My Secret?: To Lose Weight, You Don't Have To Starve..!

Today I visited my ex-colleagues (have not seen them for at least 5 months), and all of them are pretty much shocked to see me - most of them said they won't recognise me in the 1st look, and said I've lost too much weight***... infact some of them were really concern on my health!.. saying that I should eat more! (they keep reminded me that.. 'sher, please eat ok..')

I guess people still have this believe that to loose weight, you have to starve. You have to restrict your food intake as much as possible, to skips meals, etc. Well, if you read the books I recommended earlier, they called this 'a starvation diet' - it's one of the biggest myth or misperception ever in your quest of losing weight.

If you think skipping meals makes you lose weight, I tell you this - stop thinking. The fact says, if you do that, you'll teach the body to keep all the weights with you!!!

You see, our body has been designed for survival, it's designed to ensure that you will survive in the worst condition. If you're not eating, the body tells itself that it needs to survive (coz it doesn't know when would your next meal would be), so it conserve energy by slowing down your metabolism and the rest of bodily functions - less calories burned, metabolic rate slows down - and it tends to stores everything you eat as.. you guess.. fat.

...then you wonder why you always skip breakfast, or lunch, but still ended up... fat.

The trick is... to work with your body, not against it.

Always feed the body with good food to nourish the cells, and let your metabolism runs at it's peak... all the time. (read this article - Fire Up Your Metabolism) - that's one of the key incredient of losing the fat!

You need to eat to lose the weight..... How?

Never ever skip your meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner). Infact, you should add 2 more mini-meals in between - so total of 5 meals per day! - breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner - always have something 3-4 hours ensuring your blood sugar level and metabolism at it's optimum level.

I've always have good meals... see this picture of my typical lunch at work. Tell me if I'd still feel hungry by eating this!

That's a LOT of food.

Since there's no brown rice at the eatery (read my other post on this point), I replaced it with another veggie dish. The fish is my dose of protein and good omega-3 fats, and the rest is my carbs (for carbs, always aim for high PI, low GL)**.

That brown sauce is my sambal just to add a little bit of spicyness and most importantly that added dose of capsaicin phytonutrient that is high in antioxidant.

**People always thought that carbohydrates are either rice, bread, pasta, potato, cereals - but do you know that besides the known protein and fat in our foods, the rest are just carbohydrates? typically it's the largest component in most of the food we eat, and it's the most important nutrition for our body - you get the energy from the carbs you eat (carbs are converted to glucose that absorbs into our brains and muscles).

Ahhh.. so you're wondering.. Dr. Atkin was right.. low-carbs diet works?
Well kinda...it's the types of carbs that makes the difference, and my rule for carbs is High Phytonutrients Index, and Low Glycemic Load. (check Mr. Google for more - needs lots of reading there)

***my goals are to be within the normal BMI (18.5-24.9), I'm close to it, but not yet. When I started, I used to be at BMI rating of 40++ (when the Doctor tries to calculate my BMI, she turns her little 'BMI wheel' (just like when the doctor checks for women ovulation cycle), and mine is off the wheels totally. The doctor tried to act cool, and just assumed 40++. I was totally devastated!).

My BMI status as of 25-Jul-2008: