So You Want A Sexy Body?

So you want a great body that will get you the guy or girl of your dreams.

I don’t blame you. Since 90% of our thinking is unconscious, when people see that you look great they naturally begin to think good things about you.

While, losing weight isn’t rocket science. It’s simply calories in against calories out. But keeping it off can feel like flying to the moon.

The longer you can stick it out, the more likely you will have long term success. All those fancy diets do little more than reduce calories with eating plans that suit different lifestyles.

The more like rocket science your diet feels, the less likely you will stick it out, say Cognitive scientists from Indiana University and Berlins Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Surely we didn’t need scientists to tell us that.

Yet we have charts and calculators to count points, GI or calories. You almost need a science degree.

could it be this simple?

A patient who switched from regular soda to diet lost 75 pounds, said clinical associate professor in the Nutrition and Dietetics Department at the IUPUI School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Sara Blackburn.

Reducing your calories by 500 a day allows for a one-pound per week weight loss, she said.

Of course, to be healthy you need good nutrition too. Yet getting an overweight teen to drink one less can of Coke a day can have noticeable results. Then he has a chance of being inspired to improve more.

Then there are those who think by doing a exercise they can burn off a huge meal. It takes hours to burn off what you can mindlessly eat in 30 seconds.

Regardless of how easy a diet is, if it looks complicated, keeping track of quantities and items eaten, it subjectively appears harder, concluded the German research.

They recruited 390 dieters from German-language Internet chat rooms and followed their progress with two diet plans. Brigitte, a popular cognitively simple German recipe diet that provides shopping lists and Weight Watchers that has a point value system.

Even people who pride themselves on will power are affected.

“Even if you believe you can succeed, thinking that the diet is cognitively complex can undermine your efforts,” said psychology professor Jutta Mata of Stanford University, who researched the study with Professor Peter Todd.

This is why little changes can give big results.

“The whole point is to look at what you’re eating,” said Blackburn.”When you start looking at your portions, that’s when you can see where the extra calories are.”

Nutrients found in a variety of foods are needed to maintain healthy. The problem is that many diets reduce one food group, and may result in a decrease the range of our vitamin intake.

For instance, cutting back on milk would also mean reducing calcium and vitamin D, which are both important nutrients for bone health.

The February 2006 Woman’s Health Initiative study showed that diets lower in fat did not significantly reduce the incidence of breast cancer, heart disease or stroke, and did not reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in healthy post-menopausal women.

Blackburn recommends the newly revised food pyramid, which you can download here.

The pyramid helps people determine how many calories they should consume each day and the number of selections from the various food groups needed every day, she said. She also recommends seeing a dietician.

“There is a synergistic relationship between foods that you eat and nutrients they provide,” Blackburn said. “If you have a well-balanced diet, and include a variety of foods, then you’ll meet the body’s nutritional needs.”

Besides, didnt the people from PETA remind us that vegetarians have better sex?

‘Veggie Love’: PETA’s Banned Super Bowl Ad

This is why she criticizes the Atkins diet and dairy free diets as unhealthy in the long run.

“Low fat diets are a choice, and when you make that choice you have to make up for the nutrients that are missing.”

The challenge is making it simple and achievable – and using your environment to advantage.

If food is a little harder to reach – if it’s out of site, or must be prepared – it becomes that little bit harder. Then we unconsciously begin to evaluate if eating is worth the effort.

So rather than just stick it out on will power alone, you can smart diet instead.

A complex diet could be more attractive, if it allows more flexibility, said Mata, but people “should evaluate how difficult they find doing the calculations and monitoring their consumption.”

“If they find it very difficult, the likelihood that they will prematurely give up the diet is higher and they should try to find a different plan.”