For Fat or For Fuel? What Is Food Used For?

Let's think about this logically for a moment. A lot of "breakfast" & "lunch" foods and "breakfast & lunch information" is based off of what the food industry wants everyone to think. They must sell their products. Many people do not understand the power of the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry. They control a great deal of what information gets out to the population and consumers on a regular basis. Take a look at the pic above and notice all the typical "breakfast foods" and their colors. Most people's diets consist of browns, tans, and grays. There is very little to no nutrients in foods with these colors. The nutrients, anti-oxidants, and good health comes from having a diet that is very colorful and vibrantly bright.

Anyway with that said, and if you've been reading the Synergy Kettlebell Training Blog long enough you will know that, I am a firm believer- out of personal trial and error experience, client experiences, the research that I read, and simply the FACT that the typical 'grain and starch eating' American Diet just doesn't work- that we need to engage our Sympathetic Nervous System by practicing a daily water fast and then allowing only one insulin spike(one potential fat storage time instead of several during the day) by eating one balanced, but staggered meal in the evening.

Water Fasting is just that- NO eating during the day. It is NOT to eat as much protein as you want during the day because you believe that you cannot convert protein to fat, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In essence overeating of any and all kinds of foods, without calorie expenditure, will result in weight (fat) gain. When you eat any type of food, insulin is secreted and thus some fat is stored. When you don't eat glucagon is secreted and fat is burned.

It is best to water fast during the day. Heck you don't actually NEED a post workout recovery meal and continue the water fast until the evening. Then you rotate your days of high fat and high carb(aka starches and/or grains).

True exercise as we know it has only been around for about 100 years or so. It is a supplement for actual work- for labor. People used to labor all day long and be active throughout the entire day which burnt calories and kept them healthy in a physical sense. Now that we sit in cars, cubicles, couches, desks, etc we must supplement for that all day long labor. So that is where working out comes in. For most people the only activity they get is their exercise or their gym time. This might only be 3 days per week for 30 minutes. So for an entire 7 days they only have about 1.5 hours of actual work, labor, activity that is above and beyond their normal daily affairs. That doesn't sound like much at all and in fact it is not. That is why it takes people months or even years to get healthy and in any kind of shape.

Ok long story short, the body only needs food for 2 reasons: FAT or FUEL and that is exactly what it will use it for. After a workout your body will compensate to get it back in a balance when cortisol levels elevate because it is not normal for cortisol to be high. This will happen much more efficiently the more healthy and the more in shape a person is. Food is not needed to do this. A hormonal balance can take place without food for the short period it takes between completing a workout and beginning the evening main meal.

So this leaves us again with the FAT or FUEL notion regarding how the body uses food. If you are not eating then you have no reason to have it store as fat so a post workout recovery is not necessary in that respect. An evening main meal will sufficiently provide your body with every adequate bit of fuel that it needs in the sense of ultimate necessity. That is precisely how we need to view eating- necessity rather than convenience. We have refrigerators and cupboards that provide us with ready food at any time we desire. Too many desires lead to too much fat. Break the desire and realize when you need food instead of want food. Break the desire and realize that your body only needs it in the evening based upon how it uses it when it breaks it down into digestion and absorption which is the necessity rather than the convenience.