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Chapter 1 - Planning for Success
No one should start a weight loss program without a reasonable plan for long-term maintenance once the weight loss. As I tell my patients when they start the program, losing weight is the easy part. Let me repeat that: weight loss is the easy part. As you may have already learned, if you have dieted before, keeping it off is the real challenge and the real battle. And the maintenance of that weight loss is the most important part.
The plan of structured eating (isn't that a much better term than the profane diet?) used for weight loss has a great deal to do with whether or not you will be able maintain your weight loss. It all rests on how much lean body mass you can maintain after losing your excess weight. The worse long-term results come from "starvation" or so-called "ketogenic" diets. These diets are used by some "experts" in weight loss and, even more tragically, by some physicians. They consist of high protein/low carbohydrate diets that are very low in total calories (usually less than 1000 calories). The reason for their popularity with some weight loss "experts" is that they do, indeed, result in rapid weight loss. Most of the weight lost, however, is merely water lost while the body burns up glycogen (which is stored with large amounts of water) for energy during starvation. However, the most serious problem with these diets is related to the fact that they are too low in carbohydrate, the primary calorie type the body uses for energy during daily life. During these diet programs, the body loses more lean (muscle) tissue than the type of tissue you want to lose - fat. Nearly two-thirds of the weight lost during calorie starvation diets comes from loss of the body's "good stuff" - lean body mass or muscle. As you will learn later, the amount of muscle your body has determines the overall rate your body burns calories - your metabolism. One-third of the weight loss is fat - the "bad stuff ." The only body tissue you really want to lose. In other words, with severe calorie restriction, you lose "good weight" (muscle and water) and not the fat that is your goal.
Beyond totally destroying your body composition, the starvation or "ketogenic" diets also have a number of adverse long-term consequences, as well. Since muscle is more "metabolically active" (more "alive") than fat, it burns more calories every minute of every day - even when rest
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