20 Interesting Facts About Weight Loss

In the process of losing weight at the moment and want to learn more about it? In this article, Beauty and Tips takes a look at 20 interesting facts about weight loss.

You know you can be utterly consumed with losing weight when you start reading facts about weight loss. Or maybe you’re here for research. Either way, the subject of weight loss is a fascinating one that’s been a hot topic over the last hundred years or so in the western world. Obesity has been on the rise for decades, a new fad diet is rolled out every week, and one of the most popular New Years Resolutions is to lose weight. But do you really know about losing weight? If you’re taking a break from your weight loss regime and want to do a spot of reading, here are 20 interesting facts about weight loss.

Dubai Has An Interesting Incentive To Help People Lose Weight

We all need an incentive for losing weight. For most people, picturing themselves slender is a big enough incentive. However, other people need more tangible rewards. Perhaps a persons partner promises to take them on vacation if they lose X amount of weight, for example. In Dubai, they have an interesting incentive that helps people lose weight. Your Child In Gold is their national weight loss “contest.” For each kilogram of weight that a family’s child loses, the family is rewarded with a gram of gold. Wow. Basically, if you want to lose weight, move to Dubai first. You could become very rich.

Here Is What Happens To The Fat You Lose

Ever wondered what happens to the fat you shed? Where on earth does it go?! It’s an interesting question that very few people seem to ask – and the answer is even more interesting. Most of the fat you lose – around 85% of it – is turned into carbon dioxide, which you then exhale. IKR. So the next time you’re in the middle of the weight loss process, remember that the CO2 you’re exhaling is partly your own fat.

Cocaine Can Help You To Lose Weight

No, we are not in any way promoting the use of class A drugs. But cocaine has long been heralded as a magic cure for weight loss because it suppresses a persons appetite. In other words, when a person takes cocaine, they don’t feel like eating. Naturally, this is a pretty reckless way to lose weight, and we would hope nobody substitutes cocaine for food. Moreover, cocaine doesn’t actually help you lose weight in this way. Sure, cocaine does help you lose weight – but not be suppressing your appetite. Instead, it speeds up your metabolism, giving your system the energy it needs to shift weight. But it’s a very bad and health damaging method and we are definitely against it.

Shopping While Hungry Makes Us Fatter

We all know how it is. We write down a grocery list of really healthy food and no junk at all. Excellent! It’s just fruit, veg, grain and legumes. Amazing. We are gonna be so healthy. But then we make the mistake of going shopping on an empty belly and end up buying all the junk food because screw that shopping list full of limes, we’re starving!

Elvis Presley Was Fad Dieter

When you’re a huge rock ’n’ roll star and legend that performs in Las Vegas in front of major celebrities like Frank Sinatra, you have to make sure that you look good. Naturally, looking our best isn’t always easy, especially as we get older. Elvis – who was rumoured to have a fascination with hamburgers – was no exception. To make sure that he stayed as trim as possible, he practised what is known as the Sleeping Beauty Diet. For this one, people are sedated for a few days (yes, seriously). Why? Because sleeping people don’t eat. D’uh.

Can Cigarettes Help Us Lose Weight?

So, cocaine stimulates our metabolism, thereby helping us lose weight (we don’t recommend this method though). But what about cigarettes? Is it really true when grandma tells us they help her to shed some pound? Or is it an old wives’ tale? It’s actually a bit of marketing double speak – though it does have some truth. Back in the 1920s, cigarettes were vocally proclaimed to be a fantastic weight loss aid. In fact, one brand went so far as to proudly boast that all you needed to do was “light a Lucky and you’ll never miss a sweet that makes you fat.” In other words, cigarettes can take the place of all that candy that’s making us fat. Sounds great, but what those same advertisers weren’t telling people is that cigarettes cause all kinds of untold problems of their own…

Lord Byron Invented A Fad Diet

Lord Byron. Heard of him? He was an 18th century Romantic British poet who composed beautiful ditties, such as She Walks In Beauty. He died way too young, but his legacy remains. He’s one of the greatest poets of all time. He was also unconscionably vain and would do anything to stay pale and thin. And when we say anything, we mean eating potatoes drizzled in vinegar and all kinds of other weird foods. His bizarre diet caught on and became known as the Byron Diet. Fancy trying it?!

Lack Of Sleep Kills Our Chances Of Losing Weight

“I barely eat these days and still can’t lose weight. In fact, I think I’m putting more on! I also don’t get much sleep.” Ever heard a friend say this to you? Lack of sleep is really damaging if we’re looking to lose weight, because it messes up our hormone balance. Our production of leptin goes down, while we produce more ghrelin, triggering hunger. If you aren’t sleeping much at the moment by choice and want to lose weight, there is one easy and cheap solution – sleep more! 🙂

Watching TV Helps With Weight Loss Goals

Well, kinda. It depends what your goals are. But if you wan a burn 64 calories per hour, watch TV!

Weight Loss Pills Have Massive Disadvantages

For some, weight loss pills sound like the holy grail – the magic weight loss cure they’ve been waiting for. Nothing else worked, and nothing else sounds as easy as popping a few pills and waiting for things to happen. Awesome. But weight loss pills aren’t necessarily all they’re made out to be. For one thing, you do lose weight – but most of the time it’s just temporary. Secondly, weight loss pills come with problematic side effects that include depression and mood swings. In all honesty? They’re best avoided. Instead, it’s much better that you pay attention to the 4 basic rules of losing weight:

• 1) Eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg
• 2) Get your carbs from things like of fibre and whole grains
• 3) Eat plenty of lean protein
• 4) Avoid bad fats

The More Weight You Have, The Less Energy You Have

People who are overweight have less energy than those who are slim and slender. This figures. But even those who have, shall we say, unwanted weight tend to have a lot less energy than those who aren’t carrying much at all. There is a science behind this, and it’s that managing weight requires energy. The more weight you have, the more energy your body has to use to manage it all. When you lose weight, you get more energy, and you also find that your body is able to use oxygen more efficiently.

Here’s A Fun Fact About Soda

According to research, people who have soda in the house tends to be considerably heavier than those who don’t. Easiest way to lose weight then? Implement a soda ban.

We Eat Less Alone

Wanna lose weight? Then eat by yourself. Studies have shown that we tend to eat a lot more when we’re eating with other people – 35% more, in fact. Although no reason has been given as to why this is, if Beauty and Tips was to venture a guess, we’d say it’s because of either peer pressure (after all, who want to be the only person left with a pile of food?) or because we’re enjoying ourselves too much to stop eating – or because we’re so distracted that we end up eating more than we intended.

Breasts Are Just Fat

Ever wondered why female breasts are so soft and, well, bouncy? In texture and feel, they’re so unlike any other body part. There is a very simple reason for this, and it’s that breast are composed mostly of fat. Huh. Who’d have thought it?

Most Dieters Fail Hard

On a diet? Congrats. The bad news, however, is that most dieters fail – and fail badly. In fact, almost 97% of dieters pile back on all the pounds they lost. Some even pile on more pounds. The only good news here is that it takes at least three years to regain all we’ve lost. Yay?

What’s The Deal With Diet Soda?

We see it all the time – people drinking diet soda instead of full fat soda, and telling us how much healthier it is. “I drink diet soda, I’m basically a health freak.” Um. Not quite. Maybe you drink diet soda too. But we’ve got some bad news: Diet soda is no where near as healthy as a lot of people like to think it is. Okay, so it doesn’t contain sugar. But it does contain sweetener, which is just as bad for your teeth – and for weight gain. See, there was a study which found that drinking just one can of diet soda every day can increase your risk of obesity by a massive 41%. The best thing to do is avoid sodas altogether. Try to drink more water, smoothies or freshly squeezed juices. Once you change your diet like this, you’ll never want to go back to diet soda ever again.

The Amount We Spend On Diets Is Insane

Food companies make a lot of money – and so do dieting companies. The more we eat, the more we need/want to diet. One ofinteresting facts about weight loss is that it’s now estimated that Americans spent more than $60,000,000,000 on dieting in 2012. That’s an insane amount of money that’s rising year on year. America is easily the most problematic western country when it comes to obesity. But just think about it for a second – we spend a huge amount of money on eating less. How does that work?! It’s because so many of us subscribe to fad diets and gimmicks. We splash the cash on supplements and believe what advertisers tell us. Does any of it work? Some of it does. The problem is that everyone’s body is different. What worked for one person won’t necessarily work for someone else. As a result, we spend a lot of money finding the diet that works for us.

Fat Cells Exist Everywhere Except …

Those pesky fat cells! They literally get everywhere. They’re under our chins, on our neck, in our bellies and on our thighs! We can’t get rid of them! Is there anywhere they aren’t?! Surprisingly – yes. There aren’t many places where fat cells haven’t invaded, but a man’s intimate bit, as well as your groin, your oesophagus and your eyelids are also fat free. We dread to think what would happen if fat ever reached our eyelids. It doesn’t bear thinking about!

We Don’t All Have The Same Amount Of Fat Cells

“Of course we don’t all have the same amount of fat cells,” you might say. “People who hold more weight obviously have more fat cells.” Actually, this isn’t quite true. Fat cells are developed during childhood, but stop at adolescence. Even if you put on a lot of extra weight, you won’t necessarily develop more fat cells. However, we don’t all have the same amount of fat cells. Some actually have twice as many as others.

And Fat Cells NEVER Die

Here is the thing about fat cells: There are lots of them and you can’t kill ‘em. We can deflate them, but they’re always there, ready for a refill. HUH.

Do you know other interesting facts about weight loss?

Stay happy!

from Beauty And Tips Magazine