I've been having conversations with my clients lately about the idea of supportive nutrition. More accurately, I'm trying to break their belief that eating less is a great way to lose fat. I do this despite the fact that they are eating less and NOT losing fat, which is driving me a bit nuts. Many of the people I'm chatting with used to be less fat. When they were less fat, and liked the body they woke up to every day, they were all eating more. More than they currently eat, and some of them are more active now than in the past. So, I'm trying to explain the idea of eating supportive meals at regular intervals throughout the day, and we get to the topic of cravings. Many folks crave sweets, and, when the body is getting low on energy it is not surprising that the body craves carbohydrates, particularly simple ones, because they serve as a mechanism to get energy into the system quickly. Problem is, the simple carbohydrates - the sweets - get into the system SO quickly that they don't last long enough to provide energy for long, and the body begins to crave sweets again. (This has a bit to do with how insulin works to store the energy from the carbs, but that's a more in-depth discussion!) I suggested that fruits, particularly apples and pears, would do a better job. The body gets its craving for sweet met, plus gets vitamins, fiber, and water as added benefits. Besides, think of it this way: when you eat a cookie, you usually want another cookie. When was the last time you finished an apple and wanted another one five minutes later?
So, my advice, beyond the obvious and aforementioned regularly spaced, supportive meals every three hours, is this: if you're exercising regularly, and you don't look the way you want, you need to change your eating. You need to eat for the body you want - not the one you have right now. If you want more muscle, and, hence, a faster and more efficient metabolism, you need to eat to fuel the muscle you want. Of course, you need to be attempting to gain that muscle at the same time via resistance & strength training - but the body won't respond appropriately to that work unless the fuel is there for the workout, and the nutrition is there for the recovery and maintenance process.
Eat for how you want to look! And have an apple.
