Many people have lost weight using some form of Atkins, or other extreme low-carb, diet
. Rapid weight loss
that involves high-fat, formerly forbidden foods may sound too good to be true. “You mean I can eat bacon, eggs, steak and hamburgers and lose weight, and all I have to do is leave off the bun?” It sounds too good to be true.
People will forever be looking for a magic potion. And yes, people initially lose weight on this diet and, for that matter, on most diets. But, weight loss has less to do with the food consumed during the diet and more to do with people becoming conscious of what and how much they are eating.
We lose weight when we burn more calories than we consume. Period. I remember when I used to read on-line reviews of Turbo Jam or Turbo Kick. There were always those who offered negative reviews because THEY hadn’t lost as much weight as they had hoped. In some cases, they had gained weight. Of course, anyone with common sense knows that there is no form of exercise that will make you gain weight. There is only one thing that will slow your weight loss or cause you to gain weight: EXCESS CALORIES.
Those who follow a strict diet plan—even one that doesn’t include calorie counting—will find they are limited in the amount of food choices available. This regimen results in a reduction of calories. The reduction of calories and sugar consumption results in weight loss. Deny yourself certain foods or create too great a deficit of calories and over time the weight is often regained.
The most commonly followed and least helpful diets:
THE HALF-DAY STARVATION DIET:
Another popular form of diet is what I call the “half-day starvation” diet. Those who follow this plan skip breakfast. They start their day with coffee or caffeine and make it past lunch with just a handful of grapes or half a bag of M&M’s. By late afternoon, the body senses a famine in the making, slips into a starvation protection mode, thus storing fat and slowing the calorie burn to accommodate the lack of nutrition coming in. Half-day starvation is a popular form of weight control that many women learn, and have some success with during their teens and early 20’s. As they gain weight and continue to resort to this torturous eating practice, they find it loses its effectiveness; and what used to facilitate weight loss now seems fruitless. The half-day starvation method is very common in overweight people, those who have high-stress jobs, and chronic dieters. By 3 pm, they can’t take it anymore. The hunger and fatigue are overwhelming. The only comfort seems to be large quantities of simple carbohydrates!
When questioned, they often explain, “I normally don’t eat all day until I’m home after work, or when the kids get out of school.” They describe feeling in control of their hunger until late afternoon, sometimes even forgetting that it’s lunch. By mid-afternoon, they feel run down, weak and suddenly famished. The hunger is so strong now it seems that only a simple carbohydrate snack will do the trick! Those who deny themselves meals or “planned food” make the following mistakes:
1. They consume high-fat, high-carbohydrate and unsatisfying snacks in greater quantities.
2. They find themselves in an “urgent” food situation by the time they’re ready to eat.
3. They often consume more “quick” unsatisfying snacks than the average person consumes well-balanced nutritional meals.
4. They activate the “starvation” switch, which tells the body to slow the metabolism and store fat.
5. They increase their evening hunger and create an inability to feel “satisfied” by a meal.
Ironically, those who go all day without a meal actually consume more calories than they know. What’s worse is that these are often the least satisfying, most damaging calories of all. Forced to account for every mindless calorie, many people on the half-day starvation plan will find they can consume up to a 1000 calories before ever having a “meal.” Here’s an actual example from a former client of mine who explained to me that she was “starving” all day and only ate one meal at night. Here’s her diary. It’s followed by an estimation of her calories. See if you can picture yourself in her shoes.
6:00 am Coffee with cream and sugar (2 big cups)
7:30 am Skipped breakfast, but I admit I ate 3 or 4 bites of my daughter’s leftover pancakes
8:30 am Ate a handful of peanut M&M’s at the receptionist’s desk while chatting with her
9:00 am Another cup of coffee with cream and sugar
11:00 am Chatted with receptionist again and, out of habit, I ate a few more M&M’s
12:00 pm Skipped lunch, not hungry yet; must be the M&M’s!
2:00 pm Now, I’m starving, but I’m tired and need caffeine! Picked up an iced mocha on the way to get the kids
2:30 pm Driving to soccer from school – ate Rachelle’s leftover goldfish from the lunch I packed her
3:00 pm Spent several hours at the soccer field with no food. I’m famished! All I can think about is dinner!
5:00 pm Back home and starving! Preparing dinner; ate a few handfuls of chips out of the bag to tide me over!
6:00 pm Finally, a meal! Healthy Dinner – Chicken breast, steamed vegetables, and water! Pretty good!
9:00 pm 3 cookies – just something sweet to watch my show with! I told you I’m bad at night!
10:00 pm Cocktail to unwind – (Just one. I needed it today!)
11:30 pm Not really hungry, but wanted something salty. Ate a few potato chips, then off to bed.
THE REAL STORY WITH CALORIES INCLUDED:
6:00 am Coffee w/ cream and sugar (2 big cups) 150 cals
7:30 am Bites of daughter’s pancakes – 100 cals
8:30 am Peanut M&M’s - 150 cals
9:00 am Coffee with cream and sugar – 75 cals
11:00 am More peanut M&M’s – 150 cals
12:00 pm Skipped lunch
2:00 pm Large iced mocha – 350 cals
2:30 pm Goldfish crackers – 100 cals
5:00 pm Chips while preparing dinner – 300 cals
At this point, she feels she’s been depriving herself of a meal all day. She’s unsatisfied and starving, hasn’t had a meal, yet she’s already consumed 1,400 empty calories and put her metabolism in slow motion.
6:00 pm 7 oz chicken breast, steamed veggies, brown rice and water! – 350 cals
9:00 pm 3 cookies – 250 cals
10:00 pm Cocktail – 200 cals
11:30 pm Chips– 150 cals
She goes to bed feeling as though she stuffed herself at the end of the night, starved herself all day, and to make matters worse, she consumed in excess of 2,300 calories and did no exercise! Not a lot of calories, unless she’s only burning 1800 a day, in which case she is on pace to gain a pound a week or more! The worst part about this is that she’s destroying her body’s ability to burn calories
efficiently. She feels as though her efforts are for nothing. She’s frustrated, disappointed and living a tortured existence controlled by food and an ever-expanding waistline.
Starvation Protection Mechanism:
There are those who actually consume little to no calories for half of the day. They tough it out in the morning and afternoon and just stop eating. Yet, when we stop eating for more than three hours, science shows us the body literally flips a switch on that slows our basil metabolic rate. When the switch gets flipped on, the body activates the starvation protection mechanism (SPM). SPM is the result of thousands of years of human evolution meant to protect us from famine.
Our bodies are designed to store fat and burn muscle while in SPM mode. In this state, our bodies are ready to store fat, and often use muscle and other healthy fuel stores for energy. It is for this reason that Sumo wrestlers are encouraged to fast during the first portion of the day, train and then consume excessive amounts of calories. Are you training like a Sumo wrestler?
By eating every two-and-a-half to three hours, you lower your cortisol levels. Cortisol is known as the “stress hormone” and has been proven to be associated with stored belly fat, depression, insomnia and a weakened immune system. Those who eat healthily, and avoid going more than 3 hours without meals, can burn an increased number of calories even at rest and prevent muscle loss, which keeps the metabolism active. By eating small, well-balanced meals, you constantly ‘rev’ the metabolism!
But, the bottom line is that weight loss is a matter of calories in versus calories out. Eat or underestimate what you’re eating by more than 500 calories per day (a couple handfuls of chips), and you’ll be on track to gain 1 pound a week. How can we burn more but still enjoy eating effectively and with satisfaction on a more regular basis?
The simple answer:
Exercise more ---- Eat less.
That’s what you’ve been told. But, there’s far more to it.
The more complex answer:
Know what you’re burning so you know what you should/can consume to obtain your weight loss or weight maintenance goals. Do things that increase your body’s ability to burn calories, such as frequent small meals and strength training to build dense lean muscle tissue and cardiovascular activity to burn additional calories and maintain cardiovascular health. Cardiovascular activity should consist of 30 minutes or more of exercise 5 to 6 times a week with programs such as Turbo Kick, Turbo Jam, Hustle or whatever program you will do and enjoy (I mean that!). Strength training should be performed 3 times a week with programs such as ChaLEAN Extreme or P90X.
Move more and you burn more. Build muscle and you create a muscle tissue which burns more calories at rest than fat. Eat frequently so you can keep your metabolism working and avoid SPM.
It’s not magic. It’s science. Here’s what eating every 2.5 to 3 hours will do for your body.
1. It turns off our SPM, or starvation protection mechanism
2. It allows the body to use stored fat—not muscle—for energy! That’s critical.
3. It lowers our cortisol levels. Cortisol is the stress hormone that comes from not eating and putting your body in the stress mode with starvation. When you lower your cortisol, you reduce belly fat first.
4. You teach your body to constantly reset its metabolism. It is almost like a workout for the body every time you eat a balanced meal.
____________________________________________________________________
This article was written by Chalene Johnson. Now a world-renowned fitness expert with over 18 years of experience, Chalene is the CEO of Powder Blue Productions, a fitness company she started in a spare bedroom. Chalene has created some of the Nation's most popular exercise formats including Turbo Kick®
, Turbo Jam™ and PiYo™
, to name a few. Chalene is the star of the number one selling infomercial in 2006, Turbo Jam™. Turbo Kick® is one of the highest attended workouts at popular health clubs across the globe, and offered as the "exclusive" kickboxing workout in such global giants as 24 Hour Fitness™. To date, in excess of 35,000 fitness instructors have trained through Chalene's programs resulting in millions of American’s participating in Turbo Kick® workouts at health clubs across the globe weekly. Chalene has been voted one of the top three Fitness Instructors in the World by IDEA Fitness 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Healthy Moms readers can get 15% off purchases at turbokick.com by using discount code: turbokick15
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