The real key to losing weight is Metabolism!!

km47

Great information but will only add that if you are going to eat a not great food----do your best to balance it with a really good food. for example. If you decide you are going to eat something like ice cream. Eat your healthy foods FIRST. Don't skimp the healthy food to allow room in your calorie budget for the not so good stuff. If that means you go over, then so be it---exercise more but don't cut the good fuels. You need the good food to keep your body healthy and to maintain your blood sugar levels. If you eat a huge piece of cake with ice cream and skip dinner. Those fat and sugar go directly into your blood stream and are more likely to then go right into fat production/storage. If you eat the same thing with Protein and good carbs, your cody manages it differently and you are also more likely to eat less of the bad stuff because you are full. So, don't make your self crazy by denying everything and then go crazy---eat healthy first!

KickassAugust

Wish the message boards would create a forum called "Argue with Everything I Say"... Then we'd know where to stay away from.


Thank you for the time you spent putting your thoughts together to share with us...

inesribeiro

i think im going to save this information. thank you so much!
so useful!

madd791

thanks for the info....it confirms some of my own beliefs...im not sure about the not burning while im sleeping part...cause in the morning is when i weigh the least...but thanks....

Sidesteal

Im assuming if I eat all sugar wait till thats digested and then eat all protein those 2 things dont have a chance to meet up? Can anyone tell me if Im way off?

You're way off, since you asked

It makes no difference whether or not you mix macronutrients. All that matters as it pertains specifically to weight loss and outside of personal preference and individual intolerances, is that over the course of time you are in a caloric deficit with adequate macronutrient intake. Do this and fat oxidation will exceed fat storage and you will net fat loss regardless of acute processes/results.

tigersword

Great information but will only add that if you are going to eat a not great food----do your best to balance it with a really good food. for example. If you decide you are going to eat something like ice cream. Eat your healthy foods FIRST. Don't skimp the healthy food to allow room in your calorie budget for the not so good stuff. If that means you go over, then so be it---exercise more but don't cut the good fuels. You need the good food to keep your body healthy and to maintain your blood sugar levels. If you eat a huge piece of cake with ice cream and skip dinner. Those fat and sugar go directly into your blood stream and are more likely to then go right into fat production/storage. If you eat the same thing with Protein and good carbs, your cody manages it differently and you are also more likely to eat less of the bad stuff because you are full. So, don't make your self crazy by denying everything and then go crazy---eat healthy first!

Umm, no. Total calories dictate what gets put into fat storage or not, the breakdown of the food doesn't matter. The body doesn't recognize individual foods. Your digestive systems sees everything on a molecular level, the form you eat it in doesn't make a bit of difference.

HMonsterX

I wish people would actually read the whole thread, and not just take the OP on face value....

kisha1977

Thank you for the post on what works for you, great suggestions. I am not sure why people get so serious on these post, when its just suggestions geez!

DiannaMoorer

When you are sleeping at night, so is your metabolism.

That is nonsense. I expect this to lead to the "breakfast myth"...and I was right...

2.) Frequency of Eating:

The typical American diet is to skip breakfast, grab a decent lunch, over-eat at supper and snack at night. BAD IDEA!! To promote your body's metabolism, you should eat 5-6-7 times small meals per day.

Numerous studies have found this to not be true. This is one of those myths that need to die.

Skipping breakfast IS bad!!!!!! You should never do it!

rjbalcer

Thank you for all the info.! Can you look at my food and exercise diary and give me some constructive criticism? I have only lost 4 lbs. in 2 months.

tigersword

When you are sleeping at night, so is your metabolism.

That is nonsense. I expect this to lead to the "breakfast myth"...and I was right...

2.) Frequency of Eating:

The typical American diet is to skip breakfast, grab a decent lunch, over-eat at supper and snack at night. BAD IDEA!! To promote your body's metabolism, you should eat 5-6-7 times small meals per day.

Numerous studies have found this to not be true. This is one of those myths that need to die.

Skipping breakfast IS bad!!!!!! You should never do it!

Why? Can you show me a real, scientific reason for it? We evolved eating maybe once a day, or once every couple days. Do you really think your body cares what time you eat?

HMonsterX

Skipping breakfast IS bad!!!!!! You should never do it!

What makes you say that? Are Kelloggs paying you? Is it something you heard down the pub, or from a mate's mate, or from some buff dude at the gym? Can you back up that statement?

AggieLu

Very informative. Thanks for posting.

km47

but the rate of metabolizing that food is very different. That is why when a diabetic person has a low blood sugar, you give them something without fat to bring their blood sugar up---juice is usually the preferred because of this fact. You would not give a diabetic a piece of steak to treat a low blood sugar, right? My point wasn't so much that as it is you need to eat healthy first and you shouldn't sacrifice the healthy foods otherwise you could spend all of your calories on junk and still be within your calorie range but not be meeting your fitness goals.

DL121004

I am not sure why people get so serious on these post, when its just suggestions geez!

I can't speak for the others, but for myself, I see this as a place where people come for good information.

Accordingly, if someone posts bad information, it can be helpful to the community to refute that bad information.

km47

but the rate of metabolizing that food is very different. That is why when a diabetic person has a low blood sugar, you give them something without fat to bring their blood sugar up---juice is usually the preferred because of this fact. You would not give a diabetic a piece of steak to treat a low blood sugar, right? My point wasn't so much that as it is you need to eat healthy first and you shouldn't sacrifice the healthy foods otherwise you could spend all of your calories on junk and still be within your calorie range but not be meeting your fitness goals.

osorio1

Bump

hollymeeker

Thank you so much for breaking this down for me! No one has explained the details of how it all works. I can't thank you enough. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to copy, print it and put it on the refrigerator.

As far as the small meals...how many calories do you recommend? Could you write down an example for me?

Have a great day! :happy:

OneSchrutebuck

I thought this was great. Thank you for sharing!

CoderGal

Im assuming if I eat all sugar wait till thats digested and then eat all protein those 2 things dont have a chance to meet up? Can anyone tell me if Im way off?

You're way off, since you asked

It makes no difference whether or not you mix macronutrients. All that matters as it pertains specifically to weight loss and outside of personal preference and individual intolerances, is that over the course of time you are in a caloric deficit with adequate macronutrient intake. Do this and fat oxidation will exceed fat storage and you will net fat loss regardless of acute processes/results.

Thank you for replying. But if thats true why am I lighter today then I was yesterday after eating over 1000 calories more then normal?

tigersword

but the rate of metabolizing that food is very different. That is why when a diabetic person has a low blood sugar, you give them something without fat to bring their blood sugar up---juice is usually the preferred because of this fact. You would not give a diabetic a piece of steak to treat a low blood sugar, right? My point wasn't so much that as it is you need to eat healthy first and you shouldn't sacrifice the healthy foods otherwise you could spend all of your calories on junk and still be within your calorie range but not be meeting your fitness goals.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

This professor of nutrition ate all junk food and met his fitness and health goals. He basically did it to prove a point, that what you choose to eat is less important than how much you eat. Losing excess body fat will do much more for your overall health and well being than eating any particular type of food.

Sidesteal

Thank you for replying. But if thats true why am I lighter today then I was yesterday after eating over 1000 calories more then normal?

Because weight gain/loss takes time and because water weight fluctuates very rapidly. Eat at 1000 calories over your TDEE for two months and you will see a different result.

klkelley

I have been a member of MFP for a long time. I am considering finding somewhere else that is a lot more positive. With all this negativity, it is no wonder people are struggling with their weight loss. Positive attitude goes a long way...I can say this from experience since I have battled cancer more than once and used my positive attitude to get me through the tough stuff. If you don't care for someone's opinion, you don't have to tear it apart....simply state your opinion. Unless you are a doctor then I don't think your opinion is any more important than any one else's. I have read more negative things on this site lately than positive. We are supposed to be here to support each other, not rip each other apart.

I for one think the original post was very informative and if I didn't, I would still appreciate the fact that the advice was based on trying to help.

myak623

Thank you for the post on what works for you, great suggestions. I am not sure why people get so serious on these post, when its just suggestions geez!

The information the OP gave is great information. However, when speaking in absolutes, as he is doing, it needs to be backed up by scientific evidence not "broscience". I have read the entire thread. Most of the people, including myself, who disagree with PARTS of the post aren't saying that some of the methods aren't successful. The disagreement is in the absolutes he suggests them.

There is no scientific evidence stating that eating breakfast jump starts metabolism. There is no scientific evidence stating that eating frequently keeps the fire burning, so to speak.

These are from psychological accomplishments that people have had that keep them from over-eating at later times.

The truth still lies in calories in/calories out and exercise.

HMonsterX

I understand that you're trying to help people but you should really update your nutritional information. Most of what you've written isn't correct and while none of what you said will be harmful, you're suggesting that people do a lot of things that really won't do anything towards helping them with their goals. See below.

1.) Breakfast IS Important:

Why is breakfast soooo important? Your body is naturally programmed to conserve as much fat (energy) as possible when it is not being fed trying to protect vital organs and lean muscle tissue.

Metabolic slowdown doesn't occur intra-day and doesn't even occur after 24 hours. 48-72h fasting might start to show metabolic issues but certainly intra-day periods of not-eating are not going to cause ANY metabolic issues whatsoever. Please see www.leangains.com for research to back this up.

When you are sleeping at night, so is your metabolism. Starting your metabolism as soon as you wake-up is vastly important.

Rubbish. Your metabolism doesn't slow down during the night and you will continue to digest food. Sure, you aren't active so you aren't running around burning calories through any activity thermogensis but you're still burning calories. Secondarily and MOST importantly, you're trying to narrow your scope to acute processes when the big picture is key. Your only goal when trying to slim down is to have lipolysis exceed lipogenesis and if you're in a calorie deficit, this happens by itself over time REGARDLESS of the short term effects.

Furthermore, after you eat your metabolism increases due to something called the thermic effect of food. Thermogenesis is the process of how your body increases heat to burn calories.

Thermic effect of food is based on macronutrient content and total calories consumed. It is not based on frequency of feeding. For example, if you eat 5 meals per day at 400 calories each, TEF would dictate that, for example, you'd burn 10% of that each time you eat (I'm using 10% for simplicity). 10% x 400 = 40 and you do this 5 times and burn a total fo 200 calories per day via TEF. If I eat 2000 calories all at once for 1 meal I will burn 10% x 2000 = 200 and we arrive at the same place.

2.) Frequency of Eating:

Pretty much everything you wrote in this section was false, at least the metabolic portions. See above for an explanation of TEF. But, there's part of what you said that I'd like to comment on additionally:

An added benefit of eating every three hours is that you don't get hungry. By never getting hungry, you reduce the chances of overeating, or grabbing something quick and unhealthy just because it's there.

This is personal preference and some people DO feel less hungry eating smaller, frequent meals. However, there's adequate research suggesting otherwise and you can also find that at www.leangains.com.

In short, Ghrelin is a hunger signaling hormone that adapts itself to behavior in that if you employ a specific feeding schedule, Ghrelin will adapt to this and the end result is (for some people) that you "feel" hungry around your feeding times. The bonus to this effect is that if you choose an intermittent style of eating (for example, when I cut weight I only eat between about 2pm and 9pm and it works wonders for me) it can be easier to go longer periods without food.

and more important, when you eat after “starving,” you body will immediately convert the consumed calories to fat. Not good.

This is just physiologically incorrect, entirely.

a.) Regular cardio raises your metabolism while you're doing it, but once your finished the exercise, your metabolism immediately returns to its regular rate. On the other hand, doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) cardio raises your metabolism for hours afterward.

EPOC or Excess PostExercise Oxygen Consumption is quite overstated with HIIT. While this is from 2006, it's from one of the best sources you'll find and I'd speculate that if this were out of date, it would be removed from his site. I'll link you the information for your reading and also copy the summary here:
http://alanaragon.com/myths-under-the-microscope-the-fat-burning-zone-fasted-cardio.html

Summary -- This is a direct quote from Alan Aragon:

: • In acute trials, fat oxidation during exercise tends to be higher in low-intensity treatments, but postexercise fat oxidation and/or energy expenditure tends to be higher in high-intensity treatments.
• Fed subjects consistently experience a greater thermic effect postexercise in both intensity ranges.
• In 24-hr trials, there is no difference in fat oxidation between the 2 types, pointing to a delayed rise in fat oxidation in the high-intensity groups which evens out the field.
• In long-term studies, both linear high-intensity and HIIT training is superior to lower intensities on the whole for maintaining and/or increasing cardiovascular fitness & lean mass, and are at least as effective, and according to some research, far better at reducing bodyfat.

A few final thoughts:
1.) Nutrition is vastly complicated and I do not pretend to know a fraction of what a nutritionist knows, I'm just sharing what works for me.

And a few final thoughts from me too sir: Despite me not agreeing with you, please understand that there's a lot of misinformation out there regarding fitness and nutrition. I'm not attacking you personally, I just find your information to be quite out of date and I'm posting so that you don't continue to misinform people. If I spew any misinformation I expect to be corrected and when done so I'll absolutely look into opposing arguments and change my stance when it calls for it.

To use an analogy, if I were to tell someone they could eat at a deficit, lift weights, wear a red hat, and consume adequate macro and micronutrients and in doing so they would successfully improve body composition and health markers, I would be correct and I could say that this worked for me. But they don't need the red hat, and they might not like wearing it.

Multiply that logic x 1000 and you end up with people doing all sorts of crap they don't have to do. It's complicated enough as is so it's best to get people straightened out, at least to some degree.

3.) Try not to combine fats & complex carbs. Both are turned into energy (fat) by your body and the combination will pack on the pounds. A perfect example is a PB&J sandwich…which is considered to be one of the worse sandwiches in the world…same with Mac & Cheese…both high fat and high carbs.

Food combination is completely bogus and has no scientific backing whatsoever. It literally makes no difference how you combine your macronutrients.

Here are some good sources for you:

www.alanaragon.com
www.bodyrecomposition.com
www.weightology.net
www.body-improvements.com

These are reliable sources that use science as the foundation for their statements, not dietary myths. These people are either top-in-their-field nutritionists and/or people who train others for a living but the commonality you'll see here is that they do their research and don't rely on anecdote or "what's in the magazines" to fuel their knowledge of nutrition.

Quoting this as it seems no one is reading the thread, just the OP, and getting misinformation.

tigersword

Thank you for replying. But if thats true why am I lighter today then I was yesterday after eating over 1000 calories more then normal?

Because weight gain/loss takes time and because water weight fluctuates very rapidly. Eat at 1000 calories over your TDEE for two months and you will see a different result.

Basically this, your body doesn't pay attention to days, or weeks, or months, it just runs constantly. What you weigh today may have no relevance on what you ate yesterday, or even the day before.

Contrarian

The people "arguing" are actually refuting incorrect information. There's a difference. They are trying to help.

The trouble with these posts is that new people will read them, take them as the gospel and then struggle with keeping up with the various rules they think they need to follow in order to be successful. This can lead to failure.

Sidesteal, HMonsterX and Tigersword are three of the most knowledgeable posters on this site with regards to fitness and nutrition. They take a lot of time on a regular basis to help people understand not only what works, but WHY it works. I would urge people to listen.

km47

good luck maintaining that

---

Again, it seems like a bizarre argument. There are plenty of unhealthy skinny people out there who die of heart disease and diabetes. But we are talking about health here, not just a number. Just like BMIs are one number but don't tell you whether you are healthy. My son who is 11 and weighs 82 pounds and is 4'8" has a high BMI but is solid muscle. My daughters who are 5'3 and weigh 103 pounds have a normal BMI but are no way as in good shape. But on paper, they look better. I have learned and am still learning, that the goals to lasting weight and fitness have to do with balance, not necessarily numbers

jiggly7

Everything you say makes complete sense and I have read everything and anything that has to do with diet and exercise for over many years (decades as a matter of fact).
You actually are saying exactly what Micheal Thurman says (about the 5-6 small meals a day) and everytime I do his program, even for a few days, the weight just falls off. The only difference is you are not saying to stay away from dairy and M.T. does not let you touch any kind of dairy in the weight loss process of the diet. It is common sense eating, eating food that is in its most natural form and not processed (the Zone diet).
You are right, it is a life style change in the way you eat and exercise.
I think all of your suggestions are great and I am switching up my regular walking and I will be doing strength training as well.
Thank you for putting this all down as a guideline. I am going to copy and paste this into an e-mail and send it to my husband and children (who are grown) Thank you again!
About the water debate....I think you should get at least eight 8 oz. glasses of water a day along with the "experts". Drinking a gallon of water a day sounds like a bit much and hard to do. Staying hydrated is the most important message, especially before and after a work out. Some "experts" say, take your body weight and divide it in half and that is the amount of water in fluid ounces you are to drink everyday!

gollyitsmolly

I think a dialogue is important to any issue of contention. There are many strong points of view in this thread. Nonetheless I agree wholeheartedly with the intentions of OP. Metabolism is important especially in long term lifestyle modifications. I have met a handful of people who do not eat this way and look great and I have met A TON of people who do and look great. Best of luck to everyone in achieving their goals.