Let your body control your weight! Meal timing.

Question
hi. i am 16 years old, 5'7'', and weigh probably around 135-150. i havent weighed myself in a while. i've been trying to go on a 1000 calorie diet for a while, and it's been working great: i'm never hungry, i eat healthy, ect. but people have been telling me that i'll go into starvation mode if i eat any less than 1200 calories, and that scares me: i dont want to GAIN any weight!! how many calories do you think i should be eating each day? i eat REALLY healthy foods (i'm a health nut), i excersize about 5 times a week for 30 minutes, and i try to space out my meals. is 1000 calories to little for me? i just really dont want my body to think i'm starving it and then GAIN weight...but i dont want to go all the way up to 1500 either: that seems like just TOO MUCH, considering i dont even get too hungry with 1000. do you have any suggestions? i am REALLY serious about losing some weight for the summer: i know the summer has already started, but hopefully i'll get there soon. i want to be at 120 lbs eventually. what advice do you have for me? thank you!!

Answer

Dear Danna,

Any method requiring a tight control of calories can be (or can be not) vulnerable and in more ways than just putting you into starvation mode. There is good new for you: if you are not hungry, your chances to get into starvation mode are slim.

On the other hand, as soon as you get out of this balance, for example, if you want to lose weight, you can start being hungry and the starvation mode comes right after that.

One solution is to stop spacing your meals, up to having one BIG meal a day. Latest research showed that the current mainstream recommendation regarding nibbling versus gorging concerns only diets that are high enough in carbohydrates (even complex, good carbs) while diets high in good fats allow for the stuffing-emptying meal timing as more natural for the Home sapience species. This is called "intermittent fasting" and it's shown to have numerous health benefits beyond body weight control. One of the benefits is

Please read more about it:

Should meal frequency/spacing be the same on different diets?
http://dietandbody.netfirms.com/diet/nfblog/?p=287

The Art of Snacking and Meal Frequency Problem
http://www.dietandbody.com/article1154.html

How many meals a day?
http://www.dietandbody.com/2007/05/how-many-meals-day.html

= TZ

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