Eating for Energy and Losing Weight

While cars have a simple, single fuel source that provides the energy to move, humans have to manage so many different fuel needs to get the energy for our bodies to keep moving.   When you consider the additional influences of cravings, ease of access (what is close at hand when you are starving) and cost, managing your fuel needs can be daunting. 

For those who want to reduce the fuel storage they carry from either too much food, or too much of certain foods, the first place they often look is a ‘diet.’ Thanks to much marketing, in our American culture the word diet has morphed into meaning eating less, or eating according to a specific plan laid out by the latest diet guru. 

For the naturally rebellious, the term diet causes an immediate negative response, and for others, a new diet fad brings excitement for a magic pill that will transform them.  But somewhere between restrictive eating, fad diet promises, and grabbing the closest source of sugar or salt, there is a place where your body gets what it needs for energy, and the excesses that cause fat storage are reduced.

The most important function of eating is often ignored when we set out to follow a diet – it's energy.  We focus so much on reducing the excess that we lose sight of feeding the need. If we changed our focus to supplying energy, rather than reducing intake, the battle of the bulge would be 90 percent won.

A great misunderstanding in diet management is that food is made up of calories, and calories are energy.  A calorie does not measure energy provided by food, but rather how much energy must be expended to burn the food instead of store it.

Put another way, a calorie measures the energy cost -- not the energy supply.  Many high-calorie foods leave us with no get-up-and-go.  The important take-away is that if we consumed calories that provided at least as much energy to us, as they required from us to burn, we would be much leaner machines.

If we focus on supplying energy, rather than reducing calories, how does that result in a more lean physique?  First, if you provide your body what it needs, rather than what sounds good or is easy at the moment, it will stop asking for more. 

For example, if your body needs protein and you keep feeding it carbohydrates and sugar, while your stomach may be full, you will continue to have the feeling that you still need something, and keep eating.  If you instead fed your body the protein, your body would signal that it is satisfied and your desire for more would be curbed.

The second way that focusing on eating for energy results in our bodies becoming more lean, is that by consuming calories that carry with them energy, we have provided our body what it needs to burn those calories rather than store them.  Again, the calorie measures how hard you have to work to burn the food you eat so that it is not stored as fat. 

We want most of the calories that come in to bring with them the energy to burn them off.

Finally, there is no doubt that a plan to reduce body fat and lose weight must include getting the body moving.  Your body not only burns off calories during
the exercise, but the muscle that is built burns more calories while you are resting or doing very little throughout the day. 

You might have heard that 90 percent of the effort of a workout is getting started.  The reason is often that a lack of energy makes it a mental feat to get into your gear and get going.  Eating for energy means that you will be supplying your body with energy for both the workout and the start-up energy that will help you actually get there.

In order to begin a successful change to one’s diet, personal trainer and owner of Kailyn Elliot suggests picking one change to make and focusing only on that step for two to three weeks before adding another.  Elliot
said that for quick energy, fruit is a great option.  “The simple sugars provide energy as well as vitamins the body needs.”

Combining a protein will layer an extended-release energy source on the quick release source from the fruit, avoiding a crash, he said.  Not only is this a pick-me-up before a workout, he suggests eating similarly post-workout for recovery.