2nd Key: Eat Right
In regards to shedding excess body fat the conversation invariably shifts to energy vs. energy out, in other words how many calories we should consume in order to achieve an ideal body composition. However, when we only focus on how much (although important) what we eat and when we eat often gets pushed aside. I have come to the conclusion that we should approach our nutrition the other way around: Eat the right way, then look at calories in vs. calories out. It seems that (dependant on your individual metabolism) there could be as much as a 1000 calorie difference in your break-even point each day dependent upon:
1. Your body’s ability to use your bodyfat
2. Your eating window
3. The kinds of food you eat
This is due to:
1. How lazy you have trained your metabolism to get
2. Constant bombardment of insulin-spiking food, increasing your body fat and making it very difficult to restrain your hunger and cravings
3. Inflammatory responses to the food you eat
Using fuel for our cars as the analogy, basically, you need to persuade your body to use the diesel fuel stored on your body as adipose tissue (body fat). Yes it is a much slower fuel to use, your body initially finds it very difficult to operate using your body fat, your energy will be lower and initially you will get cravings until your body has built the fat-burning metabolic machinery. It takes your body approximately 6 weeks of correct eating to build this machinery. But it will not do this if you are continually fuelling it with ‘rocket fuel’ in the form or refined carbohydrates or sugary foods. It will simply say, “Thanks for not forcing me to use that slow inefficient fuel! And by the way, thanks for the over-supply of rocket fuel, I’m going to store the excess as bodyfat, in case I need it in the future!”
You can force your body to become a better fat-burning machine by:
– Compressing your eating window. For example, don’t eat until after 9am in the morning and don’t eat after 7pm. This will give your body the mini-challenge of using your fat stores for 14hours each day, and don’t be concerned, your body won’t panic with this approach, starvation mode generally only kicks in after 36hours of fasting.
– Stick to eating non-insulin-spiking foods. Natural-state foods such as high fibre, high water, high protein and healthy fats based foods are highly nutritious but also allow your insulin and blood sugar levels to remain steady throughout the day. This will give you sustained energy and reduce physiological cravings to almost zero. You may still need to address any psychological cravings for food!
Next time we will look at the 3rd Key: How to exercise right and then pull it all together.