Once the guilt of gaining weight overcomes you, the first reaction is a hard workout and eating less. The first phase is also sheer will power. As you exercise hard, you start burning more calories and the result is visible. This phase lasts anywhere between a few days to a few weeks. Eating less induces the phase of calorie deficient. Just when your body starts to lose weight, things also start going wrong and your weight is back to where it was.
If this story is familiar, it is time to reverse this and make weight loss permanent. But for that you also need a change of technique. Instead of counting calories, you should address the hormonal imbalance.
Calorie restriction is a manifest of your guilt
Gaining weight always makes you feel that something bad has happened to you. Suddenly everyone around you will directly or indirectly offer advice on losing weight. Next follows tips like jeera water which helps with weight loss. Others outrightly ask you to get up and get active.
First of all, let us get this straight. There is nothing bad about gaining weight and no one is responsible for it. It happens to be a combination of factors like hereditary, genetic, lifestyle, stress and hormonal changes.
A calorie restrict diet also starves you of essential nutrients which cannot sustain you for longer durations. Once you give up and start eating regularly, the body gains back all the lost weight.
Understanding exercise
All exercise we do is divided into two categories, anabolic and catabolic exercise. All exercises which require exertion come under the category of catabolic exercise. They require glucose to burn and oxygen. Glucose power the cells which in turn provide us with energy. This energy is then used by our muscles to do the exercise that we are demanding. From here on two things will happen. All this huffing and puffing will lead to anaerobic glucose burning which is in the absence of oxygen. Your body is struggling to provide the glucose to sustain your exercise. This glucose has to either come from food or from the emergency glucose reserves stored in the body. Your body has still not entered into fat burning mode.
The next stage in this type of exercise is the creation of lactic acid. It is a defence mechanism of the body which floods your muscles with acid crystals which slows you down. Till the time the lactic acid is not dissolved your muscles will remain sore and you cannot exercise for days. If this would not have been there then you would have continuously exercised till you caused muscle and bone damage to the body.
The same also happens in case of anabolic exercise such as body building. After a few rounds, the muscles start getting sore and they just stop taking more exercise. This is the most common phenomenon you all guys must have witnessed.
Exercise can still sustain you at younger ages. But once you cross those 30s, losing weight by exercise gets difficult by the day.
Starving aka eating less
Your body requires a daily dosage of nutrients. They come in the form of vitamins, fats, protein, carbs, sugars, minerals and so on. Let us first understand the difference between fasting and starving. On the face of it, both appear to be same. But fasting is always followed by feasting. If your fast lasts for 24 hours, then it is called one meal a day. A fast can also last for 36 hours, 48 hours or even 72 hours. But the common part about that all is a fast is always followed by a heavy and nutritious meal which helps the body build up nourishment reserves. Our body is really good at storing for a long period of time.
Starving is pure will power. For some people this will power can last several years. Ambitious and stubborn people have the highest amount of will power.
Starving is another kind of calorie restrict diet. The important thing to remember here is that like all diet plans, this one too works. But for only a limited period. The moment you stop starving and resume your normal diet, your weight will rise back again.
Eating less will definitely starve the body of key nutrients which are required for the body. Have you noticed how people below the poverty line get fat bellies. That is a result of malnutrition. Starving like overeating causes a hormonal imbalance in the body, here is the example.
BALANCE OF HORMONES
| CATABOLISM | ANABOLISM |
| Thyroid Hormone | Sex Hormone |
| Steroids | Growth Hormone |
| Glucagon | Insulin Hormone |
Our body maintains a balance of hormones called homeostasis. Frequent eating triggers the release of insulin hormone. Once too much of insulin floods the body, we develop insulin resistance. To accommodate the rise in insulin, body starts lowering the production of sex hormone and growth hormone. At the other side, the thyroid hormone starts increasing. This is just one example. There are other complex hormonal balances working out in the body.
Restoring the hormonal balance to lose weight
There are three hormones involved in weight management.
- Insulin
- Cortisol
- Leptin
If insulin is triggered every time we eat and overeating has led to insulin resistance, the best way to make insulin sensitive is to begin with fasting. Intermittent fasting is the best way to begin as you can keep flexible fasting window and work your way up. Eventually you should aim for a 24 hours to 36 hours fast.
The next step is to go for a low carb and low sugar keto diet. This diet aims to brings in insulin sensitivity as well as induce fat burning. Insulin is the key hormone which triggers fat burning. Too much of insulin is a signal to the body to start storing fat. As the amount of insulin starts reducing, fat burning begins during the fasting period.