Author: Konstantin Monastyrsky

The core market for weight-loss diets in the United States is created by publishing conglomerates and charismatic medical doctors who are willing to tell prospective readers what they want to hear – that you can lose weight quickly and effortlessly by buying and following their books. All of these “quickie” diets share the same common …

Above all, a no-fail weight loss diet must contain less energy than your body expends throughout the day, otherwise you aren’t going to lose fat or may even gain more. Any time you encounter a weight loss plateau or rebound, this is an indication that you are consuming more calories than your body is expending on energy and …

Provided the opportunity, most adults will overeat, however unconsciously, to store energy as fat. Also, given a chance, most adults will stay put to preserve energy (stored as fat) rather than move around to waste it. In practical terms, these two intrinsic biological traits – storage and preservation of energy – mean that weight loss …

Your body casually switches from one metabolic state to another between meals, during intentional or accidental starvation, and under extreme workload or stress. This metabolic duality is very much like a hybrid engine — the moment it runs out of electricity (foods in humans), it switches over to gasoline (fat in humans), and keeps running, running, …

There are four prominent endocrine and metabolic disorders that not only contribute to obesity, but also make weight loss difficult. These conditions – “bad metabolism,” hypothyroidism, an underactive thyroid, and “adrenal fatigue” – are frequently misdiagnosed by doctors, or incorrectly self-diagnosed by patients. As a result, healthy people may think that they have them, while truly …

One gram of fat is indisputably one gram of fat, but analyzing nine calories in the same gram – not so simple. Ditto for proteins and carbohydrates. This ambiguity in the relative role of calories in weight loss (or weight gain) explains why even siblings consuming similar diets may respond to them differently, let alone …

Successful weight loss is a challenging journey, no doubt about it. In fact, it may be just as challenging as walking solo from New York to Los Angeles, and for many it may take even longer. Would you take either journey without having a clue how long it is going to take? Well, neither would I. …