You Must Eat
I do not like diets. I promised myself years ago that I would never diet again. I have conned myself into dieting again since then and was not able to lose the couple pounds that I was trying to lose. I then went back to sensible eating only to lose the pounds with no trouble and told myself “I told you not to diet!”. Restricting calories or eating strange foods just to lose weight only leads to problems. There are no quick fixes.
Understanding how your metabolism works will really help you on your journey towards health. When I learned how my metabolism worked it opened a huge door for me. The body works like a machine. I like to think of it like a car. You put fuel in and it burns the fuel. Unfortunately it is not exactly like a car. Once your car runs out of gas it just stops. The human body is more advanced. If we are out of fuel or don’t get the right fuel we can still keep going to a certain extent. We don’t realize that our bodies are “out of gas”.
The human body is made for survival so we can get by on little substance. However because the body has a sort of mind of its own when it gets little fuel it believes that it is starving. What it will do then is conserve energy. What little food you do give it, it will not burn as quickly. It will store some of the food and slow you down. This is what a slow metabolism is.
After a while of eating a very low calorie diet you will notice that your body may start to gain weight. Or you will want to stop restricting yourselves because it is just too hard to not eat as much as our bodies need. We then start to eat normally again. We start to eat normally but because the body went into starvation mode we still have a slow metabolism. Now you going to put the weight back on because your metabolism has slowed down. Then you will actually gain more weight even though you are eating the same as you did before you dieted!
It is not just teaching your body to slow the metabolism because you are in starvation mode. When we eat too little we also lose muscle. Muscle is a huge factor in burning energy. When we have less muscle we are not able to burn as much energy. This is why I strongly encourage weight lifting in someone’s health plan. The more muscle you have the more calories your body can handle.
We have been drilled that if you want to lose weight you must eat less. You must stop this thinking. If you are eating too much by going out to eat often, choosing fast foods, and taking second and third helpings of your meals, then yes, you must eat less but never ever starve yourself. I am talking to the people that don’t eat enough when you are trying to lose weight. Never eat less than what your body needs. How much does your body need? That is a good question. It is different for everyone. This will be a process for you to learn on your own. How fast your metabolism is, how much energy you use, what size you are and what you eat all contribute to how much you do need to eat.
Trial and error is the only way. Start with three balanced meals a day and a couple healthy snacks. Listen to your body as well. Are you starving at mealtimes? Then you may need to eat more. Are you full at meal times? Then eat a bit less or eat more fruits and veggies. Then weigh yourself every few days or once a week. When you start to actually pay attention you will soon know how much your body needs on a daily basis.
The bottom line is of course you can’t overeat, however you can’t eat too little as well. We need good foods that feed our bodies to give us the energy to have a fulfilled life. Eat a whole, clean and balanced diet.