Don't Pick the "Skip Meals to Lose Weight" Diet

Don't Pick the "Skip Meals to Lose Weight" Diet
The holidays are here, and then they'll be gone, and you
may feel like you're left with an addition 5 pounds, and
I'm not talking about presents. First of all, while you
may believe the contrary, it isn't that easy to put on 5
pounds of fat over a 2 week period (each pound of fat is
worth 3500 calories, in case you were wondering). You
would have eat an additional 17500 calories, along with
your regular calorie intake, in order to put on five pounds.

But--that's not my point for now. My point is that around
the time you are feeling like you've gained a ton of
weight, you are also thinking about the new diets, new
strategies you want to try in order to lose that weight.
And I'll bet you want to lose it in a hurry, right?

Is one of those strategies skipping meals?

Do you think that skipping breakfast will help you lose
weight faster than if you ate the meal? Or that skipping
lunch and just having breakfast and dinner will help you
lose the weight you put on so you can wear the clothes you
got for presents? The ones you think don't fit because you
were afraid to try them on? So you think that cutting back
on calories by cutting out meals will take the weight off
quickly, right?

The answer is no, and let me tell you why.

When you skip a meal, your body doesn't know if you are in
San Diego or the Sudan, Boston or Biafra. Your body doesn't
know whether this fast is voluntary or involuntary, and it
will act to conserve every calorie it gets. This is
because your body doesn't know when the next meal is
coming, or if it is ever going to get here. The idea is
survival, to provide your brain and central nervous system
with whatever nutrients it needs in order to keep you
alive. In order to survive, then, your metabolic rate (the
rate at which you burn calories) will slow down. As a
result of this slowing down, your body will burn calories
at a much slower rate, enabling your brain and central
nervous system to keep functioning.

But you know, the other problem is that when you skip a
meal, you unconsciously set yourself up to overeat later.
Let's face it, 6-8 hours is a long time to go without
eating (even longer if it's breakfast you skipped). What
happens is that by the time you "allow" yourself to eat,
you subconsciously are thinking, "I didn't eat lunch, so I
saved all sorts of calories, and I can eat more." Instead
of having a 4 ounce steak, with a potato and salad, you
order the 12 ounce steak, mashed potatoes with butter and a
salad with creamy dressing. Why not? You haven't eaten
all day, right?

Wrong.

Save yourself from wreaking havoc with your metabolism-do
what your mother always said-Eat your meals (and chew with
your mouth shut-your friends will thank you).

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