The Lifestylista ®

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WEIGHT LOSS & DIET

YOUR FRIENDS MAKE YOU FAT…

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YOUR FRIENDS MAKE YOU FAT…

There’s no easy way to say this… but it’s true.  Research has shown that “birds of a feather eat together”.  According to the Framingham Heart study which tracked 12000+ people for more than 30 years, if your friend becomes obese you are significantly more likely to do the same.
Now girl, before I go any further, I want you to know that YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL WHATEVER SIZE YOU ARE!  In fact, in the culture I come from bigger / ‘thick’ / ‘built’ / ‘mampy’ has traditionally been waaaaaaay better than being thin.
bug-friends-eating-chocolate
When it comes to weight and health, peer pressure is everything.  Your friends help you decide what is an OK body size, food portion & type of food, level of exercise etc.  You learn from them, often unconsciously, what your acceptable norms are.
WE ARE COPY CATS – YOUR FRIEND’S FOOD BEHAVIOR IS CONTAGIOUS:
Connection and love are of prime importance for human beings so it’s no surprise that when you eat with friends you unconsciously copy them and bond through a sort of mimicking of each other’s food behaviors.
According to research done at Cornell University, when you eat with friends, you aren’t focussed on the food, you are distracted and so you eat more.  We get so into the excitement of the great company and the wonderful conversation that we’re not aware how much food we’re actually taking in.  When we eat with other people, we’re at the table longer. The longer we’re at the table, the more we eat.  And if the people you’re eating with tend to eat quickly, so will you – even if your normal eating speed is slow.  You will also gravitate towards the type of food the group is choosing. The other people in the group will often act as ‘pacesetters’ and, from them, we take our cues about how much to eat and how quickly.
ON A POSITIVE NOTE:
If you start to spend a lot of time with friends who eat slowly, eat more healthy food, exercise more etc. you may find yourself unconsciously mimicking this behavior.  Your norms (about food, exercise and health in general) will change and you’ll get healthier (OR you will stop hanging out with them LOL!).
EATING TOGETHER IN BIG GROUPS:
Research has also shown that THE MORE PEOPLE THERE ARE AT THE TABLE, THE MORE YOU EAT…
35% more if eating with 1 friend
47% more if eating with 2 friends
58% more if eating with 3 friends
72% more if eating with 5 friends
96% more if eating with 7+ friends
So, according to this research, if you eat with 7 or more friends, you may eat a whopping 100% more… so DOUBLE the food you’d eat if you ate alone!
I hope you found this article helpful.
I’m here rooting for you to have the life you want!  It’s short and it belongs to you so make the most of it 🙂
love
The Lifestylista
xox

Dieting's dirty little secret – the scientific truths behind WHY diets make you fat

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You’re fat.

Again…

How the HECK did this happen???

All that weight you lost on the last diet is back on and then some. Now you just feel powerless, confused, out of control and ashamed.  You assume it’s because you weren’t disciplined enough or you didn’t have enough willpower…  But still you can’t work out how you got back to square one so quickly.

All you want to do is understand WHY now that you’re off the diet (BUT eating even less than you did before you started to diet)… you’ve still gained all of the weight back and more.

WHY?

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This is not a mystery.

Once you understand the science behind how diets actually make you fatter, you will have taken the first step to losing weight and keeping it off for good.

A groundbreaking study (“Long Term Persistence of Hormonal Adaptations to Weight Loss”) conducted at the University of Melbourne reported that when people diet, the body’s hormonal balance changes and it goes into serious weight gain mode.

According to researchers, calorie restriction results in a rapid, significant reduction in levels of leptin – a hormone that speeds up the metabolic rate and curtails appetite.  It also causes a reduction in the levels of the appetite suppressing hormone Peptide YY.  So when you diet, your metabolism slows down and all the regular hormones that keep your appetite in check just aren’t around to protect you…  As if that wasn’t enough, there is a huge increase in the levels of ghrelin – a hormone which not only makes you hungry as a horse but also stimulates the release of a polypeptide that makes your body store even more fat, especially in the abdominal region!

The lead researcher, Joseph Proietto, said, “Our study has provided clues as to why obese people who have lost weight often relapse.  The relapse has a strong physiological basis and is not simply the result of voluntary resumption of old habits.”

Dr Rudolph Leibel of Columbia University agrees.  He believes obesity is a biological, not a psychological illness.  According to Dr Leibel’s research, a body that has dieted behaves very differently to a body of the same size that has never dieted.  When we lose weight, the body fights fat loss by making our muscle fibers more energy efficient so they burn up to a quarter less calories than the muscles of someone of the same weight who had never dieted.  If you lose 10% of your body fat you’ll need to eat 20 – 25% fewer calories to maintain your new weight.  So if you were eating 2000 calories a day before your diet, now you’ll need to eat 400 – 500 calories LESS per day just to keep your weight stable.   This ‘dieting effect’, needing to eat fewer calories, can last years.  No wonder we gain the weight back!

Dr Rosenbaum, a researcher at Columbia University scanned the brains of dieters vs non dieters.  He found that the body tries to return to the old weight by giving the dieter a much greater emotional response to food combined with real cravings that make the person more excited about food and less able to resist it.  Dr Rosenbaum said that this, when combined with the fact that the post diet body needs significantly fewer calories, creates the ideal situation for weight regain…  ARGGH!!!

UCLA researchers analyzed 31 long term diet studies and found that the biggest predictor of long term weight gain was if the subject had  been on a diet at some point in the past.  So basically, if you’ve ever dieted, you’re the one they expect to gain weight long term.  One study they analyzed, where dieters were followed for 2 years, showed that 83% of dieters ended up heavier than when they started their diet.

Diets really don’t work.  They actually make the problem worse.  Much worse.

Now you understand the science behind why diets don’t work can you forgive yourself for all the ‘failures’ of the past?   You’ve been blaming yourself for years and now you need to cut yourself some slack, recognize the huge opponent you’ve been dealing with and work out a strategy.  I am working on a book that will lead you through this process step by step.  I lost 70+ lbs and I kept it off.  Knowledge is power and always remember you’re not losing weight to get fabulous… you’re fabulous now!

Love,

The Lifestylista

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Scientists prove high fat foods make us overeat because they act like Cannabis in our bodies

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5e_5X0WuaY&feature=youtu.be]

Ever wondered why (processed) fatty foods can be so addictive and hard to say no to?! Why you can’t just have one piece of fried chicken or just one French fry…?

According to researchers at University of California, Irvine, these processed fats cause a reaction in the body that makes these foods almost irresistible!

When rats eat a high fat diet, cells in their intestines produce endocannabinoids – similar to THC the particle in cannabis that gives users their high. Endocannabinoids tell your brain when it’s time to eat and when they are active whether you’re a lab rat or a human being you will have a raging appetite… Otherwise known as the munchies!

Fats are essential for the proper functioning of the human body and they are relatively hard to come by in nature so it’s not surprising that (from an evolutionary point of view) we humans are built to crave fats! This evolutionary failsafe is totally unnecessary, of course, in the modern world because today fats of all sorts are extremely available and this addiction to fatty foods leads to weight gain, hypertension and diabetes, just to name a few.

So the next time you crave that fatty culinary delight just remember that the high you feel is not imaginary!

New York Burger Yours For $50

WANT TO GET SLIM? Muscle vs fat… #CelebWeightSecret

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want_to_get_slim_-_muscle_burns_more_calories_than_fat__the_lifestylista-348543

Muscle burns at least four times the calories fat does! So do weights / resistance training e.g. 15 mins x 2 or 3 times a week

According to the American Council on Exercise, fat burns approx 2 calories per pound while muscle burns 6 – 10… So for each 1 lb of fat you swap for 1 lb of muscle, you’ll burn 3 – 8 extra calories daily… The sounds small but multiply it by several pounds of extra muscle and your metabolism will really be significantly faster!

Muscle weighs more than fat – it’s denser.  So 1 lb of muscle takes up less space than 1 lb of fat… e.g. if two ladies weigh the same, the lady with more muscle will:

– appear smaller

– (if she does strength training), she’ll be burning more calories for hours after her work out

– she’ll be slowing down or halting the decrease in muscle mass that happens as you age