Are You Eating Enough?

You're counting those calories for every meal and trying not to go over your allotted calorie amount for the week, but how many of you are not eating enough calories? It may not seem like a big deal to consume fewer calories than you're supposed to each day, but that's an incorrect assumption and can wreak havoc on your metabolism.

It is essential to your health AND weight loss to eat enough calories! If you don't, it will destroy your metabolism. When you don't eat enough calories it's like telling your body that you're starving. If your body thinks it's starving, your metabolism will shut down! Not eating enough calories will also force the body to cannibalize muscle and hold on to fat. When in starvation mode the body considers muscle to be expendable, and it considers fat to be necessary to insulate your organs for survival.

Eating fewer than your allotted calories per day will lead to a horrible cycle of yo-yo dieting. Have you been there? You'll starve yourself, not enjoy the process and end up losing muscle. When you begin to eat the right amount of calories, your body will pack on the pounds in anticipation of another "famine" since that's what it's used to.

What can be done to break this horrible cycle?

Women should set your calories at 1,400 steady. This is to get your metabolism back up to speed. You'll need to be consistent with your calories and be patient during the process. This will take some time to un-do the damage caused from "starving" your body in the past. Continue on this calorie count and exercise 30 minutes - 1 hour a day for 5-6 days a week. You probably won't lose weight for a few weeks, but you shouldn't gain either. This will hopefully ensure you have gotten your metabolism back on track permanently. After about four weeks or so, you should start to see weight loss, and then you can begin to vary your daily calorie intake based on your current weight. A woman should never drop below 1,200 calories and a man never below 1500. Get your body back on track! You're worth it!

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20