Diet Center’s Behavior Tip of the week – Skipping meals and Fasting!
What about skipping meals or fasting?

A study on 1000 men and women showed that 22% of women and 17% of men practice unhealthy weight loss methods. Such methods included skipping meals. Skipping meals can work against weight loss efforts in several ways. For some, skipping meals can result in snacking throughout the day. Often, the snacks that we may choose to eat could end up being higher in calories and fat than a normal meal. For others, the body may think that it is “starving,” so it becomes more efficient at burning calories. People who skip meals routinely burn or metabolize calories 7% to 10% more slowly than people who consume regular meals.

There are also people who skip meals and overeat at following meals, which changes their metabolism so that it becomes difficult to burn calories. Studies show that as we age it becomes more difficult for our bodies to burn calories from larger meals whereas smaller more frequent meals our bodies can burn those calories just as in younger people.

What about fasting? Many people have the misconception that fasting can actually help with weight loss. For example, if someone slips up one day, he or she may think that not eating or fasting the next day will make up for the slip. While some may see a loss in pounds from fasting, this is mostly a result of water loss. Furthermore, a total fast may result in fat loss, but it may result in a considerable
amount of lean muscle loss as well.

Fasting beyond a day or two may also endanger one’s health. Fasting more than a day or two is considered to be starvation. Fasting can cause fatigue, nausea, headaches, low blood pressure, and heart problems. Do not forget our heart is a muscle and can be affected by going to long without eating. Not eating or fasting can be especially hazardous to someone with diabetes. What about intermittent Fasting? Most of us generally do not eat while we are
asleep so I suppose that could be considered intermittent fasting but once we are up and around our bodies do not metabolize much of anything until we eat. Again, going to long with out eating can slow down one’s metabolism, leave us feeling bad physically and can result in affecting our health. If you find yourself in the habit of skipping meals to lose weight, try to stop. You are better off boosting your metabolism with a light meal. Instead of trying to fast if you feel like you slipped up, it is best to just focus on getting back on track and giving your body the nutrients, it needs.

Thank you for reading Diet Center’s tip of the week. If you have found yourself struggling with weight loss Diet Center is here to help. Please call 928-753-5066 or stop by 1848 Hope Ave here in Kingman.

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