Eat Well (process) – How much food do we really need?
The best way of losing weight is to stop eating altogether. But that is a recipe for ill-health and premature death, the opposite of what we’re aiming for on the long and happy journey.
The next step down is radically reducing the amount of food eaten – again an excellent way of losing weight in the short term. But this strategy comes up against the issue of our bodies reacting to its food supply being threatened and going into an energy-conserving mode when food intake is radically reduced during severe dieting. Our bodies are very sensitive to the threat of starvation and this energy-conserving mode is why people quickly regain weight and more following a new fandangled diet. This is a strategy for the impatient and almost always fails.
No, the answer lies in another step down – deliberately limiting portion sizes but only moderately, so that overall the energy intake every day is a little less than energy expenditure. Bingo, slow sustainable weight loss and everyone’s happy. But it does require at least a five year time-frame rather than five months J
Specific ways of limiting portion sizes during meal times include using a smaller plate, using a smaller spoon, not eating everything on the plate and of course putting less on the plate to begin with.
It is easy if you think about it.
What we must do is have a close look on what is on our plate and make a “recovery decision” about how much we really want to eat.
Get Active – Deliberately build in more activity Persist – Keep going even when difficulties arise.
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