Eleanor Roosevelt once said
"You must do the thing you think you cannot do"
We think that we cannot lose fat because of excuses like 'we don't have the time to dedicate to it' or 'we tried once before and you didn't succeed.". But if we pay attention to Eleanor Roosevelts quote we can , 'DO the thing you THINK you cannot do'. As my mother always told me there is no such thing as 'can't' it is simply you don't want to try.
As I promised yesterday my topic today is about Calorie intake and Net Calories.
You often hear people talk about Starvation Mode. I like to refer to it as conservation mode. When we get in the mode to lose fat we automatically think that we should drop our calories drastically. I hear people telling me I didn't have breakfast, had lunch and only had a bagel for supper and I never lost a pound. Or I hardly eat and the scales is not moving. You should NEVER skip your breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day. Eating little or nothing causes your body to go into conservation mode. (read more about this below under "why 1200 calories".
But first:
Why is breakfast important?
- It helps start your metabolism. It is said that you should eat within the first 1/2 you are awake. Some of you will say "I can't eat breakfast", well try. Even if it is a piece of fruit or a 1/2 cup of yogurt but really try. Preferable it should be your largest meal of the day and be well balanced with Protein, carb, and fiber.
- It prevents 'conservation mode'. Let's look at this scenario. The last time you ate was last night at 7:00 pm. It is now 10 am and you are "not hungry", but you have been up since 6:00 am this morning. Right now your body is gone into conservation mode and will hold onto every bite you eat just in case you starve your body again for 15 hours.
Calories Consumed are the calories you eat in the run of the day. To figure out how many calories you should consume daily follow the link to the right of this page under 'my favorite links' called "Harris Benedict Equation". By doing this equation you will have an idea on how many calories you can consume throughout the day.
Net calories
This is the amount of calories that you have left after you exercise. Let's take my example from yesterday. I consumed 1500 calories and burned 700 calories that means my NET was only 800 calories. I like to keep my NET at 1200 so my body don't go into that conservation mode. One day of going below 1200 calories is not a big deal, but I try not to make a habit of it.
Why 1200 (1500 for males) calories?
When you eat only 1500 calories and burn off 700, your body didn't have this extra 400 calories to build a leaner, meaner, fat-burning machine. The first thing that disappears is your glycogen stored in your muscles. Your body had to tap into this because you weren't taking in enough calories for your needs. For every 1 part glycogen, your muscle stores 3 parts water (it needs the water to be able to utilize and process the glycogen). So when the scales drops in a week after you ate below 1200 calories, it is almost certain it was WATER, not fat, that you had lost. If you don't believe me, try eating at maintenance tomorrow, and I bet the scale rebounds overnight.
Your body may have also burned some fat, but it is very likely you also lost some muscle. Any time we are in a deficit, we are likely to lose muscle, because you need a calorie surplus if you are going to gain muscle. While you *may* have managed to maintain muscle mass if it was just one week of short-changing your nutritional needs, you almost certainly did not *gain* any muscle mass.
Quite possibly you also lost some bone. Your body stores minerals like calcium and magnesium in your bones, for emergency use when needed. Unless you are very small (5 feet or so), or very careful with your diet, 1200 calories may not have been enough to meet your calcium and other mineral needs. So your body may have had to tap into the bone for it. You almost certainly did not have enough extra calories that week to build stronger, denser bones.
Please note it is not enough to merely take a vitamin or pill to attempt to cover any deficiencies. It's been well-documented that a pill simply can't duplicate nature's own vitamin delivery system: food.
Breakfast
2 slices of Homemade 100% whole wheat bread, made by a co-worker and friend.
1 slice of Maple Leaf Cheese
1 tsp of Becal Margarine
330 calories, 6 g fiber; 14 g protein; 640 mg sodium
Morning Snack
Kellogs Special K Bar
90 calories,120 mg sodium;
Lunch
For some reason I didn't have an appetite lunch time but I did force myself to eat something.
2 oz of boneless skinless chicken breast and a small greek salad without dressing and olives
202 calories; 310 mg sodium; 25 g protein; 2 g fiber
Supper
Supper consisted of a 4oz rib eye steak, small baked potatoe and mixed veggies.
Exercise
Today was exercise free day...although I did burn a few calories shopping with my daughter for 3 hours in high heel shoes (we went after work).
Until tomorrow remember Eleanor Roosevelt's Quote: You must do the thing you think you cannot do"
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