Weight loss (Dieting, Fat Burning, Overeating)

Weight loss is commonly achieved by the body being forced to use fat from it’s fat stores to fulfil a shortage in energy requirements. The fat used is converted into energy resulting in a depletion of fat in the body’s fat store.

The body can also use muscle stores as a short term energy fix, which can also result in weight loss from muscle depletion.

Dieting

Dieting is the process of reducing the amount of food calories ingested over a specific period of time, with a view to force the body to use it’s fat based energy stores to provide the shortfall in energy requirements.

The dieting results in a depletion of the fat in the fat stores and causes a loss of body weight as a result.

Dieting is in essence starving the body by reducing it’s required energy needs from external sources such as from foods and drinks. This forces the body to use fat from it’s fat stores to provide meet the energy shortfall.

Prolonged dieting, also known as ‘yo-yo dieting’, is a common scenario where people lose weight by dieting and then gain the weight in a relatively short period of time. They then keep repeating the weight loss, weight gain cycle, causing their weight to go down and up, just as a ‘yo-yo’ moves.

Diets

Diets are types of eating regimes which all share a common goal of trying to induce the body to burn more fat from it’s fat stores.

Atkins diet

Some diets such as the Atkins diet, rely on reducing the carbohydrate intake, therefore trying to limit the energy available to the body from ingested food.

This strategy is believed to force the body to use stored fat to compensate for the limited energy available from the ingested food.

Celebrity diets

Celebrity diets are eating regimes endorsed by a celebrity, who advocates the use of their diet has helping them lose weight.

Fat burning

Fat burning is induced through an optimal metabolic state which causes the body to use fat from it’s energy stores to meet the needs of an increase in metabolic rate. Fat burning can also be induced using dieting.

Typically the metabolic rate is increased using exercise which at certain levels can promote an optimum rate of fat burning, where the body uses more fat instead of short term energy stores for energy.

Overeating

Overeating is the process of ingesting more calories than the body requires for day to day operation, resulting in a net effect of weight gain, as the body stores some of the excess calories in it’s fat stores.

Over a prolonged period of overeating, the body can gain substantial amounts of fat increasing overall body weight.

Overeating can be caused by a number of factors, from a form of comfort eating to a side effect of dieting where the body believes food is in short supply and tries to frantically ensure food ingested can be utilised as a reserve, resulting in weight gain.