Most of my life I’ve been relatively skinny. That is up until my mid twenties. Unfortunately for me my genetics and past bad diet practices caught up with me.
At about twenty five I started to get the dreaded spare tire. This was due to not only a slowing metabolism, but also bad dietary practices.
It was my experience during this time in my life that exercise does very little when it comes to weight loss. I’ll probably get many responses saying how wrong that is. But, in my experience exercising did nothing for weight loss while still having a poor diet.
In fact I’ll go so far as to say that if all you want to do is lose weight exercising is not even really needed if you eat correctly.
While just losing weight won’t make you look like a super muscular cut athelete, it is very easy to take fat off your body without working out, just through manipulation of your metabolism through meals.
Just like eating badly adversely effects your metabolism and causes you to gain weight, so can eating well readjust you back to a healthier weight.
When I was in my mid twenties and started to get a spare tire my diet didn’t change but I was actually doing more physical activity than ever. I weight-lifted 3-5 times a week, went to a karate class six days a week, and played in my band 2-3 times a week. So, exercise wasn’t the issue.
As I got older my spare tire gradually grew larger.
I tried fad diets, I tried pills, I tried cutting out all junk food, nothing made a noticeable difference. I even tried simple calorie counting and that worked even less.
Then I read some articles by some all natural bodybuilders and it opened my eyes to why diets and calorie reduction don’t work. You know the guys I’m talking about? The ones that are super, super cut.
As it turns out you can manipulate your own metabolism so that it burns fat, simply by eating the right things often throughout the day.
Before I get into how to do this let me explain why calorie reduction diets and simply cutting out junk food and eating three healthy meals a day won’t help you to lose weight.
The first thing you should know that is the fat on your body serves a purpose. It’s your bodies way of making sure you don’t starve to death if there isn’t enough food around. Your body doesn’t know what’s in the fridge. It has to go by chemical signals. It gets signaled what to do with fat by insulin.
This is why eating three big meals a day is only good for maintenance and not quick fat loss.
If you don’t eat breakfast, or eat breakfast at say 7 and then eat lunch at 12, the body in conserving fat because it thinks you are starving.
When you don’t eat every 2.5 to 3 hours or more, your body goes into starvation mode, the metabolism slows down, and fat is saved as much as possible.
This is also the reason calorie restrictive diets don’t work at all or work so slowly you quickly get off the diet. When you reduce calories the body just thinks there is a lack of food and again slows down the metabolism and burns fat slower.
This is all managed by insulin levels. This is why overeating or eating something sweet causes you to gain weight or at least not lose any. When you get an insulin spike it causes the body to gain weight or at least not burn anything.
What’s the solution?
Start with a breakfast first thing in the morning, even if you aren’t hungry. This will kick-start your metabolism and get it sped up after a full night of sleep.
After breakfast you should have a small meal every 2.5 to 3 hours. No more, after three hours the body starts to go into starvation mode and save fat.
When you eat a small, healthy meal every 2.5 to 3 hours your body will NOT think it is starving and will speed up your metabolism to get rid of excess fat. It will also burn off the meals you do eat and not store them. Unlike caloric restrictive diets you won’t feel hungry.
If you have been on steady diet of junk foods you may however have a longing for them. Simply put you will have to exercise some self discipline while you adjust to new eating habits.
The catch here is that the meals have to be small and healthy. No junk food, soda, excess salt, and breads and pastas should be at a minimum. You should only drink water, plain water. Just because something has water in it does not mean it is good for you.
Small meals that are garbage aren’t going to help you lose weight. A slice of pizza or cheeseburger is not healthy.
On a side note: Drink a lot of water. Most people don’t drink enough. Often, if you are overweight you can lose some weight just by drinking more water. When you don’t drink enough water your body retains it. Pinch where you have fat. If it is super cooshy then you are retaining water.
For me personally, I’ve found that salads with cold cuts, eggs and some cheese as my meals make me lose weight quickly. By quickly I mean seeing a difference within two days.
If I get bored of salads I’ll spread some creamcheese on a cold-cut and wrap it up.
Avoid breads and pastas, the amount of grain it takes to make one slice of bread is unbelievable. In my opinion bread should not even be on the list of major food groups as it does not occur naturally.
Avoid juices as they are too full of sugar. Of course you should avoid soda too. To much sugar causes an insulin spike which will cause you to hang on to fat or gain fat. Even one can of coke can do this. Don’t be fooled by diet sodas or drinks that replace with sodium for taste. They are just as bad as if not worse for weight loss than regular soda. Why? Sodium causes you to retain water and fat.
Rule of thumb just drink water………………
As a general rule make sure each meal is only slightly bigger than your fist. Remember the objective here is to eat just enough to be, “NOT HUNGRY.”
There is a difference between being full/stuffed, and not hungry.
If you eat a meal and feel stuffed and maybe even feel like a nap, then the meal is too large and it has caused in insulin spike. Now your metabolism will not let go of fat.
Do not, however, skip the next meal. Just make sure the very next meal is small enough to make you, “NOT HUNGRY.”
At the end of your day, before bed eat a small snack. This will help to keep your metabolism going through the night. A small snack could be a few cold-cuts, some grapes or a small bowel of cereal. It’s important that this snack be very light.
Following this has worked very well for me. I’ve gone from 246 down to 200.
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