Good morning everyone!
A quick recap. In part one I introduced myself, and described metabolic syndrome (If you are noticeably overweight around the abdomen, please read the metabolic syndrome part of that diary and it's public service announcement). In part 2 I noted that I fixed almost everything (and lost 40 pounds) simply by counting calories (sort of).
But, you should ask, how does merely counting calories help with blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc etc.? What about a balanced diet? What about having too much fat? What if I merely "count calories" and survive donuts alone?
The answers to that, and more, on the flip side . . .
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks ...
.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
First, the usual caveat: one size doesn't fit all. I'm sure my own experiences can apply to some others, but I'm even more sure that they don't apply to everybody.
OK, with that out of the way . . .
My main discovery was this: my strategy for surviving the day on reduced calorie intake turned out to coincide with the same strategy for eating healthier!
Strategy 1:
More meals, smaller meals
Yeah, I was pretty surprised at that one. I used to skip breakfast, and try to delay lunch as late as possible (sometimes as late as 2pm or 3pm), and then have a rather huge dinner, and then some snacking after dinner because I was still hungry.
What I learned was that I was wreaking havoc on my blood system. Simply put, not only is high blood sugar really bad for you, so is wildly fluctuating levels of sugar.
The best way to understand this, is to understand the role of sugar in our bodies.
The Mayo Clinic writes:
During digestion, your body breaks down carbohydrates from foods — such as bread, rice, pasta, vegetables, fruit and milk products — into various sugar molecules. One of these sugar molecules is glucose, the main energy source for your body. Glucose is absorbed directly into your bloodstream after you eat, but it can't enter the cells of most of your tissues without the help of insulin — a hormone secreted by your pancreas.
So, they explain, here's what happens when you eat:
When the level of glucose in your blood rises, it signals your pancreas to release insulin. The insulin, in turn, helps the glucose get into your cells. (If you have extra glucose, it gets stored in your liver and muscles in the form of glycogen). This reduces the amount of glucose in your bloodstream (preventing it from reaching dangerously high levels). As your blood sugar level returns to normal, so does the secretion of insulin from your pancreas.
If you haven't eaten for several hours and your blood sugar level drops, another hormone from your pancreas called glucagon signals your liver to break down the stored glycogen and release glucose back into your bloodstream. This keeps your blood sugar level within a normal range until you eat again.
If that's not enough, there are other ways for your body to make sugar. But this is the body's back-up plan, and it puts a strain on the body.
So far so good.
(Diabetes tangent: two obvious things can go wrong: (1) your body might not make enough insulin -- (type 1 diabetes); or (2) your cells are not responding to insulin as well as they should (type 2 diabetes). Either way, the result is too much glucose in your bloodstream which is dangerous).
So, here's what I was doing to my body:
a. I'd go long stretches with not eating (most particularly, if I'd skip breakfast and often have a late lunch). This would put a strain on my body, as my blood sugars would go low, which would increase the insulin production (and, sometimes forcing my body to go into the back-up plan).
b. Then I'd have a huge meal. My muscles were already near full of glucose, so the extra sugar was ending up in my liver (potentially causing long term damage) and the leftovers were in my bloodstream (also causing long term damage).
c. My body tried to produce more and more insulin, to combat the sudden inrush of lots of glucose, and, invariably (because it does this in most bodies) it would over-compensate. My blood sugar level, in the short run, would drop . . . and what happens to your body then? You feel hungry! (This is called "rebound hypoglycemia". If you've ever felt hungry an hour after eating a large amount of Chinese food, this helps explain that).
Under a recommendation by a nutritionist, I changed my routine from two large meals (plus late-night snacks) to five-to-six smaller meals a day (and a very few late night snacks), and, viola, today I am 35-40 pounds lighter.
So, here's the point I want to make: eating more frequent but smaller meals helped me eat fewer calories. And it has the side benefit of not wreaking havoc on the blood sugar levels in your body.
(Health note: Messing with your blood sugars is seriously unhealthy. Way seriously. WebMD, e.g., writes: "Over time, the high glucose levels in the blood may damage the nerves and small blood vessels of the eyes, kidneys, and heart and predispose a person to atherosclerosis (hardening) of the large arteries that can cause heart attack and stroke." Man, that's pretty serious -- and here's the kicker: the medical community believes that one of the leading causes of all this is simply unhealthy lifestyle -- obesity, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, etc.)
The importance of eating breakfast
This is just a corollary to what I've been saying. There are many reasons to eat breakfast, and I'm not a nutritionist or health professional, so I don't know all of the reasons. However, because my blood sugars were out of whack, I do know that eating a healthy breakfast helps maintain steady blood sugars.
Here's what happens to some people: sometime during the night, your glucose level goes down. This could be because you've eaten a lot of sugar before bed (similar to problem (c) above), or because you haven't eaten in a long while, or other reasons. At some point the next day, your blood sugar levels are low enough -- because you haven't eaten breakfast (and, for some people with medical issues, this can happen even before breakfast time) -- your insulin production goes into overdrive, which then drives up your blood sugar. Yes, you read that correctly: fasting and/or long stretches of not-eating can increase your blood sugar.
So, what I think was happening to me was that as I was skipping breakfast, and sometimes delaying lunch until well after noon, my sugar levels were going up, and then I was eating, driving them up even higher!
Now -- just because you should have breakfast as part of your weight loss and get healthy strategy doesn't mean you should go hog wild at breakfast.
Tentatively, my next edition will be about the importance of watching your carb intake -- how many carbs you should be eating, good carbs vs bad carbs, glycemic index, and the importance of fiber.
For Real Athletes: I wanted to point out that eating more and smaller meals is not just for those who want to improve their health, or just for those who want to lose weight. I just happened across this little excerpt (again, from WebMD): "Olympic athletes eat five to six meals a day, with protein at each, to increase lean muscle mass and maintain maximum efficiency. So plan to eat smaller meals, ideally two and one-half to three hours between each."
See? Not just for you and me, but for Olympic athletes, too!
PS: I see that NC Dem wrote (in the first comment to his first article on muscles: "Tips for staying fit and strong throughout your life. Feed your body often with small low GI meals that combine healthy fats and muscle building proteins in every meal/snack. Keep your sugar consumption as low as possible and reduce your insulin responses and all exercises that you perform will burn glycogen storages and then fat. That's our mission for being healthy."
Sounds familiar, eh?
Housekeeping -- please volunteer -- and let me know if this is out of date.
October 8
Thurs PM - ???
October 9
Fri AM - ???
Fri PM - ???
October 10
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 13)
October 11
Sun AM - louisev - Turtle Diary
Sun PM - ???
October 12
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - ???
October 13
Tues AM - ???
Tues AM - Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 14)
October 14
Wed AM - ???
Wed PM - Edward Spurlock (special Geek My Fitness bicycling issue!)
October 15
Thrs AM - A DC Wonk
Thrs PM - ???