Transform Your Metabolism Into a Fat Burning Machine
Chances are, the lifestyle that led you to gaining weight also gave you a sluggish metabolism.
But that’s okay. I’ve worked with thousands of people who have sluggish metabolisms and shown them how to turn it around. They now have a metabolism that works for them, not against them. You can have the same thing if you follow my steps.
Make sure you Eat Enough Healthy Foods
Yes, I know you’re trying to lose weight and most people eat too much food, which leads to that weight gain. So it stands to reason that the first step in weight loss would be cutting back on your food intake. But not so fast. Cutting back too much can be as detrimental to weight loss as eating too much food. You don’t want to starve your body.
When you don’t eat enough food, your body will begin to take whatever it needs in the way of nutrients from other parts of your body in order to survive. That means taking nutrients from your bones, teeth, and vital organs, leaving your body depleted. Your etabolism will shut down in order to reserve energy and your body will only use enough energy to stay alive. So while you may think that by starving yourself you’ll drop weight quicker. What you’re actually doing is sabotaging your metabolism.
The operative word when thinking of food is “healthy”. It’s not enough to simply eat enough food to keep your metabolism running at optimal performance. You need foods that will give your body energy while allowing it to function with a minimal amount of effort.
It is true that there are no bad “foods” if you eat them in moderation and balance them with out with healthy foods.
No one wants to feel deprived of having their favorite dessert or a fast food burger every so often. However, if you have that fast food burger every day of the week or eat that piece of triple chocolate cake before you go to bed every evening without giving a thought to how your body will react to it, you’ve established a bad eating habit.
The trick is to balance the amount of food you eat with whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruits, along with lean meats. Choosing those foods will give you the most bang for the buck. We’ll talk about those foods more in a later chapter.
Eat Regularly, Without Skipping Meals People who are busy and trying to lose weight very often fall into the habit of skipping meals in order to cut down on their overall calorie intake. They then eat more at a later meal thinking they can “catch up”. The problem is that you may end up eating your daily requirement of calories by the end of the day, but the balance of when your body receives those calories is lopsided.
For instance, if you start the day out great by having a healthy breakfast of yogurt, eggs and toast but then skip lunch and eat a big dinner, you’ve thrown your body off balance by making the end of the day top heavy with calories. Most people are more sedentary at the end of the day and like to relax.
That means that whatever it is you’re eating is sitting in you while you relax rather than being burned off as you go about your day.
Furthermore, when you skip a meal, you’re famished by the time you finally do get to eat later in the afternoon or early evening.
You’re body is only going to use what it needs at that particular moment and nothing more. By the end of the day, you’ve already burned most of the calories you are going to burn during the day. Your body ends up storing those excess calories in your body fat and keeps them in reserve for the next time you skip a meal.
This can become a vicious circle of you’re trying desperately to cut back calories by skipping meals and your body is desperately trying to hold on to whatever nourishment it can get. Not only will you fail in your quest to lose weight, you’ll become frustrated because all your efforts aren’t giving you the results you desire.
The best way to ensure that your body has the nutrients it needs to burn fat during the day when you’re active and when your body needs it the most is to eat smaller portions more frequently. Instead of eating 3 big meals a day, eat 5 or 6 smaller meals.
Start your day with proteins and any carbohydrates you might want to have during the course of the day. Your body will burn those carbohydrates when you’re most active. End the day with proteins and fresh vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, kale, etc. Avoid having lots of carbohydrates later in the day when you’re winding down and not able to burn those carbohydrates off.
