Don't Starve Yourself!

Recently, my brother, Chris, has begun to make efforts to lose weight and live healthier. Part of this has been upping his exercise routine, which is essential for the process. A couple weeks ago, he called me and told me he had worked out very hard, and afterward he felt ill and vomited. I asked him, "What have you been eating?" He explained that he had been changing his eating habits and including better foods, but his caloric intake was only around 800-1200 calories per day. Chris is 5'11" and around 200 lbs, so this immediately threw up some red flags. Since he was more physically active and eating less, he was actually depriving his body of nutrition; he was actually doing more harm than good in this instance. Actually, these are some of the same behaviors exhibited by people suffering from anorexia, if I am not mistaken. I told him to eat something and that he needed to properly evaluate what types of foods and calories he should be taking in depending on his activity level.

When you do get your mind right to lose weight, don't think you have to starve yourself to drop the pounds. Actually you will find out that while perhaps you've been eating a lot of fatty, unhealthy foods, you have been depriving your body of the vital nutrients it needs to perform efficiently. Instead, you need to exercise appropriately, and eat an adequate amount of the proper, nutritious foods your body needs to support your activity level. How do we find out what that looks like? Well, click on the title of this blog or go to www.myfitnesspal.com. This is one site I have personally used to track my nutrition and plan my meals. The site allows you to set up a free profile, enter in info regarding your weight, activity level, and fitness goals, and there is a vast database so you can find out the real numbers on what you are putting into your body. I would recommend at first that you simply make a note of what you eat throughout the day, then enter as accurately as possible the foods and quantities of the foods you are taking in so you can get a snapshot of what your daily nutrition looks like. From here you can begin to make some adjustments and really optimize your nutrition. So keep taking those small steps and remember: Don't starve yourself!