Are you commiting metabolic suicide?

Simple question right? Are you working with or against your body? How do you know if you are working against it? Well I am going to say that you can answer these questions yourself, quite easily actually. How to read your body is something that we have gotten well out of touch with, and those whom have learned to read it have found fat loss to be both easy and quick. True some of us have it easy shedding fat fast and quickly, but most do not. Also a lot of us have at some point of other been guilty of metabolic suicide, maybe not being totally aware of it but we have. So what is metabolic suicide you may ask. In its simplest form you are starving the body, making it slow down the metabolic rate to a crawl and keeping the fat reserves we have and also maybe gaining some weight in return for it.

This can be accomplished in 1 of 2 ways.
1) you work out like mad and eat very little, (I know many are guilty of this)
2) you simply do not eat enough.

Some of you may be reading this and thinking, hold on here, you are saying that we are not eating enough, we have been taught by many of our elders that this is the true path to fat loss so you are full of crap. Ok fair enough, think about this for a minute then; Have you been able to shed fat easily? Do you feel like crap eating the way you do when you are trying to shed fat? Do you have an overall lack of energy? If you answered yes to any of these then yep chances are you are committing crimes against your body aka metabolic suicide. We know that our bodies give us feedback, it can be hunger, depression, cravings etc but few of us really know how to tell what our body needs when we get that feedback. The problem with me telling any of you what it needs is that we are all different. So what works for me may not work for you, but give the body what it does need and it will reward you with energy to spare, few if any cravings, and a good upbeat mood.

Now we are all intelligent enough to realize that we are supposed to eat better, or as my grandfather would say; "eat your veggies and your meats, your going to need your energy." He was a smart man, he knew that we needed to feed the body and it showed he was a beast of a man for his short stature, (same height as me 5ft8) Working with him I would eat probably well in excess of 5000 cals a day, we worked hard and we played harder, but I never gained an ounce until I got into a sedentary lifestyle in my late 20s. One thing that made me realize just how bad it had gotten was when I would rather get in my car and drive 5 mins to the drive through and spend 15 mins in line rather than make my own meals. I had become a creature of convenience. Well if you want that then expect to pay through the nose, and yep you are going to need a lot of hours in the gym to counteract those choices. The more important thing to look at with that type of behavior though is that its addicting. You are a fast food junkie, as were many of us whom changed things around and as are many whom are reading this. In our world of quick instant gratification, fad diets, lipo this, surgery that, we still want that "give it to me now" fat loss. For those whom are stuck in that mindset I want you to think about this for a minute. "Did you get fat overnight, or did it take time? Do you feel good when you wake up in the morning seeing that scale number rise month after month while you procrastinate and think to yourself that you can slim down anytime."

Now I also want you to think about the amount of cash these diet shakes, pills, injections, wraps and all that other nonsense makes a year. Its simple if you want someone to consume your products you need to get them addicted, make them addicts, complicate the simple or offer then an "easier" way. All the big companies realize that to make profit they cater to what you want to hear and not what you need. So those "multigrain" cereals/chips/breads you are cramming in your mouth thinking they are healthier works wonders for their bottom line, but does it work for your waist line? I doubt it. Yes there are better choices out there, and not all of them are bad by any means. However fat loss is not complicated, its simple really cals out need to exceed cals in. So burn more than you take in, and this works to a point, you can eat twinkies and shed weight, but the bigger picture is what is it doing to your metabolism, are you stoking the fat burning fire or are you extinguishing it. Most of us whom have found fat loss easy are stoking it, those whom are having a harder time may be extinguishing it. Yes there are factors that make it a little more complicated by health issues, thyroid etc. You are not a victim of your body, it's within your grasp to repair yourself and make the body work for you. So get out there and educate yourself, trust the numbers on mfp, if you are going to make this work you must log it all and commit to it, get off the couch and make the effort to make your own meals and make better choices. Is it going to be easy? Well that depends on you, some of us will find it easy some may find it harder, but if you are a junk food junkie then expect it to be hard. In the end you are responsible for your own results, so do not blame that "skinny" chick for making you look bad or that "buff/skinny" dude for making you look bad. If you are sick of how you look/feel then change it! Learn how to make it work, I did and I have never felt better since. I am not a dietary guru, and yep I still cheat but there are way fewer cheat days than good days which should be your new norm. We are all human there are going to be days when you falter, accept it, chalk it up to a bad day and move onto a new day. Every day is a day to make that change, there is no time like NOW! to put that bottle of sugar laden pop, or chemically laden, diet something down and get motivated to make a new you.

I hope that this alleviates some of the guilt some of you may feel, or motivated you to make some change. I have included some links that may help you out, and I hope that they do, these are some posts which I put up and if you have a question feel free to msg me.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/210894-feed-to-shed-fat
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/212510-how-to-zig-zag-cals-properly-caloric-cycling-properly
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/196502-for-the-people-who-work-out-like-crazy-and-are-not-losing