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Eat More Not Less - Why Diets Don't Work!

By Tim Baird

There is a common misconception in popular culture (just look at the cover of a few women's magazines) that the way to achieve weight loss is to diet or reduce your caloric intake by skipping or severely restricting meals.

The truth is that skipping or severely restricting meals does more harm than good in the attempt to lose weight.

The main concern with skipping meals or 'crash dieting' is that the human body has spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving in an environment where periodically there was not enough to eat and the body evolved a pretty neat mechanism to deal with these periods of involuntary starvation.

When it goes into 'starvation' mode, the body responds as follows:

First our metabolism slows down, which means we use less energy..

Second, the body tries to conserve as much of its energy stores (body fat) as possible. This leads to the body cannibalising muscle tissue as much as (if not more than) fat reserves in order to provide for its energy requirements, further lowering our metabolic rate.

Finally when the starving body finally does get some nutrient & energy intake, it tries to save as much as possible of it for later use (as body fat)

All of these responses were really useful to our ancestors trying to survive the period of starvation which occurred as part of the natural cycle of their life, but unfortunately they pose a big problem to the people of today's abundant and affluent western societies attempting weight loss.

On a really basic level, the simplest weight loss paradigm is that when the energy expenditure of a body exceeds the energy intake, the body will use its stored energy (body fat) to cover the difference.

The problems occur when we attempt to manipulate the energy in – energy out ratio by severely restricting the energy intake. As we just explored this causes our natural starvation defence mechanisms to kick in, reducing energy expenditure (metabolic rate) and cannibalising lean muscle (one of the main contributors to increased metabolic rate).

Thus by severely reducing energy intake we also reduce energy output.... for this reason the energy in energy out paradigm can't be successfully applied for weight loss through dieting.

To crown it all off, when you do finally eat something, your body will greedily store as much energy as it can (as fat) to get your ready for the next period of 'starvation'.

The bottom line is that a diet based weight loss attempt ultimately leaves you fatter than you were before you started!

Ohhh. And just so you know... this is not just some crackpot theory I'm throwing out. There is significant research supporting this.

One such research study published in the American journal of physiology, endocrinology and metabolism followed 9 young, normal-weight men over a 21 day period.

Over this three week period, the men were fed 40% fewer calories than their bodies needed to maintain body weight. Over the three weeks they had an average weight loss of 3.8 pounds, unfortunately 2 pounds of the weight loss came from lean muscle mass, and the subjects metabolic rate dropped approximately 12% (friedlander et al., 2005).

There are also several other studies about which show that people who skip breakfast and eat fewer times during the day tend to be heavier than people who eat a healthy breakfast and eat four or five times a day.

So if dieting doesn't work what does then?

It is important to note that the basic paradigm of losing body fat by having less caloric intake than expenditure, thus forcing the body to use stored energy (body fat) still holds true.

What is important is the way in which we apply this paradigm. Focus not solely on reducing the energy in, but rather the energy out part of the equation. This is not to say that a suitable eating plan is not vitally important, but rather than severely restricting caloric intake, eat 5+ HEALTHY & BALANCED meals (to fully supply all of your bodies nutritional needs), every day.

This apparent abundance of (healthy) food causes the body to react in the opposite manor than a lack of food. The metabolism speeds up, less energy is stored, and the energy out part of the equation starts to fire up.

The other 'first response' way to stimulate your metabolism is resistance training. That's right,... spend less time on the treadmill and more time in the weights room! Whilst cardio vascular exercise is vital to good health in general and an integral part of a balanced weight loss program, it simply doesn't stimulate your metabolism like lifting 'heavy stuff' does!

So...stop reading up on the latest diet idea in your magazines,.. get yourself in to see your doctor,(to get the all clear to start exercising), then make an appointment with your local nutritionist and/or fitness professional.

About the Author:

Tim Baird is a certified Personal Trainer and founder of Toodfood Weight Loss & Fitness in South Melbourne. Visit his website is at http://www.toodfood.com.au