Posted on August 15, 2014 by Jenny Cromack
One of the most common approaches for the uninitiated for dropping weight quickly is skipping meals. It seems like a logical approach, cut out food, drop weight fast… unfortunately, like most things in life, this is way too simple and unfortunately doesn’t work. The body does not respond very well to long periods of fasting.
Skipping meals to lose weight?
Odds are if you read or watch any media you’ll have heard of intermittent fasting, now I’m not going to argue thats its not good for your health, because the research clearly supports that intermittent fasting is great for weight management, insulin sensitivity and even blood pressure. However there are other approaches that are just as good if not better and compliment goals such as toning and body composition. After all, its very rare we see a client that just want to lose weight, there is normally some element of toning or hypertrophy.
I can also guarantee that if you want to tone the body or build muscle as well as lose fat you’ll get better results from five regular meals a day, without going into too much detail you’re essentially allowing the body to stay in a homeostatic state.
Burning fat effectively requires calories, a high metabolism and stable blood sugar to be optimal. Maintaining muscle mass is hardest when your in periods of starvation and as we know the less muscle mass we have the less calories you can consume without gaining fat.
The best approach I have found for FAT LOSS is to manipulate your daily calorie intake and cycle through the 3 days below
DAY 1- Consume 20% less calories than your BMR + exercise calories (40%protein, 40% fat, 20% carbohydrates)
DAY 2- Consume your BMR + exercise calories exactly (40%protein, 40% fat, 20% carbohydrates)
DAY 3- Consume 5% More than your BMR + exercise calories (40%protein, 30% fat, 30% carbohydrates)
Try to apply this to your weekly nutritional plan and make sure whatever you do you do not starve yourself as this will be detrimental to achieving your goals. Remember preparation is key….failing to prepare is preparing to fail.