Just something I found interesting...

Megooo19

I'm taking a Learning and Motivation psychology class and on the chapter on biological dispositions in learning it talks about activity anorexia in rats which occurs when rats are restricted to food for only an hour and a half a day and have access to a running wheel for 22.5 hours. These rats eventually run so much that they don't stop to eat and then if allowed to will eventually die. This is related to anorexia in humans because often people become addicted to the endorphins that are produced during exercise. The book warns that this is why you should be careful when implementing a stick diet with a stringent exercise program. People who implement a great reduction in food and a sharp increase in exercise experience appetite suppression. This is another reason dieters are encouraged to eat several small meals a day because it prevents symptoms of anorexia to develop. The study on the activity anorexia in rats also found that rats on a low-protein apposed to a normal diet more easily displayed symptoms of activity anorexia, suggesting that dieters need to be cautious and make sure their
meals are balanced nutritionally.

Just something I thought was interesting and another reason to make sure that if your on a low calorie diet to make sure your eating healthy food and not depriving your body of the nutrients in needs as well as to make sure that your exercising well but not to over do it, especially initially.

nsking83

Interesting - and thanks for sharing!

I know that for me, it does help to eat several small meals, or snacks, a day - b/c I've found that I can adopt that "anorexic" mindset pretty easily if I allowed myself. My job is pretty demanding and more often than not I have to literally make a conscious decision to get up from my desk and eat something through the day. When I first started this journey, I found it pretty "cool" that I could go from 7pm at night to about 4:30 the next day without eating.........and then at 4:30 I would be thinking.......'Well, I've gone this far without food, I can make it all the way to dinner'..........and then at dinner just eat a little bit so that I wouldn't "waste" the "burned" calories through the day.

Trust me people I was out of that mindset very quickly, especially as I started incorporating regular running into my weeks. BUT - it's easy to see how that mindset can get planted, and so quickly.

gecallo

Interesting read...thanks for the post! ]