Eating 75% of our capacity helps us lose weight

Dieting healthily means reducing calorie intake while avoiding meals with unbalanced nutrition. Some people think that dieting can be done by avoiding carbohydrates such as rice, breads and noodles. This is not the correct way to diet. Avoiding too many foods can result in the following:

1. Rough skin
2. No energy
3. Anemia
4. Increased susceptibility to disease

Precisely speaking, reducing food intake for a diet should mean reducing the excess foods consumed. These include the following:

1. Sweets
2. Snacking between meals
3. Eating snacks or sweets while watching TV after dinner
4. Overeating

As a beverage, we prefer having unsweetened teas or water rather than sodas or juices. Even when on a diet, it is definitely necessary to eat well balanced meal in order to get proper nutrition.

A healthy diet requires us to get a variety of nutrition and eating 70-80% of our capacity so that we don't end up overeating.

The Deadly Quartet

It is said that abdominal fat obesity can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), also known as the deadly quartet. This will result in angina, myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke among other conditions which are mainly due to arteriosclerosis. Also, it is known that people in this situation are 30 times more likely to suffer from these diseases than a healthy individual.

During the time when food was more scarce, the elites were those who could accumulate more fat in their bodies in order to survive harsh food shortages. On the other hand, in this current age, most of those who can accumulate fat effectively end up building up too much unnecessary fats and will face a high risk for the deadly quartet.

DietMaster NY has just opened a lesson room

DietMaster New York Inc has just opened a lesson room on the 59^th floor in the Empire State Building. This space is for those who would like to learn the right theory and mechanism to lose weight healthily and beautifully, to prevent life style disease such as high blood pressure, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and even those who are interested in learning English and Japanese.Please feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

TEL: 212-601-2770
E-mail: us_el_master@dietacademy.jp

 View from our lesson room.

The Difference Between Diet and Weight Loss

You can lose weight by walking wearing a steam suit or using a sauna. However, these methods only work by removing water from you body and do not reduce your fat. Burning fat is different from losing water weight.

Water consists of 50-60% of our total body weight. 8-10% of our water weight is found in our blood.

Reducing water weight only leads to temporary weight loss. However, dieting burns fat. Water has zero calories and therefore you will not gain fat no matter how much water you drink. In addition, if you lose too much water weight you run the risk of dehydration. While dieting, you intake less water from food so it becomes very important to drink more water than usual.

Special recipes that help you lose weight

I sometimes see people who are eager to lose weight aggressively. They study various diet methods deeply and take pills or receive medical treatments that pumps out inner fat. As a result, they sometimes experience terrible health situations.

One weight loss method is to follow the Japanese prison meal system. While no one wants to go to prison, we cannot ignore the benefits of eating 3 balanced meals at a lower calorie count. For men it's 1500 kcal a day, and for women it's 1200 kcal a day. These figures are in line with the average basal
metabolism and do not account for calories consumed
for activities such as exercise. Because of this, most
people lose about 12 to 13 kcal after a year of prison in
Japan. However, longer than one year will start to
damage a person's health.

You may be interested in this method if you don't actually have to be put in prison. The Japan Diet Academy has DVDs and a 300 menu recipe book that offers the same dishes served in Japanese prisons which were recreated by the famous nutritionist in Japan, Dr. Asako Aramaki. Currently we have a 2 week, 14 day menu available in English.

If you are interested, please contact us for more information.

Our Natural Ability to Store Fat

Although obesity is the result of too much fat accumulating in the body, you should not give too much offense to it. Human beings have always battled hunger in its history. Even now people are battling hunger.

Our bodies were designed to survive during a shortage of food by minimizing the amount of food needed in order to cope with starvation. The body stores the food as fat in order to prepare it for periods of food shortage.

In short, gaining fat was essential to surviving hardships during human history. However, in present, wealthy countries where people can eat anything anytime, this ability works negatively.

Eating whenever we want, or eating too much leads us to obesity.

Fat is not a bad thing but if it exceeds a healthy amount, it will cause a burden to our health.

The Risks of Apple Shaped Obesity

As mentioned before, there are two types of obesity, apple shaped and pear shaped. There is a much higher risk in developing a lifestyle disease when an individual has apple shaped obesity. Through a CT scan, we can see there are also two ways someone can develop apple shaped obesity. One is through high abdominal fat, the other is through high subcutaneous fat.

It is clear that someone with high abdominal fat has a greater risk for high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol) and diabetes. It is said that inner fat takes a direct effect on our organs. However, abdominal fat is easier to reduce than subcutaneous fat.

In order to reduce abdominal fat, men need to reduce their food intake to about 1500-1800 kcal and women, 1200-1500 kcal a day. Also, they will need to include about 30 minutes exercise and muscle training.

If you discover you have over 100mm (3.9in) of inner fat, you should reduce your food intake and to exercise. You should be able to reduce 1/3 of your inner fat within a month.

BMAL-1

BMAL-1 is a type of protein which is generated more at night than during the day and it is thought that BMAL-1 is closely related to why eating food late at night is stored in the body much more than food eaten during the day.

Actually, BMAL-1 is generated the most around 2am and the amount is 15-20 times as much as the amount generated at around 3pm, when production is minimal.


While more research is needed, at present it is said that BMAL-1 is what causes us to store more fat after eating late at night.

Alcohol, Beer Bellies, and the Importance of Basal Metabolism

Yomiuri newspaper, on of the major newspapers in Japan, has recently reported that the beer belly often seen on middle aged men has nothing to do with the amount of beer they drink.

A comparison of those who drink a lot of beer and those who do not revealed a lack of difference in the size of their belt lines. These results were announced in Japan yesterday at a Japanese institute for alcohol and drugs.


Drinking beer is not always the main cause of gaining fat. The main cause is a continuation of an intake of an excessive amount of calories. A good balance is generated between calorie intake and daily calorie consumption. Please note that general alcoholic drinks, such as beer, contain about 7kcal per 1g.

If you want to avoid gaining weight, you have to at least know your basal metabolism. This will help you make decisions on how much food you should eat during social situations. You will be able to make better judgements if you have the proper knowledge such as your basal metabolism.

Breaking the Chain

Yesterday I wrote about the chain reaction that contributes to overeating even when dieting. It is important to cut the chain to avoid subconscious excess eating habits. One effective method is to review your grocery shopping habits.

Review how you are storing your food, cooking and serving dishes, and dealing with leftovers and cleanup after a meal. Reviewing these actions will enable you to avoid subconscious eating habits.

When going grocery shopping, it is best to do the following:

1. Set up a schedule for when to shop for foods
2. Go shopping when you are not hungry
3. Make a list of items you need in advance
4. Avoid buying instant and pre-made foods

Such tips should help prevent impulse buying and making unnecessary purchases.

Chain Reaction

It is important to make a daily record of what you eat. This will help you identify your pattern of eating and find any activities that may cause overeating.

Situations that cause overeating become a chain reaction. If you analyze the chain carefully, you can take counter actions that can prevent the reaction from occurring altogether.

For example:

1. Keeping sweets within reach
2. Eating when you are not hungry
3. Disappointment in your inability to prevent overeating 
4. Give up dieting altogether

The point is whether or not you can cut the chain before it becomes longer. This will help you make your lifestyle one that prevents building fat.

The Lack of Nutrition Education

Japan Diet Academy offers certified qualifications to those who learn about diet methods and theory through our e-learning. Of course student must pass the final exam, but so far 99% of learners were successful in obtaining the qualifications. In average it takes about one week per course.

The certified qualifications are the Regular Diet Master and Senior Diet Master courses. Both are qualified by the NPO Japan Diet Study Institute.

Effective April, 2008, medical examinations on metabolic syndrome has been under insurance coverage by law in Japan. Although not talked about as much since the earthquakes, obesity is still a serious issue that the government is working on.

Despite the increases awareness of obesity, people still eat high calorie foods and do not exercise because of technological advancements, such at the PC and so on. Besides, the most important factor is that there are no lessons on proper nutrition. This is a serious situation. If there were such lessons, people would be more likely to pass up certain foods that cause excessive weight gain. The issue is that the Japanese government is responsible for protecting food companies.

If you think you do now want to gain weight and want to maintain a healthy condition, it is up to you to learn proper dieting methods and theories. The Japan Diet Academy gets you certified in diet knowledge.

Dangerous Diets

It is extremely dangerous for your health to reduce your calorie intake to below your basal metabolism no matter how eager you are to lose weight. Doing such will cause you to lose bone and muscle mass as well.

Taking pills that cause diarrhea put a heavy burden on your organs. There is also a risk of damaging your intestines. Also, pills that weaken the appetite or prevent fat from being absorbed should only be taken under a doctor's supervision. Individuals should not take these pills on their own, even if they are available without prescription.


Liposuction and surgeries such as stomach stapling or gastric banding are also questionable since we do not know what the effects of these treatments will be in 20-30 years.

Purposely causing an internal disease or starvation puts a heavy burden on our body. Therefor.e it is important to know the correct and healthy theory for dieting, such as the teachings of Diet Master. You lose the purpose of dieting when you create an unhealthy condition for yourself.

MONALISA

As mentioned before, MONALISA stands for Most Obesity kNown Are Low In Sympathetic Activity. Our autonomic nerve system is composed of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves. Many obese people's sympathetic nerves work at a lower level.

When we are more active, our sympathetic nerves our also more active and we are less likely to gain weight. However, since we live in a world of convenience, we have to work harder to get enough movement. This situation causes our sympathetic nerves to become and as a result, our body uses less energy and we build up more excess energy as body fat. This is the theory behind the MONALISA hypothesis.

Please be careful and try to work more activity into your lifestyle.

What is a True Diet?

One major misconception that dieters have is that dieting is for reducing weight. For example, running a marathon of 42.195km (26mi) may cause you to lose 5-6kg (11-13lb) of weight. However, you are only reducing 330g (.73lb) of body fat. In short, you will have to run 3 full marathons in order to burn off 1kgm (2.2lb) of fat.

When we refer to weight, it includes everything such as fat, blood, water, muscles, bones, and so on. Trying to reduce your weight only by dieting will reduce body fat as well as muscle mass. Of course water will be the first factor when we see a drop in our weight. However, body fat cannot be reduced as easily. Although our weight can be reduced quickly, this is not a true diet.

The correct method for dieting is to reduce body fat without losing muscle mass. When you are losing weight, it is important to continue resistance exercises as well as when you gain weight. A true diet can only be accomplished when we combine both dieting and resistance exercises.

Denmark - The First in the World to Adopt a Fat Tax

In order to extend people’s lifespan, Denmark has adopted a fat tax effective October 1, 2011. The tax will be placed on food products that contain too much animal oil and fat, such as butter. The government decided in March to adopt this tax in order to prevent lifestyle diseases throughout the nation. This is the first tax on fatty foods in the world.

Over the past 50 years, more studies have been done on fatty acids and we have more information on how each fatty acid works in our body. Such information leads us to understand how we can intake fatty acids in healthy ways.

It is well known that saturated fatty acids contain animal oils and fats which increases our cholesterol. However, unsaturated fatty acids, such as linoleic acid which is found in vegetable oils and fats, help us reduce cholesterol. When the tax announcement was made, corn oil, soybean oil, and margarine which all include lots of linoleic acid became in stronger demand.

How can we easily tell the difference between unsaturated and saturated fatty acids?
Generally, food products that contain saturated fatty acids are solid at room temperature, like butter, while others are liquid. For a long time, it was believed that liquid oils were better for your health than solid ones. However, recent studies tell us that linoleic acid, although it helps us lower cholesterol, reduces LDL, also known as “bad” cholesterol, as well as HDL, or “good” cholesterol.

Besides this, the Hungarian government has decided to adopt a junk food tax on high calorie food products such as potato chips, snacks, and soft drinks. WHO commented as this being the second tax on food, following Denmark.

Our Stomach is Not a Trash Can

It is not good manners to have left overs. However, we cannot afford to say that while we are dieting. In fact, it is better to leave food left over in order to lose weight. Just a few extra bites may cause us to consume too many calories. For example, one dumpling has about 60 Kcal and one piece of sushi has about 40-50 Kcal.

Do not eat extra food just to clear them off the table. Your stomach is not a trash can. If you feel guilty throwing food away, pack them up and store them. Be careful, these foods may become easy foods to snack on when you feel like eating something. Try storing them in the freezer so that you can plan when to use them. Unless you are confident that you can endure your cravings, throw leftovers away.

For your information, here are the calories of a few possible leftovers:

one soft boiled egg	60Kcal
one dumpling	60Kcal
one piece of sushi	40Kcal
one bite fried noodle (yakisoba)	40Kcal
1/4 Japanese Salisbury steak (hambagu)	100Kcal
1/2 Japanese croquette (korokke)	100Kcal

For more information, visit our website or feel free to contact us.

Basic Theory for Diet Success - Exercise

The first goal for beginners should be to gradually reach 10,000 steps on a pedometer a day. Once you reach this goal, you should include 20-30 minutes of fast walking. For the first 5 minutes, you should walk at your usual pace as a warm-up. Then, you up your pace until the last 5 minutes where you slow down again for a cool down.

If you continue walking at a speed of 80-100 meters a minute (88-109 yards) for 20 minutes, you will burn about 80kcal which is about the same as one egg. If you do the same for 40 minutes, you will consume the energy equivalent to one onigiri (rice ball).

It is import to exercise, but please note that it is difficult to reduce weight by exercise alone. Dieting should be done by:

1. Reducing intake of food
2. Exercies
3. Improving your lifestyle

It is necessary for you to find a reasonable method of walking, one where you don't push yourself too hard but is a bit of a challenge. You should form your own walking method and make it part of your lifestyle. Moreover, if you can keep to about 1500-1800 kcal a day, you can assume your diet is successful.


For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Criticisms of BMI

BMI is the most commonly used index to measure obesity throughout the world. It is measured by:

70-80% of those who are regarded as overweight using BMI do in fact have a lot of inner fat, and those are obese.

20-30% of those regarded as overweight using BMI actually are quite muscular, known as “katabutori” in Japanese. This is a common case for athletes.

A few years ago, Naoya Ogawa, an Olympic silver medalist as well as a Japan Diet Academy graduate, came to the Japan Diet Academy asking, “Why do I have such a high BMI even though I’ve reduced my weight? I know I’m not obese even though my BMI is 30. Why does this happen?”

He was sent to have a CT scan and discovered that his inner fat was actually 38cm². His height is 193cm (6ft 4in) and weight is 115kg (254lb), but he is not obese, he is a katabutori.

On the other hand, there are people with a low BMI who are obese. It is commonly referred to as “hidden obesity.” About 10% of those with a BMI in the normal range or lower have hidden obesity. Most of the time this occurs among young women who tried dieting, even though they had no need to, and repeated a cycle of rebound weight, or “weight cycling.” Others are middle men who are mostly skinny except for being chubby around the abdomen.

Obesity caused by high abdominal fat, referred to as “apple shaped obesity” in the last post, is a major factor to lifestyle diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, referred to as the “deadly quartet.”

Apple Shaped vs Pear Shaped Obesity

Obesity is divided into two types based on where fat is accumulated. One form is called apple shaped obesity, also known as “beer belly” in both English and Japanese, which is seen on those who build up fat around the abdomen. Men are more likely to develop this form of obesity.

The other form of obesity is called pear shaped obesity, which is when fat accumulates in the lower part of the body, such as the thighs and hips. This form of obesity is more common in women, especially adolescent girls. Mainly this form of fat is due to the natural shape of a woman’s body, within the subcutaneous layer, and it is not recommended to completely reduce this fat. Many women who reach menopause will also develop apple shaped obesity. In Japan, this is known as “sandanbara” or “three layered stomach.”

For your reference, here is a list, in order, of people at risk for obesity.

1. Women in their 50’s
2. Women in their 60’s
3. Men above 30

In addition, there are approximately 1.5 million obese men and 2 million obese women in Japan. In the US, there are approximately 51 million obese men and 54 million obese women.

The Definition of Obesity

The real meaning of obesity is less to do with weight and more to do with having a high body fat percentage. The largest component of our body is water, which is about 50-60% of our body's composition; 8-10% of which is blood. The second largest component is fat, which is about 15-20% for men and 20-30% for women. The rest of our body is composed of proteins and minerals which are found in our bones and muscles as well as saccharides, or sugars.


Our bones are mainly composed of protein and calcium, however the total weight of bones is relatively light and only amounts to about 5% of our total body weight. We gain weight either by an increase in water or an increase in fat. When our body has too much water it is known as edema. When it has too much fat, it is known as obesity.

The Importance of Keeping a Journal When Dieting

When we write down what we do each day, we will know:

1. How many empty foods we are eating
2. How much we are not exercising

The merits of writing down our daily activities are the following:

1. Knowing how much excess food we eat subconsciously
2. Knowing how well or poorly we balance our nutrition
3. Knowing which of our habits are leading us to weight gain
4. Knowing the relations between out eating habits and lifestyle
5. Knowing our personal balance between calorie consumption and calorie intake
6. Preventing overeating

Regardless, gaining weight is caused by excessive calorie intake. Do you know how many calories you can get from soft drinks, juices, alcohol, cakes and sweets? Do you know how many calories exceed your daily limit?
It is said that when we have the craving to eat something but are not really hungry, the feeling will subside in 5 minutes. Also, we sometimes feel hungry when we are actually thirsty. When you feel this craving, it is best to drink a small amount of water or tea then wait 5 minutes to see if this feeling subsides.

The Relation of Adipocytes and Obesity

When comparing the effects the same dieting method has on different people, some people will get results while others don’t. This is related to our adipocytes, or fat cells, which are a main factor in obesity. When looking at adipocytes through a microscope, we see three different ways they can contribute to weight gain.

1. There are an increased number of cells.
2. Each cell increases in size but the number of cells stays the same.
3. Both the number of cells and size of each cell increases.

It is said that the number of cells increase during the fetal period, infancy and adolescence. Once the number of cells increases, they cannot change after reaching adulthood. This is why those who were overweight as children are more susceptible to regaining that weight even after becoming skinny. It is clear that since they have a large number of large fat cells, they have a harder time losing weight. This is why it is so important to prevent childhood obesity.

Lawsuits Against Fast Food

There was an incident last year where a labor court Brazil accepted a lawsuit from a worker in McDonald’s who claimed that he gained 12kg (26.5lb)because the company forced him to eat hamburgers. The company was required to pay him 30,000 BRL ($17,500 USD) in compensation.

A similar lawsuit occurred in the US as well. A group of teenagers sued McDonald’s claiming that their skillful PR encouraged continuous eating of their burgers, which encourages obesity in the US. The suit was not accepted however the result was easier access to nutritional information such as calorie amounts on fast food menus as well as some improvements to the menu.

The responsibility of the fast food industry in causing obesity is handled differently in each of these circumstances. Although we have been aware for a long time that fast food is not generally healthy, these lawsuits help us to increase our awareness and should encourage us to better inform ourselves on how to eat more healthily.

Worldwide Views on Dieting

Earlier this year, Reader’s Digest in the USA brought up research results on the worldwide consensus of dieting.

According to the research, surveying 16,000 people throughout 16 countries, the country that is most concerned about dieting is Finland in which 83% of the population has tried dieting at least once in their life. The second is Poland even though they were far behind Finland. Also, the country in which people sought a nicer figure the most was Brazil. This may be related to the many carnivals held there. The country where the most people use dieting pills is China. 37% of the population has tried pills for dieting. The report tells us about the differences in the views on dieting among different countries.

We are in a so called “worldly obesity age.” We at Japan Diet Academy would like to introduce our DietMaster program to each country someday in the future.

Make Lifestyle Changes, Not Just Diet

The most fearful situation for dieters is rebound. What can we do to avoid it? The only solution is to improve your lifestyle by adapting behavior modification therapy and developing a body that is less likely to gain weight.

Even after you successfully lose weight, you will return to your original weight once you return to your previous lifestyle.

It takes 5-10 years for the human body to be changed by both genetic and environmental factors. Therefore, we must solve the lifestyle factors that are causing weight gain or obesity; otherwise it is hard to anticipate a more simple solution.

Carbohydrates are good energy for your brain

I often hear about diet methods that don’t recommend people to eat carbohydrates. In fact, it’s not true that carbohydrates, which include lots of starch, cause people to gain a lot of weight. Of course, if you eat lots of rice at every meal you’ll gain weight easily. However, eating a reasonable amount of rice won’t make you gain weight.

The starch included in rice, bead, noodles and grains are major complex carbohydrates and take longer to digest than simple carbohydrates like fruit or sugar. Complex carbohydrates don’t make us feel hungry so they are indispensable for dieting. Also, carbohydrates, in the form of glucose, are the only source of energy for the brain, so we feel apathy when we lack it which will lead us to an unhealthy condition. We recommend you to be wary of diet methods that restrict carbohydrates.

The Calories in Drinks

Many soft drinks include lots of sugar. If you buy soft drinks, try not to keep in the refrigerator, otherwise you will be tempted to drink them such as with some alcoholic drinks.

It is recommended to try and minimize the amount of soft drinks you drink and to drink water or unsweetened tea instead. You may think that sports drinks or 100% fruit juices do not contain a lot of calories but, as you see in the chart, that is not true. In addition, a lot of drinks contain a lot of sugar.

All beverages listed in the chart are based on the drinks sold in Japan.

The Obese Gene and the ob/ob Mouse

Some people may think they are predisposed to being fat when their parents or siblings are obese. They feel that their genes prevent them from losing weight, even if they try.

It is true that genetics can affect obesity. There are situations where people who eat a lot don’t gain fat while those who eat less do. Some research resulted in the conclusion that 80% of children are likely to be obese when both their parents are obese. In the case of only the mother being obese, about 60% of children will become fat. When only the father is obese, 40%.

Recently, more research has been done on obesity from the stand point of molecular biology. Studies first appeared in 1950, where a US laboratory discovered obesity in mice. Once the ob gene was isolated, in 1994 further research on the ob gene resulted in discovering the importance of leptin, which is mainly manufactured in white adipose tissue, as an important factor in weight maintenance. The ob/ob mouse has an abnormality in its genes which prevents the body from producing sufficient leptin. As a result, the mice continually overeat and become obese. Once treated with an injection of leptin, the mice stop getting fat.

Basics of Dieting

The basic method for dieting is to keep the balance between calorie usage and calorie intake in mind. By doing so, fat, which is accumulated in white adipose tissue, can be used up for energy.
The human body is composed of about 80% pure fat and 20% water and other materials.

Fat contains about 9kcal per gram, therefore 9kcal x 1,000g x .8 = 72,000kcal which is the amount of calories needed to lose 1kg of fat. In the case of an average Japanese man who consumes 2,000kcal a day can subtract 1,000kcal for his daily activities a day to lose about 1kg a week (1,000kcal x 7 days = 7,000kcal). If he continues to do this for a month, he will be able to reduce his weight by 4kg a month. This is just a hypothetical situation and does not always go this smoothly in real life.
The basic method of DietMaster is to burn fat effectively by controlling food intake with aerobic exercise to reduce to create a negative calorie intake. However, the fact is a real effort is needed from this point. We do not need a great deal of effort to reduce weight. Most importantly, we have to be careful of weight rebound after losing weight. The real success to dieting is to get over plateaus and prevent rebound. Let’s eat only until we feel 80% full every time we eat a meal!

Most obese people have inactive sympathetic nerves

Those who do not exercise much look for available seats when they get on trains. They want to use the escalator or elevator instead of the stairs. They have magazines, newspapers, the TV remote control, sweets, fruit and tissues, basically everything they could possibly need, within reach of their sofa. These are the types that are likely to use little energy in their daily lives. If they continue such a low energy lifestyle, their muscles, which contribute to our basal metabolism in consuming energy, become weak. As a result, their body will become one that stores more fat. We call this the MONA LISA hypothesis, which stands for Most Obesities kNown Are Low In Sympathetic Activity. The basis is that most people become obese because their sympathetic nerves become dull. If they continue their inactive lifestyle, their sympathetic nerves become duller.

When our world wasn’t as automated, we had no choice but to be more active. Nowadays we can accomplish many things without moving as much. Though exercise does not consume a lot of energy, without moving our body, all the energy will be stored in the body as fat. It is important to remember how people used to live a long time ago to see why we need to reserve time for exercise now.

Learning Helps You Lose Weight

The other day, a Japanese TV program reported that learning about dieting helps to reduce weight. Many people may doubt this; however, it is true that just learning about it works because you will know the following:

1. When are good times and bad times to eat when controlling weight
2. Which works better to reduce weight, two meals or three meals a day
3. What kinds of food cause us to gain weight
4. How many calories we should consume a day when dieting
5. How much is the proper amount of calories for each person

When you learn the above points, you will start making more effort. Without the proper knowledge, people are prone to adapt the wrong diet methods that are advertised on TV and magazines.

Weight Loss Plateau

We can clearly see our weight drop during the 1st or 2nd week of a diet. The main reason is that we lose a lot of water weight during this period. However, after the 3rd of 4th week, our pace starts to slow or stop.

During this time, the human body starts to consume calories more effectively to prevent our fat storage from being used, regardless of reducing calorie intake. This results in a cease of weight reduction and is called the plateau period.

A plateau is caused by the splendid ability our bodies have to survive starvation. The plateau period usually lasts for 1-2 weeks. Most of us who fail at a diet do so during this period. They give up dieting and return to their usual eating habits and sometimes become so frustrated they end up eating too much. Then, rebound begins.

It is important not to give up even when you feel your weight reduction stops. This is the period in which you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The theory is that as long as we reduce our calorie intake by a few hundred calories less than those needed to maintain our size, we are sure to lose weight.

Obesity Prevails in Any Developed Country

Do you know the term “global obesity”?

According to statistics conducted by WHO, the population of people with a BMI over 25 in developed countries are as follows:

USA	66.7%
Germany	66.5%
UK	61%
Canada	59.1%
Australia	49%

As we can see, obesity is prevailing in developed countries.

The main reason for this it too much intake of high calorie foods as well as the convenience of fast food. Also, the increased usage of the internet leads people to lack exercise, which means less energy use.

The same situation is happening in Japan as well. Nowadays, 13 million Japanese men and 10 million Japanese women are at risk for obesity.

Why Eating Fast Causes Us to Gain Weight

Our appetite is controlled by our satiety and feeding centers in our brain. Once food is in the stomach, glucose in the blood increases. Then, blood-sugar and insulin increase. This stimulates the satiety center which makes us feel full. At the same time, while we feel full, the feeding center becomes inactive which tells us to stop eating. When we become hungry, the feeding center becomes active again and we want to eat.

It takes us 15 to 20 minutes to start feeling full after we start eating. Therefore, those who eat fast eat too much before they feel full. When they continue this, they cannot exactly feel when they are full or hungry, causing them to eat food while they're not hungry.

Those who usually finish eating first should try to keep the same pace as others. This will work not only to stop overeating but also makes those eating with you feel more comfortable. It is also more polite this way. When you eat food alone, it is recommended to put the fork and knife down each time you put food in your mouth. Please bare in mind that fast eating should be avoided when dieting.