Low Fat Diet
Low Fat Diet means, to many people, that they are going to do something with their eating habits - for a short period of time - to attain a goal, usually to lose fat (inaccurately called "weight"). A low fat diet should be considered how you eat every day so that you can maintain your weight and muscle - not something you do once in a while.
Your low fat diet, according to most, will be...different...after you make changes to your current physical condition. So once you reach your goal(s) you will switch how you eat in order to maintain?! That makes no sense. Your daily diet should be low fat all the time. Once you understand that you will get into and retain a much more healthy body by always eating meals low in fat.
A low fat diet plays a critical role in success of losing fat or gaining muscle. As you will find throughout this site, "weight" is what you see on a scale. But fat is what you want to reduce - never muscle. If you are over 50 and think you can't gain muscle, or it's too difficult, or some other "excuse" because you have convinced yourself that your current state is as good as it gets, you are wrong. Even if you don't want to gain muscle you can still attain a physique of which to be proud just by eating properly and maybe walking as a method of burning Calories.
If you don't know whether you are losing fat or muscle, then you have a worse problem! The chances are very high that you are losing muscle if you don't know.
Look at the image to the right. Which person of the 2 has more body fat?
If you guessed the person on the right with blonde hair has less body fat, you would be wrong! Body fat is determined by comparing the amount of muscle to the amount of fat. You measure the fat with skin calipers, or a "dunk tank". Skin calipers will provide a very accurate measurement - provided the person using the calipers is trained properly.
Dimensions do NOT determine how much body fat a person has. You can see the person on the right has smaller dimensions, but that's because she has starved her body and done next to nothing to build muscle. Because she has so little muscle it's easy for her to be a higher body fat percentage than the woman on the left.
How can you tell? When you starve your body, or, if you prefer, you eat less because "that's how much your body tells you to eat", you are just lying to yourself. There is no such thing as your body telling you how much to eat. You may get hunger pangs, but your body doesn't tell you that you need "X" number of Calories.
You "train" your body to eat the amount you eat - not the other way around, but the body will retaliate. That "training" is only a signal to the body to stop the hunger pangs. If you do not eat "enough" food to satisfy your daily caloric requirements, your body begins eating what it needs - from muscle. If you are not eating enough food, that means the body is not getting enough protein. You cannot and will not "trick" your body into doing what "you" want it to do unless you play by the rules your body has. And, your body will not change the rules for your "wants or desires".
To comply with its rules, the body will eat muscle because muscle has the protein it requires. That is exactly what you do not want to happen! It's called catabolism. Think of that as "cannibalism". Your body is designed to survive. If you refuse to feed it, it will eat what it needs from the inside - muscle - in order to survive because muscle has all the nutrients the body requires. Once all the muscle is gone, you are on your way to the hospital because you cannot function properly.
NOTE: There is NO such thing as "sagging skin". You have muscle and you have fat - in general. If you have lost weight quickly, you would have more fat...not sagging skin. Fast weight loss is done by forcing the body to eat much less than required, and that forces the body to eat muscle because you have refused to eat as much as your body requires. When you see someone who has a tremendous amount of "sagging skin", that's directly due to lack of the proper number of daily Calories and protein requirements for their body.
What to Eat?
That's fairly simple. Eat whatever you like...as long as you follow this list:
- NO saturated fat
- NO hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat
- NO processed sugar
- NO preservatives
- NO dyes
- NO trans fat
So...you can't have all the foods you are used to eating?! In short, YES! Read labels. If you eat things that mention any or all of the above, STOP!
You don't have time to read labels? Well, that's the first habit you need to break. Our bodies were never designed to be "healthy" eating all that fat and "man-made" junk that's added to many foods for either flavor or preserving the food. Eat "fresh" foods. Every time you pick up a can or package, you need to question whether or not it has all that junk. So look for and read the label on the product. If it has any of the above list, find a healthy alternative.
This does not mean you have to eat only Organic foods. There are plenty of healthy, natural foods that are priced nearly the same as those with all the "stuff" added. When you read a label and a lot of the ingredients are things you cannot pronounce, don't buy that!
How Much Do I Eat?
If you do not know how many Calories you burn and eat daily, then you've overlooked the most important part of your diet. There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to the number of Calories "you" need daily. It's a matter of science because it depends on your body weight and daily activities.
First, monitor all the food you eat daily. Measure your portions. Read labels to find out how much of the product is considered a serving, and how many Calories are in that 1 serving. The USDA recommendations state that 2,000 Calories daily is typical.
No! It's NOT! Well, unless you are a male, mid-twenties and in good physical condition. That was the criteria for the USDA to come up with a number.
If you are over 50, that's way too much food - unless you are outside walking all day for work, or perhaps a lumberjack, or play professional sports.
Ok...then how much do "I" need daily?
Great question. Would it be worth it for you to pay, say $40 to find out? Because Garrison Body "has" the calculator to tell you. This proprietary calculator is only found here in Garrison Body...because it was created by Garrison Body! Using the calculator you input all your activities for 1 24-hour day, and all the food you ate for that same 24-hour day. Based on your specific weight it calculates if you ate enough for that day, too much for that day and whether you are over or under how much to eat for that day.
Simply cutting calories until you see your dimensions change is nothing but unhealthy. Worse, when you do that your body will eat your muscle and leave the fat! So your entire process was counter-productive.
You must know:
- What you eat
- How much you eat
- How many Calories you burn daily
If you do not know 1 or more of those 3 things, nothing is going to help.
The correct way to edit your diet is to follow the 3 simple steps above.
Additionally, there is no way for anybody (e.g. doctor; nurse; diet book; etc.) to state that "you" should eat "X" number of Calories daily. That's simply dangerous without knowing your Calories consumed and burned daily.
Here's another very good habit to start. Eat 100% of your daily Calories during a 9-hour window. No food before or after that 9 hours. That allows your body more time to digest the foods you've eaten, and, it keeps you from sneaking too many snacks.
F.Y.I. - General Practitioners do NOT have training in diet or nutrition! If you want answers to questions about nutrition, seek professionals in that field.
If you ask your physician about your Calories, diet or nutrition, at best you will get the general guidelines from the U.S.D.A.
How do I know what's in the food I eat?
Simple! READ LABELS! Everything you buy at the store has a label telling you the ingredients and nutritional information.