Fitness Review Network

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Author: Amy Barnby

If you have to cut calories to lose weight, why not just skip a meal here or there? I mean, really, the less you eat the more you lose, right?

The answer, my friends, is a loud and obnoxious NO! Never, ever, ever skip meals in an effort to lose weight. Skipping meals only makes you fat. I know, it’s the opposite of what you’d think but check this out.

Eating actually helps your metabolism. Eating often helps it even more. You see, even though we know it’s the year 2008, our bodies still think we’re back in a time when food was scarce. That’s definitely not the case now with a fast-food joint on every corner. Our pantries are stocked full of easy access foods ready to pop in the microwave for immediate gratification. We don’t have to hunt for our food anymore. We don’t have to gorge ourselves in preparation for times of famine. We are gluttonous by decision so why can’t our bodies seem to catch up with the times?

Muscle, although attractive and nice to the touch, is actually very costly in times of famine. One pound of muscle requires 50 calories a day just to survive. Fat, on the other hand, requires no calories to survive. It’s just an endless storage space for energy. Since our bodies don’t believe we live in times of plenty, when we go hours and hours without eating, our bodies start preparing for the famine. It uses muscle mass as fuel instead of tapping into those fat storages. It actually starts holding onto fat.

What’s the problem with this? Well, like I wrote above, muscle is metabolically extremely active tissue and in today’s times, we definitely want that. We live to eat-and we do it well. If you want to continue to be able to eat a lot of food and maintain your weight instead of gaining, you need muscle-lots of it. Now, I’m not talking about looking like Arnold. That’s not necessary-albeit very nice. But, you want to have a decent amount of lean mass so you’ve got a metabolism that’s always burning on high.

So, what does all of this have to do with skipping meals? When you skip a meal, your body thinks it’s time to conserve. That means putting a damper on your metabolism. That means using muscle mass for fuel and holding onto the fat. Your body needs to be fueled about every three hours or else it starts to use muscle for fuel. Not fat. Muscle. Without even knowing it, you’re sabotaging your diet and getting fatter with every meal you skip.

Now, come on. How can you be getting fatter with every meal you skip? Well, let’s put it this way. Let’s say you skip breakfast every morning like so many do. And, let’s say you ate a snack around 10:00 the night before. Now, you’re sitting down on your lunch break to enjoy a quick meal. It’s noon. You’ve just gone 14 hours without eating!

Wait a minute-14 hours is a long, long time to go without any food. Your body is literally cannibalizing itself to survive! Gross, isn’t it? What’s worse is that if you’ve maintained your weight for a while, and, have continually skipped breakfast, your body fat percentage is higher than it was before you started skipping the most important meal of the day. So, you may be the same weight but your body is spongier, softer and bigger. And you thought skipping meals was helping!

Listen up and listen hard. NEVER SKIP MEALS. Just don’t do it. I know you’re busy and life is hectic with your full schedule. Fruit packs well and is quick and easy. Jerky is a great on-the-go protein source and it keeps forever. Even if you eat a spoonful of peanut butter instead of skipping a meal, do it.

Don’t take this as a invitation to stop at Burger King when in a bind and don’t take this as an excuse to shovel junk in your mouth instead of skipping a meal. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is to be prepared. Have easy-access foods available in your car for emergencies. Keep easy, healthy food at home that you can take with you on the way out the door. Bananas are excellent for this!

Now, if you’re planning to skip meals, change your plan. Seriously. You’re killing your metabolism and making it more and more difficult each time you try to lose weight. No one wants that. So, sit down and eat. Don’t ever skip another meal and know you’re doing your metabolism a great service by eating!

So, what’s for dinner?

For more Expert Advice, please visit: No Nonsense Fitness

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Weight Loss Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.