Asking your body to work without food is like asking your car to keep running once its gauge says “empty”. It is just not going to happen. Your car needs fuel in the form of gasoline to work properly; your body needs fuel in the form of calories to run properly as well. Giving your body good fuel will allow it to work properly and will allow you to achieve not only better health, but the slow and steady weight loss that is actually sustainable and realistic. Starvation diets do not work for weight loss because starvation throws everything in the body out of balance, everything including your metabolism
Your metabolism is the rate at which your body uses the fuel that it gets for energy. In simpler terms, metabolism is how fast your body burns calories. Nearly everything that you eat or drink has calories. Calories are the unit used to measure the amount of energy that it takes to convert and use food for energy. If you eat more calories than your body needs to maintain its systems and to move around, you will store what is left in your fat cells; you will gain weight.
If you burn off too many calories and do not replace them, your body will seek energy from other sources which could include your own lean muscle tissues. While you do want to burn your fat for energy, you do not want to destroy muscle in the process. Weight loss then becomes a delicate balancing act of learning what is and what is not the right amount of calories to take in each day.
Starvation is not a normal state for your body to be in. To survive, the body will sense that it is in danger and will start shutting down the metabolism – it will not burn any fuel for energy. What will happen instead is simple: the body will hold on to every single calorie it receives, and when you do eat, your body will continue holding on. If you slow or stall your metabolism for long enough, you may find it very difficult to get it started again.
While your body is busy storing all of the new calories it is taking in, the cells will still need energy, but will be getting it from other sources. Again, the muscle tissue will be in danger of being burned off to use as fuel. Consider it this way: You buy a home and fill one room with beautiful furniture and another room with firewood. When winter comes you are cold, but you do not want to have to buy more firewood so you burn your furniture instead. It does not make sense, does it? Starving yourself is the same thing. You have your beautiful and strong muscles that enable you to move and be active, but you are trying to lose weight as well. So, instead of feeding your muscles and moving around more, you starve yourself, and just like in the house with the fuel and the furniture, you burn off what you need to keep, and keep what you need to burn off.
Now we all know that’s not right, so….
No more starvation!!
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Thanks for this great article! And boy, is it the truth. I have noticed that every time I try to limit my calories to really low levels, my body just doesn’t respond very well. Sometimes, I don’t lose any weight at all! It seems I am better off if I don’t even look at calories, but just try to eat healthy foods and get plenty of exercise. Also, I have noticed that if I eat more frequent but smaller healthy meals throughout the day I have more energy and seem to lose more weight.
I agree with the last post. I think it is more important to eat right and be more active. If you don’t eat enough your energy will be sucked right out of you. Then not only will you be physically tired but mentally you will not be healthy either. Whenever I lose sight of what I am supposed to be doing to be at my healthiest I always think back on my childhood. I lived on a farm so fresh vegetables from the garden were always available. My mother made sure we ate them too! I ate a lot but I was very active. We didn’t have cable so no sitting around watching t.v., only the occasional movie night. Whole foods, active lifestyle, and fuel the body right! Sometimes if I’m lucky, I can feel that energy and spark that I had when I was a kid.
I have always heard what jfrits said. If you eat smaller portions throughout the day, then it is easier for you to lose weight. That is so interesting to me, because I was watching Oprah one day, and there was a doctor on the show that said if you only eat one meal a day, you will gain weight! It is funny to me that if you eat more throughout the day, but less portions, you will lose weight. If you eat one meal a day, you will gain weight! I have also noticed that while I am at work I have a lot more energy than I usually do because of how I eat and how much. I never could eat breakfast because it always made me feel sick, so I have started eating fruit and such for breakfast. That’s the most important meal of the day! It starts your brain and prepares it for the whole day. So, when I eat breakfast and more meals during the day, I have way more energy and motivation to do things!
I agree. If I skip breakfast, my day does not go well. I also need my coffee. I’ve known people who drink coffee all day. I only drink one in the morning. I feel like that is healthy but sometimes if I don’t drink that one coffee in the morning I get a BAD headache. I have to quickly make myself a cup and as soon as I start drinking the headache goes away. Is it normal to get so addicted from one cup of coffee? I worry that maybe there is more to this but I don’t know. I can wean myself off of coffee and not get a headache but I still don’t have any energy. Is there anyone else who goes through this?
I definitely go through this, but I LOVE my coffee! I restrict myself to two cups of coffee per day, and I am very rigid with that amount, but like you, I also get a headache if I don’t have it. Oddly enough, some pain relievers like Excedrin and Anacin that are used to treat headaches have caffeine in them. And there are other benefits of caffeine. For instance, I have heard that it lowers your risk of diabetes and Parkinson’s Disease, and that coffee contains antioxidants. Dr. O., what do you think about the consumption of coffee? Should a person drink coffee, and if so, how much is too much?
You know, I have wondered about the coffee thing myself. It is very possible to imagine being addicted to coffee, but it seems as if coffee can be the same as any other addiction. Once it flows into your normal every day routine, it becomes a habit. Once you have been addicted to something for a long period of time, your body will know if it misses a day of the product. Maybe it can be called coffee withdrawals.
Along with herbal energy pills (that really do work), I will sometimes take a B-12 shot. It comes in liquid form, but I also work at a doctor’s office, so I sometimes have the doctor give me an actual injection shot of B-12. You are right about the Excedrin having caffeine in them. A lot of pain killers do, because it helps the pain medicine break up into your blood stream. Without the caffeine, the medicine may not work as well.
My husband swears by the little liquid B12 shots. He spends some of his time working outside and just needs a bit of an energy boost and highly recommends the B12. I think I’m going to give them a try as well. Plus, the B vitamins are supposed to be good for stress, so that is a bonus!
I tried one of the little B 12 shots yesterday, as I have been a bit sleep deprived lately. I have to say, it may be my imagination, but it really did seem to work. I had a good energy level throughout the day and was able to get a really good night’s sleep – I fully recommend!
I’ve never tried B-12 shots. I’m a little scared of them. I know caffeine isn’t good for you in excess but isn’t there health risks with too much B-12 as well? I’m going to have to look into that. Like I said before, I could use all the energy I can get. If the B-12 shot is a healthier option than coffee, I’m all for it.
The little drink that I tried is Verve, and while I thought it was a B12 drink, it also has many other vitamins, including lots of vitamin C. Also it doesn’t have any L-phenylalanine like some of the other B12 shot drinks, which I don’t think is very good for you. It is pretty good tasting and seems to be really healthy, with mangosteen and lots of other good stuff. They have a sugar free kind (which is what I tried) and one that is not sugar free, and it doesn’t have caffeine!
I had talked about this on another post, but there is a great tea energy drink if you are a tea drinker. It is called Wake Up, and it can be bought at your local grocery store. I absolutely love tea, and when you add a pinch of honey in this drink it is so delicious! It is a potent formula, but it will help you last throughout the day. It is hard for me to find anything that helps me to get energy, and I love this tea. Also, Nature’s Sunshine “Ener-G” pills are fantastic! They are all herbal and natural.