I didn’t look as cute as the panda at 23 stone…I probably had food in my hand though!!
As I’m sure you know, I used to weigh over twenty three and a half stone (150kg), about the same weight as a giant panda…or two adult men…or ten cases of wine! Basically, I was a big boy and I liked my food, a lot!
One questions I always get asked is ‘how did you lose all the weight?’ There isn’t a quick answer to explain everything, but one thing that really helped was how much and how often I ate.
Eat less, lose weight!
Sounds simple, right? Not quite. The problem with just eating less is that if you don’t eat enoughfood, your body goes into starvation mode and will then cling on to every bit of food you do eat and store it as fat (bad). Because your not eating enough, your body will then start feeding on your muscles (bad again), which are highly nutritious and a great source of energy. And yes, when you jump on the scales in the bathroom you’ll notice you weigh less (whoop)…but not because you’ve actually lost fat (boo), but because your body is eating away at your muscles, which you need, not only to be healthy and strong but also to help keep your metabolism running fast…which burns more fat!
With me so far? Basically, don’t starve yourself to try and lose weight, its very bad for your body…in fact, do what I did and eat more often!
Yep, you read that right, eat more often to lose weight! One of the secrets to my weight loss was to eat little and often. The theory is that you take on just enough food to see you through the next few hours. Don’t overload your body with food, because anything you don’t burn up then gets stored as fat.
How often should you eat?
Instead having three big meals a day, eat six times, or more depending on how long you’re awake for! Yeah, that many! I tended to eat every two and half hours. So, Id be up at 7am and eat (never skip breakfast, it really is important, especially when losing weight), Id then have a snack around 930am, Id have lunch at midday, another snack around 230pm, tea around 5ish then a final snack around 730pm and be in bed by 10/11pm. If I was hungry at 10, Id have something high in protein, like some chicken.
Whilst eating like this, drink lots of water too, it fills you up (and makes you use extra calories in getting up and going to the toilet!) I found that if I was feeling hungry say, around 845/9am, downing a pint of water would fill me up nicely and there was only half an hour to go till I could eat again.
How much should you eat?
Now this is the SUPER important bit! You’re going to be eating more often, so you don’t need to have HUGE meals. The feeling of being full isn’t actually good for you, when you feel full you’ve already eaten to much!
Make a fist with your hand, see how big it is? That is about the size of your stomach, seriously! Right now, you’re possibly thinking ‘never! How did all the food I ate for dinner fit in that small space?’ The simple answer is that your stomach is a muscle, it can expand to accommodate a lot of food…but that doesn’t mean that because it can, you should eat lots of food!
You should aim for no more than a fist full of food each time you eat…thats your fist, obviously, not that of some huge bloke sitting next to you! 😉
By eating no more than a fist full of food, you’re giving your body just enough to fill the stomach and keep you going. Eating like this, and taking exercise, you’ll soon be losing the fat.
I know what the next questions going be ‘what should I be eating?’ I’ll answer that one in my next post…but don’t go eating a fist full of chocolate, thats not gonna help 😉
Trust me, If I can lose weight, anyone can. The feeling of not being fat anymore is awesome, I want to help you feel the same as I do. I’m currently writing a book about weight loss and working on an exercise app, find out more about these here.
Obviously, before starting any sort of diet or exercise plan, you should consult your doctor…I am not a doctor, I’ve just been there and done that (and got the XXXX-Large t-shirt to prove it!)
If you’ve got any questions, leave them in the comments section below and I’ll get back to you.
Roberto
