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Can You Shed 30 Pounds per Month?
You have probably seen more emails with headings such as the following one than you care to remember:
"Shed 30 Pounds of Fat in 30 Days (While You Sleep)!"
Is that possible?
Well, you be the judge.
1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories.
How much do you eat in a normal day?
Dependent on your size, your occupation and other activities, this number will be between 1,500 and 3,000 calories worth of food.
The average adult weighs 150 pounds and should consume no more than 2,000 to 2,500 calories. That leaves a few morsels of food per day, given the fact that extreme diets will usually also result in disproportionate loss of water.
Diet pill advertisers know that. So they do not tell anybody that he can lose 30 pounds per month. They promise 30 pounds in a month. Please note the subtle difference. All they give you is 30 days, then all bets are off.
Beware The Fear Mongers!
With all this fear mongering about being obese, there are now probably quite a few people desperate enough to try "crash diets". While it is not dangerous for a well nourished adult to subsist on few calories per day for a month or even skip eating for a few days, it is obviously not a viable strategy for the duration.
Very fortunately, nature in her wisdom will not support such actions. Almost everybody "falls off the wagon" after just a couple of days.
So, what is the answer? Can you get rid of 30 pounds of body weight in 30 days?
Yes, you can!
You would have to spend a lot of calories (sport, excercise) while eating like a bird - or not at all.
Not all diet pill advertisers will tell outright lies. If those pills contain diuretics (the stuff that makes people run to the bathroom more often) some weight loss will occur due to loss of water. (The weight in form of water will come right back on when you stop taking the pills, another lucky break from nature.)
The effects of metabolic stimulants are not quite so reversible. Both, metabolic stimulants and diuretics, are dangerous. They will make the heart work harder and most likely increase the blood pressure in the process.
The notorious (prescription) diet pill Fen-Phen contained both, a metabolic stimulant and a diuretic. Some patients on Fen-phen died as a result of damage to their heart valves. Others experienced life threatening diseases due to damage to their most vital organs, liver, heart and kidneys. It took the FDA quite a while to ban this dangerous product.
When you hear talk show hosts and media medical gurus tell you that overweight people are doomed to disease, disability and early grave, take it with a grain of salt. Their statistics are probably invalid. I would expect more damage from extreme dieting than from being moderately overweight.
Did you notice how the fear mongering experts keep on changing the definition of obesity? The hype about "obesity statistics" itself increases the weight problem. The statistics are usually presented to scare people. The stress from fear will cause the release of stress related hormones. The natural response to this is what?
You guessed it! Eating!
Don't get scared! Quietly adopt a long term strategy and then make it work for you!
The eSCALE Diary will help you find your success strategy and keep you motivated.
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[for eScale written by Ursula Peter-Czichi (Ph.D.)]
Do not reprint without permission.
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