Fat People Are Starving!
Does being fat make you hungry? Or does being hungry make you fat?
The truth is, overeating does not make you fat – but being fat makes you over eat.
Fascinating scientific research now proves FAT PEOPLE ARE STARVING! The more fat we carry on our body – the hungrier we are! Why?
Because fat cells are ‘metabolic’ in nature; meaning, they are alive, active and ever vigilant to gobble up all the calories floating in the blood stream.
Fat cells are like unruly children hoarding all the toys in the sandbox. When all the fuel in the bloodstream is sucked up by fat cells, the brain registers ‘deprivation’ because the brain needs sufficient calories to function properly.
OUR EMOTIONAL ‘APPETITE’ BRAIN vs OUR ‘BIOLOGICAL’ LIFE-SAVING BRAIN
Have you ever identified with the old saying; “My eyes were bigger than my stomach” after loading your plate at a buffet or potluck and not being able to finish all the food? Or taking seconds or even thirds of that food you crave only to end up feeling stuffed, bloated and regretting it?
This old saying perfectly describes the difference between the ‘eyes’ which trigger the appetite and ignite food cravings; versus the biological needs of the stomach and body.
Food memories of enjoyment and ‘comfort’ steer food choices. Our conscious desire for the tasty foods we love, enjoy and crave, determines the food choices we make. When we choose to eat the Standard American Diet (SAD) of hamburgers, hotdogs, French fries, soda, highly processed carbohydrates, junky snack food, high saturated fat fried foods and high fructose corn syrup in sugary food, the body begins to crave nutrition because it intuitively knows these foods cannot sustain life for long.
If the body does not get what it needs nutrition-wise, it keeps asking for food but when we keep giving it what our brain and emotions want instead of what our body wants, it just stays hungry, starving actually for nutrition.
If the body is not getting enough protein, good clean filtered water, raw foods and vegetables and the good fats it needs, it continues to crave. The body knows what it needs but it is us who sabotage it by giving it junk food, sodas, snacks of processed types, etc. What happens? We wind up consuming more and more “food” containing bad calories and we get fatter and fatter.
The Theory of Calories In, Calories Out
We’ve been told to count calories to keep from being fat as they are units of energy that fuel us. We are taught that in order to lose weight, we must use more calories than the amount we take in.
Up until now, I’ve believed this too, but it baffled me when I’ve watched people at the gym over a long period of time, working out hard on the treadmill, but never changing the size of their body. I can only suppose they continue to eat poorly, settling to maintain where they are instead of getting leaner however...
You cannot exercise yourself out of a bad diet.
People have taught and believed for decades that eating too many calories and being a sedentary person are the cause of obesity. However, carefully controlled scientific studies conducted by Dr. David S. Ludwig, Harvard Medical Professor, author and scientist, disprove this theory. All calories are not equal. What those calories are made of determine obesity.
When you start eating bad you create bad, nasty fat cells and when you get just a few of these nasty fat cells they take over. Fat cells function like vacuum cleaners, sucking up all the sugar calories coursing through the blood stream. The more sugar and bad calories are consumed, the more the fat cells multiply and store sugar as fat. This perpetuates the vicious cycle of the brain being deprived of calories, slowing down the body’s metabolism and sending hunger signals to the stomach.
Visceral belly fat is a driver of behavior because fat cells function like an organ, they are super intelligent, they make hormones, they make inflammatory cytotoxins they make all kinds of neurotransmitters. Fat cells are ‘angiogenetic” which means, they create blood vessels and these blood vessels need to be fed because they want to grow. They want to take over. You cannot grow fat unless the fat produces new blood vessels to feed it. Our fat cells are very busy – they are not just there idly holding up our pants!
Can we be healthy and overweight? No. If you have central body fat you are not healthy. You can be a skinny T.O.F.I person; thin on the outside, fat on the inside and still be unhealthy. Twenty-five percent of thin people have replaced their muscles with metabolic fat.
Restricting Calories – A Failed Model
Calorie restriction fails because the underlying drivers of obesity will win out. When you restrict calories all kinds of life saving defenses get activated in the body. The body does not like starvation; it goes into survival mode and makes you hungrier because it thinks your life is in danger. It slows down metabolism to STORE fat because it thinks it’s heading for a famine. Your body does not know your head decided to go on a diet. The body always fights back – and eventually it wins.
You can only manage to starve yourself for so long before depravation and hunger drive you to over eat. When you restrict calories, you lose muscle and gain fat and when you regain weight you gain fat cells which drive hunger. Muscles burn seven times more calories than fat. Lean muscle tissue is what we are after and restricting calories works to undermine this process.
All Calories Are Not Equal
Dr. Ludwig’s scientific studies now prove all calories are not equal. Bad empty calories create bad, hungry fat cells. Good, nourishing calories, even the high calories from nuts and nut butters and healthy fats from avocadoes, chia and sesame and flax seeds strengthen and nourish the body. Exercise does not compensate for a bad diet.
Give Your Body What It Needs So that It Can Heal You!
When you give your body what it’s starving for (and that’s real food), you will “mysteriously” become less hungry with less cravings and will lose weight without counting calories or even trying. Don’t believe this? Then try it.
Eat wholesome, organic, nutritious foods for one week. Doing this means that for one week, there will be no sodas, coffee, sugar, chips, fast food or anything that doesn’t look like real food. If it comes in a package, or comes from a “May I take your order” window, don’t eat it. Is that too much to ask when sooner or later your life will depend on it?
Don’t wait until you are too old and too sick to want good health. You’re going to have to change sooner or later; you may as well jump on the health bandwagon now and save yourself from developing cancer, diabetes, obesity, dementia or having an organ failure.
I know this sounds extreme but our food supply is a real threat. You’ve got to fight to live these days because sooner or later, it may catch up with you. It did to us. My husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer. We went strictly vegan (which is not what I’m asking you to do) and within months my husband was cancer free. To read the full story, go to www.michelemrizzo.com.
Satisfy the body by replacing the bad, empty calories from the Standard American Diet with The Whole Foods and/or Plant Based Diet consisting of whole plant foods in their most natural state; fruit, vegetables, whole grains, seeds and nuts.
If you are a meat eater, do so in moderation and organic only. Yes, organic meat costs more but you don’t really need that much meat a day. You may be used to piling your plate, but that too is unhealthy. You can pay now for healthy organic food or pay later when you are sick and in need of a miracle.
Bottom line, when your plate contains luscious whole foods, there is no need to count calories and there is no deprivation because the body is satisfied with foods that nourish. Your fat will disappear, your outlook on life will improve and your energy and even sleep will improve. Plus you’ll become lean without even trying.
Give yourself a steady diet of natural, satisfying, whole foods. This should be a way of life, one week at a time. I promise, when you choose to do this, you will experience the kind of results that energize you and help you become the healthiest and happiest you can be!
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Michele M. Rizzo is a Certified Nutritional Health Coach; Trained through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and Certified through the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She is the author of “Body Speak! Listen To Your Body…It Knows What It’s Talking About,” available on Amazon paper back and Kindle, digital edition.