Former Fat Man Reveals How to Lose Weight Fast
Eat Six Times per Day
If you are like me, you were brought up eating breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.Sometimes it was 5
hours between breakfast and lunch, and I couldn't wait to stuff myself with a big sandwich, chips and a
cookie.Then another 6-7 hours between lunch and dinner, and by the time dinner came I could eat a pound
of pasta and a dozen meatballs on top of the bread to start the meal and the dessert to follow it.Any wonder
how I got to 300 pounds?!
Studies have shown that eating five to six small meals per day is the most effective meal pattern for weight
loss due to a principle known as the Thermic Effect of Feeding, or TEF.Your bodyburns calories for
everything you do, including to process the food you are taking in, up to 10% of your calorie intake per
day.So if you are eating 333 calories in a meal, your body is using approximately 33 of them to process your
meal.When you eat less frequently, you'll experience a lower TEF, which has been related to weight GAIN
in the long term.
Other studies have shown that the higher the TEF (from eating frequently) the higher the feeling of
satisfaction.This is important from a psychological standpoint when trying to lose weight because you will
not feel like you are starving as it is only a couple of hours until your next meal.
Eat - Do Not Starve Yourself
As you can see above, if you are skipping meals on your diet then you are not taking advantage of your
built-in fat burning mechanism, TEF.There were days when I worked out extremely hard and barely ate
food, a true recipe for disaster!It is especially important to eat (or drink a protein shake) after a workout to
help kick-start the rebuilding process.
There is some research floating around about the concepts of intermittent fasting (a period of eating
followed by a period of fasting) and caloric restriction (taking your calories below your maintenance level
for extended periods of time) - both of which have been found to be effective fat loss tools...in rats.However,
the research on humans has not been nearly as promising, and there have been some real unintended side
effects in both test groups, including irritability and depression.As always we need to consider new research
as it comes to light, but anything that has been done to date would not change the recommended fat loss
approach.
For weight loss in humans, the most effective eating plan is small meals every 3 hours (can go as short as 2
hours or as long as 4 hours with the same effect) that contain a protein source, fiber (through vegetables
and/or grains) and healthy fats.This plan will not leave you hungry and will keep your metabolism on an
even keel.
Understand Portion Sizes
When people ask me the how to lose weight fast, I tell them to weigh and measure their food for an entire
day! When you are first starting out on your fat loss plan you absolutely must measure everything and keep
a food log.Buy a small kitchen scale, and measuring spoons and cups so you can really get a sense for
amounts of food.Even if you use some of the recommendations that you may read about, like a 3 ounce
portion of meat is about the size of your fist, you can underestimate the actual size.One time I thought a
piece of chicken was about the size of my fist until I weighed it and found it was closer to 6 ounces rather
than 3 ounces - which would've been the size of both of my fists!
Portion sizes at eating establishments have gotten out of control over the last 10 years as every company
tries to provide value for your dollar - at the expense of your waistline and health.Even standard dinner
plates have gotten bigger - and larger eating containers can influence how much people eat. A study
published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that when people were given larger bowls
and spoons they served themselves larger portions of ice cream and tended to eat the whole portion.If you
must eat out make sure to plan ahead by trying one of these three tips:
Plan ahead by choosing what you will eat and looking up the nutritional information before you go
Order your entree from the appetizer menu, the children's menu or a lunch menu - all of those sections of
the menu are more in line with what the portion sizes should be
Ask for a doggy bag when you order, and take half of your meal and pack it as soon as it arrives at the table
- this will ensure that you do not overstuff yourself
Recognize that "All Calories Are Not Created Equal"
I bet you've heard this one before - a calorie is a calorie.So eating 100 calories worth of Cheezy Poofs is the
same as eating a half-cup of cottage cheese, because they are both roughly 100 calories, according to this
logic.Well, nothing could be further from the truth.
In a 1957 (!) study, three groups of people were put on low calorie (1000 calorie) diets.The first group ate
90% of their calories in fat, the second group ate 90% of their calories in protein, and the third group ate
90% of their calories in carbs.Guess which group actually gained weight, despite only taking in 1000
calories per day? Yep, the carb group.The other two groups were losing weight fast - from 0.5 to 1 pound
per day!
Several studies have been done since, all coming to the same conclusion - low carbohydrate diets result in
significantly greater fat loss than low fat or low calorie diets.In fact, in several of the studies, the low carb
groups were consuming more overall calories than the high carb groups and losing more fat.
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