Friday, October 13, 2006

How to eat 3000 calories without starving


I don't know about you but every now and then I need a plateau busting routine to shake my body into a greater rate of fat loss. It's not that I recommend that anyone, especially women, attempt to lose more than one pound per week of body weight, but rather, that I believe it to be imperitive that everyone seeking to lose fat, especially women, engage in vigorous weight training at least twice per week.

Why?

Because weight training causes the release of Growth Hormone which is necessary, in combination with testosterone, to promote the burning of bodyfat. But only the most obese should seek to lose more than one pound of fat per week and that under their physican's guidance.

Have you seen the cosmetic surgery shows on the Discovery Health Channel? If you have, then you no doubt have seen what people look like who have lost 100 lbs or more in a period of less than 2 years without engaging in vigorous weight training. They look hideous, draped as they are in huge flaps of loose skin that can only be removed via surgery. And the surgery! Just the recovery from it is so painful that the patients often get addicted to painkillers because they must use them for so many weeks at such high dosages.

Is that what you want?
Then, read on...

Anyone who does not weight train while dieting will quickly plateau after just a few weeks and over 60% of the weight lost will be lean muscle tissue and water. The extreme loss of muscle will lower the metabolic rate (the rate at which one burns calories) and seriously reduce the potential for the - safe - loss of bodyfat in the future.

I said "safe" because the caloric intake will have to be reduced in order to break the plateau. Such a step will CERTAINLY push the dieter into a state of semi-starvation because it is impossible to get the optimal amount of nutritional support from foods purchased at the local supermarket in the United States on an intake of less than 3000 calories. Yes, you read right.

A position paper by the American Dietetic Association says the following about non-dieting American women:

"A high proportion of young United States women (20 to 50 years of age) are under consuming a variety of nutrients as seen in the latest results of the Third National Health Examination Survey (16). Irrespective of ethnic origin, 75% of women do not meet current Adequate Intakes for calcium, and 90% of women have inadequate intakes of folate and vitamin E from food sources alone. Overall, United States women are not meeting their nutritional needs through their typical diets (16)...

"Chronic over consumption of foods high in energy and low in nutrients may result in marginal nutrient intakes if substituted for nutrient dense foods or in obesity, if consumed in addition to the basal diet (21). In the United States, more than 31% of daily energy is composed of foods that are energy dense and nutrient poor (22). This pattern of eating may contribute to excessive intakes of sugar, salt, and fat (22)..

"Although women's diets may contain excess energy, studies show marginal intakes of calcium, iron, vitamin D, and folic acid. For example, in the Nurse's Health Study, data indicate that women who consume more than 12.5 µg of vitamin D daily from foods and supplements had a 37% lower risk of hip fracture, yet only 41% of women met these levels (32)...

"Although food sources of nutrients should be encouraged, diet alone may not be sufficient to achieve nutritional adequacy during all times in a woman's life. Currently, 64% of United States women of childbearing age report taking some form of vitamin supplement, with cost considered to be the major barrier to nonuse (39)...

"According to Troppmann and colleagues (40), multivitamin supplements help overcome low intakes of folate, iron, and vitamin D, and calcium supplements were effective in achieving adequate calcium intakes. However, a conundrum exists in that individuals who are the most likely to use supplements are also those who consume better diets, whereas those who consume poorer diets and are most likely to benefit from supplements are less likely to use them (16)."
http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_3780_ENU_HTML.htm

Are you shocked and sadened to learn that you are literaly starving yourself even if you are not dieting?
Me too.

In future posts I will provide you with ways to bring your nutritional levels up to optimal standards. I will also provide you with weight training routines that will keep you from ever experiencing rolls of loose skin. In the mean time, you can join a gym and get put on a weight training program or you can write to me and I'll try to help you.

Please feel welcome to visit my other blog:
http://www.xanga.com/Prayercrafter

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