The clever and stupid ways to lose weight.

Losing weight is one thing people crave and will go to many lengths to achieve. This article outlines the good and the bad ways to do this.

Cutting calories and stopping eating.

The classic thought process is that if you stop eating you will lose weight. In reality successful weight loss is best achieved when the body knows that food is easily available. This is because you possess a powerful famine response survival mechanism. This would have served to keep you alive thousands of years ago when we were hunter gathers.

The body’s famine response works by increasing the amount of fat storing enzymes and increasing your hunger during times of food shortage. It does this so any food you do eat is stored as fat until your next meal and the increased hunger makes it more likely you would go out and catch some food.

Today, in the west we are not in a famine. However, eating irregularly tricks the body into sensing a famine and employing its survival response. This makes you better at storing fat and increases your appetite. At this point losing weight is very difficult as food becomes more tempting.

This is perhaps the most unhealthy way to lose weight as starving yourself thin depletes the body of vital nutrients. To react to this your body will lower its metabolic rate and stop performing non essential health function in an attempt to survive. This means that even if you lose weight it doesn't mean you are getting healthier.

It can also results in large losses of muscle tissue which for any athlete or rugby player will undermine their performance potential.

Taking a slimming pill or similar product.

There is no one product that can achieve weight loss. To lose weight effectively it is about increasing the health of the body. A slimming pill just acts like a drug temporarily raising metabolic rate but at the expense of your health. It is not as effective as a good exercise session and it also brings the side effect of disrupting your body chemistry. If these worked then why wouldn't they be given out by every doctor?

Following a diet.

Most diets are flawed. For a review of every type of eating possible from cutting out junk food to the Atkins diet read the article I wrote on my other website called Diets explained. Almost every diet will fail the majority of people and hence it is a little hit and miss whether it will work.

Spending an hour a day doing aerobic exercise

Another common method is to play the numbers game once more and flog yourself on the exercise machines for one or more hours. In theory this should work, in reality it doesn't and also takes up the majority of your day. A good exercise session will be focusing on the various areas needed for optimizing rugby performance. This creates the internal environment for fat loss when combined with the correct nutrition strategy.

The clever way to lose weight - Build your health and fitness

The only way to effectively lose weight long term is through an holistic approach focused on increasing the health of your body and your athletic ability.

To do this you need to consume the right foods for your body chemistry, this is determined by your metabolic type. In addition to this a training programme designed to increase your rugby performance will results in successful fat loss.

What next?

Achieve the body you want! You can do this by going through my rugby performance course which will transform your physique and rugby abilities.