MYTH: Eat Less to Lose Weight
Unfortunately, you have been led to believe that depriving yourself of food (that is calories) will optimize our weight loss efforts. When you hear things like, "calorie in, calorie out" you may deprive yourself of food to lose weight. Though losing weight is what may have initially achieved, it's not fat weight that you're losing.
What are you Losing? Once again, weight loss might initially be achieved, but weight is nothing more than gravity pulling an object toward Earth. Most of the initial weight you lose is water and food in the digestive tract (that gets eliminated during dieting or fasting). Once you begin decreasing carbohydrate energy, you begin utilizing proteins as a source of energy (the hormone cortisol allows this to happen). By eating less, it’s muscle you’re losing! Your body is stressed and not getting enough energy, so your hormones will begin to also shift in a manner to decrease your metabolism. As this happens, you’re also losing muscle which causes weight loss, but slows down your metabolism as well. The end result is that you gain the weight back! But you don't necessarily have to go on a diet in order to suffer from weight gain (sounds contradictory doesn't it?). It could be just a matter of habit for you. As a consultant, most people I have encountered, who have a "weight" problem don't eat enough.
Do you eat like a Sumo Wrestler?
Even if you're not on a "diet", you may eat like a sumo wrestler. At least a lot of people I have consulted eat similar to sumo wrestlers. You think they eat all day long right? Quite the contrary, sumo wrestlers skip breakfast so they will consume more at the end of the day. By skipping breakfast and eating only two to three times per day, they actually consume more calories than if they ate all day long. The same is true for you! Sumo wrestlers manipulate their diet this way in order to consume more calories. You manipulate it thinking you're consuming less calories. In the process of getting too many calories at the end of the day, you're also destroying your metabolism. A side effect that the sumo wrestler was benefiting from, but was not aware.
Link to the - Sumo Wrestlers Diet
Eat Less – Destroy your Metabolism by Hormonal Shifts
If you don't eat enough food (particularly carbohydrates) throughout the day, you will secrete cortisol in order to breakdown muscle protein and store fat. By eating less, it’s really not fat you’re losing but muscle! Your body is stressed and not getting enough energy, so your hormones will begin to also shift in a manner to decrease your metabolism. As this happens, you’re also losing muscle which causes weight loss, but slows down your metabolism as well. Without getting into too much detail, other hormones such has thyroxine (your metabolism hormone) also gets fouled up (one of the reasons so many women are on synthroid). The end result is that you gain the weight back! You're body acquires a set point metabolism. It slows down and shifts in a manner to store as much fat as it can thinking you are starving.
Now, what does that really mean? It means you need to eat regularly throughout the day to keep burning calories efficiently. This is called supportive eating! By eating regular meals throughout the day (starting with breakfast) you are constantly providing fuel to your metabolism, your body. Your hormone levels stay at healthy levels, plus you keep your muscle. This keeps your thermogenic engine burning. This is also where you heard about the “eat every 3 to 4 hours”. However, you still have to eat the right kinds of foods with the right consistency.
For my last shot at this- Let's look at Physics
Let me try this analogy. If you were burning wood in a fireplace and the wood starts to go down, what happens to the fire? The fire starts to disappear, yes? It also loses heat! So, what do you have to do to get the fire burning again? Answer: add more wood! If you add too much wood though, while the fire is down, you will stifle the fire. This is how many people eat. If you eat this way, you may not even have a fire to stifle. Think of your body like a fireplace. You have to keep adding food in order to keep the fire burning.
So, with that said, whether you want to lose weight or keep weight off, eat for goodness sake. It's okay! Food is good for you, so long as it's not junk-food or crap!
