The Perfect Diet is a Change of Lifestyle

The perfect diet is in weight loss, what in physics is the perpetuum mobile - the holy grail millions of overweight people rsp. generations of relentless physicists are (were)looking for. Unfortunately there is so far no such thing in both worlds, so that at least in the field of weight loss, we are forced to find a pragmatic approach, which is in line with our target, lifestyle and persistence.

I am glad to be able to tell my own diet success story: how I reached my target weight (minus 30 pounds), improved significantly my fitness level by doing so and all this in under four months time. Yet, this story is preceded with a warning for all couch potatoes: my success story did not come to life as a sweatless miracle but rather through intensive diet research, a bit of luck, strict adherence to my self imposed formula and last but not least, by adding exercising effort and persistency to reach my ambitious goal.

My quest to find my most suitable diet on the market was based on my following requirements, which narrowed the options significantly:

* The diet should support colon cleansing (flush toxins, gain energy)
* Must contain anti-oxidants to fight free radicals (health issue)
* Must increase metabolism (better calorie usage)
* Must enhance the immune system (key health issue)
* I must be convinced of and familiar with most of the ingredients from
my normal lifestyle (for easy adaptation)

The latter seemed relevant to me in view of my intention to combine dieting with systematic exercising, so that my body did not have to go through any major nutritional adjustment period, which would not be helpful to my training program. As weight loss is all about burning more calories than taking in, I believe exercising is and should be a vital part of each weight loss program! This combination (diet & exercise) opens the door to a lifestyle change, which is crucial in making the weight loss permanent, in other words: no more yo-yo dieting!

To achieve this, the formula to take seriously is simple:

Calorie output - Calorie input = Calorie deficit

where : Calorie output = Metabolic Resting Rate + Exercising calories

With my 3 times two hour cycling (on average per week) I burned 1800 extra calories and my metabolic resting/light activity use of 2500 calories and an estimated average calorie intake limited to 2000 calories per day (yes, calorie counting makes sense!), my weekly calorie equation looks as follows:

7 x 2500 + 3 x 1800 - 7 x 2000 = 8900 = weekly calorie deficit

If I would have chosen to be a couch potatoe, my weekly deficit would have been only 3500 calories. This would have not only required a much longer dieting period than the 4 months, but I would have missed out at the same time the health and fitness benefits, in addition to much higher diet costs. How smart is that?

One word of warning: especially, when starting into a new exercising routine we must ensure to pay attention to your body's inborn intelligence. If this intelligence tells us to take it easy or skip exercising for a day or two (= when we don't feel so well!), then it is wise to follow this body talk. If the ego rules, overriding the body signals with uncensored ambition, we can pay quickly the price by collapse or even worse. I experienced it and learned my lesson!

So now look for the diet, which fulfills your own requirements, set up an exercising routine you can hold on to and you will never look back and never will need a crash diet again. Why? Because you then not only have lost weight but changed your lifestyle at the same time. You finally might have found the recipe, which will work for you too as it did for me. And there is quite a good chance that this time your weight loss success will be for life!