This is going to be a long post. Let’s discuss how nutrition works with our bodies. I am going to try to keep it simple and easy to follow.
Losing weight is simple. There are a couple of things you need to first understand. The first of these is how your body survives, and another is what RMR is.
Your body knows how to survive and keep working.
A little analogy: Imagine that you were going to be going to the desert but couldn’t take anything with you. You could prepare for the trip though. You should drink lots of water. When you get out in the heat, your body might expel some of the water in the form of sweat, but after a while, it recognizes that it is not getting any more and will retain the water in your body to survive.
This is how it works when not in the desert as well. Drinking little to no water throughout the day, your body retains the water in your body to survive. The more water you drink and on a regular interval throughout the day, your body says, “I am getting water every so many minutes/hours so I don’t have to keep it. I will expel it.” This causes calorie burn.
The same goes for food. When you only eat once a day, your body holds all of those nutrients, because it goes into survival mode. It doesn’t know when it will get its next meal, so it holds it. The more times that you eat throughout the day, your body processes/digests the food, which causes calorie burn.
Did you catch what I said happens when drinking water and eating often throughout the day? Your body has to expel/burn it. The most important part of losing weight and trimming down is eating. When you eat several (4-6) times a day, your body begins burning calories all on its own. No exercise needed!
Now before you repeat that last sentence out loud with exclamation, you have to look at the drinks/foods/meals that you are eating 4-6 times a day. If it is sodas, candy bars, and chips and large
helpings of fried foods, then your body turns all of that into fat. Consuming more calories than your body can burn becomes extra energy that becomes fat.
Calories provide fuel your body needs to function, whether it’s from protein, carbohydrates, or fat. Each day you expend a certain amount of energy based off or your metabolic rate (RMR) and by doing daily activities. This energy is fueled from the calories you consume or breaking down energy stores— such as fat. Therefore, the more active you are, the more calories you will burn.
Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) usually accounts for about 60-70% of daily expenditure of calories. Energy to maintain cardiac function, neural function, and repair the body’s cells and structures are included in your RMR. In addition, the more muscle mass you have, the higher the RMR—so you will burn more calories.
So how do you figure out your RMR? There is a very long formula based on metric units of measurements that then have to be converted to standard measurements so that you can get the number of calories that your body needs just to maintain/survive. An easy, simple version of this is for you to stand on a scale and read your weight then if you are female multiply by 10. If you are male, multiply by 11.
How can you turn eating all day long into losing weight? Yes, you eat less amount of calories. But you do it the smart healthy way. You still need to eat from all of the five food groups so that your body can function properly and you remain healthy.
Now I will tackle the “No exercise needed” statement. In order to achieve results of weight loss, exercise will need to be engaged. Physical activity burns additional calories. We can discuss the different ways and levels of exercising later. I will end this post by saying if you consume less calories and add exercise to your day, the scale will not shout when you stand on it. Also, be patient. Your body does need to adapt to the new routine. Those “quick diets” and other schemes will get you results, but they are stopping your body from functioning how it is supposed to in order to survive.