Starving Yourself into Obesity: BMI = 30.2

You aren’t eating too much: In truth, you are starving yourself into obesity. Stop counting calories and start counting portions of fruits, veggies, and whole grains. A balanced diet won’t leave you hungry and will keep your metabolism from shutting down. That is what the health professionals have been telling us for years. Listen to what your doctor is saying and stop trying fad diets and so-called ‘diet meals’

I’ve taken off over 100 lbs and I’m just a few lbs away from no longer being obese. If my journey has taught me one thing it is that brand names that incorporate words like nutrition, health, shape, or fitness need to be thoroughly scrutinized. I doctored the photo of the ‘diet meal’ at the top of this post because I don’t want to be sued for using a photo of a real ‘diet meal’.

We are bombarded with catch-phrases that try to grab our attention at the grocery store. You need to look past the catch phrases and learn to evaluate your food for what sort of nutrition is inside. A prepared meal that has less than 300 calories is not going to fill you up. The mg of sodium should never be more than 1.5 times the number of calories. I saw one ‘diet meal’ that had less than 200 calories yet over 500 mg of sodium – there is no way such a meal should be allowed to insinuate, in any way, shape, or form that it is a ‘healthy choice’.

The photo above is my supper this evening. I have a cup of wild rice under that cup and a half of veggies. There is about 75 grams of roast beef and pork sprinkled over the top and a big dollop of Sambal. If I were to guess, I would say there is about 500 calories in that bowl. Calories aren’t really the issue, though. The important thing is that nothing is fried, the starches are whole grain, I have at least 2 servings of veggies, and the meat is just roasted meat – not processed meat – and there are only a couple ounces of it.

When you eat a typical ‘diet meal’ from the frozen-food section of the grocery store, you almost never get two servings of veggies and two servings of whole grains. The salt is usually way too high and there is almost always added sugar. An hour later you are hungry and reaching for some ‘light snack’ that still doesn’t replace the whole grains or veggies you missed out on at lunch. For all that you are eating, you are actually starving yourself of essential nutrients.

Starved of essential nutrients, you compensate by over-eating on empty-calories. Your body has no choice but to store it away – in anticipation that eventually you’ll eat a vegetable that will allow the healing to begin. Instead of adding some veggies or whole grains, though, you feel that you should eat less. The cycle is vicious.

It is insane that an obesity epidemic is plaguing the richest nations in the world and that it is being fanned by an obsession to further starve ourselves of proper nutrition. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have asked me how I’ve lost all this weight, only to be told, “Well, I don’t eat breakfast and I’m not going to start because that would just mean more calories.” It doesn’t matter that I’ve lost over 100 lbs, maybe I’m just an anomaly, sure; but if your doctor is telling you to eat exactly what I’ve been describing in this blog then maybe you should listen to her.