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.

Top 7 Ways of Dieting

Japanese internet research shows the top 7 dieting methods:

1. Being mindful with what they eat
2. Reducing the food they eat between meals
3. Reducing portion sizes and the number of meals
4. Jogging and exercising
5. Stretching and muscle exercise
6. Taking diet pills and supplements
7. Taking long baths

Though I do not recommend all of these methods, any of these should work when trying to reduce weight if continued for three months or so. Losing weight is not very difficult; it’s keeping the weight off that’s hard.

Reducing the amount we eat leads to lower calorie intake. As a result, we are sure to lose weight. Be careful not to eat less than your basal metabolic rate otherwise you may hurt your body. Another issue is that if, once you lose your desired weight, you return to your previous eating habits, you will likely gain rebound weight. When you lose weight, you will lose fat and muscle, especially if you are not exercising. When you gain rebound weight, you only gain back the fat. This is the serious point.

If you continue a cycle of losing and gaining weight, or yo-yo diet, your body will end up with an increasing body fat percentage. There is only one way to diet without gaining rebound weight. That is to learn the correct theories to dieting healthy so that you can make proper lifestyle changes. Dieting the healthy way, which includes aerobic and resistance exercises, can help you prevent weight rebound.

If you really want to learn the healthy way to diet, you should first understand the following:

1. Your personal basal metabolic rate
2. How much energy you use and how much you take in
3. The metabolic system

Please feel free to contact us if you wish to gain more knowledge on how to diet correctly and healthily.

Alcohol & Dieting

The reason why alcoholic drinks cause people to gain weight is because they contain a lot of calories. Pure alcohol has 7kcal per gram and 5kcal of those 7 are used as energy in the body. Protein and saccharides, complex sugars, have 4kcal per gram. Alcohol is second to lipids, or fat which has 9kcal per gram, for highest calories per gram.

Some people think that beer and sake have high calorie amounts while whiskey and shochu do not have as much. While it is true that beer and sake do have a high calorie amount, only 3 shot glasses of whiskey (about 130cc) has about 400kcal. When you try to get the same amount of alcohol through beer, you would need to drink 3 medium sized bottles (1100cc). In the case of sake, you would consume 400kcal in about two and a half bottles (500cc). Also keep in mind that the higher the alcohol content, the higher the calories will be.

As we can see, whiskey does include a high amount of calorie so we can’t say that whiskey does not contribute to weight gain. In short, any type of alcohol, if we consume too much, can easily lead to obesity.

Fuji TV Reports Diet Research

Yesterday I saw an announcement by Fuji TV, a major TV news channel in Japan.

The program said Tsukuba University had concluded from research that knowing the correct theories and education on dieting can be good motivation for dieting. This was also reported in the Europe Dieting Institute’s periodical. The TV program showed several people in Europe who were successful in losing weight including one old gentleman who reduced his weight from 113kg (250lb) to 75kg (165lb) by learning good diet information.

2/3 of Japanese people die of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, stroke, cancer, hyperlipidemia and others. In most cases, lifestyle diseases can be prevented by avoiding obesity. Though it seems as though many people know enough about lifestyle diseases, the fact is not so many do.

The Japan Diet Academy has sold their own educational materials on how to diet correctly for 7 years now, and have sent a few thousand dieting experts to share this information to the public.

- Chairman