How Starving Yourself Is Making You Fat

The general rule for managing your weight is energy (calories) in, energy (calories) out. It only makes sense to think that if you want to lose weight, you should just stop eating, right? Wrong! First of all. let me be the first to admit that I have tried this approach. I'm not gonna lie....If you do the whole "starve yourself thin" approach to weight loss, initially you WILL lose weight. The reality, though, is that you are not doing your metabolism any favors, and the weight loss WILL come to a very abrupt halt when your body goes into survival mode.

Our bodies are smart. The problem is, we tend to rely more on what our brain is trying to trick us into doing, and less on what our body is telling us it needs. Here is what you may not realize about body fat. Body fat is a form of energy storage for our bodies. Whatever your body doesn't use, it stores it away for later. When you starve yourself for weight loss, your body will go into starvation mode. This is how it defends itself, and this is what you do not want to have happen. In order to conserve energy, your metabolism will slow down, and your weight loss will stop dead in it's tracks. What happens is, you have told your body that it may not get anymore food for awhile, so it now thinks it has to fight to hang onto every bit of fat and calories it DOES have. When you starve yourself, you will eventually crack and binge eat on the heaviest, most unhealthy, and most dense food you can get your hands on. Now, since your body thinks it may not get another meal for awhile, it is going to store THIS food as fat also. Now you're in a vicious cycle.

If you are trying to lose or maintain weight, you have to take care of your metabolism. You have eat! Only, you have to eat right.... By feeding your body several small, healthy, snack/meals a day, it doesn't have to continue to store up the calories that you do give it, because you have trained it to rely on the next meal for it's energy. It knows there will be more food coming, giving it the green light to use up what you are giving it. This is when your metabolism really works for you. Your body is a smart piece of equipment. You can't outsmart it. It doesn't matter what the number on the scale is, if you are not feeding your body properly, it will store all it gets as fat. This is why we have saddle bags, love handles, muffin tops, etc. Our DNA determines how and where our bodies store fat. This is why you can't target fat loss. If you want real results, you have to go back to the basics of living a healthy lifestyle. Eating small, healthy meals several times a day, and exercising. There are no shortcuts.

So many people react to an upcoming event, ie. swimsuit season, vacation, reunion etc., with the attitude of omg I have waited until the last possible minute to get into the shape I want for                 (fill in the blank). I believe this is where the majority of starvation diets stem from. In their despair, they take drastic action and hope for drastic results. But, drastic action will only get you further from where you want to be, and leave you right back at square one when you are staring the next "event" in the face. Stop doing this! Healthy living isn't about what you show up looking like to your best friends' wedding. Healthy living is what you look and feel like 365 days a year. It is what you practice as your general lifestyle. Anyone can go on a diet and lose weight. It is how you got there and how you stay there that defines your health and fitness as a whole. 

If you are trying to lose fat, the scales will not be your best friend. I encourage you to put them away and buy yourself a tape measure and a camera. You can't monitor fat loss with scales. If you try to do this, you WILL be disappointed. Also, it is important for you to get fat burning foods into your diet. Some foods I recommend to help with your fat loss are; beans, fiber, antioxidants, tea, and lots and lots of water. This is not a quick process. When fat loss is your goal, you must have patience. I only pray that you adopt this a permanent lifestyle, so that you can enjoy the benefits of healthy living every day of the year. When you can finally look at health and fitness for what it truly is, your life will never be the same. If I can help you with how to get started on a healthy journey, please feel free to email me. I am always more than happy to help get you started.

On an unrelated note....If you don't know me well, you may not know that I am an airhead. It used to frustrate me, some of the stupid things I do. Now, I find humor in my own screw ups and laugh at myself often. I thought it could be fun to share a moment from time to time, so here it is. I am not the best cook. I can bake way better than I can use the stove. I believe this is because I lack patience. This morning, I was boiling some eggs to have on hand as a good protein snack. Because I have issues standing over things when they are on the stove, I typically get distracted and leave the room. While my eggs were boiling away, I totally forgot I was cooking anything, until I kept hearing a strange sound from the other room. My first "airhead" thought was, "something is NOT right with my washing machine!" But because I was too wrapped up in what I was doing, I didn't bother to check it out. Several minutes later, I began to smell my boiling eggs. I ran to the kitchen to see if they had boiled over, or finished cooking, and there was not a drop of water in the pot. Yes, my washing machine is fine. I do, however, have some lovely hard fried eggs to snack on now. Surely they're edible, right? I guess I will find out! And this is what it looks like when you hard fry eggs.....