GIRL'S TIP: Skipping Meals

It seems logical – skip a meal and you will lose weight. Right? WRONG! Believe it or not, if you want to aid weight lose or maintain your current weight you need to eat. This may sound stupid but our bodies are not designed to lose weight. You can thank your ancestors for that!

Like a car, our body needs fuel to help get us through the day. Glucose (sugar) is the main fuel for our bodies and the only fuel that our brain can use. Our bodies are designed to keep our blood glucose levels within a limited range. If you skip a meal your body will go into what is called starvation mode.

During starvation mode, your body will firstly burn carbohydrate for energy, followed by protein and finally fat. As you fast, your stores of carbohydrates become depleted as they are used to supply the body with glucose. As this fasting continues, your glucose levels in the blood drop and your body looks for other fuel sources.

Instead of using the fat stores, your protein stores are next to be broken down and used for energy. However, because protein is essential for proper functioning of your body, the remaining protein is preserved and your body starts to breakdown fat for energy. Fat is broken down to form ketone bodies which is not your bodies most preferred fuel source and as a result can have negative effects such as nausea, fatigue, constipation, lowered blood pressure and a stale mouth taste.

When you swap from using carbohydrate to using protein and fat as a fuel source, your body reduces its energy output in an attempt to protect fat and muscle tissue. As you breakdown proteins, you are losing muscle which results in a weaker muscle that burns less energy. At the same time, your body’s hormone production slows down your body metabolism also in an attempt to conserve muscle tissue. These combined results in a reduced weight loss, the opposite of what you were trying to achieve in the start.

Another negative with skipping meals is that this action normally results in binge eating at a later date which leads to a rapid increase in your blood glucose levels and an increase in your blood triglycerides (transport vehicle for fat) which results in an increase in fat storage.
Rules for driving a metabolism to help aid weight loss:

• Never skip a meal: Try to eat at least 3 meals a day. If you prefer to graze, eat smaller meals or snacks every 2-3 hours. This will help keep your body fuel constant and prevent your from binging.
• Get active: The move active you are the more energy you burn. Simple!
• Weight train: The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism. Muscle has a higher metabolic rate than fat tissue, so tone up those muscles by doing resistance exercises.