Not eating after physical activity so as not to "waste" calories burned during the activity.
Even if you exercise to lose weight, eating after exercising is recommended. Eating a meal soon after exercising will allow you to enhance the physical advantages, such as building and rebuilding muscle and renewing energy reserves. In addition, during intense exercise the body secretes hormones that suppress hunger so it's likely that the meal you eat soon after exercising will be lighter and smaller than a meal eaten later on. If you postpone your meal, the effect of the hunger suppressing hormones decreases along with the amount of sugar in the blood and you will consume a greater number of calories in the ensuing 24 hours.
Cutting calories meaningfully.
Eating fewer calories will help weight loss, if it is done properly. Men who eat less than 1600 calories and women who eat less than 1200 can damage their bodies, especially if the minimal intake is continuous. The body needs energy to perform properly. When we don't supply our body with the energy it needs, it will use other body reserves for energy. Once the body is in a state of “calorie distress,” it's hard for the body to take energy from fat reserves and it will take energy from the muscle tissue. Since muscle tissue requires more calories than fat tissue, a decrease in muscle tissue is followed by a decrease in the daily amount of energy the body uses and will eventually cause you to gain weight.
Quick weight loss.
Many people who begin a diet are interested in quick weight loss and are taken in by promises of quick results, but they ignore the essence of the weight they lose. The body’s ingredients – fatty tissue and skinny tissue – are very important for overall health and sport activities. Illness and diseases connected to weight gain, such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, are actually connected to a high level of fatty tissue. Consequently, people suffering from those conditions will only experience better health if the weight they lose comes from fatty tissues. There is no health value in losing kilograms from skinny tissue. Quite the contrary – skinny tissue decreases as part of the aging process. The loss of skinny tissue at an older age might cause actual damage. Muscles accumulate a lot of liquid. Loss of skinny tissue such as muscle tissue is followed by a loss of liquid, which results in quick weight loss. Skinny tissue decreases when there is quick weight loss (over 4 kilograms, or about 9 pounds a month) and when the weight loss is based on irregular or non-versatile diets, such as those that avoid some of the major food groups, diets where you stop eating very early and diets that are not combined with physical exercise, for example.
This Health Tip courtesy of nutritionist Rakefet Arieli, Hadassah Optimal.