Eat Shrink And Be Merry

All the taste, but not on your waist!

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Worth the Weight

Posted by Janet on May 14th, 2009 ·

Muscle is a terrible thing to waste. But when you diet without exercising, that’s exactly what you’re doing. When you lose more than two pounds per week, typically half of the weight lost comes from muscle. That’s bad news. Muscle is your calorie-torching, fat-incinerating furnace, using energy even when you’re catching some zzz’s (giving new meaning to the phrase “you snooze, you lose!”) Fat pretty much just sits there. Sure, if you starve yourself on a super-low-calorie diet, you’ll lose weight. But it’ll be an unfavorable type of weight loss. Though the scale says you’re five pounds lighter, what you’ve really done is simply changed your body composition. You’re simply a smaller fat person! Gushy all over! That’s not what you had in mind when you were downing those Slimfast shakes, was it? To make matters worse, when you go off the diet (and you will), you’ll gain back the weight you lost and then some. By sacrificing muscle on the restrictive diet, you’ve turned your body into a less-efficient fat burner, so you’ll gain weight even though you’re eating less. What a great plan! To transform your body for the better, don’t lose muscle–use muscle!

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Ola S. // May 14, 2009 at 9:10 pm

    Speaking of “snoozing and losing”…. is it true that even if you sleep for the same NUMBER of hours, going to bed earlier and waking up earlier is better for your body than going to bed late and sleeping in? That the sleep you get from say 11pm-7am is more effective (and allows some sort of internal process to occur - not sure what) than that from say 2am-10am?

  • 2 Billijon Morgan // May 16, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    @ Ola S.

    …More accurately, healthy sleeping and waking cycles are dictated to a greater extent by external cues such as daylight. Yes, this means our ideal circadian rhythm adjusts regularly in extreme latitudes where the amount of daylight fluctuates year round (ie: Canada). However, keep in mind man made light sources can have an effect on our natural sleep/wake tendencies and steps should be taken to mitigate these ‘unnatural’ cues.

    PS: Love the general health related material in the Blog ladies…so many important components to ‘good health’ in addition to proper nutrition!! Someone really knows their stuff;)

    -BJ

  • 3 Jana // Jul 10, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    Wow-this is amazing. My husband and I both struggle with the extra belly fat now that we are over 40. I’m going to cut down on our sugar.

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