Here is part 3 of my Holy Grail inspired posting series on losing fat while preserving muscle.
The Risks of Eating Too Much
Eating according to your energy needs will also prevent scenarios where you are eating more calories than your body can use at one time. This is what happens if you save most of your eating for a large end of day meal. You may keep your total daily calories in deficit, but your meal size is so large that x amount of calories are unusable and thus stored for fat.
At this time, the excess calorie consumption will also trigger insulin release, which is your body’s cue to store excess energy as fat. (500 calories, may produce 500 units of insulin, 100 calories will produce 2000 units of insulin!) Interestingly, simply waiting until you are hungry to eat is a sign that your body is hyperinsulinemic event – meaning you are in a state where your body is primed to start producing insulin based on the fact that it thinks you need more energy.
Example:
You eat breakfast at 7am
10am rolls around and you feel hungry. However you feel too guilty to eat and instead consume a diet soda. Hunger goes away…temporarily.
Meanwhile…Fuel is pulled from muscles to balance blood sugar, instead of coming from food.
12pm rolls around and you eat a LOT as you feel really hungry. Your body is now primed to store energy as fat. Excess calories from lunch now get stored as fat.
So to summarize – exercising and going for long periods of time without eating, will most likely result in an environment primed for muscle loss and fat gain.
Of course, keep in mind that each process above happens in small amounts! Over time the effect can become cumulative and affect your body composition in ways that either work for, or against, your goals.
The Solution
Eat small meals frequently throughout the day. Eat before you become hungry. You want to keep your gas tank partially full at all times – never empty, and never overflowing.
For more information on how you can gain muscle while burning fat, check out my review of Holy Grail here or go straight to the program here.
