• Want to Lose Fat? Eat More and Get Lean

    by Alexander Becker on January 03, 2007 | Link

    Dollars to doughnuts... you don't eat the amount of food your body needs. Being on a hypocaloric diet -- eating far less calories than required -- only works for so long. Let's take a look at the other side.

    Taking in too few of the required nutrients is equal to constant starvation. Consequently, your body expects nothing less than famine and starts to store the fat. Yes, every bit of anything you eat is treated as a scarce resource and is therefore stored away for times even worse. You'll end up fat, as in obese, or skinny fat, as in ... but I don't eat that much. Exactly. That's the whole point. Your body needs abundance in order to learn that there is no starvation and thus no need to build up fat reserves.

    Individuals with poor body composition can sometimes be described as "skinny fat". This is when a person is not overweight, but because such a small proportion of their total body weight is made up of muscle, they appear flabby and weak.

    Take a mental note about the stuff you eat on an average day. Even better, write it down for a couple of representative days. This process alone -- if executed religiously -- will give you some valuable insight and uncovers some weaknesses in your eating habits.

    Now go to fitday.com or to nutritiondata.com and enter your height, age, and your weight to see how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. To lose, you will obviously eat less than this amount. Calculate the calories from the foods you eat and see how many calories you really get. You probably realize the difference between required maintenance calories and your actual intake. Is the actual amount lower? For how long do you eat this way? Don't you think it's about time to eat in order to get healthy and lean?

    By simply eating the amount needed to maintain your weight, you signal your body that reserves are not necessary. If you undereat for some time and wonder why you stop losing weight, simply eating more could lead to fatloss.

    In any case, by eating more nutrients -- as opposed to mere food without thought -- your body and your health both benefit from the more conscious eating you adopt as a result of the calculations of your energy needs.

    Now add some exercises -- ideally the kind involving lifting something, at least your own bodyweight -- and I'll see you in a hundred years...

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