If you or anyone you know has ever tried to lose weight, then you have heard this plea: "Why is weight loss so difficult?" The challenges involved in weight loss are significant and can generate immense frustration for individuals who try repeatedly to lose those extra pounds. The problem transcends geography, race and economic barriers, and although the solution seems simple, it is anything but easy.
The math is clear. Eat less than you burn each day and you will lose weight. This is an established fact and plenty of research supports the fact that it doesn't particularly matter how you restrict your food intake because calories are the real issue. As long as you ingest fewer calories than you burn, the weight will come off. The reality isn't quite as simple.
Lifestyle and Availability Changes -
In the last century how we get our food and the types of food available have changed dramatically. Whereas just two generations ago most people still had some connection with where food came from, today we drop by the supermarket and pick up the latest prepackaged item. The food in that box is highly processed for palatability and extended shelf life, not nutrition.
In addition to our disconnect from food and its source, people are increasingly sedentary. Few people work out in the fields for hours each day. Most adults work at a desk, staring at a computer for hours and then drive home, exerting little energy from day to day.
The combination of highly processed foods and low levels of activity has created part of the problem. The rest of the challenge relates to how food is designed to create cravings and affect the brains reactions.
Food goes High Tech to Entice -
Dr. David Kessler, formerly the head of the Food and Drug Administration, has directed a great deal of research in his lifetime. Lately he has focused his energies on understanding just what drives people to overeat, and concomitantly, what makes it so hard to lose weight and keep it off. While he was researching his new book, "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the American Appetite" he discovered a number of disturbing trends.
Food manufacturers, it seems, discovered that the combination of three items, fat, sugar and salt, make food virtually irresistible. This isn't just because these items taste good; it is because having them, especially in combination, actually creates changes within the brain, not dissimilar to those seen in drug addicts. Additionally, because these highly palatable and addictive foods are now available 24/7, we have created a situation where people are bombarded constantly by encouragement to eat.
Low Tech Solutions to Weight Loss Challenges -
The solution, says Dr. Kessler, is relatively simple, but simultaneously extremely difficult. Learn to recognize the foods that have been prepared to create that chemical response in the brain and avoid them completely.
Once you avoid these highly palatable foods for long enough, your brain will diminish its response to the stimuli provided by memories associated with it. Eventually you can reprogram your brain to some degree. At that point, not only will you be eating better, but weight loss will be much easier.
Author Resource:
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