Are you Eating Enough?

A common problem with people who are trying to lose weight is that they are actually not eating ENOUGH. That is right- they are actually starving their bodies. With this deprivation of calories, you are actually teaching your body to store that extra fat as energy because it knows you are not feeding it enough. If you eat smaller meals throughout the day (with 2-3 hours in between feeding periods), your body is learning to burn calories consistently and, thus, increasing your metabolism.

My boss and mentor, Rachel Cosgrove, told me an analogy once that has stuck with me and it is something that I recite to my clients. Think of your metabolism as a campfire and with each meal you eat, think of it as a log that you are putting on the fire to stoke it. The fire will keep burning if you put a log on it once every 2-3 hours; but, if the fire burns, yet you don't put a log on until it absolutely is about to burn out, and then decide to dump a bunch of logs on the fire, then the fire is going to go out.

That latter situation is what most people usually do- starve themselves all day until dinner and then eat as much as possible because you are so hungry, anything goes. For this week, try stoking your fire 5-6 times a day and keep your "burn up." This week, focus on nutrition: don't forget to eat enough and don't starve yourself!