Lose Weight-Stay Away From Quick Fixes and Fad Diets Apr 28 '01 (Updated Jul 05 '01)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line Support. Exercise. Nutrition. Success!! Choosing a weight loss plan can be very frustrating. There is so much conflicting information out there, how’s a person supposed to decide what’s right for them? I’ve recently made a decision in my life to shed these “baby pounds” that I’ve been carrying the past six years. Not only do I have weight left from 1999 when I gave birth to my daughter, but I never lost my weight from my first pregnancy in 1994. Once I decided I would be committed to my lifestyle change, I then had to decide how I was going to do it. I was absolutely stunned when I started researching weight loss programs and “diets”. There’s a lot of really weird and dangerous stuff on the market. Not to mention all the medications, which can cause anything from heart failure to “runny discharge”. ICK! I’m not one to use a quick fix solution, so that right there eliminated about 50% of the programs. I’m also not one to exclude food groups from my eating plan . . . so there goes another 10-15% of all eating programs. When I was choosing a weight loss plan, these are the criteria I was looking for. They helped me choose a healthy and reasonable way to loose weight. A Support Network: I think it’s very important to have a support network. Someone, or a group of someone’s, who are going through or have gone through the same thing you are. Someone or a group of someone’s who you can learn from and be accountable to week after week. A Program that Promotes Exercise But Not Excessive Exercise: I’m not lazy. I just don’t think it’s necessary to work my tookus off six days a week to achieve my ideal weight. However, I do feel like exercise is important. One of the problems that occurs if you don’t implement exercise into a weight loss regime is you start to loose lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is important because that’s what burns your calories. The less you have of it, the less calories you can burn. So if you incorporate exercise into your weight loss eating plan then you’ll do a better job losing fat and not water and/or lean muscle mass. Nutrition: As I stated before, I'm not into excluding food groups. The Atkins, Zone, Grapefruit, Cabbage Soup and all those other “weight loss programs” aren’t something you can continue to do the rest of your life. Nutrition is a key factor in a weight loss program. I’d even go as far as to say it’s 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. It’s important to eat all the food groups, but not necessarily like the food pyramid says to. Fats and carbohydrates are not your enemy. Your body needs them, and it’s important to eat a certain percentage of your daily food intake in those areas. What percentage is the question, and I’ll get into that down the road a bit. If you eliminate a certain food group from your diet, you can become malnourished and your body and performance will be hindered. Supplements: I don’t do eating plans that don’t allow you to actually eat. That’s what your mouth is for . . . to chew. Drinking a meal supplement will do nothing but make you want to eat more. The only suppliment you need to take when you’re on an eating plan to loose weight is a multivitamin. Your body at the weight it is needs the vitamins you eat in a day. When you reduce your caloric intake, your body still needs those vitamins you were eating, so it’s important to give them back to your body in the form of a multivitamin. No medications or pills: I refuse to take anything that causes oily discharge or that’s a stimulant . . . enough said. As you can see, I have very high criteria and that eliminates way more than 50% of all eating plans. I’m not into a quick fix solution. I’m in this for the long hall so I want something I can stay on the rest of my life. I want a weight loss program that’s not denying me food. I want a weight loss program so I won’t be hungry. And I want a weight loss program to be successful. My choice? APEX Fitness was my answer. I’ll go ahead and tell you a little bit about the program, since Epinions doesn’t have a topic specifically for APEX. A support network: I see a nutritionist every week. Her name is Lisa and she’s a saint. We go over my eating log that I keep from week to week, she weighs me, measures me and takes my body fat. Then we discuss hardships, goals and if my eating plan is working for me. A Program that Promotes Exercise But Not Excessive Exercise: APEX nutritionists custom create an exercise regime that fits “your” lifestyle. I tried going to the gym three days a week, but something kept getting in my way one of those days. So we reduced my days to twice a week and if I can get there another day, great! Consider it a bonus. My routine consists of a five-minute warm up on the bike or tread mill. I then do weigh resistant training on weight machines. I don’t lift a lot; I just do a lot of reps. This makes your muscles work, therefore causing you to burn more calories. I do nine machines. Four arm and four leg machines. I also do one back machine. This takes me about 25 minutes if I don’t have to wait for a machine. Then I do 40 minutes of cardio on the bike or treadmill. I have to keep my heart rate between 19-27 heartbeats per 10 seconds. Very attainable. When I was going three times a week, I was doing the same thing, but I was only doing cardio for 25 minutes rather than 40. Nutrition: Ahhhh the best part. Food! When I went to my family physician a few months ago, I told her I was having a hard time losing weigh. After some hormone testing she decided to put me on a 1200 calorie, low fat diet. I gained 6 lbs. I was devastated. That’s when I decided to see Lisa. To create my menu, Lisa gave me a questionnaire to fill out. It had about 100 questions on it about the types of food I like and how they affect my personality and my energy level. Questions like “Do you feel lethargic after a big meal” and “Does a grapefruit taste sour to you”. I answered my questions with a sometimes, always, or never answer, and those answers were entered into her computer. Those answers gave Lisa my oxidation rate. In laymen’s terms, an oxidation rate is how fast your body turns food into energy. It has nothing to do with the metabolism. I happen to be a slow to a medium oxidizer so I need to be eating a diet high in carbohydrate because those get burned fast, and I burn proteins and fats slower. I have a diet that is 50% carbohydrates, 25% protein and 25% fat. Every meal I eat in the day (and I eat four meals a day) has those ratios. I also eat almost 1800 calories a day, and I still lose. It’s not about what I can’t eat, it’s about what I can eat. Just to give you an idea of the foods I’m eating . . . here’s a sample. I eat waffles, pancakes, cream cheese, real butter, real mayonnaise, beef, pork, chicken, all veggies and fruits, low-fat ice cream, cheese, bagels, salami, muffins and are you ready for this? Dessert. I eat granola bars, rice crispy treats and angel food cake. Because I eat protein at every meal, it keeps me fuller longer, but I’m also burning up those carbs too! And because I’ve taken a lot of sugar out of my diet, I’m not craving sweets, nor am I hungry as often. Supplements: APEX does offer supplements. But they give you the option of using them or not. Some of the supplements are meal replacement bars or drinks used to give the body nutrition without calories, and other supplements are used to help your body build muscle. APEX isn’t just for people who have weight loss goals, t’s also for people who have any kind of fitness goals in mind. Wanna beef up? They can help. Wanna gain weight? They can help. It’s very comprehensive. I personally don’t take any of their supplements other than the multivitamin and chromium/niacin supplement. The Extras: Some things I never even though about came up during my first consult with Lisa. She wanted to take my body fat measurements. She said it was very important to know whether or not I’m losing fat or lean muscle. Know why? Because the scale can lie. You can lose body fat and not lose weight, did you know that? You can go eat a large lunch and gain three pounds, but still lose body fat. A woman can be on her cycle and gain three pounds, ok five pounds, and still lose body fat. Lisa also measures me every three weeks with a tape measure to see how much I've lost in inches. I know, I know . . . you want to know if it’s working right? It is! And I’m shocked. Over the past year I’ve tried the SugarBusters program, the Carbohydrate Addicts program and even followed the Diabetics program...all with no success. Why? Because I was reducing the food that is actually making me lose. Carbohydrates. In a six-week period I’ve lost 10 3/4 lbs. and I’ve lost a total of 11 3/4 inches. I’ve dropped a whole pants size and of that 10 3/4 lbs., 8 ½ of them have been fat and 2 1/4 of them have been lean muscle. Which if you don’t know is a wonderful ratio. Now you’re probably wondering how much this is costing me aren’t you? It’s very reasonable. I pay $249 for three months, and I have an option of paying $100 for every three-month period after that. It’s through the gym I belong to in my area, but you don’t have to be a gym member to join. If you’re interested, the web site for APEX is www.apexfitness.com and you can look for a location near you. When you’re decided to lose weight, you can get very desperate, don’t let that get in your way of choosing a healthy way to loose weight. There’s a difference between losing your health vs. losing pounds. Update: As of May 16th, I've lost 16 1/4 lbs and 16 total inches. I've lost almost 3 inches off of each thigh. Update: As of July 5th, I've lost 17 1/2 lbs and a total of 20 inches lost. And I've also lost 3% body fat. Even though I'm not seeing the pounds going down as fast, I'm still seeing a rapid loss in body fat.

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