Are you curious about how to achieve fast natural weight loss?
If, like me, you are a Baby Boomer who has been struggling for decades to control weight gain, the problem may be that you are operating on the basis of assumptions that, while popular, are false. Since your behavior is guided by your beliefs, false beliefs may be leading to counter-productive behavior. Let me suggest a natural diet plan that really works for fast natural weight loss.
[A note of caution: since you are unique, please do make major changes to your physical habits without the prior blessing of your physician or other health care professional.]
Permit me to set exercise aside. If you ate the same way you do now and yet did hard physical labor all day long every day, you probably would not have any worry about getting fatter. By all means walk briskly for half an hour daily and do strength training for half an hour twice a week. If you do less than that, eat a bit less; if you do more than that, you may eat a bit more.
You probably already understand that the keys to fast natural weight loss are what you eat and when you eat. With respect to when you eat, there is one important principle that you may not understand [see principle #1 below]. With respect to what you eat, there are five important principles [see principles #2 through #6 below]. These are the 6 principles of fast natural weight loss.
#1. Eat a meal about every three waking hours. In other words, eat 5 or 6 meals daily. Of course, if you eat three meals daily now and switch to eating six meals daily, each of those six meals should be about half the size of one of your present meals.
If you want to achieve fast natural weight loss, eating so frequently may seem counter-intuitive. That fact is that it works, and all master bodybuilders and natural fitness models eat this way.
The chief psychological reason for this is that it will prevent you from becoming hungry. Hunger is not good, and it is unnecessary. It is painful. It is signal from your body that you are dying of starvation. Furthermore, if you eat when hungry you will tend to eat too much.
The chief physiological reason for this is that, assuming that each of your meals has sufficient protein, it will prevent your body from going into a negative nitrogen balance. Since muscle is many times more active metabolically than fat, it is important to eat so that you maximize muscle mass (which is why regular strength training is important). A negative nitrogen balance is the sign that your body is decreasing its quantity of muscle mass (lean muscle tissue).
Since digesting protein is more difficult for your body than digesting either fats or carbohydrates, you will actually increase your metabolic rate (burn more calories) eating this way. Since initial protein digestion typically requires three or four hours, if you eat every few hours you will keep your body working hard digesting protein. (No, unless you have kidney disease, it does not harm your kidneys.) This is very important for fast natural weight loss.
#2. Ensure that each meal has sufficient protein. Normally, that is about 15 grams per meal for adult females and 20 grams per meal for adult males. Of course, body size and activity patterns affect this general recommendation.
Though it is important not to get more than about 40% of your calories from proteins, eating sufficient proteins has been understood for at least half a century to be one of the keys to fast natural weight loss.
#3. The more of the foods you consume that come from natural sources, the better.
There are several reasons for this recommendation. The most important one is simply this: nearly all human evolution occurred during the Pleistocene and almost none of it since then. Your genes are more than 99.9% the same as those of your successful ancestors 10,000 years ago.
Our species evolved to flourish physically eating natural foods. So it is no surprise that eating unnatural foods undermines physical flourishing.
Your Pleistocene ancestors did not eat processed or refined carbohydrates. They did not eat dairy products. They did not usually fuel their activities with sugar (glucose), which is what all carbohydrates become when digested. They did not add salt to their food. Except for honey (when it was occasionally available), they ate no refined sugar or sweets. They did not eat starchy, domesticated vegetables and fruits. They did not eat meat from corn-fed cattle that were raised in feed lots and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones!
They also did not suffer from the modern diseases of lifestyle (such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, hypoglycemia, cancer and osteoporosis) that are epidemic today.
#4. Eat to maximize fat burning.
If given a choice, your body will fuel itself on carbohydrates rather than fats. However, the minimum daily requirement for carbohydrates is 0 grams!
So, if you want to lose fat, eat so that you switch your body from burning carbohydrates to burning fats. Here is the dietary maxim that really promotes fast natural weight loss: limit carbohydrate intake to natural vegetables and some nonstarchy fruits. Ideally, 'natural' here means 'wild' or 'farmed organically.'
Just as there are important differences between flesh foods from natural or wild sources and domesticated sources, so there are important differences between plant foods from wild and domesticated sources. Except for differences in appearance and size of plant foods, unfortunately those differences are detrimental.
In practice, get at least as many calories from fats as from carbohydrates. For example, if you get 20% of your daily calories from proteins, get at least 40% from fats. Of course, the fats you consume should be "good" fats from natural sources that are monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and high in omega 3 fatty acids (as opposed to the saturated fats and high omega 6 polyunsaturated fats that you may be ingesting now).
Are you serious about fast natural weight loss? For three weeks, get about 35% of your calories from proteins, 15% from carbohydrates, and 50% from fats. Again, all foods should be natural; this is especially important with respect to sources of fats and proteins.
If you do not want to bother figuring out all those numbers and keeping track of them (and who does?), just do this: vary your daily carbohydrate intake but average no more than 60 grams of carbohydrates daily. With respect to the remainder of your calories, get about twice as many from fats as proteins. Especially when combined with sufficient exercise, this is a practical way to fast natural weight loss.
#5. Never starve yourself.
A great virtue of a natural diet is that you will never be hungry. There is never a need to be.
You really can attain fast natural weight loss without starvation. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, you should never consume fewer than 2000 calories daily.
#6. Drink plenty of clean water.
Just as you should eliminate hunger by regularly consuming small meals while you are awake, you should eliminate thirst by regularly consuming small amounts of water during the morning and afternoon. Drink a minimum of two quarts daily and three quarts would probably be better if you are also exercising.
This will prevent you from becoming thirsty. Thirst is not good, and it is unnecessary. It is painful. It is a signal from your body that you are dying of dehydration.
There is never a need to drink anything except water.
That is all there is to it! The chief idea is simple: lose body fat by enabling your body to use fat as its primary source of fuel. This is a conservative, natural diet plan that works for fast natural weight loss and is based upon evidence from hundreds of thousands of years of flourishing physically by humans and pre-humans.
If it seems odd to you, please challenge your own beliefs. Be skeptical without being negative. Just try it for three weeks. If you want to carry less fat and become more energetic and healthy, you will be glad that you did. Once the benefits of your new natural diet start piling up, I hope that you decide never to go back.
Copyright 2009 by Ironox Works, Inc. All rights reserved.
