Eating Enough

I was reading a post from a group I'm in on Facebook and they mentioned that they are only eating 500 calories per day for about a week to try to lose a few pounds. This made me a little sad and I commented that that is just not enough calories and gave a little bit of facts to try to help this person out a little, but also not be too forward or pushy or even a "little-miss-know-it-all" of some sort. Then a day or so later they had mentioned that they are at a plateau. Not gaining, nor losing and someone had mentioned to them that they should only eat six apples and some water for the day and they'll be back on track.

 ... My first thought was, "I could probably eat six apples in one sitting and be hungry within the next hour".  So I wanted to give a few tips about eating and what is enough and what isn't.

For an averaged sized woman (say about 5'7" or so) the body uses up about 1200 calories per day just to sit around on the couch and get some sleep at night. If you're taller, you'll need more. If you're shorter, you'll need less. The same goes for men, but I'm pretty sure their average height is taller. And please keep in mind, that's just to sit around all day! If exercise is involved at some point more calories will be required. Depending on how active a person is and how strenuous the activities are, even more calories may be needed. This is just to make sure that the body is fueled to do what it needs to do. Even for the things that seems so small. For example, it takes energy to metabolize the foods that are eaten or send signals to the brain that something is uncomfortable (the bum on the couch?). Say you get a cold. You're body is going to use up more energy to fight that cold. Hence the saying, "Feed a cold".

When you don't give your body the calories it needs to do what it needs to do it will go into starvation mode and start storing the foods you do eat to fat and start eating away at the muscle. When trying to lose weight, this will only make a person fatter because the muscle will turn into fat as well so the body can use that as an energy source later.

So you see, it is extremely important that a person gets in enough calories every day. It seems like these days people become so concerned about eating less and less. Sure, many of those people may have been consuming over 3000 calories that were burgers, chips, and sweets. Those are the foods that are calorie dense and not nutrient dense. Losing weight doesn't have to be about starving yourself. It's just making better choices of how you consume those calories. For me, fruits and veggies are the way to go because they are low in calories and full of nutrients that the body requires. In my opinion, there is no such thing as eating too many fruits and vegetables. I also eat a wide variety throughout the day.

I hope this was helpful, especially to those who feel that they need to eat so little to get the results they want. Eating so little doesn't make anyone happy. So eat up and feel good!