A recent, very successful weight loss program has nailed down in very simple terms why you fail to lose weight. It is really quite obvious and simple.

You are simply not eating the right foods. That is the the long and the short of it! You are consuming the wrong calories and to make things worse you are consuming those calories in the wrong order.

To lose weight you must plan the interaction of calorie consumed so that those calories get fully processed by your natural metabolic processes.

The old wives tale citing “lack of exercise” is just a myth that has been booted around by everyone from exercise and health clinics to even doctors. Food intake is the primary factor to consider in your weight loss efforts.

Think about this for a minute. How have doctors treated the most extreme cases of obesity that require immediate attention to prevent death. They DO NOT immediately put these people into an exercise program. They need to get them thin enough for a “maintenance program” before exercise is even a consideration.

What do they do to first to get these people pointed in the right direction?

They shut off the food supply. The only sure way to guarantee that happens is stomach bypass surgery. This always leads to steady weight loss. Now we don’t really want to resort to that surgery. That is extreme but it does serve to identify the real issue.

The food you take in is the bad boy! So where do we start? Well, a key factor in the weight loss equation is the fact that you must consume the correct type of food in a systematic sequence so that calories will be burned by your natural metabolic processes.

To lose weight it is not productive to allow your body to store those calories in your body. This leads us to a pretty simple conclusion to this point. You must eat the right foods in the correct sequence. It’s not really any more complicated than that! It is not effective to simply begin starving yourself and madly dive into some extreme exercise routine.

There is a little talked about principle that will automatically come into play. Your body metabolic system will detect any significant reduction in calories intake and it will then adjust the body’s response by decreasing your rate of metabolism and burning fewer calories each day.

That is why you have failed in your past dieting attempts, that’s why you always seem to fail when you try and starve yourself.

People are buying more “low fat”, “calorie reduced”, “non fat” and “no sugar added” products today and yet they are still getting fatter.

Many of the current weight loss diets are simply starvation programs.

As we have stated before, your body will try to prevent weight loss due to starvation by automatically adjusting your metabolism.

So what do you need to do in order to lose weight in a predictable and natural way? You simply need diets designed to allow you to eat quantities of food that satisfy your hunger but yet work together with your metabolism to burn those excess calories.

Simple planning and determining which foods should be eaten in what order does exactly that. You can eat often and you can eat sensible quantities. The secret to weight loss is simply learning which foods you should eat and what order you should eat them in.

Any weight management program whether you are aware of it or not, will need to trigger the basic hormones that greatly affect our metabolism. This data can be found in scattered bits and pieces and sometimes the relationships are not explained too clearly. I will try to offer a brief but clear explanation of the hormones involved in weight loss as well as weight gain.

One of the primary hormones that affect weight management is insulin. Insulin is a blood sugar regulator. High carbohydrate intake leads to higher blood sugar levels. This leads to an increase of insulin output by the body. Insulin production is the body’s natural response to excessively high sugar levels in the blood. If that sugar is not getting converted into energy fast enough to maintain safe levels in the blood, insulin will resort to an alternate to conversion of sugar to energy. This results in the conversion of that blood sugar into fat that will be stored by the body.
 
The term lipogenic refers to that quality of being fat producing. In addition to insulin being lipogenic, it also bears another quality that means bad news to weight loss programs. Insulin is also antilipolytic. This simply means that it naturally works to fight against the breakdown of fat. As you now see, a diet that stimulates high insulin output will certainly be encouraging natural body responses that are counter productive to your goal of losing weight.

When the body is stressed due to a variety of reasons, insulin production also increases in order to stimulate the production of cortisol, our stress hormone. The body then responds to high cortisol by lowering the levels of the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). This hormone is very influential in the production of muscle. Producing more muscle than fat is our ultimate goal.

Chronic stress stimulates fat cells into storing fat. Fat cells located in the abdominal wall, characteristically possess more cortisol receptors on their cell membranes. So in turn, stress will encourage these cells to retain more fat.

Leptin is produced by adipose tissue and leptin binds to nucleus cells of the hypothalamus, a region of the brain known as the “satiety center.” Binding of leptin to this nucleus tells the brain that the body has had enough to eat thus providing the sensation of satiety. In a small number of humans, homozygous mutations for the leptin gene are present that stimulate a constant demand for food. This typically leads to severe obesity. Unfortunately this condition often compounds itself. As the body produces greater and greater quantities of leptin to fulfill the requirements of the process it can also cause higher tolerances and reduced efficiency. Although complete manipulation of this hormone has yet to be accomplished, there have been some short term benefits experienced by the administration of recombinant human leptin by way of injection.

The hormone serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain made from the amino acids found in proteins. Like leptin, it also sends messages that body is satisfied and that we have eaten sufficient to meet our body’s needs. Low serotonin levels cause depression, obesity, lethargy, and a greater desire for refined carbohydrates. Low levels of serotonin leads to overeating because the brain believes the body is starving. A diet that restricts protein-rich calories can be one reason for low serotonin levels. Some people that produce very high levels of cortisol also tend to experience lower serotonin levels.

Another glandular condition known as hypothyroidism may affect as high as 30 percent of the population.  Low thyroid reduces our fat burning rate and causes fatigue, inhibiting energy levels. Your thyroid is small gland at the base of your neck that controls energy flow. A shortage of thyroid hormones makes you sluggish at every level. Slowed digestion causes constipation, sluggish metabolism leads to weight gain and elevated cholesterol levels. The brain also needs thyroid hormones to stimulate the production of hormones like serotonin that we talked about earlier. Hypothyroidism can lead to depression and lethargy and weight gain.

Often forgotten in the discussion of weight loss and hormones, testosterone and estrogens may be forgotten. These are typically male, female hormones. The production of these hormones tends to fall off with age. The male hormone, testosterone stimulates high energy and associated fat burning benefits. On the other hand the female hormone estrogens actually encourage the storage of fat. A decrease in estrogens levels therefore would seem beneficial in your weight loss program. Unfortunately a number of conditions call for the addition of estrogens to ease women through the menopause process. Although beneficial in that affect, it will be counter-productive to weight loss or weight control efforts.

As you can see, a number of hormones play a part in weight control. Some of these hormones interact with each other. Some hormones can be manipulated with drugs or by careful meal planning. Others hormones such as leptin are subject to manipulation. The ultimate solution is a careful selection of food groups and meal planning.

The term glycemic index or GI for short is becoming a more common buzzword associated with weight loss and weight control programs. Many people are not clear about what this term realy encompasses. To make the required adjustments to our diet, we need to understand what the glycemic index is and what foods affect our GI.

The glycemic index is simply a guide or scale that compares a wide range of food products. It rates the foods (carbohydrates) relative to how much, and how quickly they raise blood glucose levels on ingestion. The base level is compared to glucose sugar.

The significance of raised blood glucose levels is observed in an increase in energy levels. The speed at which your glycemic index raises for that food product is called the glycemic response.

The glycemic response of a given food or carbohydrate is not determined completely by the carbohydrate alone. The quantity you consume and the method of preparation are also factors affecting the glycemic response. For example, cooking pasta for shorter periods will produce a lower glycemic response rate than if you employed extended cooking.

Quite simply, the the guides show that carbohydrates which raise your blood glucose level quickly have a higher GI rating than foods that raise your blood glucose level more slowly. The common conclusion is, the lower the rating, the better the quality of carbohydrate. It has been widely accepted that you should follow a daily regime that incorporates a high-carb diet with 50% of each day’s calories coming from carbohydrates.

Low GI foods are typically lower in calories and fat, yet high in fibre, nutrients and antioxidants. These foods also provide the weight loss benefit of making you feel full quicker and for longer periods. It is also believed that low GI foods may help you increase levels of HDL (healthy) cholesterol in your blood.

Low GI foods also lead to several benefits. These include control of blood glucose levels, cholesterol balancing, appetite control, reduced risk of heart disease, and reduced risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes.
 
As you can see there would be solid reasons to take into account the GI if you are trying to lose weight. Influencing energy levels and controlling hunger lements are primary factors to be considered in any weight loss program.

The rating scale itself can be divided into 3 basic levels of comparison. Less than 55 is generally considered the lower level. A rating of 56 to 69 is considered mid range. A GI rating of 70 or higher is considered to be a high level GI.