CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
So why is it so hard to lose weight?
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The extra, 900 calories that were not used, will pass through the system as waste. When he eats three meals a day, the same thing happens every day. The body will not have had time to extract all the nutrients from the food before new food comes through and pushes it out of the system. This means that he will be wasting 900 calories in nutrient rich poop every day. He has the potential to continue to gain about one pound a week as long as his meals are at or above 2,100 calories per day.
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When he becomes obese, and gets a life threatening disease such diabetes, his doctor may encourage him to go on a diet. Out of fear, he may cut food consumption down to 2,100 calories a day and start walking for exercise. After a few weeks, he sees no changes because his body will still be absorbing 500 extra calories each day. He may even gain a couple of pounds and quit dieting and exercising out of frustration.
This is why ordinary diets don’t work. When he cuts only 900 calories from his diet, he will not even scratch the surface because he only cut the calories his body cannot take in. He would have to cut calorie consumption down to 1,600 a day just to keep from gaining weight. Then he would have to cut another 500 calories just to see a significant weight loss over period of time. This would put him down to 1,100 calories a day. It is a viscous cycle. He will never win at the losing game because the odds are stacked against him especially if he doesn’t know what’s going on with his body. He is not the only one going through this. Few people will be willing to accept the idea that eating only one balanced meal a day is better for them. It is inconceivable that they should skip a day of eating regular meals just to lose weight, even if it means saving their lives.
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People overeat because they have a strong appetite. They have no idea that they can control the monster. We normally establish our appetite while we are young and active. Everyone knows it by heart: Eat three meals a day with a small breakfast, a medium sized lunch, and a large dinner. If we miss one of these meals, the chemicals that control our appetite, will make us feel like we are going to die from starvation. The empty feeling is real. The pain and headaches are real. And the many other symptoms are real. You have no way of knowing that if you start skipping one day of eating, the symptoms will begin to go away and disappear in a few days.
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Obviously, not everyone has the same problem with appetite control. If that were the case, all of us in the United States would be overweight. One possible reason more of us are not over weight is because our bodies do not have the ability to process and take in more calories than we need each day. If a twenty-four year old woman has high metabolism, and her body can process and keep only 2,100 calories a day; she might be able to eat 3,000 calories a day and never gain a pound because her body will not be storing extra calories. The extra 900 calories would go right through her and come out as waste. However, that is not the case with everyone.
Let’s take a look at another active 25-year-old female who has high metabolism and only needs 1,600 calories per day. She also has the capacity to take in an extra 500 calories per day. Her daily activities include selling real estate, jogging, and walking with her dog in the evenings. Her weekend activities include an aerobics class on Saturday and a tennis match on Sunday. She too can consume 3,000 calories a day and not gain weight because she burns off the extra 500 calories her body takes in. The unused 400 calories left over will be taken away with waste. As long as she is active, there is no problem. But when she gets married, things begin to change.
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For a while, things will stay the same except that her clothes may get a little tight, but that is okay; what’s wrong with a few extra pounds? However, when she gets pregnant everything changes. While she is pregnant she may gain an extra ten pounds. After all, she has to eat for two. She will be able to burn off the extra fat in no time. At least that is what she thinks.
This is what really happens. During the nine months of pregnancy she got out of shape and is not as physically fit as she was before. She no longer has the luxury of going out jogging and walking the dog every day. She is too busy caring for the child, cooking, and cleaning the house.
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She realizes that she has to cut calories because she wants to lose the extra fat. The sweets are the first thing to go, but they might be replaced with fast food. Who has time to manage a career, take care of a child, and cook? This sets the stage.
Since she has been programmed to eat three meals a day, and that programming is reinforced with chemical reactions in the body, she thinks that she has no other choice. So, she continues to eat three meals a day that ad up to over 2,100 calories a day. This caused the excess weight to keep creeping on the waistline and hips. She can’t understand it. She is eating far less than she was eating before she got pregnant. What’s wrong?
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By not selling real estate, jogging, taking daily walks with her dog, and working out on the weekend, she is not burning off the extra 500 calories that her body takes in each day. She may gain only one or two pounds a month but it adds up after a while. Now she is caught up in the cycle that leads to obesity.
What can she do before it gets to this point? The first thing she should do is realize, that there is no natural law that says she has to eat three meals a day. She can consume one well, balanced meal a day and remain healthy. As a matter of fact, the human body has been designed by nature; to handle one large meal a day better than it can handle three regular meals a day. Here is why.
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First of all, the meal can be consumed over a period of three hours. It can start at five o’clock in the evening and end at eight o’clock at night. When someone consumes a large meal that contains a variety of fats, proteins, and complex carbohydrates, the body releases digestive juices into the stomach. The juices will liquefy the food and prepares it for digestion. To aide with digestion, the stomach muscles will relax and allow the stomach to expand so that more of the food will be exposed to the digestive juices inside the stomach. This starts the digestion process, which can take up to twelve hours especially for fats, meats, protein, and milk products.
Let’s assume that this woman had her last snack of the day at just before bedtime or around 10 P.M. Since the entire meal can take up to twelve hours to completely digest, she will have undigested food in her stomach when she gets up in the morning.
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Remember that while she was physically active during the day, digestion stopped. This means that most digestion will take place while she is resting or sleeping. After digestion in the stomach takes place, the food moves into the small intestines where the majority of the nutrients are absorbed and stored until it is either used as energy or stored as fat. Food moving into the small intestines adds to the stomach’s swelling and is part of the natural digestion cycle.
It is much easier on the body if digestion takes place only once in twenty-four hours. By eating only one meal a day the human body conforms to this natural cycle. By eating three meals a day, it upsets the natural cycle. Here is what can happen when the cycle is upset.
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When you get up in the morning, your stomach, small intestines, and colon will be still full of food from the previous day. Since you will be hungry in the morning, you will eat breakfast having the regular: toast, two eggs, a glass of milk, and a glass of juice. The body releases fluids into the stomach and the stomach expands to aid in digestion. This starts the twelve-hour digestion process. Some people call this bloating and may feel uncomfortable the rest of the day. Bloating reaches its peak about five hours after the digestion process starts. Also, since you will be active throughout the day, digestion will be slower. In any case the breakfast meal will still be in your stomach at lunchtime.
At lunchtime you decide to have a regular lunch, which consists of a green salad, and a club sandwich, a slice of pie, and glass of sweet tea. New food going into the stomach interrupts the digestion process that was started by breakfast. Since this lunch meal is larger than the breakfast meal, digestion starts over. Juices are released into the stomach to breakdown the food for digestion. Since it takes a lot of energy to process your food, you may begin the feel tired and weak. You might even feel a little sick and get an upset stomach as the food backs up in the stomach.
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By dinnertime all of the discomfort will have passed and you have a hardy appetite again. This is good because now you feel like enjoying a good hardy dinner. After all, this is normally the largest meal of the day. It has been a long day and you don’t feel like cooking dinner, so it is fast food for the family. Dad and the children want pizza, but you want something that’s easier to digest, so you compromise and order pizza for them and a green salad for yourself. A slice of pizza, green salad, desert, and a diet soda will be a good healthy meal. After all, you are watching your weight.
What a day this has been. The trouble started with that bloated feeling after lunch. Then you got sick in the afternoon. Now, here it is 11 o’clock at night and you’re sitting up in bed with heartburn. All of your food is backing up again. Lately, this is getting to be a chronic condition. Thank goodness for antacids. When will this vicious cycle end?
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Read between the lines: Your stomach is always full. Digestion gets interrupted every day. You are always tired and weak. Acid reflux is killing you. You are constantly gaining weight. You have severe back pain. You don’t have time to exercise. You don’t like exercise. You feel like falling asleep after lunch. Your husband is getting fat. Your kids are getting fat. Your dog is getting fat, and your cat is getting fat. Go figure!
Try this: one meal a day, one digestion cycle a day, one expenditure of energy per day for digestion, and a brief nap after dinner equals a good night’s sleep.
So, the next time you find yourself standing in front of the refrigerator with the door open, dismiss it by saying Oh, “I just ate yesterday. It’s just the ghrelin spiking.”
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