Ok, this has been bothering me lately….
It’s called the STARVATION RESPONSE and it’s the #1 reason why you are overweight and can’t lose weight even though you don’t eat and exercise.
See, you can bust your butt all you want at the gym or at bootcamp and you won’t lose any weight until you fix this, and start eating 5-6 small meals throughout the day.
So what is the starvation response?
It’s your body’s internal mechanism that keeps you alive when you don’t eat anything. It’s how people survive in the jungle or the desert without any food for days. It’s how our ancestors who lived in caves with clubs and chased masterdons survived because it was bloody hard to have a constant supply of ancient elephant meat available.
The starvation response actually slows down your rate of burning calories because it senses food is scarce and does this because if you keep burning calories at a normal rate you will not have any energy to do anything. This means you could be working out hard for an hour and burning very few calories.
This is your basic prehistoric survival mechanism that is still functioning in us today. Sure, we have no need for it now in today’s westernized world, where there seems to be a grocery store on every corner.
Slowing down your metabolism like this will never make you lose weight in the long term. You can never starve yourself to lose fat! You may lose weight initially, but at some point , when you start eating normal amounts of food, you will gain it all back.
So do yourself a favor, if this sounds like you….You have been gaining weight and have that stubborn fat in those trouble spots, then you are most likely suffering from the starvation response and need to reset your metabolism.
Here’s how
- eat small portions and eat frequently (2-3 hours in between meals)
- eat over 1200 calories a day
- NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST
- consume protein in every meal
- eat 4-6 meals per day
Now this may scare you, and you may even gain weight initially from the extra calorie consumption. DO NOT WORRY! This is because your metabolism is slow and is not used to the extra food. After a month of eating like this and doing exercises such as squats and pushups, your metabolism will be higher and prepare you for a lifetime of losing fat the proper way.
Get in the habit of making changes, you may be reading this article because you are unhappy with your appearance and need a change. Something is wrong if you are exercising 3-5x/week and trying to lose weight, and getting no results. So make this change!
The Starvation Response is a life-saving mechanism and it will destroy your efforts trying to lose fat because your body has no idea how to differentiate between “dieting” and “starving”. Once the response has been activated it becomes almost impossible to lose weight, so you should NEVER severely drop your calorie intake. By being a starvation response victim, you will lose muscle, which is the worst thing for your metabolism. And you have to keep that metabolism high!!!
This is why it is much easier to lose weight if you previously ate too much as opposed to too little.
Disclaimer: This rant was meant for those who eat 1 or 2 meals per day. If you are currently eating 4-6 meals per day then carry on with what you are doing. This is one of the biggest reasons why Moms struggle with fat loss. If you have any questions, you know where to reach me.
Dedicated to your success,
Josh Saunders
