Get Off The Low Calorie Bandwagon
So, I said I was going to talk a little bit about what I’m doing before I got sidetracked dispensing my oh-so-sensible pearls of wisdom :) Before this latest journey, I was educated in the low-calorie, low-fat, exercise-30-minutes-a-day-three-times-a-week school of thought. When I wanted to “diet” (there’s that word again), I dropped my calorie intake to between 1,200 and 1,500 a day and tootled off to Curves three days a week (yeah, I know, I know). And yes, I lost weight. But I lost the wrong kind of weight. I lost a lot of Lean Body Mass instead of just fat.
Look, it’s very simple. When you starve your body like that - eating way less calories than your body truly needs - it’s going to turn on itself and “eat” anything it can find to survive. That includes your Lean Body Mass (LBM) – that vital network of your body's organs, muscles and "active" connective tissue. Since your muscles are what burns fat, you are in a world of shit if that starts to happen. And when you don’t exercise enough to build more muscle tissue – like when you only exercise 90 minutes in a week that holds 10,080 minutes - your muscles actually start disappearing. Then, when you regain the weight - like we always do 95% of the time, right? – you actually get fatter because now you don’t have as much muscle and can’t burn as many calories as you could before your “diet.” Your metabolism is shot to hell and it actually looks like your muscles have turned to fat – which they haven’t, that’s not possible, but it sure as hell looks like they did.
If you are on the low-calorie bandwagon, get off it right now. You can lose weight safely and sanely without fucking up your metabolism, your body composition, your motor skills, your brain power, and a million more things I could mention. No, you won’t lose 5 lbs. in a week anymore, but you will lose 1-2 lbs. of pure fat as opposed to 3 lbs. of fat and 2 lbs. of Lean Body Mass. You need to ask yourself if it’s worth it to you to see the “numbers” on the scale go down, knowing your LBM is almost half of what’s disappearing.
Have I mentioned yet that I'm bossy? Okay, I admit it - I'm bossy. I'm Italian, I can't help it. But it's for your own good, I promise *wink*
Next post: I’ll tell you how to do it :)
Look, it’s very simple. When you starve your body like that - eating way less calories than your body truly needs - it’s going to turn on itself and “eat” anything it can find to survive. That includes your Lean Body Mass (LBM) – that vital network of your body's organs, muscles and "active" connective tissue. Since your muscles are what burns fat, you are in a world of shit if that starts to happen. And when you don’t exercise enough to build more muscle tissue – like when you only exercise 90 minutes in a week that holds 10,080 minutes - your muscles actually start disappearing. Then, when you regain the weight - like we always do 95% of the time, right? – you actually get fatter because now you don’t have as much muscle and can’t burn as many calories as you could before your “diet.” Your metabolism is shot to hell and it actually looks like your muscles have turned to fat – which they haven’t, that’s not possible, but it sure as hell looks like they did.
If you are on the low-calorie bandwagon, get off it right now. You can lose weight safely and sanely without fucking up your metabolism, your body composition, your motor skills, your brain power, and a million more things I could mention. No, you won’t lose 5 lbs. in a week anymore, but you will lose 1-2 lbs. of pure fat as opposed to 3 lbs. of fat and 2 lbs. of Lean Body Mass. You need to ask yourself if it’s worth it to you to see the “numbers” on the scale go down, knowing your LBM is almost half of what’s disappearing.
Have I mentioned yet that I'm bossy? Okay, I admit it - I'm bossy. I'm Italian, I can't help it. But it's for your own good, I promise *wink*
Next post: I’ll tell you how to do it :)
posted by Tiffany Anderson @ 6:52 AM
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