Eat to lose weight

It's summer! Time to head for the beach and show off your body. But wait, do you have the body to show? As we get older, we tend to gain more weight and bulging bellies. The most common quick fix for  people is skipping meals or starving yourself.  If  you are doing this to lose weight then you are in for a disastrous result. During the first few days of skipping meals, you will lose weight. After which, your body will try to recover itself and you will stop losing weight even when you are skipping more meals. You will be surprised that your weight will not drop. 

This is due to the survival mode of our body.  It means that as you eat less, your body will notice it and automatically slows down your metabolism and controls itself to last for the whole day.

It's more effective to eat to lose weight.  You must remember 3 important letters: QFQ which stands for Quality, Frequency and Quantity.

QUALITY – Among the things to consider is how food is cooked. Based on my experience, for a better long-term result, don't change the quantity of food you eat. Eat the same volume as you used to do but improve the quality and go for healthier choices. Instead of white rice, you can have brown, red or black rice. Instead of fried chicken, go for the grilled chicken. Instead of fried fish, eat steamed fish.  Instead of soft drinks or sodas, drink water or natural juice. Go for natural instead of processed. Deep fried food is a no-no.  You can either grill, panfry or steam your food.  Use less sodium and no MSG. 

FREQUENCY – Increase the number of times you eat in a day. If you have an active lifestyle and you work out or run, you tend to get hungry faster.  I usually eat small meals every 2 hours. Just prepare what you will eat and try to bring it along with you to avoid buying unhealthy food whenever you get hungry.

QUANTITY – The quantity and volume of your meals can be adjusted after 1 to 2 weeks as your body has already adjusted to eating healthier meals. Drastically eating less would make our body suffer.  My students would always say that they tend to eat less if they eat more frequently. 

By following QFQ, you will be able trick your body to continue burning calories and at the same time, maintaining or even increase your metabolism.

Making a food diary would be a good move. Write down everything you put in your mouth. At the end of  the day, you will be shocked to see what you have eaten throughout the day. A lot of  people asked me what's the secret inside the Biggest Loser Camp. Aside from having the best fitness coach, I would always say that we have the best nutritionist,  my mentor Ms. Nadine Tengco.  She always reminded me that you get fit with exercise and lose weight in the kitchen.  The equation is 70% nutrition and 30% exercise. No matter how hard you exercise, you will not lose weight if  you are not mindful of  what you eat.

But the challenge in this journey of  having a healthy lifestyle is when you are in a party. What you can do is you survey first the buffet table.  Don't rush when your host say "dinner is served".  Have a seat and let others get their food first. Slowly drink 2 glasses of water. When there are fewer people lining up the buffet table, you may get your food already. Be mindful. When getting your salad, put lots of greens, a pinch of cheese, and just a sprinkle of dressing. Go back to your table and eat your salad slowly. Drink 2 glasses of water again. Your main dish like meats should have  a serving size of about half of  your palm. Get lots of vegetables. After you have finished eating your meats and vegetables, slowly drink 2 glasses of  water again. For me, I usually go for the best meats in the house like roasted beef or lechon. I only eat the lean portion of the beef and lechon, but without the sauce. I scrape off the fatty portions. You may eat the crispy skin if you like but take out the fat underneath. For desserts,  I usually go for fruits. If  you like sweet cakes, you can get a maximum of  2 matchbox size slices.  By doing this you don't deprive yourself of good food.  Remember eat to lose weight. Qualtiy, Frequency and Quantity. Be mindful always.  But don't forget to still have fun and enjoy life!

SIDELINE: Congratulations to all finishers of the XTERRA 2014 last March 15, 2014 especially my Team Metafit participants, the Capacite Family (Tito Arnulfo, Tita Warly, Guian, Clive, Clyde  Nino, Earl and Alex Sy)  for finishing the Lite Relay category at 5th and 6th places, respectively,  Anton Golez for finishing the full distance, Eric Limatog, who despite 2 flat tires and mechanical failures, still managed to finish in the top 10 of his category, and yours truly who finished 6th out of 20 in my age group. I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to our Metafit support group (my wife Caroline,  Allyssa Sy, Fr. Joseph  Anore, Leslie Pesons and Dimple Noel, Belle and Andrew, Donafel and PJ, Janet and Patricia Solis, Joy and Jinggoy Bascug, Joy Ortaliz and Romulo Rosell).

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You can visit my website at www.alanchoachuy.com at www.facebook.com/metafitcebu. For comments, you can reach me at [email protected].