Wednesday, April 22, 2009

How to sabatoge your weightloss goals without even putting food in your mouth!!

So watching Biggest Loser last night I saw something that really hit home. And I needed to talk about it. But first let me set the background. (If you watched then you probably know what I am talking about). Bob asked his group to create video log of what they eat for a day. So they did it, thinking they were doing so good. But Bob reamed them for eating too little.

Unfortunately people get so hung up on eating less that we some how skip over this ver
y important fact and sabotage ourselves by not giving ourselves enough food-

You must eat because your body needs fuel

I know it sounds simple yet contradictory to weight loss but lets take a look at how this fits into the car analogy. If I overload on fuel, I will have too much and extra weight will not allow my car to function optimally. But if I don't have enough fuel, I will not be able to get where I need to go.

Your body has a minimal amount of energy it needs throughout the day. If you do not meet this energy need, your body will start breaking down muscle for fuel. This is not what we want. If you do this, I can promise you will end up with a "skinny-fat" look. You will be thinner than you were before, but you can count on flabby arms, flabby thighs a
nd the dreaded "cankles." Who wants that?? This happens because your body breaks down muscle and leaves the fat behind.

There is a very detailed cause for this but suffice it to say, protein offers a quicker energy source than fat. So when your body needs fuel quickly and has no energy from food, it will cannibalize muscle.

So take the
estimated number of calories you need (find it here) and multiply by .8. This will give you how many calories you should be eating to lose weight through diet alone. If we increase activity levels, we will see even a greater deficit and before you know it the fat starts dropping off and the muscle stays.

It's simple but not easy. You can do it and remember, summer is on its way. There are no substitutes for hard work and perseverance.

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