Are You Eating Enough?

In order to lose weight, we have to eat less of the wrong types of foods, watch our portion sizes and exercise more. That makes sense, right? There is no getting around the fact that if you want to shed kilos you must be expending more energy than you intake. But is there such a thing as going to extremes? In some cases, yes. Some people eat very little yet are still overweight and (understandably) very unhappy about it!

This is exactly what was happening with my client 'Gina', who initially came to me because she was struggling to cope with life. She had very low self esteem, and was often reduced to tears due to the high level of stress she was under. To top it all off, 'Gina' was also suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which caused her to experience severe and frequent panic attacks. Even though she was overweight, she was not in the right frame of mind to do anything about it at that point in time. We agreed to work on the more pressing issues first and address her weight later on.

As she progressed with the therapy, 'Gina' became emotionally much stronger and after some time, she decided it was time to lose weight. I asked 'Gina' to tell me about her current diet. As I listened and took notes, I was shocked to discover that despite being several kilos overweight, 'Gina' actually ate very little, and often skipped meals. She rarely ate until lunchtime; most days she would eat half a sandwich, sometimes a whole sandwich if she wasn't feeling too anxious. Dinner was a handful of pasta and some kind of sauce. That was it!

What logic causes people to put so little into their bodies that they become malnourished? Without adequate calories, we are literally running on empty. But your body is very clever and well equipped to ensure your survival no matter what. So if you're not being sensible, it will take over the reigns. It wasn't that 'Gina' was deliberately starving herself - she just didn't like food all that much; moreover, she was often so wired with anxiety that the mere thought of eating anything made her sick to her stomach. The result? Her body fought her every step of the way.

Inadvertently waging war against her body's own innate survival mechanisms, 'Gina' actually made her situation even worse. So here is the lesson; if you want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to look after the state of your body's own metabolism. Energy (in the form of calories) is the fuel that heats your body's 'furnace'; the hotter your furnace burns, the more calories it uses so that it can maintain basic bodily functions such as digestion, breathing and blood circulation.

There are a number of things that affect your metabolism. The first is your activity levels. The more you exercise, the faster your metabolism runs, even during the rest of the day and at night when you are not exercising. Regular exercise builds lean muscle mass, and muscle burns more calories than fat. So basically, the more lean muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism, and the more calories you burn.

The second thing that affects your metabolism is the food you eat AND the time of day you eat it. If you don't put enough food in your body, your furnace doesn't have anything to keep it going. If you skip breakfast and 'save' your calories until later in the day, your blood sugar is all over the place and once again, your metabolism is affected.

Your body is not a mindreader; it doesn't know why you are doing that you are doing. It doesn't have the ability to work out that by depriving yourself of food you are trying to achieve what you perceive to be a positive outcome. It simply knows what is best for you and it will do everything it can to make sure you are healthy. So when you starve yourself, your metabolism responds by slowing down, storing fat and using fewer calories. Your body is literally trying to save you from starvation; and so it should!

If you want to lose weight long term, it's time to be sensible about it. Most weight loss experts recommend that you eat small meals often. When I say small meals I'm not talking about a handful of 'Chicken McNuggets' or a small Coke. I'm talking about good, wholesome, low fat, unprocessed food. The key to permanent weight loss is to eat enough to keep your metabolism going but not so much that you store the excess as fat. It's a balancing act, but one you can master if you eat sensibly and listen to your body. Remember: eating is not a cardinal sin; it is a necessity for your survival. Treat your body with kindness and it will respond in the same manner.