For many seeing shows like Fat March of the Biggest Loser can be an inspiration to start their own weight loss program. The problem lies in once you are excited to start now what. It can be hard for the average watcher to understand what is important and what achieves results from watching the show. It is easy to say eat well and exercise on a regular basis though what does that really mean. Losing weight doesn't have to be overwhelming if you understand the basic principles from the shows and apply them to your lifestyle.

The first biggest change for most people's diets which is vital is eating 5 small meals. The personal trainers talked about in Fat March about how until people create the habit of eating throughout the day nothing else matters. Eating small meals trains your body to burn fat and shuts off your body's ability to store fat.

In Fat March we got an up close and personal experience of what happens when you don't eat five small meals. One of the fat marchers took all his food and ate it all at once. This spiked his blood sugar which then your body stores the food as fat. Once your body stores the food as fat you get low blood sugar which is the crashing that most people feel around 3 pm from too much food at lunch. During Fat March because the competitor was doing a ton of walking he passed out from too low blood sugar and had to go to the hospital. Most people don't understand how negative not eating 5 small meals is because they don't have as serious instant consequences because they are sitting at their desk working when their blood sugar drops.

Until you start eating 5 small meals your body will be in a constant roller coaster of eating too much and storing fat into your fat cells. The good thing is that if today you eat 5 small meals you body will today start to burn more energy and go in the right dirction.

So what do I want in my 5 small meals?

The Biggest Loser show does a good job of showing cooking for good healthy meals. The goal of each meal is to get complex carbs for energy, lean protein to rebuild muscle tissue, and fruits or vegetables for nutritional value. The size is relative to your metabolism, as you get a faster metabolism your portion will increase not decrease which is why starving to lose weight doesn't work. For most Americans take your lunch cut it in half and eat the other half 3 hours later.

Yes you do need to eat carbs. Carbohydrates are your major source of energy from food. When you don't eat carbs even if you eat protein your body will go into a starvation response and store fat and burn muscle for energy. Complex carbs are stored in the muscles cells and are rice, pasta, grains, and potatoes.

One reason many fad diets cut carbs is because carbs absorb water. If you cut carbs out of your diet you will lose weight immediately. You may think that is good though your weight loss is only water. Most fad diets do this knowing that people want to see instant results on the scale and cutting carbs can 5-15 pounds of water out with in a week. Because of poor diet habits and too much consumption of caffeine drinks, it is estimated that 75% of Americans are in a constant state of dehydration. Which means for the average American who adds carbs back to their diet they may gain 5 pounds of just water back right away. This healthy and their bodies were unhealthy everyday from a lack of later. If you cut carbs it doesn't matter how much water you drink, you don't have the carbs to absorb it. Low carb diets that drink a lot of water go to the bathroom more often.

Copyright (c) 2007 Charles Carter