These days, it would appear that you can’t look anywhere without having the word “Fiber” shoved down your throat. We know that it is good for us, but for the most part, we don’t really know why. We do have a slightly inkling that it has something to do with bowel movements, but aside from that, our knowledge is not all that great on the topic.
It would seem that studies have shown constipation being a major part of so many problems of our lives, and one way that you can help with weight loss is to use fiber to help shift some of that “dead weight” that we are storing in our bodies. Just think about it logically – if you have a whole bunch of digested food saved in your digestive system, it can’t be helping with the weight loss that you are trying to achieve. By ingesting fiber on a regular basis, you are doing your bit for your body, encouraging the digested stuff make its way out of your body, and in turn, helping you to lose a few extra pounds.
The muscles that you have within your colon need to be fit and healthy in order for them to allow food to make its way through the body, and one way in which you can help with this is, of course, going to the bathroom regularly. When you have fiber in your diet, you are encouraging your body to make regular bowel movements, and this in turn helps to build up those muscles to let them do what they do at a better rate. When you have missed out on enough fiber in your diet over prolonged periods of time, your muscles get weak and they can’t do the job that they are supposed to do which will massively affect the rate of your weight loss.
Another thing that you can do, alongside increasing the fiber in your diet, is to drink more water. You may think that eight glasses of water is a lot, but when this is mixed with the fiber in your body, it is absorbed much quicker, making the bathroom trips easier, and preventing chronic constipation. It also helps to detoxify the body, so any rubbish that is left within it is flushed out. It also helps with lubrication, so you are less likely to have digested food stored somewhere in your digestive tract that it doesn’t need to be.
Of course, drinking all that extra water is going to do so much more than help you go to the bathroom! Your skin will look better and feel softer, your body will be more hydrated so all of it will work better than it was before, and on top of these things, the amount of toxins that are within your body will be fewer. All of this combined will help with so much more than just weight loss.
Studies have shown that the average American consumes just 20grams of fiber on a daily basis. This is a very low amount – it is actually recommended that you consume around 38grams of fiber, based on an average healthy male. When you are consuming just 20 of these 38 grams, your digestive tract will take an astounding 48 hours from you eating the food, to having it pass out the other end. It’s not a nice thing to talk about, but by adding a few more grams of fiber, you are essentially speeding up this process, to allow for a better condition of digestive tract, as well as being able to shift a few pounds without really having to do anything at all.
When your food is taking that long to make its way through the body, you are running the risk of allowing toxins to do a dangerous job and making you ill. These can lead to many serious diseases and the inevitable weight gain, and in the long run, could do you more damage than you first may have thought.
Luckily, there are more than a few places from which you can get some extra fiber in your diet, and as well as looking at taking a vitamin that contains it, you should also be looking in the following places:
- Fresh fruits
- Fresh vegetables
- Whole grains
It is wise to remember that although fiber can go some way to making you feel better and look better from the inside out, it is not solely responsible for your weight gain, so if you don’t do things such as look at your diet as a whole and ensure that you are drinking enough water, the weight gain is likely to be fairly minimal. It is wise to consider taking something such as Vitamin C supplement to help get things moving along nicely, as well as revising the way you eat and exercise, which can also have a negative effect on the way that your bowels work.