Over the past 50 plus years, a lot has changed in our understanding of how to lose weight. To take advantage of this new understanding, those over the age of 50 must learn some new tricks!
Let’s dive into how to look at fat loss in a new light, so you can get the results that you want.
50 years ago was around the time that the war on fat began, so most of us grew up thinking that eating fat makes you fat and that carbohydrates were the key to good health and weight control. You could enjoy your toast in the morning, but if you were conscious, you would skip the butter! While dry toast might not have been a very satisfying breakfast, at least it was breakfast! We were taught that breakfast was the most important meal of the day with the thought being that it was needed to stimulate our metabolism.
Fnally, we were told that this way of eating would work out just fine, as long as we did not consume too many calories, and food choices didn’t matter and as long as you consume fewer calories than you burn, you’d lose weight.
The nice thing about these rules was that they were very clear. The bad thing was that they didn’t work!
We have watched the obesity rates skyrocket since the time that we were growing up. If we want to lose weight, as we age, we have to be open to doing different things and adopting different eating habits. We are very fortunate to be living in this present time when we have a new understanding of how the body loses weight.
Old Understanding: Calories in/Calories out Model
All calories are equal regardless of what food they come from and weight loss happens when you burn more calories than you consume.
New Understanding: Hormonal Control Model
Calories are directed into storage either as glycogen or fat under the control of insulin.
We now know that weight loss is a hormonally controlled process, that’s why food choices matter as much, if not more than calories!
There are three main nutrients that provide your body with calories, which are carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Each of these nutrients has a different effect on the fat-storing hormone called insulin.
- Carbohydrates like bread and cereals cause the greatest spike in insulin.
- Protein sources like eggs and meat cause a subtle rise in insulin.
- Fats like butter have very little impact on insulin.
If weight loss is your goal, it makes sense to reduce your intake of foods that spike insulin and eat more of the ones that don’t spike it. In other words, it is a low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet.
How do you do that by making different food choices? For breakfast instead of dry toast, eat eggs fried in butter, or consider skipping breakfast altogether! That will keep insulin low for an extended amount of time, which keeps your body in a fat-burning state longer.
For more tips surrounding food and weight loss, check out What To Eat Before A Workout!