There are a lot of people who believe that weight loss is a painful thing. To shift those stubborn pounds, you must go hungry all the time. Many are afraid to even set a weight loss goal because they can’t stand the thought of going hungry and the frustrations that it brings.
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For most of the people, it’s just better to be overweight than to suffer hunger pangs. If the only way to lose weight or stay slim was to go hungry all the time very few people would be at their ideal weight and the vast majority of the planet would be extremely overweight! It isn’t necessary.
The physical body is a marvelous device. It is truly
amazing! Its natural rhythm and internal workings tell us when we are hungry.
It has a self-protection mechanism that lets you know when you need to stock up
on fuel. A hunger signal is the body notifying you that you NEED to eat in
order for you to sustain a healthy level of energy and have the reserves
necessary for healing, repair and maintenance of your cells. Serious hungry
pangs are a strong self-preservation signal from the body that it is in danger
and needs food immediately to restore its balance. These signals should not be
ignored!
Your body has no idea that food is in plentiful supply
and that it is one of the cheapest commodities of the 21st Century. Your body
is acting the same way your ancient ancestors’ bodies worked. The general
design of the human body hasn’t changed one bit since then. When your ancient
ancestors were living in caves they relied on their ability to hunt for food to
feed themselves. Sometimes they would go days or weeks without a kill and the
body would send them warning signals that they were in serious danger. When
they did eat the body immediately, being still in self-preservation mode,
stored as much of the energy as it could in reserve as FAT! Your body works in
exactly the same way today.
Starving yourself just doesn’t work. It goes against
nature to think that you can starve yourself and lose weight. Of course, you
can get the exception when people just don’t take in anywhere near enough food
to sustain themselves but we all the effects of this kind of dieting!
So, we know that starvation diets don’t work and you
don’t want to spend 2 hours a day in the gym. How do we lose weight then? Well,
the good news is you do not have to go hungry to lose weight. Nor do you need
excessive amounts of exercise. The truth is, eating regular nutritional meals
and allowing your body to fill itself to satisfaction is the key to reaching
and maintaining a healthy, slim body. By not allowing yourself to go hungry you
will in fact avoid overeating – which is the very thing that usually happens
when you break a starvation diet.
One method is to eat five or six, fairly small,
healthy meals divided up throughout your day. Instead of eating three large
meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner, divide the same quantity of food into 6
meals instead and eat an extra small meal between a small breakfast and lunch,
one between lunch and dinner and if you are hungry later have another one. Try
to avoid having the last meal close to bedtime, anytime up to 2 hours before
bed is all right.
Don’t wait when you feel hungry. Eat as soon as you
can. If you wait for a long period of time before you eat your body will go
into panic mode, think that you don’t have enough resources to feed it and you
will overeat! Therefore, eating frequent yet smaller meals will help to keep
your body satisfied and you will be less likely to over-indulge.
Do not miss a meal in the hope that it will help burn
some extra calories. You may believe that by skipping a meal you will save some
calories or fat intake, but, as you have seen, the opposite tends to happen. In
addition, if you go for a long period without a meal you are much more likely
to over-indulge when you get fed-up and can’t take the starvation any more.
Did you also realize that by skipping meals you are
actually slowing down your metabolism? Because your body thinks there is a food
shortage it not only stores extra fat but it also slows down the amount of fat
it burns. The body’s natural survival instinct is triggered, you put on extra
weight and burn fewer calories and fat. As the body burns fat to convert into
energy you will find that you become lethargic and tired. Starving yourself
just doesn’t work!
In addition to eating smaller more frequent meals you
should also teach yourself to eat slower. Place your knife and fork down
between every bite and chew for a few seconds longer than normal. It can take
us up to twenty 20 minutes to realize that the body is fully and completely
satisfied. When you eat at a fast pace stuffing food into you before you have
time to recognize the full signal your body is sending your brain. When you eat
at a slower pace you start to recognize these signals from your body and train
yourself to identify them at an earlier stage.
Take an extra 15 minutes extra a day. To some of you
this may sound like a lot. But all you have to do is split it up throughout the
day. Leave for work with an extra 5 minutes to spare and walk to a bus stop
further away from or park the car 5 minutes further away than you usually do.
At lunch take a 5-minute stroll or take the stairs instead of the elevator.
Walk to the local shop instead of driving. It is easy to complete 15, 30 or
even an hour exercise everyday if you split it up like this. And remember don’t
starve yourself, it just doesn’t work!