Thursday, December 8, 2011

Christmas Weight Lose...

Hopefully all of those wonderful Christmas parties are going great for everyone. Are you finding those treats too tempting to resists? Self control is just no fun! Wouldn't it be nice to be able to eat whatever you want and never gain weight... Supposedly like those super models and actress who claim that. I do not know about you, but I normally do not believe them when they say that or I just remember they are 20 and have a high metabolisms. Give them a few years and that will change.

In my Holiday Season post, I gave you some tips on ways to not gain weight, but even lose weight during this joyous time of year. One of the tips I gave was having a  planned cheat meal. Today we are going to talk about this further.

The benefits of a cheat meal: If we fast for long periods, our bodies go into a starvation mode. The problem with this is our bodies think we are going to starve to death, great mechanism we have in place to survive those times of famine. Only, most of us do not know what true hunger is. The way our bodies respond is to hold onto fat. Our bodies think it is a time of famine and who knows when the next meal is going to come. We need to survive. This is why you can gain weight or not lose weight when you do those very few calorie diets. The way to trick your body is once a week have a cheat meal. Have an extra helping at dinner and dessert and some good snacks through out the day. You want your body to believe it is a time of plenty, that food is abundant. Your bodies response is to let go of the fat. Why hang onto extra pounds when you do not need them? However, this is a once a week cheap meal, not every day. We can all do that, eat healthy for six days a week and one day have a feast. It does not make is sound so bad or hard then does it? Those goodies are not off the radar for ever any longer.

The best way to create a calorie deficit during the week is not limiting your calories but, working out. As long as you are not eating a thousand extra calories every day. Eat what your bodies needs and then work out. This is a much better way to create the deficit, which will turn into weight lose. This needs to be a good workout to burn at least 300 calories. A good workout like HIIT. The added benefit of doing weight bearing exercising is muscle building. The more muscle we have, the more calories we will burn. This will lead to even faster weight lose.

Before that cheat meal, you will want to do an even harder workout, like an extra set or after the weights do some sprinting. The reason for this is depleting your muscle glycogen, the sugar in your muscles. When we do this, our bodies are ready for an even bigger meal and there is more room to store the extra sugar we will be consuming from the cheat meal. Some of those calories will be burned from our bodies needing to be replenished from hard work. The harder the workout the better before a cheat meal. This is a work out you will want to really push yourself. Go beyond what you thought was possible.

Hopefully I did not lose you. This can be pretty technical, but in the end it is simple. Eat healthy all week long, workout daily to burn an extra 300 or more calories, and then once a week have a big yummy cheat meal. Having some of those foods you have been avoiding for the week to be healthy. In the end, you get to have your cake and eat it too! Who does not like that?

In the Love and Peace of Baby Jesus,
Jenn









 

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