6.4- not bad for a broken body

Well either my body isn't broken or I have found my miracle cure to weight gain. I still can't believe I lost 6.4 pounds this first week. All I can say is I am so grateful to this program. I just can't wrap my head around what is so different with this program compared to what I was doing before when I was gaining about a pound every week or every other week. I have really thought about the differences and here's the list:

1. I eat precisely every 3 hours, sometimes 2.5 hours

2. I eat 3 servings of green vegetables each day

3. I eat very lean protein that I prepare myself- usually fish, shrimp, chicken or ground turkey

4. I eat healthy fats, up to 2 teaspoons of olive oil each day

5. I don't have any added sugar or refined carbohydrates

6. I drink a lot of water

7. My little meal packets are perfectly balanced with about 100 calories, 14g carbs, 4g fiber, and 11g protein. Each of them contain this perfect balance

8. My blood sugar never spikes or drops and I don't cheat or nibble or lick or taste anything outside of the rules of my program


Hmmm....Ok, now that I write it down I see the difference. I guess over my 15+ years of dieting I picked up bits and pieces of information about diets and weight loss that caused a whole lot of confusion about what really works. Every doctor and nutritionist will tell you it all comes down to calories in verses calories out. I believe this. I also believe that some people for whatever reason, have a different metabolic rate and therefor process these calories at a different rate.

 Some people really do lose weight at 1500 calories a day with minimal exercise. Some people need to eat 950 calories a day to get that deficit. Apparently I am one of those people who need roughly 950 calories a day to get the body moving. It seems absurd to me, but probably only because I've always heard of the starvation theory. Well I don't think if you are eating every day at regular intervals, and eating perfectly balanced that you will actually go into starvation mode. Sure, your metabolism will slow down a bit and become more efficient at burning those calories, but you won't really enter into real starvation mode. That's just my conclusion.

I have also decided that the types of calories you are consuming can make a huge impact on how much you suffer to lose weight. There were plenty of times I was eating 1200-1300 calories and felt like I was starving all day. In retrospect, I was just not balancing my carbohydrates, fiber, fat, and protein correctly. I honestly have felt very little hunger on this program except during the first 3 days. Why is that? I think keeping my blood sugar stable all day long really prevents my body from having cravings and feeling ravenous.

So is it the 950 calories making me lose weight or the perfect stabilized blood sugar making me lose weight? Well I think a little bit of both but mainly the calorie restriction. The stable, balanced kinds of calories I'm eating makes it possible to sustain this type of eating and I think it keeps my body happy.

Ok, enough food talk!!! I am really happy about my progress and let's see how week 2 pans out.