Too many people look at the numbers on the scale, get upset and then do something drastic. One of the first things that people tend to do when they need to lose a little weight is to start eating very small meals or, worse, stop eating altogether. While they may lose a little weight initially, the pounds that they drop will be water weight only and will come back quickly. Not only will the weight come back, but you will find that it becomes very difficult to lose any more weight at all. By eating a diet with too few calories, you have turned off your metabolism, the furnace that burns the fat. Even when you are trying to lose weight, you need to have the right amount of calories in your daily diet to ensure that you are getting the proper nutrition and that you have enough energy to get through the entire day.
Calories are the Fuel We Burn and the Fat We Store
While everyone has certainly heard the word “calories” before, there are many who still are unsure of what the term means and how to determine how calories impact not only what you eat, but also how you move and whether your body’s weight changes or stays the same. In the simplest of terms, calories are the unit of measurement used to measure energy generated by food. One calorie is needed to raise one gram of pure water one full degree Celsius. The heat is generated by the breakdown of the food or matter in a process called thermo genesis.
Every food that we eat and most of the beverages that we drink have calories in varying amounts. In addition, the human body has a set rate for what it thinks is the weight it wants to be and will work to achieve that set point, making it difficult to lose weight if the set point and the targeted weight do not match. When the body is near or at this set point weight, it will burn calories for energy at a steady rate unless there is an increase in the amount of food being eaten or a decrease in activity level. This will cause weight gain. However, it is not always just a simple matter of decreasing food and increasing activity to get the body to lose weight because it will hold onto the calories to stay at that set point, thinking that it is starving if you drop the calories too much or too quickly.
If you go from three large meals to one small meal or no meals at all, the body’s defenses will kick in and you will find yourself holding onto your weight even though you are barely getting any calories. In addition, you will find yourself feeling queasy, cranky and tired because there is no fuel for your body to burn for energy.
Fat is formed when the body has too many calories to deal with at one time, leading it to hold onto all of the excess in the form of fat, which is difficult to lose once it is there.
Spacing the Meals for Better Metabolic Burn
In the old days, people had a meal when they first woke up, a meal at noon and then an evening meal at the end of the day. They worked hard in between and fell into bed, exhausted knowing that bright and early, they would be up and at it once again. These days, things are different in a number of ways. People can eat meals at home or from fast food restaurants, never even getting out of their car to do so. These places are open early, stay open late and have every fatty, fried and greasy concoction that you can think of. We grab something on the way to work where we sit all day typing on a computer or texting on the phone.
We never get up and walk 15 steps to tell Phil from accounting that we need the quarterly report, we email that request, and Phil emails it back. At lunch, we hop in the car, drive two blocks over and get a huge burger and fries, scarf them down in the car and then come back to the office, feeling sluggish and tired. A few hours later you find yourself staring at the vending machine, not really hungry but thinking that you need to have a little treat.
At the evening meal, you find yourself eating more calories that you would think that you need and then you go to bed where you sleep fitfully. In the morning, you wake to do the same. Shockingly, there are diet plans that actually suggest that you stop eating as early as 4:00 pm, which can be an absolute disaster for the metabolism, stopping it dead in its tracks. For most people, that would mean that the body would go as many as 14 hours or more without eating at all. Starving and then eating huge meals make the body think there is a problem with future calories and it will hold onto everything instead of burning calories for energy. Eating smaller meals at regularly spaced intervals, including a small meal before bed, can help the metabolism burn at a regular rate and can allow you to lose weight more easily.
Snacks and Supplements Between Meals
There are a number of snacks and protein supplements that can be used both as meal replacements and as between meal snacks. Protein is perfect because it keeps the body feeling full longer; it is harder for the body to digest, and it is the last of the micronutrients processed when you eat. Protica offers a number of protein-based supplements that range from candy (Protein Twist and Protein Taffy) to gelatin (Protein Gems) and the protein shots, Isometic, and Fruitasia . Each product comes in a variety of flavors and has a number of benefits including high protein content and low calorie counts. Fruitasia and another product, Proasis, are all natural products without preservatives, cholesterol, lactose, aspartame and are GMO free.
Start with your largest meal in the morning when you have more chances to burn calories and then eat smaller, well spaced meals for the rest of the day, including a small protein-based snack before bed so that you are not spending hours without food in your body.
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