Eat More To Lose More
I often get asked about how eating more can help you drop more fat. I can understand the fear of eating more. It stems from the concept of calories in vs calories out. On the most simplest scale we can lose weight by reducing the amount of calories we are taking in as long as we burn off more.
This is flawed in a few ways.
For example if I ate 2000 calories in the form of Mars bars and ate nothing else all day I would get fat. No doubt about it. And I'd feel terrible.
Even though my daily requirements are about 3000 cals a day 2000 cals worth of Mars Bars will make me fat.
If I ate all my calories in the form of white bread the same thing would happen too.
However if I ate all my calories in the form of natural foods I will shed fat, or at least maintain my body fat % depending on the training programme I'm doing.
Here are a few of the reasons why you shouldn't focus on just calories in vs calories out.
When we eat sugar in any form - breads, pastas, cakes, sweeteners etc, we create a spike in insulin levels. Insulin is a storage hormone. It stimulates the storage of certain compounds into cells. For the sake of this article we'll just discuss fat.
When we get a spike in insulin from eating sugar our bodies have 2 main options. Store it in the muscle or convert it to body fat. YES sugar can be stored as body fat.
If you are overweight then the majority of this sugar will be stored as fat. When you get lean then the majority will be stored in the muscle for energy.
One of the reasons for following a low processed carb plan is to starve the muscles of this sugar. Then when you start eating carbs again your muscles will act like sponges and soak it all up (as long as you only eat small amounts and at certain times)
All my training plans are designed to assist the body in burning all this stored sugar so none of it can get converted into fat.
Then because your metabolism has been raised you will start converting your body fat into energy throughout the day, even when you are not training.
One of the main flaws with calorie restricting diets is that they don't take nutrients into account, it's just calories. So even if you are eating less you still have loads of sugar floating around your body. If you don't burn it guess what? It will be stored as body fat.
I know people can lose 'weight' on these diets but long term success gets increasingly difficult as there's a limit to the reduction in calories you can make. Plus if you restrict calories there's a fair chance you'll try to eat low fat. This is bad for your health, as most fats are good for us, and most low fat products are full of...
...sugar!
Low calorie diets will deplete you of vital fat burning nutrients. Instead focus on high nutrient or nutrient dense eating. The more nutritious your food the more fat you will burn.
Nutrients=Veg, fruit, protein, fats
Most processed carb foods have very little nutrients that's why they have to 'fortify' them with synthetic vitamins & minerals.
So are you a calorie counter?
Are you afraid of eating fats?
Do you think losing weight requires you to feel hungry all the time?
Or are you going to start to eat to fuel your body?
John O'C
I often get asked about how eating more can help you drop more fat. I can understand the fear of eating more. It stems from the concept of calories in vs calories out. On the most simplest scale we can lose weight by reducing the amount of calories we are taking in as long as we burn off more.
This is flawed in a few ways.
For example if I ate 2000 calories in the form of Mars bars and ate nothing else all day I would get fat. No doubt about it. And I'd feel terrible.
Even though my daily requirements are about 3000 cals a day 2000 cals worth of Mars Bars will make me fat.
If I ate all my calories in the form of white bread the same thing would happen too.
However if I ate all my calories in the form of natural foods I will shed fat, or at least maintain my body fat % depending on the training programme I'm doing.
Here are a few of the reasons why you shouldn't focus on just calories in vs calories out.
When we eat sugar in any form - breads, pastas, cakes, sweeteners etc, we create a spike in insulin levels. Insulin is a storage hormone. It stimulates the storage of certain compounds into cells. For the sake of this article we'll just discuss fat.
When we get a spike in insulin from eating sugar our bodies have 2 main options. Store it in the muscle or convert it to body fat. YES sugar can be stored as body fat.
If you are overweight then the majority of this sugar will be stored as fat. When you get lean then the majority will be stored in the muscle for energy.
One of the reasons for following a low processed carb plan is to starve the muscles of this sugar. Then when you start eating carbs again your muscles will act like sponges and soak it all up (as long as you only eat small amounts and at certain times)
All my training plans are designed to assist the body in burning all this stored sugar so none of it can get converted into fat.
Then because your metabolism has been raised you will start converting your body fat into energy throughout the day, even when you are not training.
One of the main flaws with calorie restricting diets is that they don't take nutrients into account, it's just calories. So even if you are eating less you still have loads of sugar floating around your body. If you don't burn it guess what? It will be stored as body fat.
I know people can lose 'weight' on these diets but long term success gets increasingly difficult as there's a limit to the reduction in calories you can make. Plus if you restrict calories there's a fair chance you'll try to eat low fat. This is bad for your health, as most fats are good for us, and most low fat products are full of...
...sugar!
Low calorie diets will deplete you of vital fat burning nutrients. Instead focus on high nutrient or nutrient dense eating. The more nutritious your food the more fat you will burn.
Nutrients=Veg, fruit, protein, fats
Most processed carb foods have very little nutrients that's why they have to 'fortify' them with synthetic vitamins & minerals.
So are you a calorie counter?
Are you afraid of eating fats?
Do you think losing weight requires you to feel hungry all the time?
Or are you going to start to eat to fuel your body?
John O'C
