Most of you have probably heard or read that statement before, but immediately went “yeah right!”, and never took the time to find where this so called “fact” was coming from. Don’t feel bad cause that’s what most people do. But now is your chance to find out!
Here’s the deal. Your body is all about one thing…survival. It does not care what you look like. It only cares about doing what is needed to survive. It makes these decisions based on the daily decisions you make in regards to your physical activity, and your intake of calories. Oooh…there is that evil word, “calories”! It is evil, right?…Not necessarily. The big counting calorie fad has brain washed everyone into thinking that if they take in less calories, it means weight loss. Wrong. Here’s why:
There are a couple of things related to your caloric intake that will make you gain fat weight:
#1. How often you eat.
#2. The amount of calories that you take in.
Let’s start with #1. Most people eat 3 times a day…Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This routine has been burned into our minds by society as the normal way to eat. Let’s say breakfast is at 6am, lunch is at 12pm, and dinner is 6pm. This sounds like a decent day of eating right…?…Well it would be if it were not for the fact that your body goes into “starvation mode” about every 3 hours! That’s right…Your body has a starvation mode, or what i like to call a “caveman mode”. Back in the caveman days, they would eat maybe once every day or two, until they found the next giant lizard to take down! (yes, i watch too much TV) So their body’s would store fuel as fat to use later, and start eating it’s own muscle fiber to convert to fuel and use until the next meal came along. That is how it survived…and why all of the depictions you see of what a caveman looks like, is more or less a hairy cantaloupe with arms and legs sticking out of it! (nice image, huh?) Well your body today still has this caveman mode, except it kicks in about every 3 hours, as that is when your body needs more fuel to operate. If you do not give it what it needs, it freaks out and goes into caveman mode and tries to preserve itself by storing fat and eating the muscle. Now here’s the problem with it eating muscle. Not only are you losing the nice look lean muscle brings to the table, but lean muscle mass helps burn fat and calories by creating “muscle metabolism”. So the more lean muscle you have, the more it’s gonna raise your metabolism, and burn fat. Ok…So with that in mind, if your body is eating your muscle fiber to use as fuel, then that means you are losing your fat burner, which means you are going to gain more fat weight! This is in addition to the fact that your body has already gone into caveman mode, and storing fat. So now you have a double negative! Hence the snowball fat gaining affect has begun. When you prove to your body that there is a constant source of food available, it will come out of caveman mode, and go back to using fat for fuel, and preserving muscle. This is where the statement “you should eat 5 to 6 times a day” comes from. Because if you ate every 3 hours (i.e: 6am Breakfast, 9am snack, 12pm lunch, 3pm snack, 6pm dinner & 9pm snack) you would prove to your body there is no food shortage, drive your metabolism up, retain muscle fiber, and ultimately burn fat and lose weight.
Now, let’s move on to #2… the amount of calories you take in each day. Say that you start eating 5 to 6 times a day to drive up your metabolism…cool!…But that doesn’t mean you have solved the problem. Because if you are eating like a bird 5 to 6 times a day, you are not going to be taking in enough calories, and your body is going to retain fat yet again. There is a thing called “Basal Metabolic Rate”. This is the amount of calories your body needs each day just to function internally…things like running your heart, liver, kidneys, etc…Anything past opening your eyes to get out of bed each morning requires more calories to operate. So let’s just say that your BMR is 1500 calories a day. If you only take in 1000 calories a day, then that makes you 500 calories short. Because your body is all about survival, it’s gonna find the 500 calories. And guess where it gets it from? Yep, your muscle fiber. Your body will eat the muscle fiber it needs to make up the difference in the calories. And we already know what happens when you are losing muscle fiber! So you not only need to eat 5 to 6 times a day, but you have to make sure that you are getting the right amount of calories! To many calories makes your body store fat, and so does to few calories. And they need to be “clean” calories…You can’t eat Mickey D’s all day long and expect to lose weight! There is a sweet spot for the amount of calories to take in if you are trying to lose weight. And the answer may be closer than you think. You just have to do a little research.
You didn’t get overweight overnight, and you are not going to lose it overnight either. Remember you have to prove to your body that this new influx of food is the new norm before it let’s it’s guard down. Consistency and patients are how you get results. Want to lose weight…?…you gotta eat!
Fitness Nutrition Coach
Lifestyle & Weight Management Coach
Personal Fitness Chef
