|
Everyday, diets
that lack nourishment are used to lose body weight. Just as long as a person is taking in less calories than are
being burned off, he could eat any food to be on a bodyweight loss diet.
This person could have a marshmallow diet, a candy bar
diet, or even a pizza diet--just as long as he is in a calorie
deficit. Yes, this person will lose bodyweight; the scale will go down.
 Another
example is when a person joins one of these weight loss centers
and is allotted so many calories. Most of these weight loss
centers do not care what you eat, as long you stay within
the amount they’ve allotted you. With such diets, I’ve
known many people who would skip meals all day long, just
so that they could use all their allotment for their dinner. Or they would use up their whole allotment on un-nourishing
foods such as two doughnuts and a piece of bread, as their
meals for the whole day. They were happy with themselves because
they got to eat what they wanted and still stayed within their
calorie allotment.
So,
you ask, “What is the problem?”
The
problem is that the people on these diets do not care whether
they lost lean muscle tissue or body fat, as long as the scale
goes down when they step on it.
Losing
body weight means this person lost precious lean muscle,
and not
necessarily any body fat,
while they were doing their cooky little diet.
Muscle
needs protein.
Those people did not feed their muscles while on that diet.
They actually, starved their muscles, so they lost muscles.
And they fed their fat.
MUSCLE
= METABOLISM. The more muscle mass a person has, the higher
metabolism that person has, the more body fat that person
burns, even at rest. So the goal should be to PRESERVE THE
MUSCLES.
To
Top |
|
Skipping
Meals & Restricting Calories
actually lowers metabolism and slows
fat loss;
your body goes into survival mode. When a sufficient amount
of calories are not coming into your body, your body
first uses glycogen
(sugar stored in the liver and muscles)
for energy. Second, your body
starts
tearing down and wasting your muscles.
And unfortunately for all of us,
the body preserves
your
body fat for the last source of fuel. This is for survival.
It knows that once your body fat is gone, you are gone.
Your
body actually learns that it can get by on less and less calories.
So each and every day
when you are skipping meals or restricting your calories,
your body slowly, but surely, for survival purposes, sloooooows
down your metabolic processes. So, now you have to eat smaller
and smaller amounts of calories that you have sort of trained
your body to adapt to. Otherwise, if you try to jump right
in and eat many calories, when
your body is now in this slow metabolic state, you will gain
weight.
That weight would be in the extra calories being stored as
body fat.
Even
though you have now trained your body to survive on fewer
calories, the human body still needs amino acids for your
hair, skin, organs, etc. So, if you aren’t supplying
those amino acids (proteins) through your nutritional intake,
your body will break down your own muscles (that you may or
may not have trained hard to build), to put amino acids back
into your system, for survival. So, bye, bye muscle.
We cannot afford to lose this lean muscle tissue. We should
be preserving the muscle. We all have lean muscle tissue,
whether we work out or not. And if you do work out, you know
how hard you train to build that muscle. Then, the easy part
should be to keep
the lean muscle tissue that you have. Feed your muscles. They
want protein
and lots of it. Do you want to lower your metabolism again,
by continually letting your body break your precious muscles
down into amino acids (the building blocks of protein), when
all you have to do is feed your muscles.
To
Top |
Excessive
Cardiovascular Exercise
is
also another
body “weight” loss method
that is used and
is also muscle wasting.
Everyone thinks the more cardiovascular exercises that they
participate in, the more body fat they will lose. Not true.
Again, the more muscle mass we have, the more body fat we will
always
be burning, even at rest. The key word here is “always”.
Any endurance type training, like long distance running, bicycling,
stairmaster climbing, etc. is muscle wasting. Under stress,
remember our bodies hoard the body fat for survival and tap
into our lean muscle tissue. We do not want to tear down our
muscles for a long duration. That’s counterproductive
of what we are trying to accomplish. Remember, the more muscle
mass, the higher the metabolism.
To
Top |
|
Yo-Yo
Dieting
is now when the dieter has lost the weight and then gains
it back, plus some. The
dieter would have been better off if he/she had never done
that last diet, and the one before that, and the one before
that, because with each and every crazy diet that this dieter
has tried……..she wasted her lean muscle mass……..she
lowered her metabolism….….then lost more lean
muscle mass with the next diet……..and lowered
her metabolism even more. This goes on and on. This person
needs to just STOP. If what she is doing isn’t working,
she needs to change her thinking.
To
Top |
Diets
That Lack Nourishment
