Introduction to weight loss

So many people fail at dieting because they look at it as exactly that, a "diet". Our nutritional intake should be about balance, incorporating essential nutrients in our diet to nourish the body, as well as finding nutritional snacks and meals that satisfy our taste buds, and allowing for the occasional treat to indulge in. It is unfortunate that in today's society, we are surrounded by so many establishments that supply not only unhealthy food but also products that are pumped full of preservatives and artificial sweeteners and flavours.

 
While you may have felt that by eating "healthily" should provoke change in your weight, "weight loss" has many contributing factors.  By that I mean you need to be continually eating at a caloric deficit to your basal metabolic rate for your weight to decrease.  Your body expends a certain amount of energy with everyday functions from your vital organs such as your heart, lungs, liver, nervous system, muscles and skin.  Then you need to take into account any muscle gained as well.  The same weight of fat to muscle takes up almost twice the volume of space in the body.  So you may notice small muscle gains and larger body fat loss and yet still weight the same on the scales.  At times, taking visual progress, measurements, calliper testing for body fat and even more accurate ways of measuring such as DEXA scans is more encouraging and a better way to track progress in terms of physiological changes.