Comments on: 3 Keys To Weight Loss http://www.blog.intofit.com/2010/02/things-i-tell-my-clients-about-weight-loss.html Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:43:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: IntoFit http://www.blog.intofit.com/2010/02/things-i-tell-my-clients-about-weight-loss.html/comment-page-1#comment-1959 IntoFit Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:36:20 +0000 http://www.blog.intofit.com/?p=2138#comment-1959 These are great questions! Thanks for writing in! 1. The trick is not to drop to 1200 calories right away. You want to ease off the amount of calories you are eating - so If you normally eat 3000 calories a day and you want to lose weight, the first step might be to cut 1000 calories a day and add exercise. Once you stop seeing results, you may cut another 200 and so on. Doing it slowly this way will help you find the right amount of calories for you to maintain a healthy weight and still feel like you can eat. But yes, as you lose weight, your body needs less and less calories to sustain your activities. It's way harder and more work for you body to move 195 instead of 140. 2. I am not a fan of these starve yourself and then binge diets. I Am not a fan of cheat days. ( I will post about cheat days next week to go into more detail about why I hate them) 1. You have to be SO Good 100% of the time in order for a "cheat day" to have that kind of an effect on your metabolism (and to be honest I don't really think it does have that kind of effect on your metabolism). 2. Most people go WAY over board on their cheat day and eat WAY too many calories. When people say "cheat day" they mean have ONE slice of pizza, not the whole thing. I also think this sets REALLY BAD habits that will result in putting weight back on. You're essential rewarding yourself for staring your body with junk food. Unfortunately I have NEVER seen anyone lose weight this way and keep it off. Very quickly those "cheat days" get way out of hand and they get more and more frequent. I have read about some eating plans that have you eating 1500 calories one day, 1300 the next, 1200 the next and 1600 the next. Keeping your body surprised. But I guess I personally (my opinion) don't think that this kind of eating is necessary. If you lose weight by changing your lifestyle habits for good- you should just be able to eat healthy and see results. Slow results yes, but they are lasting ones. Hope this helps! These are great questions! Thanks for writing in!
1. The trick is not to drop to 1200 calories right away. You want to ease off the amount of calories you are eating – so If you normally eat 3000 calories a day and you want to lose weight, the first step might be to cut 1000 calories a day and add exercise. Once you stop seeing results, you may cut another 200 and so on. Doing it slowly this way will help you find the right amount of calories for you to maintain a healthy weight and still feel like you can eat. But yes, as you lose weight, your body needs less and less calories to sustain your activities. It’s way harder and more work for you body to move 195 instead of 140.
2. I am not a fan of these starve yourself and then binge diets. I Am not a fan of cheat days. ( I will post about cheat days next week to go into more detail about why I hate them) 1. You have to be SO Good 100% of the time in order for a “cheat day” to have that kind of an effect on your metabolism (and to be honest I don’t really think it does have that kind of effect on your metabolism). 2. Most people go WAY over board on their cheat day and eat WAY too many calories. When people say “cheat day” they mean have ONE slice of pizza, not the whole thing. I also think this sets REALLY BAD habits that will result in putting weight back on. You’re essential rewarding yourself for staring your body with junk food. Unfortunately I have NEVER seen anyone lose weight this way and keep it off. Very quickly those “cheat days” get way out of hand and they get more and more frequent. I have read about some eating plans that have you eating 1500 calories one day, 1300 the next, 1200 the next and 1600 the next. Keeping your body surprised. But I guess I personally (my opinion) don’t think that this kind of eating is necessary. If you lose weight by changing your lifestyle habits for good- you should just be able to eat healthy and see results. Slow results yes, but they are lasting ones.
Hope this helps!

]]> By: Heather http://www.blog.intofit.com/2010/02/things-i-tell-my-clients-about-weight-loss.html/comment-page-1#comment-1955 Heather Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:46:39 +0000 http://www.blog.intofit.com/?p=2138#comment-1955 I have heard quite a bit about this "starvation mode" where the body holds onto calories. How do you balance this? It feels like if you stay at, say, 1200 calories to lose weight it will stop working because your body will just get "used" to having only 1200 calories. That becomes your new 'normal' setpoint and your body won't drop the weight anymore. Can this be true? I also read about a regime where you basically eat low low low calories for several days and then a day of binging (ok, not a true binge - but many more calories) to trick your metabolism into waking up. So you binge for the day and then go back to low low low calories. Supposedly it keeps your body in check and your metabolism never "adjusts" and goes into starvation mode. Do you have any thoughts on this? I know the sensible thing to do is stick to consistent and healthy lower calories - but it sounds like at some point your body will just get too used to this. I have heard quite a bit about this “starvation mode” where the body holds onto calories. How do you balance this? It feels like if you stay at, say, 1200 calories to lose weight it will stop working because your body will just get “used” to having only 1200 calories. That becomes your new ‘normal’ setpoint and your body won’t drop the weight anymore.

Can this be true?

I also read about a regime where you basically eat low low low calories for several days and then a day of binging (ok, not a true binge – but many more calories) to trick your metabolism into waking up. So you binge for the day and then go back to low low low calories. Supposedly it keeps your body in check and your metabolism never “adjusts” and goes into starvation mode.

Do you have any thoughts on this? I know the sensible thing to do is stick to consistent and healthy lower calories – but it sounds like at some point your body will just get too used to this.

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