The Advanced Mediterranean Diet

     Prevention of weight regain is the most problematic area in the field of weight management. You may have heard that “diets don’t work,” but they do. Many different weight loss programs work short-term, if “work” is defined as loss of five, 10, or more pounds while you adhere to the program for several weeks or months. The problem is that the lost pounds usually return. You get bored with the diet, or your willpower flags, or the diet simply stops working, or the transition from weight loss to maintenance is unclear, or you just feel too bad to go on, or you lose your commitment, or you take a job as a taste tester for Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream, or whatever. Most diets ultimately fail in the long run because people go back to their old habits.
     For purposes of further discussion, I will assume that you have already lost weight down to your goal and now we must focus on staying thereabouts from here on out. Finally down to your goal! A grand accomplishment! You’ve got a new wardrobe, or the old clothes fit again. You have more energy and feel younger. Maybe you cured or improved some health problems. Perhaps you’re getting more attention from the opposite sex (ooh la la!). I mention our scientific name, Homo sapiens, in the title of this chapter to highlight sapiens. It is from the Latin sapere, which means “to be wise.” Wisdom is the ability to make correct judgments and decisions. Undoubtedly, your success at weight loss required correct judgments and decisions. You are not done yet. You will need sustained wisdom to avoid weight regain.    

     Be wise about this especially: you can never again eat all you want, whenever you want, over sustained periods of time. Now that you have reached your goal weight, you must restrain yourself on a daily basis. Think about it. You became overweight because you didn’t watch what you ate and didn’t exercise enough. You can’t go back to your old ways. Reject this advice, and you have a 100 percent chance of regaining your lost weight.
     Remember the Energy Balance Equation?

        Calorie Intake minus Calories Burned
                 =  Change in Body Fat

You have been able to lose fat weight because you ate less energy (calories) than your body required for metabolism and physical activity. Your body remedied the energy deficit by converting fat into energy. A pound of fat contains 3,500 calories of energy. If you lost a pound per week, your body on average converted 500 calories of fat daily into energy (7 days x 500 calories = 3,500 calories = 1 pound of fat). Now that you are at your goal weight and want to stay there, you need to add 500 calories per day back into the equation. Add the calories by eating more food, exercising less, or a combination of the two. But if you add back more than 500, you will regain weight. 
     [Continued....] 

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