According to a recent article on MSNBC.com,“Numerous studies have shown that eating less can help rodents and primates live longer and healthier….. Scientists have suspected that calorie restriction could extend the life span of animals since at least 1935, when researchers at Cornell University noticed that severely food-restricted lab rats lived twice as long as normal ones and were healthier. Other investigators began exploring the idea and learned that the secret is not merely a matter of body weight: lab mice that ate normally but became skinny by exercising a lot showed no longevity improvements. Only the ones that didn’t get many calories to begin with benefited.
In human beings both calorie restriction (consuming 20 percent fewer calories) and exercise (expending 20 percent more calories) lowered bad (LDL) cholesterol, raised good (HDL) cholesterol levels, and improved insulin resistance, but only calorie restriction led to significant declines in risks associated with heart disease and heart attacks…. There’s also evidence that a calorie restricted diet can improve blood glucose control, which can help prevent diabetes. I subscribe to the ideology that ones kitchen and the track should be the medicine cabinet. Our culture seeks convenience for health and that is why most people die prematurely because they would rather eat themselves to death than miss a meal.
Eating less not only improves ones overall health but also improves ones appearance. I recommend to my clients all the time to cut anything that they would normally eat in half before starting there meal. The first time this is attempted it’s very difficult. But every time after it gets easier and easier. Clients always ask what I eat to stay so lean and keep my body fat under 10% and the truth is nothing (not really). I take a complete break on the 1st Sunday of every month from food. Some people say that’s to extreme, but what is more extreme, not eating for one day or eating 6 times everyday and being 50-100lbs overweight?! Dr. Oz has recently did an entire segment on Good Morning America where he addressed finding that if a person eats 15% less, that can add up to 20 extra years to their life! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for the flying car since Back to the Future and I don’t want to check out before I see it!
Siddiqu “The Personal Trainer” is a CPT, motivational speaker, author of How Are You Fat and Saved?! He is also the Co-creator of the exercise series “You Would Think I Invented Sweat” for booking information or more fitness tips visit www.chicagofit4life.com