Hey guys! It is Sean Nalewanyj here from howtoburnfat.com with another fat loss video lesson. And in today’s edition, I am going to be explaining to you why making large reductions to your overall calorie intake and meal frequency will actually work against you and cause you to gain more fat over the long run rather than lose it.
You see, when most people make the decision to loose weight and get into impressive shape, they fall victim to the false logic that the less food they eat, the more fat they loose. They naturally want to see results as quickly as they possibly can. And as a result, they begin placing huge restrictions on the number of calories that they consume each day as well as the number of meals that they eat.
Well, it might seem to make sense on the surface. The reality is that this crash dieting approach is literally one of the most harmful and counter productive things you could possibly do if your goal is to burn off body fat and keep it off over the long run.
This is one of the major reasons why the vast majority of people fail miserably when they begin a fat loss program. It is because they follow a method that works against their body’s natural biology rather than with it.
Let me explain this further. Now, the human body is a very intricate and highly complicated system that is hard wired with the ultimate goal of keeping you alive and healthy at all times. And, it is riddled with all kinds of natural defense mechanisms and survival responses that are used to react to potentially threatening situations.
Thousands of years ago, we did not have the privilege of a readily available source of food and we often had to endure days on end without any nutrition at all. We were forced to hunt and gather in order to fill our stomachs and the conditions were harsh and uncertain. As a result, the body had to come up with a way to keep us alive and healthy during these times of famine.
You see, your body has no idea that there is a fridge full of food 10 feet away from you. And when you deprive it of the calories that it needs each day for optimal functioning, this stone age survival mechanism kicks into gear.
So what exactly happens? Well, 2 major adjustments are made and they are directly counter productive to your goal of a lean shaped and defined body. First of all, the far burning metabolism dramatically slows down. Body fat is simply a stored form of energy and then an effort to conserve this energy for future use, the body will begin holding on to it rather than burning it. During periods of severe calorie restriction, the metabolic rate can slow down by up to 40%.
Secondly, your levels of lean muscle tissue will begin rapidly wasting away. Muscle is metabolically expensive tissue and requires a lot of resources to build and maintain. In an effort to further conserve energy and to obtain a source of much needed protein, the body will begin breaking down and wasting away your lean muscle tissue. In fact, around half of the weight that you loose during a crash diet is muscle tissue. To sum these two points up, when you deprive your body of the calories and nutrients that requires each day for proper functioning, you begin storing more body fat while simultaneously loosing muscle mass. It is the ultimate double wammy and it is the virtual opposite of what you should be trying to achieve.
But things get even uglier when we take a closer look. It is not just that this type of dieting approach prevents you from attaining the lean and in shape body you desire, but it actually takes you in the opposite direction. When your body is placed into periods of severe calorie restriction, it naturally increases the production of a powerful fat storing hormone called lipoprotein lipase that actually programs you to store higher than normal amounts of calories as fat. A couple of this with the large decreased in lean muscle tissue, and you are now left with a body that is set up to begin gaining even more weight than you started with. Once you return to eating normally again, the same number of calories that you used to eat to maintain your weight, actually now forces you to gain weight due to the metabolic changes that have taken place in your body.
So, how do we avoid all of these negative effects? How do we structure an approach that forces the body to consistently burn fat rather than store it. Work with your natural biology, not against it. Stop trying to go against the grain and force your body into fat burning submission. Instead, use an approach that works with your body’s natural chemistry and gently stimulate it to gradually burn fat over a longer period of time.
So, how exactly does one go about working with their biology in terms of a concrete nutritional approach?
Well, there are two main ways. Number one, create only a slight caloric deficit through your diet. It is no secret that in order to burn body fat, you caloric intake must be smaller than your caloric expenditure. In other words, you must burn more calories than you consume. In doing so, you will stimulate the body to tap into its fat stores in order to obtain a source of energy. The problem with most fat loss program is that they involved such a large caloric deficit that body fat maybe burn off, large amounts of muscle tissues are also lost and all of the harmful starvation responses I just outlined or triggered. The solution is to make use of a very slight caloric deficit that would gently coax your body into gradually burning fat while maintaining muscle mass. A good general guideline for this is to consume 15% to 20% fewer calories than is needed to maintain your current body weight. As a rough general figure, this usually equates to consuming about 11 to 13 calories per pound of overall body weight each day.
And secondly, maintain a high meal frequency. Instead of the traditional notion of three square meals a day, start getting into the habit of consuming between 5 to 7 smaller meals a day spaced every 2 to 3 hours. It may seem counter intuitive to consume a greater number of meals daily in order to loose body fat but in truth, this is one of the most important dietary steps you could possibly take. When you go for around 3 hours or more without a meal, the same starvation mechanisms we previously outlined or triggered. The fat burning metabolism slows down, muscle mass is wasted away, your energy levels drop, and you begin traveling farther away from your goals rather than closer to them. In order to keep your body’s rate of fat burning elevated around the clock, you must provide it with a steady stream of nutrients in order to keep it out of starvation mode and to prevent any incentive it might have to hold on to stored body fat.
Not only will this method of grazing allow you to burn more fat each day, but it will also allow you to preserve the muscle mass as well as improve your energy levels and digestion processes.
The take home message of this video lesson is simple. If you are serious about achieving a lean, shaped and defined body and maintaining it over the long run, a gentle gradual dietary approach is the only realistic solution. If you try to make harsh, drastic changes that work against your biology rather than with it, your body will always react in a defensive way and will make it increasingly difficult for you to get into the shape you desire. Focus on a small caloric deficit through your diet, maintain a high meal frequency and ensure that you are providing your body with all of the nutrients that it requires each day for proper functioning. Such an approach, will keep your fat burning metabolism elevated, preserve your lean muscle tissue, and will set you up for healthy, long term fat burning results that no crash diet could ever produce.
If you want to learn all of the exact details behind structuring an effective fat loss program that works with your biology rather than against it, make sure to visit my personal web site using the link in the description box. There, you will have the chance to sign up for my free online fat burning email course, six critical keys to rapid fat loss revealed which will uncover all kinds of useful tips and tricks for accelerating your body’s rate of fat loss quickly, safely, and permanently.
You will also be able to download the first 2 chapters of my best selling ebook, “The Truth About Burning Fat”, which is a 266 paged fat loss success guide that covers every single topic you will need to know to get that lean, head turning body you are after.
Go ahead and click that link for more information. I will see you there.
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