percent are exercisers--and most are walkers. So, while you are busily figuring out how many calories you need to burn to lose extra pounds, let's look at ways you can move around more-and guarantee weight loss. [See article Your Weight Loss Rx: Exercise]
Last Updated: 02/08/2010
This content was created and produced exclusively by the editorial staff of Vital Healthcare Group. www.VitalHealthCareGroup.com; all rights reserved. |
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