With the new year approaching fast, millions of people will start a new diet with good intentions to lose weight and get into better physical condition. Unfortunately, statistics show that as much as 95% of all diets end up in failure and weight regain within a year. According to leading sports nutritionist and creator of the 3-Week Diet (http://www.3weekdiet.com) Brian Flatt, most diets fail because people simply do not lose weight fast enough. Flatt states that when people sacrifice to reach their goals but don’t see any real results for all their efforts, it usually becomes a lot easier to give up than it is to go on.
When asked about the high percentage of diet failures, Flatt stated, “the problem with most mainstream diets on the market is that they take a one-size-fits-all approach to weight loss.” According to Flatt, “each of us has our own unique Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) that corresponds with our sex, age, height and weight. Flatt states, “BMR is the amount of calories your body needs every day to keep you alive and functioning properly. When you eat more calories than your body needs, you gain weight. Conversely, when you eat fewer calories than your body needs, your body compensates by burning body fat, which results in the ability to lose weight fast.”
Flatt explained, “As a 6’0 tall male weighing 190lbs, my BMR is much higher than my wife who stands 5’6 and weighs just 120 pounds. In other words, if my wife and I sat on the couch all day long and did nothing else, I would burn far more calories than she would based on our respective BMR.” Flatt states that the problem with most diet plans is that they are not uniquely tailored to the specific person. According to Flatt, if both he and his wife followed a 1200-calorie diet plan, they would each have very different results because of their unique BMR. Flatt states that in a case like this (a 1200 calorie diet plan), he would end up losing weight while his wife actually gained weight.
Flatt stated that the problem people have is that they are following general advice, which prohibits them from losing weight fast. Flatt explained it like this: “If my BMR is 1900 calories and I’m regularly consuming a 2500 calorie per day diet, I’m going to be an overweight person. Now, if I decide to go on a diet and cut out 500 calories per day, down to 2000 calories total per day, most people would think that I would lose one pound of body fat in the course of one week because 500 calories x 7 days =3500 calories and 3500 calories = one pound of fat. However, since my BMR is only 1900 calories and I’m still eating 2000 calories per day, I’m still going to gain weight because I am still eating more than the amount of calories that my body needs each day.
Flatt believes that this example is why so many people get frustrated and struggle to lose weight. “They try to follow well laid out plans and follow the expert advice of doctors, but they don’t have a tailored plan to lose weight fast based on their own body type,” Flatt says. According to Flatt, “the faster one sees real results on their diet, the more likely they will see that diet through to the end. It’s truly an incredible thing to see how excited people get when they lose 10 pounds in a week. When people see these kinds of results, they tend to stick with it.”
Flatt states that in order to lose weight, you absolutely must create a calorie deficit.
According to Flatt, once you determine your BMR, you can use that number to create an effective calorie deficit, which will result in permanent weight loss.
