Diet 101

In the next few posts, you will get a good introduction to dieting... simply because I chanced about this great book on Dieting (YOU on a Diet), and well, not that I really NEED a book on dieting, or a diet for that matter :), but hey, you know, one should ALWAYS read new things!

OK, OK, first, let us get some basics right, and some myths shattered!

1) Don't watch your weight, watch your waist! Every body has it's own ideal weight, and that depends on a lot of factors including bone density! The metric to watch, therefore, is your waist. For women, the ideal waist is 32.5 inches, for men, 35. This should be measured at the belly button.

2) Starving yourself is the WORST form of dieting. Why? Because the moment you start starving, the body takes this as a sign that famine is on the way, and starts actually building up fat stores in your body!

3) When you lose weight without exercise, you lose both muscle and fat. When you build weight without exercise, you accumulate only fat! Hence people who try losing weight through crash diets, give up after some time, and add a lot more fat!

4) A high protein diet (chicken and fish) can help you reduce weight. Your body needs to use carbohydrates (excess of which is stored as fat) to break down proteins.

5) The hypothalamus in the brain is the area that looks after your wants and desires (hunger, thirst AND sex :)) Sometimes, drinking lots of water and having lots of sex can actually satisfy the body's hunger pangs! I am serious!

6)There are two chemicals in your body that affect your eating and dieting - CART (cocaine amphetamine regulatory transcript) and NPY (a protein called Neuropeptide Y). CART stimulates hypothalamus to increase metabolism, reduce appetite and increase insulin to deliver energy to muscle cells rather than be stored as fat. NPY has the opposite effect - it decreases metabolism and increases apetite.

7) CART and NPY are driven by two hormones in your body, leptin which influences CART, and ghrelin, which influences NPY. As you grow older, there are lesses leptin receptors in your hypothalamus - which means you feel less satisfied after eating, and hence tend to put on more weight. When you have stress, you have more of NPY and you tend to eat more! Get the connection?

8) Ghrelin works every couple of hours, sending hunger signals to the brain. Leptin is more long term. Thus, if you can get your leptin levels higher, you can beat those pangs easily. That's also another reason why smaller regular meals can actually help curb weight - it negates the build up of hunger pangs and it stops the body from accumulating fat deposits.

9) Nuts are excellent as regular snacks - they make you feel satisfied and kill your hunger pangs. On the other hand, High-fructose corn syrup, usually found in soft drinks, do nothing to address your hunger pangs, and make you want to eat more and unable to shut off your apetite.

That's all for diet 101 - watch out for a lot more in the coming days! And yes, watch your WAIST!