Most overweight people eat less than thin people. That doesn’t seem to make sense, but it’s true. The problem lies in how the body can burn or use the calories from the food we eat. Thinner people simply burn more calories or energy than obese people.
Diets don’t work. Ask anyone who is overweight and they will tell you how many hundreds of pounds they have lost in their lifetime. The problem is that they gained the weight back after going off the diet and probably added even more pounds. The idea is to change your body chemistry, or metabolism, so you can eat more of certain foods and less of others, and end up losing weight and, more importantly, body fat.
Your muscles need a constant supply of energy, and most of it, 60 to 70 percent, comes from fat. It is normal and natural for your body to store fat as a source of energy for your muscles. Overweight people simply store more fat than they burn and end up getting fat.
Men and women need a different percentage of body fat to be considered healthy. Women should have a maximum of 22 percent fat, while men are at their sweet spot at 12 to 15 percent fat. Every body is different, so you have to see what feels natural to you.
So being overweight is actually more about being overweight. We often confuse weight with fat and have a distorted view of what we should weigh. By choosing the right foods we can lose weight and lose fat.