Dieting and exercising are the buzz words in most of people’s eyes when it comes to shedding the pounds. But are those really effective and useful and convenient?
Let’s start with the most effective ways.
Define a purpose.
Why do you want to shed those weights? Aesthetic reasons, or to prevent an underlying health condition due to the huge number on your BMI (Body Mass Index)? Start off with a reason and write it down. For those who are more technological incline, you might consider to type it down as a memo on your smartphones/tablets.
Now strike of the reason(s) for losing those pounds if it’s more of wanting to drop to a size 6 when you’re size 6.5! It is disconcerting of you. If it’s about wanting to reduce your chances of having any weight-related health conditions, please refer yourself immediately to your GP, where there are experts and nutritionist to plan your diet and exercise routine. No doubt it is good to kickstart it off yourself, but you’ll need the proper help with professional advice.
What’s your job?
If you’re dealing with numbers every single day in the office (or at school for students) and are happy doing so, a good recommendation is for you to count the calories. Number crunching professions like accountant, QS, Financial controller, etc are ace with numbers. An average recommended calories intake (as a guide) for the average males is 2000 calories, while it’s 1,800 for females. Note the vast difference between calories (Kcal) and kilo-joules (Kj) found in the nutrition labels of most FMCGs. 1Kcal=2.4Kj
If your job requires you to not deal with numbers and you have an instant dislike for numbers, fear not. Because, losing weight is not all about counting the calories. One note of advice for those reading- calories are not allowed to be save for the next day (unlike saving money where you can have addition interest and earn more money). The only way to increase (or earn) is to increase your metabolism rate (by exercising). So I’m not surprise that most bankers are fat (a bad sterotype), because they starve themselves in 2008 and now are bloody rich with $1.2 million bonus recently and so are starving themselves now with foie gras and escargots. For the unlucky bankers who are still penniless, they are still ‘fat’ because of them having bloated stomach from starving since 2008!
Jokes and bad, unmeaningful stereotypes aside, if you know you have irregular meals on a daily basis, please know that it is a bad habit. It can cause some serious eating disorder if prolonged for a long time. No, I’m not talking about having cous cous for dinner and ice cream for breakfast. I’m referring to those not having their meals at the same time, like irregular timing.
Have regular meals
Now, regular meals allows your body to better boost the metabolism rate. Like any other mammals, humans have a fixated feeding times. So why do you think at the zoo, there are fixed feeding times? According to some zoologist, they spend a great deal of time to condition those animals to become accustomed with those fixed eating time. Ever wonder why, as a kid, recess is always during those times and are not really flexible? And you’ll feel slight hunger pangs (even though you had a hearty lunch/breakfast)?
Like animals in a zoo that are conditioned, humans are also conditioned by our external environment. We are conditioned by our office environment, and that of the concrete jungle out there.
So what happens if I have irregular meal times?
Like the pet dog my friend reared, at 1pm sharp daily, it will come out for lunch, on the dog. Research had shown that this behaviour is not entirely because of the dog having a biological clock which knows what is the time. But instead, it is due to the functioning of the stomach. With fixed eating habits, the dog’s digestive system is already accustomed to the fixed feeding time, and so the dog will feel hungry (after 3 hrs of food digesting). Like clockwork. You get the gist.
Metabolism rate works best when you have fixed meal timing. This means your actual biological clock knows when it should work and start to accelerate to the optimal power/speed. Imagine a bus driver who is a newbie. He/she have no idea when he/she should stop in the busy motorway since it’s the 1st time driving on the journey. Compared this to another driver who is a seasoned one, and his brakes are smooth. Same theory applies to your dietary habits.
Having irregular meals times might instead cause you to gain weight or having more problems. Because the body is unable to gauge exactly when will you eat, and sometimes when food in stomach is digested completely and you’ve yet to eat, you’ll feel hungry and so snack on some food first. For those who don’t snack and ignores the hunger, your body will condition that you had already eaten and not feel hungry anymore. So sometimes you’ll feel full despite not eating anything. This means the acidic enzymes in your stomach will digest itself and cause gastric.
It’s not about changing habits (unless the case of irregular time for meals)
It is alright to eat your favourite food, but in moderation. Like everything, too much of anything is bad. Imagine if you’re on a all fruits diet, and if you feels hungry, you eat a bunch of banana. Bananas are high in fibre and potassium. Many people do not understand bananas are also high in simple sugar, meaning it will store as fats if people do not exercise more. No doubt it is good for boosting metabolism rates, however, if you eat a bunch everyday for 1 month, I guarantee you, you will develop type 2 diabetics.
Try as much to boost your metabolism rates. Clenching your fist and relax in a continuous cycle helps. Like on your daily commute, do it! Control your breathing may sounds extreme, but try to breath as fast and deep as you can for 30 minutes everyday.
