Ask the average dieter to rate how they feel throughout the course of the day and you are likely to hear a lot of negative adjectives like tired, achy, cranky, and more. Ask them about their meals and snacks and you might be shocked by how little you hear from them. Most dieters have some pretty crazy ideas about what to eat and when to eat it. There is even a diet that suggests that you will gain weight if you eat anything after four pm. In theory, then, if you eat a final meal at four and then nothing else for the rest of the night, you can effortlessly lose weight no matter what you are eating in the period before four. So a person who is not making the best food choices anyway may take that to mean they can scarf down a dozen donuts for breakfast, an entire pizza for lunch and a two pound T-bone at 3 pm with a gallon of ice cream to round it all off just before the “magic hour.” It doesn’t work that way!
The problem with this eating plan (if you can call it that) is not only the poor food choices (however, this may have a lot to do with it), but the timing of the food and the way that the human body works in the first place. Not only is this type of diet destined to fail but it is also unhealthy at best and will probably result in weight gain and a stalled metabolism. There will be days that you eat more than a full day’s worth of calories in a single meal and then days that you do not get nearly enough calories for the whole day. This all or nothing, feast or famine way of eating is hard on the body and a fast way to end up with metabolism issues.
Brianna is 25 years old and 25 pounds overweight following the birth of her first child. While she shed a portion of the weight after the birth, it has now been a year and the weight just will not seem to budge at all. She would love to lose the weight, but between returning to work and taking care of her child, she just does not think she has the time or energy to put into a weight loss plan. This is unfortunate because little baby Bethany is quickly approaching the toddler stage and Brianna will need to be at the top of her game to keep up with those busy fingers as they explore the world.
Like so many others (the diet industry brings in billions of dollars every year), Brianna has tried a number of fad diets but did not stick to any of them for very long. She finally found one that did not make her eat any set menu or amount, which was perfect for her scattered and hurry, scurry lifestyle. The only rule for this diet was to stop eating for the day at 4 pm, with not a single morsel until the following morning. At first she thought it was perfect, but after two weeks it appears that she is gaining weight instead of losing it and she is so tired she can barely drag herself out of bed in the mornings. She is even letting her husband get up to check on little Bethany overnight when that was once one of her favorite things to do.
After the fourth week of this diet plan, Brianna gives it up with a total of five additional pounds gained in the meantime. Confused, she goes to a nutritionist and discusses her problem. She is shocked when she learns that she needs to eat more and more often – what kind of diet advice is that, she wonders.
The nutritionist explains to Brianna about metabolism and what she is doing to her body when she stops eating at 4 pm. If she goes to bed at 10 pm, she is still up and active for six hours after her last meal. She has been trying to exercise more, which she does after putting Bethany to bed at 8:30, but she still does not eat afterward. Then she goes to bed and does not eat again until she gets to work at 9 am because she is too busy trying to get ready for work while also getting her daughter ready for daycare. Breakfast is either something from a fast food drive-through on the way into the office or something out of the vending machine once she gets there.
By the time that Brianna arrives to her job and is ready to eat, she is starving and ready to eat anything at all, and no wonder, since she has gone seventeen hours without eating a single bite of food. The reason that she is gaining weight instead of losing it is simple: her body is convinced that it is starving and has shut down her metabolism, so that instead of burning food for energy, she is instead storing it away. She is tired because her food was not used efficiently so she will need to eat more. Because she is not eating, despite the unmistakable feelings of hunger, her body will work even harder to hold onto the food that she is eating.
Working with the nutritionist, Brianna will learn how to make better food choices, use her time more effectively and keep her metabolism working hard for the whole day. She will learn how mini meals are more effective not only for her body but for her lifestyle, and she will also learn the value of snacks throughout the day. Her goal is to be going no more than three to four hours without eating while awake and having a small snack before going to bed so that she is sleeping better. She will also reschedule her workout so that it is not so close to her bedtime.
To stay within her calorie count established by the nutritionist, Brianna will aim to have snacks that are around one hundred calories. While there are a number of one hundred calorie snack packs of her favorite foods, they are not always as nutritious as other choices, so she must always make sure that she is reading labels. In addition, she can choose from these 100 calorie options:
– 1 cup sliced bananas and raspberries
– 2 cups of carrots, sliced or diced, or whole baby carrots
– 3 cups of air popped popcorn
– 2 tablespoons of peanuts
– 2 domino sized slices of low-fat cheese (hard cheeses have less fat)
– 1 fat-free chocolate pudding cup
– 1, 2.9 (fluid) ounce serving of Profect, a liquid protein supplement from Protica
In addition to using Profect between meals, Brianna also uses a serving just before her lunch and dinner so that she eats less – the protein (25 grams per serving) keeps her full and satisfied on less but keeps her metabolism burning all day long. She has also started eating a bowl of low-calorie cereal with skim milk before going to bed. Breakfast is a healthy combination of protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats that she can have while getting herself and her child ready for the day.
Protica Research (Protica, Inc.) specializes in the development of Capsulized Foods. Protica manufactures Profect, IsoMetric, Pediagro, Fruitasia and over 100 other brands, including Medicare-approved, whey protein shots for bariatric patients. You can learn more at Protica Research – Copyright