Bye Bye Body Fat: Nutrition Tip of the Week #9

Hi everyone! Sorry your tip is coming in a few days behind schedule this week. Better late than never!

In the tip at the bottom of this post, using the old car analogy Dr. Berardi reminds us that our body needs fuel to function, whether you "feel" like eating or not. Simply eating based on mood could easily lead us to under or over-eat. Many people don't realize that what's keeping them from losing weight is UNDER eating, which makes for a sluggish metabolism. And of course this also works in reverse: eating more fuel than your body needs will cause weight gain.

For example, I don't always feel like eating breakfast, but I know that's the best way to get my metabolism up and running for the day. And, I can't tell you how many times I'm "in the mood" for sweets or for extra servings, but I've done my homework and know that's not going to get me closer to my fat loss goals.

SO WHAT'S THE TRICK?
The trick is to manipulate energy intake (food) and energy output (daily movement/exercise) to meet your goals. Eating based on feeling and mood won't take you as far as a few calculations and some good planning.

Want to lose weight? Create a negative energy balance: intake < output.
Want to maintain your weight? Achieve an equal balance: intake = output.
Want to gain weight? Create a positive energy balance: intake > output.

This may all sound like common sense, but so many people are unaware of their own intake and output. They just follow what Dr. Berardi calls "mood eating" - which is fine, IF it's getting you closer to your goals. If eating based on feeling doesn't work for you (it doesn't for me most of the time), you can take control today by becoming aware of your intake and outputs and make adjustments based on the formulas above.

A great starting place is to figure out what your daily caloric needs are to maintain your weight, then adjust up or down based on your goal. Here is a link to a great website Ideal Calorie Intake Calculator that will factor in your age, height, sex, weight, and activity level, then tells you your maintenance, fat lost and "extreme fat loss" calorie or intake needs. For fun, you can play with the activity levels and see what adding a few extra days of exercise with a program like my favorite, Turbulence Training, will do for you.

The recommendation it gives for fat loss seems pretty sensible, but the "extreme fat loss" is NOT a good idea. Severe starvation diets don't stick. That is the quickest way to lose the weight and then put it back on and then some. And who wants that??? An approach like Dr. Berardi's Precision Nutrition program is the best. It educates you about how to properly manage your intake and output by teaching you how to eat the right foods, in the right amounts at the right times. That is what will get you lasting results.

For more ways to kick-start your fat loss, check out these previous posts:
Nutrition: My New Perspective from 4/30/2008
Every Day Nutrition from 5/3/2008

~Laura

Tip #9
Mood Eating
by Dr. John Berardi

Most people eat based on their mood and/or some subjective feelings of hunger. They don't eat based on what their bodies need. Think of it this way: you're about to take a long drive on a stretch of highway with no gas station. Do you fail to stop for gas before you hit the road because you're 'not in the mood?' Of course not. Think of eating in the same way. Eating fuels your metabolic engine. So it's time to start feeling like eating so that you can stop feeling like you're scrawny.

SEE ALSO:
This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition - our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want -- guaranteed.