RIO Fitness Chicago® Exercise & Nutrition Blog

RIO Fitness Chicago® Tip:

If we consistently, eat only 1-2/day or go more than four hours between eating or consume under 1200cal/day, our body's go into STARVATION MODE and FOUR awful things are happening internally in our body.

1) The body holds onto the fat (stored energy) we already have, as a future energy source.

2) When we finally do consume something, the body automatically stores it as fat, because it thinks it doesn't know when it's next energy source is coming.

3) If a daily habit, the body will begin to eat (catabolize) our muscles to use as a fuel source. Muscle helps us to burn more cal all day long, so if we're burning muscle we're going to be burning cal at a slower rate = gaining more body fat.

4) Our insulin (blood sugars) plummet, then when we eat something then soar. This up & down causes our body to increase levels of the body fat producing hormone cortisol.

Try to consume a SMALL meal/snack every 2.5-3hrs to keep our metabolism (rate of which we burn cal) fast & insulin levels stable. Example: a 1300cal/day limit = 3 meals at 300cal and 3 snacks of 100cal in between those meals.