Diet Archives | Page 4 of 4 | Personal Trainer Toronto | Primal Breed Fit Personal Training

At one point or another we’ve all done the ‘crash diet’ out of mere desperation and lack of patience. We want to lose that extra weight, and we want to lose it now. So for a lack of better understanding, we restrict ourselves from most foods, eat mostly salad leafs, snack on celery, start doing cardio and hope for the best.

If you’re not familiar with the term, crash dieting is basically severely cutting down your total calories (50-75%) with the goal of losing weight really, really fast.

Crash dieting is a great example of how not to approach fat loss. Even though the scale may look like it’s in your favor for a short while, there are many drawbacks.

Metabolic Damage

Regardless of what diet plan one follows, the metabolism will adapt to it eventually. The process of metabolic down regulation can occur in as little as 5-7 days. Restrict your calories for too long and your metabolism will slow down and adapt to the new energy intake.

The body is always looking to settle into a comfortable state – homeostasis. With a now slow and possibly damaged metabolism, the drawbacks start taking place. Not only has the weight loss stall, but also there is nowhere else to go from here.

If you’re already eating under 1000 calories a day which is half or a third of a healthy adult is suppose to eat, restricting even further would be unsustainable and just plain unhealthy.

The moment a normal, healthy amount of food is added back to the diet, the body will rebound and gain all that fat back and then some. The metabolism cannot cope with what now seems to be excess food and start accumulating it as fat.

This is a common theme that occurs in those who lost a ton amount of weight in a short period of time, only to put it back in a few weeks or months.

Avoid this by following a healthy and sustainable fat loss nutrition plan coupled with regular exercise and being patient. Just like you haven’t gained all the fat at once, it is not healthy nor sustainable to approach fat loss in such a way.

Muscle Loss

The two words that puts a bodybuilder straight on the deathbed. Having muscle on your frame is a sign of strength and vitality. It takes conscious effort, discipline and time to build it. It is crucial to maintain as much lean muscle tissue as possible when looking to lose fat because it keeps you strong and healthy, increases your metabolism (burns more calories than fat) and gives your body the ‘toned’ and defined look that most people desire.

Following a crash diet is a sure way to lose muscle as part of that overall weight loss.

When the calories are extremely restricted your body will start getting rid of muscle. If your goal is to look defined or ‘toned’ then you need to keep as much muscle as possible on your physique.

Losing too much muscle will leave you looking flabby and soft.

Make sure you eat an adequate amount of protein (about 1g-1.3g/lb of bodyweight) and do some type of resistance training in order to preserve your muscle mass while in a caloric deficit.

Overall Body Malnutrition

Aside from extremely low macro-nutrients, micro-nutrients are also compromised. The lack of vitamins, minerals and essential healthy fats will weaken the immune system and put you at risk of many nasty diseases.

The main or at least very close second reason for wanting to lose weight is to become healthy and have your body work optimally. Crash dieting will do the opposite.

In addition, the extreme restriction of calories will cause disturbance of your hormonal balance and your overall well-being. Anything to see that scale go down, right? No more.

There are plenty of healthy and sustainable ways of getting in great shape, crash dieting is most definitely not one of them.

Key Points:

Causes metabolic damage and a weight gain ‘rebound’ effect
Causes loss of lean muscle tissue
Unhealthy and unsustainable

Solution

Eat in a slight caloric deficit and adjust as needed. There are other fat loss tools that can be added to avoid plateaus and keep the fat melting off. Find it here.
Eat enough protein for your size and do resistance training to preserve muscle
Incorporate plenty nutrient dense foods as well as supplement with vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids

As science moves forward and our understanding of the human body increases, it’s important to adjust our thought process and habits accordingly, especially when it comes to the first meal of the day, breakfast.

For decades we’ve been taught that breakfast is the time to fuel our body with plenty of carbohydrates to promote energy through-out the day.

Foods such as cereal, toast, sugary oatmeal, fruit juice and even Nutella is regarded as a fit choice for breakfast, yet year after year the majority of the population increasingly gains weight.

Now, there are many other factors that contribute to weight gain such as excess calories, lack of exercise, binge eating, poor sleep and other out dated nutritional habits but breakfast definitely plays a role.

Starting your day right sets you up on the right path for the rest of the day.

Key Benefits of a Low-carb Breakfast:

Mental clarity and improved focus
Stable surge of energy throughout the day
Aids in fat loss especially if you are in a caloric deficit
Improved insulin sensitivity
Decreased cravings

Choose a Low-carb Breakfast

The majority of the population consumes a relatively high carb/sugar breakfast which induces an insulin spike right from the start.

A quick surge of energy is produced which quickly fades off, leaving you feeling tired and low energy.

What do most people do? Coffee, coffee and more coffee.

By the time 3:00 pm comes around, most people are ready for a nap, thinking “maybe I need more coffee”.

Combine that with insufficient water intake and it’s a recipe for total dehydration.

Carbohydrates are great for replenishing glycogen stores but we do not necessarily need them first thing in the morning.

Upon waking, our body is in a fat-burning state.

Consuming carbohydrates induces an insulin spike which signals the body to switch fuel sources from fats to carbohydrates.

Eating a breakfast that consists of only protein and fats allows the body to remain in a fat-burning state, keeping blood sugar levels stable which results in a relatively even energy curve.

Since carbohydrates are utilized as a fuel source by replenishing glycogen levels, they are best consumed around a strenuous activity such as a weight training session or a demanding sport, especially right after.

If you are a naturally lean person, 10% body-fat or under (18% and under for women), then you can most definitely have carbs for breakfast, especially if you are trying to gain muscle, since you most probably have a great insulin response already.

For men that are 12% body-fat and higher (23%+ for women) I highly recommend a low-carb breakfast as part of your healthy diet plan.

This will keep your body in a fat-burning state longer as well as improve your insulin sensitivity.

Insulin and Body Composition

Insulin and body composition are tied into one another.

Generally the leaner you are, the better your body will tolerate carbohydrate intake.

Furthermore, both fat and muscle cells compete for the uptake of the carbohydrates that you consume.

If your body composition is sub-optimal, meaning you have significantly more fat than muscle on your body, the majority of the carbohydrates you consume will be shuttled into the fat cells, resulting in more fat gain.

Skipping carbs for breakfast gives your body a chance to start using fats as the primary fuel source.

Coupled with an effective fat loss diet plan will result in improved body composition, weight loss and improved insulin sensitivity.

My three favorite low-carb breakfasts:

3 Eggs + 4 Egg whites, assorted veggies, half-avocado and a handful of brazil nuts
6-8oz Lean Steak, 2 Eggs scrambled w/ assorted veggies
6-8oz Grass Fed Lean ground beef + 3 Egg omelette

Crash Diet: How NOT to Diet for Fatloss