Hi Friend!
I used to eat a pound of protein per meal. When I'd grocery shop I'd buy 3 lbs of fish (3 meals), 3 lbs of steak (3meals), 3 lbs of chicken (3 meals), 3 lbs of ground turkey (3 meals), ... plus all the sides (5 things @ most every meal). When I'd visit my parents, I'd clean out their fridge of all the leftovers for a snack upon arrival. When we'd have a meal together, I'd have 2nds and 3rds and if I was really hungry 4th's, but that was rare.
When my cousin and brother and I used to live together we'd all buy our meat in bulk from a bulk meat place and split it 3 ways. This arrangement didn't last very long because I didn't eat 1/3 of the food, I ate more than 1/2 the food.
I didn't realize I was doing this at first because I was just eating. Just living my life and eating because I was hungry, but everyone else noticed. It was like a show.
One time I went to dinner with my cousins and her in laws to Joe's American Bar & Grill and I ordered what my memory tells me was a 28 oz steak, but what their current menu tells me is only a 16oz steak. Plus apps, a salad and a side, and probably a dessert. Again, I was being me, just eating because I was hungry, but it must have been a show, because that story still gets told today.
But I don't and can't eat like that anymore. Not without putting myself into food coma or getting myself out of shape.
Why?
My activity level has changed.
When I was eating like the stories above, I was working the gym floor 35 hours a week training people, lifting weights, 3-6x/week for 1.5-2hrs and then at my peak, lifting 3x/wk/60min, playing basketball 1x/wk, softball 1x/wk, Krav Maga 2x/wk and training for a triathlon (6x/wk), bringing me well over 10 hours of high intensity physical activity a week and close to 15 hours.
My cousin Dennis labeled my eating as catching up on the weekends and he's probably spot on. It wasn't intentional it's just how it worked out and so if the time I would spend socially with my family and friends happened on the weekend, then they were about to witness a consumption show like no other. Gosh. I consumed a ton of food.
But now, working for myself and running my business. I sit more and stand less. Right now all those fun sports don't fit my current lifestyle. I still block off 3x/wk for strength & conditioning and coach the boot camp workouts, but most of my cardio is walking to and from Vivi's school or playing with her outside.
So I can't eat as much. My eyes are still big, but my stomach says no thank you. My parents, my brother and my cousins still serve food expecting me to eat like a did for over a decade, but it doesn't happen. Now there's a lot of leftovers and slight disappointment.
What does this have to do with you? The More Active You Are, The More You Eat and the More Stable Your Weight Is.
Pretty obvious right. Or at least it makes sense. Well guess what else.
The Less Active You Are, The More You Eat and the More You Gain Weight. (Less Active = Sedentary)
I know it doesn't read or sound right, but it's true. The less active you are, the more you eat. Presumably because you're hungry and maybe because your body is telling you it needs to move more, so here's some extra fuel so get going.
Now you might think, well, if I'm sedentary, I'll just eat less. I mean that's what coach Mike is doing, and if your practicing and listening to your internal hunger, appetite and satisfaction cues, you'll be ok. but most people aren't listening and paying attention. Blame it on smart phones or game of thrones or Netflix or the excellence of Boston sports or the frustration with the Boston Celtics, ... , for whatever reason, people, are missing the messages and eating past contentment, fullness and into the stuffed category.
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| Your Child's Weight: Helping without Harming by Ellyn Satter In Chapter 8, Parent in the Best Way: Physical Activity, Ellyn talks about good parenting is providing structure, safety and opportunities to be active. And as a side benefit it helps kids to manage their food regulation by making their internal cues for hunger, appetite and satisfaction, more pronounced.
This means that if parents do their job with feeding (what, when and where) and let kids do their job of eating (what and whether), then kids will not only go to the table hungry, eat until satisfied and STOP knowing another meal or snack is coming later, but their senses for hunger, appetite and satisfaction, will be heightened because of activity.
Guess what else. The same goes for adults, you and me. We have these same internal hunger, appetite and satisfaction skills as kids (isn't that amazing), but if we don't listen to them or are distracted (e.g. screen time), don't have consistent meal times and eat while standing or on the run (aka grazing), we're not helping ourselves as much as we could.
Just like with raising animals. If you keep animals caged and you don't let them exercise, they're going to eat more, get fatter and have poorer health. If you interfere with children's physical activity it messes with their food regulation making kids fatter than nature intended. And if adults don't make time to move and show up to move, they're going to probably eat more and also get fatter.
West Bengal, India Dr. Jean Mayer, who actually is a double doctor with both a PhD and a D.Sc. did a study 63 years ago at Harvard, in which she studied, all male, jute factory workers in India. It's a fascinating study because the factory was self contained. Everyone ate the same types of food AND the workers engaged in widely various levels of physical activity (Satter). |
| | The study divided the workers into normal activity and sedentary activity and as you can see from the graph above it further divided the normal activity workers.
Sedentary - Stall Holders
- Supervisors
- Clerks, I
Normal Activity Workers Light Work - Clerks, II
- Clerks, III
- Clerks, IV
- Mechanics
Medium Work - Drivers
- Winders, Weavers, Bagging, Twisters
Heavy Work - Millwaste Carriers
- Plilers, Selectors
Very Heavy Work - Ashmen, Coalmen, Blacksmiths
- Cutters, Carriers
Here's the basic summary. The more active the men became, the more they ate, plus the more the men's weights remained stable. Look at the top graph above. The normal activity groups had significantly lower body weights than the sedentary groups and some ate less than the sedentary group, some at the same and some ate more.
I mean unless your the Clerks, I, if you're currently sedentary and you're not practicing your super skills of hunger, appetite and satisfaction, and you're not feeling good in your own body, then find a way to provide yourself structure, safety and opportunities to be active.
If you're active then you probably can relate a little to the graph as the more active you are the more you probably eat. I still recommend mastering the super skills of hunger, appetite and satisfaction because just like do anywhere workouts, you can use and practice these skills anywhere and because you're active they're already heightened you just have to pay attention.
Betcha can't out eat me! Do you think you can? I'm more medium work these days than very heavy work, so depending on what you're activity level is like, it's possible and because I'm practicing my own internal hunger, appetite and fullness skills, once my internal lights starts flashing that I'm nearing fullness, I stop.
Happy eating and training,
Coach Mike
p.p.s. also if you want support, structure and/or accountability with your physical activity and practicing your internal super skills, here are 3 ways I may be able to help you when you're ready.
Guest Day. The 1st (2) weeks of every phase are guest weeks. If you know someone who would love what we do, please invite them, share this link and/or do an email introduction with subject line "guest day". I'll help them get set up and take care of the rest.
Professor / Teacher Appreciation. This week is teacher appreciation week and I'm reminded of how awesome teachers are because of how much they care about my daughter and help Vanessa and I be better parents. If you know a teacher or professor who might love what we do, please reply with subject line, "professor / teacher" and I'll let you know what I'm putting together for them.
Private Training & Program Design. If you or someone you know might benefit from 1-on-1 private training, consulting and/or from a custom program, to help you get more structure with your weekly self-care and/or a better, new or different plan to follow to work on you goals, reply and let me know with subject line, "private training" or "program design". |
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