Why do people say starving yourself wont cause weight loss? (diabetic, cardio)
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20% is nearly meaningless in practice since no one knows how many calories they are actually burning or how many they are actually consuming, it's a guideline with a safety parameter built in to ensure that, for example, athletes can reduce body fat but continue to train without losing strength or lean mass.
If you are on a severely calorie restricted diet (particularly if you are only eating once or twice each day) for as little as two or three days your body decides that food is scarce and it needs to take drastic measures. You would think that this means preferentially utilizing the energy stored in your fat, but if you bottom out your blood sugar (which is exactly what you're doing if you are not eating enough and not eating frequently) your body starts to cannibalize muscle and organ for the ketones and glycerol stores and it starts relative "fat conservation". Girls who starve themselves for weddings, spring break, etc. have a particular look to them because they are losing muscle. It's difficult to explain precisely, but I would call it the soft-bodied, unathletic look. You can stave that off with cardio, resistance training and eating properly.
Anyone can eat four to seven times per day. Get up early, eat a big breakfast with at least 30 grams of protein, take a granola bar and a container of greek yogurt with you to work for in-between meals, eat a lunch and eat a low-carb or whole-complex-carb dinner (e.g. salad).
I totally agree. Because some of us (like myself) cannot eat 4-7 small meals a day, like most "experts" tell us to. We just put on weight like crazy doing that crap!
Some of us only need 2 meals and just drink water all day to keep our weight down (it works for me. I have now lost 7 lbs., so far). I feel better too, have more energy, and don't feel bloated anymore since I cut down on my food intake.
It's much better than being obese and having those health risks, for sure.
Interesting, I assume you put "experts" in quotes to denote sarcasm. My BA is exercise phys and my MS is public health. The truth is the real "experts" that have done the research and know a lot more than me DO argue for smaller, more frequent meals. It requires portion control to keeps the total caloric intake at the same level as what you are doing with your two meals, but it would be healthier for you. It is all about a) calories consumed and calories expended, and b) when those calories are consumed. Science says spreading them out keeps blood sugar levels more stable, which has numerous health benefits from simple overall energy to diabetes prevention.
Interesting, I assume you put "experts" in quotes to denote sarcasm. My BA is exercise phys and my MS is public health. The truth is the real "experts" that have done the research and know a lot more than me DO argue for smaller, more frequent meals. It requires portion control to keeps the total caloric intake at the same level as what you are doing with your two meals, but it would be healthier for you. It is all about a) calories consumed and calories expended, and b) when those calories are consumed. Science says spreading them out keeps blood sugar levels more stable, which has numerous health benefits from simple overall energy to diabetes prevention.
I believe you and the "experts" roneb, and I think a lot of the doubt comes from those who skip a meal and then try to eat one of those snacks you spoke of, but once they start eating, they simply cannot stop b/c their blood sugar is still whacked out. I'm beginning to believe that almost all of our modern ills can be traced to poor blood sugar control and I think the best way to ease into it is to do what I'm doing now and first I just started to make sure I was getting all my fiber, w/o counting calories or fat gms or carb gms or anything. This will get my blood sugar going more evenly and then I can cut back, as I will do starting next Monday. It was so much easier to quit the sweets this time around.
The truth is the real "experts" that have done the research and know a lot more than me DO argue for smaller, more frequent meals. It requires portion control to keeps the total caloric intake at the same level as what you are doing with your two meals, but it would be healthier for you. It is all about a) calories consumed and calories expended, and b) when those calories are consumed. Science says spreading them out keeps blood sugar levels more stable, which has numerous health benefits from simple overall energy to diabetes prevention.
I agree. Small meals through the day is much better for your body. My mom who is diabetic was told exactly what you said above by her doctor. Small meals don't mean a whole meal. Choose something small for the snack. An apple, granoloa bar, yogurn, sliced cucumbers. broceli etc. I try to do that in between my breakfast, lunch and dinner.
You really shouldn't lose more than 3 pounds a week, requiring a deficit of 10,500 calories. If you burn 2,000 a day (normal for most people doing little exercise) you should eat at least 500 calories a day to keep from losing more. If you up your exercise so you're burning 3,000 you should consume no fewer than 1,500.
A woman should NOT eat less than 1200 calories/day and a man should NOT eat less than 1700/ day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Opsimathia
Smaller does not mean healthy or lower body fat percentage.
And you hair falls out, you can lose teeth, bone, develop permanent unfix-able malnutrition problems.
Being underfed is not healthier than overfed. It just results in different mass.
True.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chickrae
I agree. Small meals through the day is much better for your body. My mom who is diabetic was told exactly what you said above by her doctor. Small meals don't mean a whole meal. Choose something small for the snack. An apple, granoloa bar, yogurn, sliced cucumbers. broceli etc. I try to do that in between my breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The reason to eat 4-6 meals per day is to help regulate blood sugar, energy and it also helps you to keep from eating too much at meals. Even a handful of Almonds is a great snack. I keep a bag at my desk at work.
Starving yourself will cause some kind of weightloss. The only downside your muscles and other organs pay the price. Its totally not worth it.
That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard anyone say, but I can imagine I guess that some people think so. I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that maybe they think that while these thinkers may believe that there may be weight loss, there can't be too much, maybe excess fat but not your organs and bones I suppose (however these people don't take into consideration the fact that, like another poster mentioned, you can lose muscles). So people who make this claim don't seem to know much about the body.
That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard anyone say, but I can imagine I guess that some people think so. I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that maybe they think that while these thinkers may believe that there may be weight loss, there can't be too much, maybe excess fat but not your organs and bones I suppose (however these people don't take into consideration the fact that, like another poster mentioned, you can lose muscles). So people who make this claim don't seem to know much about the body.
For people like myself that are morbidly obese and can't afford gastric bypass surgery, this may be our only way of losing weight fast.
All the macronutrients, including protein, can be burned for fuel --- essentially turned into glucose. If you consume too little protein --- and if you take in too few calories, you will --- then some muscle is turned into fuel. It is unavoidable. This creates a problem, because muscle burns calories. The less muscle you have, the lower your resting metabolic rate. That means you need fewer calories even at rest.
So starving yourself is self-defeating in the long run. You cannot sustain it forever. Well you can, but forever will be a short time because you eventually die of malnutrition. That's what happens to people with anorexia nervosa.
Then when you refeed yourself, you gain weight. That is because you have done nothing to improve the bad eating habits that caused you to gain weight in the first place.
For people like myself that are morbidly obese and can't afford gastric bypass surgery, this may be our only way of losing weight fast.
bson, what would be the point of losing weight fast? You have to learn to eat differently from the way you've been eating and you won't learn that set of skills if you just stop eating. Then when you do start eating again, you'll eat like there's no tomorrow and put it all back on. From what I have seen in myself and others, Atkins/low carb is the fastest weight loss method I've seen, but once you get tired of the food, you can put it back on just as quickly, so if you do it you need to be prepared to keep eating like this.
Do some research, figure out which healthy foods you love best and base your diet around that. Take out processed foods altogether b/c if you have a choice between starving and processed foods, you might be better off fasting. Learn to cook! Learn to love vegetables. If you love bread, buy the best quality you can get or learn to bake it yourself.
You could also look into the cabbage soup diet--it looks to be fairly healthy, though not enough protein--you could add some whey protein to the diet maybe. Still, I tried it several years ago and got heartily sick of cabbage soup and then I didn't really lose that much weight on it. Some people swear by it though.
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It was so much easier to quit the sweets this time around.
