After gaining weight, we immediately start eating less and exercising hard, more out of guilt rather than any technique. Many people resort to different kind of diets. After the initial weight loss, there comes a plateau and then when you start eating regularly again, you get the old weight back, or sometimes more. Here is why it happens.
Food is the primary and only source of energy for our body. Food is about survival, it is a resource sometimes easily available and other times hard to get. Human body has adapted itself since the last five lakh years to store resources inside the body.
In order to decide how much resources are to be stored, our body takes help of two calculations – Set Point and Metabolic Rate.
Set point is the narrow range of body weight that is decided by the body and is kept within that range. It is the weight which the body feels safe that enough resources have been stored for those difficult times.
Whenever the weight falls below the set point, it decides that survival itself is at stake and takes emergency measures to get back to the set point. Our body cells have a certain type of intelligence which guide all these actions. If weight rises above the set point by overeating, the body sheds resources to come back to the set point again.
Base Metabolic Rate is the amount of energy required by the body when it is resting. Metabolic Rate is the base rate and calories consumed due to any activity. It is calculated by multiplying 22 with body weight in kgs and then adding the calories required for the day.
Starving & Exercise
Starving is the process of deliberately reducing calorie intake by limiting the amount of food you eat. Diet plans work by the technique of calorie deficient or calorie restriction to achieve the desired weight loss. Intermittent fasting is not a diet, however keto diet is a kind of diet plan.
Body senses this change in pattern immediately. If you are also exercising at the same time, the calorie deficient further increases because you are now burning more calories.
The body and cells now take corrective action by reducing the energy expenditure and increasing hunger. This usually happens after two to three weeks of your new diet plan and exercise routine.
You might never come to know but slowly you will have less energy to do even daily activities and you will start feeling more tired easily. Now even though you are still eating less, the body will start putting on weight slowly. This weight gain will put you in doubt that the diet plan is not working.
From this point on there is only will power left and once that too is exhausted, you start eating normal and you body comes back to your set point weight.
Once things normalise, the body gets ready for any such incident of starvation which might occur in the future. It has a choice between fight or flight and it fights back by raising the set point which leads to more weight gain.
Solution – what you can try instead
A more practical solution would be the time tested method of Indian ancestors.
Here were the things they followed.
- Getting fat adapted instead of sugar adapted
- Achieve that by having a 12 hour gap between dinner and breakfast
- Fast & prayer every ekadashi
- 15 min walk at sunrise followed by suryanamaskar
- Have nutrient dense vegetables every meal, min three vegetables on your plate
- Include as many fermented products you can eat like cheese, butter, ghee, yogurt, paneer, etc
Start having more fat intense food but remember the difference between the good fats and bad ones. Avocado, animal fat, fish fat, dry fruits, desi ghee are all examples of good fat. All grain oils, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils like vanaspati, palm oils, refined oils are all bad fats. Cold pressed seed oils are an exception here. Also remember Lord Krishna as a baby did not drink milk but instead had a go at makhan. Reconsider that glass of milk which you think healthy and relish each morning.
A 12 hour gap between dinner and next day breakfast will set a pattern of the body that there is going to be adequate nutrition available. That will lead the body to store less and hence the set point weight will be kept at the lowest minimum.
Final tip for those who want to lose weight – The best fat burning exercise is walking. So take all the Vitamin D in the morning with the rising sun. For women the best yoga exercise remains suryanamaskar as it is the only exercise which provides strength, flexibility and breathing. Flexibility especially helps with those having thyroid issues.