Monday, December 13, 2010

Eating more is the key

Everything I've read talks about how we must eat more to lose weight. This is all because of our metabolism. We must keep it going all day because that is the key to weight loss. In my P90X newsletter I read an article entitled "Eat More, Lose More (Really?)", written by Justine Holberg. The article starts out with how we work out and see the scales going down, but then we hit some kind of plateu affect and the numbers on the scale are not going up nor are they going down, this is when we start to restrategize what it is that we are doing. Holberg says we start second guessing ourselves, thinking we are eating too much and not working out hard enough. Before calling it quits Holberg suggests that we ask ourselves a few questions and try to change it up the opposite way. Instead of lowing your food intake and uping your workout, try it vice versa, eat more and work out the same as before (so vice versa, kind of).

Ask yourself are you eating enough. Contrary to much belief sometimes you need to eat more to lose the weight. Here is why according to Holberg's article.

1.) Metabolism is the key to weight loss
"If you don't eat enough, or often enough, your metabolism slows to a crawl and weight loss becomes more difficult, especially when you're exercising. That's why skipping meals isn't a good idea if the goal is to shed pounds."

Tip: Make sure you eat breakfast, that is going to kickstart your metabolism and be sure to eat mini meals to keep it going throughout the day.

2.) To keep your metabolism up, you have to eat.
"Conventional wisdom dictates that when you first start dieting, the less you eat, the better. While it's true that you often should eat less, eating too little can backfire over time. As your body composition changes, your body will think it's starving, which can make it hold on to fat. (The process actually has to do with excessive release of a hormone called cortisol, but you don't need to know the details, so we'll just call it fat.) To avoid this, most experts agree that over time, you shouldn't eat fewer than 1,200 calories per day for women, 1,500 for men. If your daily diet consists of fewer calories than that, consider eating more."

Tip: Keep a food diary to track calories.

3.) You need more calories when you work out.
"If you're exercising while following a low-calorie eating plan, you'll need to take into account the calories you're burning. That's because it's now easier to enter starvation mode. Let's say you're burning 400 calories and only eating 1,200 to 1,300 calories per day. This means you're really only taking in 800 to 900 calories per day before you begin to calculate how your body composition is changing. Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does, so as your body changes, you need to eat more to keep the weight loss coming."

Tip: "Drink an after-workout recovery drink like. After hard workouts, its calories are utilized so quickly by your body, some people refer to them as "free calories." They aren't, but they will ensure your muscles; hence, your metabolism will recover quickly." Also remember this: "Figuring out to what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat isn't easy. That's why people often refer to losing weight as a journey. It takes a few different paths to get there. Sometimes you have to adjust your ratio of protein, fat, and carbs to start losing again. Or adjust your calorie level, which can include eating more to lose weight."

One thing you might be wondering is this, why is it that I know skinny people who barely eat anything? Well the answer to that is simple, they are starving themselves. And it's true you too can lose weight by not eating eventually, but you will be starving yourself and ruining your metabolism in the process so instead of being win win, it is more like lose lose, you lose weight you're going to gain right back and ruin your metabolism. "Reduce calories enough and your body will start breaking down its muscle tissue, and this will result in weight loss," said Holberg. "However, it makes your body increase its emergency hormonal responses, which also causes your body to be stressed and hang onto fat, making it very easy to gain the weight back again."



Holberg finishes the article by suggesting that we take into consideration what she has said.

"So I hope you take you take this thought away with you today: The idea is to keep your metabolism revving and running. This will help you get healthy and stay strong. Eat the right amount of food to help your body continuously burn calories and you're more likely to shed those unwanted pounds."

I haven't eaten as much as I should since I've had this surgery and part of that is because the antibiotics that I have taken have made me throw up so I've lost a lot of the calories that I've taken in. I took the last of my antibiotics yesterday so now I can hopefully eat more normally than I have been since Nov. 29. So last night I had a boo boo, but a slight one. I was starving because I hadn't eaten hardly anything all day. It was late and I needed to take my last pill, but I knew I would have to eat something or I would get really sick so on my way home from doing laundry I stopped at Braums and got a sixth pound hamburger. I know it isn't something that I can do all the time, but I figured I did it better than normal. Instead of getting the combo (with the soda and fries) I just got the burger and I also did not add cheese. One more thing in most of the the combo meals it is a 1/3 pound hamburger and I got the 1/6 pound.

Finals are this week and I am kind of stressed out. I normally exercise a little to get rid of the stress, but I can't do it this week until after my stitches are out (which is Thursday and my final is Wednesday). So if you have any healthy ideas about how to unstress please let me know.

4 comments:

  1. Girl i think this post was meant for me.
    We haven't had a chance to chat lately but I started going to a dietitian a few weeks ago. He put me on a 1,200 calorie diet, briskly walking 4-5 days a week, and taking b12 shots and phentermine. I immediatly started loosing weight, but not as quickly as a woman i knew who is on the exact same program (same doc) as me. I also seem to have stopped loosing at all now. I have been so frustrated, you have no idea. I have been working my butt off and everyone else seems to be doing better than me. Well, I think your post today may have answered my question. Even though my doc told me that 1200 calories a day is what it takes to sustain a 150 lbs person (what I want to be), I have been so afraid to reach that calorie goal. Most days I have only been eating around 900-1000 calories (sometimes even less). So, i am going to try now and stay right around 1200 or a bit over everyday and see if that makes a difference. We will test your article's accuracy! lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well if this helped at all I feel as if my job is done here...lol. I had no idea you were going to a dietician. No, but seriously go you! I hope that everything works out with you and that you reach your goal. Keep me posted on how things are going.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I applaud you for improving. A lifestyle change is what people have to do when they want to keep the weight off so baby steps are the way to go! Plus if you don't let yourself have a little bit of normal you can burn out a lot faster.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you ma'am! I was doing much better about all of this pre surgery, so once I get this drain and these stitches out it's hardcore time again once more :)

    ReplyDelete