Archive for July, 2010

By Avril Young, Registered Dietitian, LDN, NASM CPT

It’s easy to come to the conclusion that you have to eat less in order to lose weight. But even though that seems to make sense, it only works to a point. If you eat less than your body’s bare minimum needs (resting metabolic rate, or RMR), your body will actually STORE MORE FAT. Think about that and try to wrap your head around it. We’ll be coming back to this topic. There is no golden rule for amount of calories since everyone’s RMRs are different, but if you follow the rules in this post and the guidelines to come in future posts, you will be getting enough calories.

By Avril Young, Registered Dietitian, LDN, NASM CPT

Many of my clients show me food records that have 60%+ of their calories coming from carbs. Now if you are an athlete of normal weight, that’s not necessarily a problem. But if you are trying to lose fat, it’s a different story. If your food intake is that high in carbs, it’s likely not high enough in protein. Adequate protein is important for 3 reasons: improved satiety, increased thermic affect of food and maintenance of lean body mass. Protein takes longer to digest than carbohydrates and fat, therefore adequate protein with each meal and snack can lead you to fell more satisfied. Additionally, the body works harder to digest protein than it does to digest carbs and fat. In fact, 3 to 4 times as many calories are burned during protein digestion. Finally, as you lose weight, you want to limit this to mostly fat. Consuming adequate protein to meet your body’s needs can help you do this by ensuring that you aren’t breaking down muscle for energy during periods of reduced calorie consumption. Aim to include protein with each meal and snack from sources such as meat, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese, beans, nuts, protein powders and vegetables.

By Avril Young, Registered Dietitian, LDN, NASM CPT

Instead, eat at regular intervals throughout the day. Past research has said that eating throughout the day ensures that your metabolism stays high all day, however new research no longer supports this. Should you still eat throughout the day? Definitely. Going long periods of time could lead to one or both of the following: 1. You get too hungry and the Oreos on the counter next to the apples seem like the best choice, or 2. You get too hungry and overeat. Both of these results negatively impact your goal of losing fat. So, how many meals should you eat? There is no magic rule – it depends on your schedule and your body. Try not to go more than 5 hours without eating and get used to listening to your body. Have pre-planned snacks available so when you start to get hungry, you have something you feel good about eating and that supports your goal of fat loss. I’ll spend more time on what to eat in future posts.