How Undereating Causes Weight Gain

To Lose Weight - Eat More Food?

In Issue No. 3, we talked about exercise, and how movement is essential in the weight loss equation. Now we'll discuss the importance of food, and why undereating is just as harmful as overeating.

Your brain perceives the latest fad diet as a famine. What happens in times of famine? Your brain slows everything down to a crawl, and reduces the flame of your internal furnace (metabolism) to its lowest possible level so as to conserve fuel. It's like a smart furnace which knows the wood supply is short, so it burns less.

Every time you diet (deprive your body of it's minimum required calories), your metabolism slows down. If you diet and stop, diet and stop, eventually the brain will assume the famine is an ongoing thing and won't rev the furnace back up as well. You will have turned down your thermostat permanently. If you eat less than 1,500 calories but cannot seem to lose weight, the problem is likely your metabolism has slowed down.

What's To Do If You've Dieted Yourself Into Low Metabolism

Eat more good food. Yup, that's right, it is food which fuels the furnace, and once the brain realizes the fuel supply is constant, it will turn up the heat. The worst thing you can do is reduce your calorie intake even lower, and that is where the dieting industry is failing. Diets that suggest 1,000 calories a day should be outlawed. They are simply going to add to the problem, and do not work. Most adult females require at least 1,500 calories and most adult males 2,200 calories.

Have you ever noticed how thin people seem to be able to eat whatever they want, and not gain weight? They'll gain weight, same as you, if they overeat consistently, but they generally both have adopted the pattern of eating when they are hungry, saying no when they are not, and pushing the plate away when they are satisfied. The reason the thin person eats more than you is their metabolism is working properly. The more you eat at a healthy level for your size and activity level, and the more you move (exercise, or just daily living movement), the higher your resting metabolism will go.

I work with a lot of people who think I'm insane to propose they eat more, but once they start, they find they can lose weight without the deprivation and struggle. Underfeeding yourself leads to nothing but a lowered metabolism.

Why it Seems You're Always Hungry

Hunger - It's Only Natural

All living creatures, plants, animals and man, must eat to live. Nature has a built-in manner of ensuring we eat enough and that is the state of hunger. Hunger is our natural state, while the absence of hunger is temporary.

People say, "I don't eat breakfast because it just makes he hungry a little while later." Well, duh! That's the state of being human. It is not something to be feared or avoided. Hunger is normal. The absence of hunger is a sign of serious illness. Did you know medical marijuana is suggested for AIDs patients because it helps create an appetite? It's hard to eat enough food without an appetite. Without an appetite (hunger) the body withers and dies.

People are anxiously awaiting the day we discover a pill that takes away our hunger, but then what? Will you stop eating chips and dip just because you aren't hungry, or do you eat them without waiting for hunger now? How often do you wait until you are actually hungry to eat? Unless you can honestly say you don't eat unless you are hungry, the kill hunger pill won't do any good. Even in the absence of hunger, most of us just eat anyway.

Pros & Cons of Green Tea for Weight Loss

It's been reported that regular green tea drinkers (14 or more cups per week) have been shown to have a reduced risk of heart attack, have a greater bone density, and tend to weigh less than those not drinking tea, so should you rush out to try green tea?

Before you rush out to buy some, there's also evidence to support that green tea contains unhealthy levels of fluoride which may be harmful over the long-term to certain individuals, especially those with thyroid difficulties. A well researched article by Andreas Schuld, of Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children (PFPC) demonstrates why it's a good idea to research claims made for any product, especially those touted as being worthwhile for weight loss. Then, you can make an informed decision.

Fat Free vs. Regular

The small calorie difference would be helpful except for the fact that most people, thinking fat free means reduced calorie, will actually eat more of the reduced version. Don't be mislead. If you buy a reduced fat version, keep to a reasonable portion size.

Milk and dairy is your best place to win with reduced fat versions. I think of whole milk as pure cream since I'm so used to drinking nonfat milk. In fact, if I run out of milk, I'll just put water on my cereal.

If you don't think you can do it, then just start slowly and wean yourself off whole fat milk products. Either that or stop using milk entirely, your choice. Start with mixing half whole milk with half 3%, or some variation thereof. The only thing to get used to is the color isn't as pure white in low fat milks, and it's not as creamy.

I prefer low-fat yogurt to nonfat, so learn your own preferences, but get away from full fat dairy! Nonfat cottage cheese, nonfat sour cream, and nonfat cream cheese are all excellent. I've never tried reduced fat hard cheese and probably wouldn't bother since I don't have dishes with cheese often enough for it to matter.

Back in the day when I first was learning to change some of my eating habits I would smear nonfat plain yogurt on bread (thinly because I didn't want to actually taste it) just to give the white color and appearance of mayonnaise. That's how firmly ingrained some of our habits can be. It wasn't that I had to have mayo, but I did seem to need that color on the bread, else, I'd feel deprived. Dumb, I know, but do what you have to do. After awhile I realized I didn't need to do it anymore, but it helped me to get started and that's what mattered.

Lose Weight While You Sleep

Have you wondered how those Lose Weight While You Sleep products actually work? It's no mystery. Read the package insert where they say: "No food for three hours before bedtime." Wow, there's an idea we hadn't thought of. The product itself is worthless, but if you follow the package insert's advice you will get a good result.

If you're a nighttime snacker and you did nothing more than stop eating in the evening, that would do it. Most nonstop evening eating is simply a hand-to-mouth habit. Similar to the hand-to-mouth motions of a smoker (and partly why smokers believe it is so hard to quit), it is outside of your consciousness, and seems to happen by itself.

Most likely you aren't even hungry, although you can by tricked into thinking you are by watching commercials for tasty looking snacks and restaurants. Just the sight of thought of food can get the gastric juices going and that starts the bodily process of digestion. If no food is present, hunger signals start. It's a vicious cycle and partly why it seems to difficult to break this habit.

Recently the FTC sued Mark Nutritionals for falsely claiming their Body Solutions Evening Weight Loss Formula would allow one to lose weight without changing their eating habits or exercising. Mark Nutritionals made in excess of $190 million in sales since 1999. Not bad for a worthless product but sad for the people who wasted their money.

How Much Exercise to Get Fit?

A study published in the 1997 September, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, determined how much exercise was necessary to maintain weight loss. They concluded that 80 minutes of moderate or 35 minutes of vigorous activity were needed.

Remember all activity counts, so if you do strenuous activities such as house cleaning, sweeping, vacuuming, etc. if you run up and down stairs, if you roll around with your kids on the floor, it all counts. Exercise doesn't just mean going to the gym. Exercise your right to a healthier lifestyle and just play more.

Remember, start at the beginning. These figures are just general guidelines, and if you can manage just five minutes exercise, then that is where you start.

Fitness Within - Weight Loss Forum

I came across this great forum just last week, FitnessWithin.com [no longer available]. People there seem to be genuinely interested in pursuing fitness first, with weight loss as a secondary benefit of a healthier lifestyle. I'm moderating the Non-dieting forum too!

Home Exercises - Chair Squats

Depending on your physical abilities, standing up and back down into a chair can be an effective exercise.

Use a kitchen chair (straight back type), and sit down, keeping your back straight.

1. Sit as far as necessary on the edge of the chair, and put your weight onto your feet.
2. Raise yourself back up to standing using your legs, and pushing up using your thighs (front upper leg), glutes (rear-end) and hamstrings (back of legs), so the movement comes from your legs, rather than your back.
3. Next lower yourself back to sitting, holding your body weight in your legs as long as possible before you hit the chair.
4. Raise and lower yourself eight to ten times for a set.
5. Work yourself up to three sets, and you've just done a leg workout, while sitting and watching TV!

Use your hands for balance if you need to, and build up to doing Chair Squats twice a week.

TRIVIA BITS:

Beer was not sold in bottles until 1850. Before then, a person went to the local tavern with a bucket or a pot made specially for holding beer, had it filled, and then carried it home.

What is PEZ and where did they come from?

Sites of Interest

VegSource - Vegetarian and Vegan recipes. If you're making an effort to eat more protein and relying on meat or cheese sources, consider vegetable protein sources as well. Far less fat, far healthier for you than bacon (shudder), you'll find weight loss is far easier when you go vegi! Forget the argument that vegetarian protein sources aren't a "complete" protein. Your body isn't a science project and it's just not that complicated to feed yourself well.

'Til next time, eat and enjoy life.
Stop waiting until you're thinner, taller, richer - Do it Now!

Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP
OneMoreBite-WeightLoss.com