So why did something that once worked for us- cutting calories and exercising like crazy- stop working for us now?
The better of a dieter you've been, the more that the rebound effect will cause you to gain weight you can't lose no matter what you try!
Yesterday we talked about how eating a high carb low fat diet of small meals frequently will drive you towards a prediabetic state. A state where you have high circulating insulin all the time, which means whatever you eat gets stored as fat, dumped into your liver or stays in your blood stream.
What makes this even worse is if you have consistently eaten under your normal daily calorie requirements and primarily focused on low fat foods which spike insulin. Add long cardio sessions and your body is in a state of complete panic!
Constantly being in caloric deficit and performing long cardio sessions are both incredibly stressful to your body. They both drive cortisol up, which helps you age faster and, you guessed it, store more fat... because your internal system believes famine is coming.... why else would you be running for long periods of time with no food?
Your bodies' answer: You are starving to death! Your body is just trying to save you!
In a healthy metabolism, these things are not an issue, they become an issue once the metabolism goes out of balance.
Yes, eating less and exercising more will work in a perfect metabolism, for a little while. But your metabolism is designed to adjust to the circumstances, so you'll survive no matter what.
Dietary fat has received a lot of unwarranted criticism, and there is now evidence that studies regarding what actually makes you store fat were manipulated results at the highest levels. Especially regarding sugar, something our country has had a great interest in producing.
Dietary fat spikes insulin the least out of the 3 main macronutrients. Yes, its calorically dense, which is why it tastes so good and is very satisfying. Also, our body needs fat to produce hormones.
Eating sugar and fat together does increase glucose storage- yes eating something that's both sugary and full of fat is the worst possible scenario. Because the sugar spikes your insulin and stores a percentage of the higher fat calories as cellular fat.
Eating fat with proteins and vegetables however, is a much better option. Especially when fiber is included in this mixture, the release of glucose is slow and stead and very little is stored as fat.
However remember, whenever you are using food as fuel that means you are not using your stored body fat as fuel!
More on that tomorrow!
Step #2- increase your dietary fat to feel more satisfied with proteins and vegetables, which should be the focus of your meals. Reduce simple carbohydrates and processed foods, your goal should be to eliminate processed foods from your diet.