EP #6: The Counterintuitive Problem: Under-eating Leading to Weight Gain

Did you know that not eating enough can actually lead to weight gain? This is a bitter truth that I, Martha Savloff, had to learn the hard way. I had gained significant weight not from eating too much, but from not eating enough. In this intriguing episode, my co-host, Jeremy Wolf, and I grapple with this counterintuitive problem.

We reveal how under-eating can cause our bodies to go into a hibernation mode, storing up whatever fuel they can, and leading to weight gain. We also delve into the consequential health problems, including muscle mass deterioration and gastric issues. But don't worry, we also discuss how to break this harmful cycle by forming healthy habits, maintaining a routine of meals, and implementing proper portion control. We believe that prioritizing your body's needs and planning meals can be transformative. So, listen in and learn how to fuel your body right, live healthier, and inspire others to do the same.

To get your journey started, visit:  https://inspireweightloss.com/

or contact: (954) 837-8811

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Inspire Weight Loss Davey podcast. Drug-free, sustainable, life-changing weight loss. Here's your host, martha Savloff.

Jeremy: 0:15

Hello everyone, Welcome back to the Inspire Weight Loss Davey podcast. We are back for another episode. I'm excited to get into this topic that we're going to talk about today. Martha how you doing.

Martha: 0:27

Great, how are you?

Jeremy: 0:29

I am doing well. I'm your co-host, Jeremy Wolf, of course, and obviously your host, Martha Savloff, is with us. So, Martha, I do not suffer from this next problem that we're going to talk about, but it is a problem for some. It does have profound implications on your health. Folks that do not eat enough.

Martha: 0:51

Yeah.

Jeremy: 0:52

Why don't you talk a little bit around? We have a conversation around not consuming enough food and nutrients and what that does ultimately to your health.

Martha: 1:01

moving forward, yeah, yeah, I'm super passionate about this topic, and one of the reasons why is because that's part of my story where I gained all my weight from not eating enough.

Jeremy: 1:14

Which is totally counterintuitive, right? You wouldn't think that you could possibly gain weight from not eating enough, right?

Martha: 1:21

Yeah, you know, out there people think that if you don't eat, you lose weight, and if you eat a lot, you know. It's like no, no, no, no, Wait a second. If you do not eat enough, you can gain weight, and if you eat too much, you can gain weight. So there's like always a healthy balance in the middle right.

Jeremy: 1:43

So I'm confused, though if you're not eating enough, where is the excess weight coming from, if not from overtake of over? So what I'm looking for over influx of calories, right when. How does that walk me through that, because I'm a little confused.

Martha: 1:59

Yeah. So what happens is, you know, our bodies are like beautifully wired in program to just burn a food for us, right, and provide energy to our bodies. And we're not. When we're not eating enough, like our bodies and we're working, we're doing this, we're doing that. We need energy and our body has to produce it from somewhere. But what happens in many cases is that when we have a lack of food in our system and our body says wait a second, I don't know when, you know Martha's going to feed me again, so I'm going to need to go into storing mode. I'm going to store whatever I can so that when Martha needs energy, I can just grab from there.

Jeremy: 2:51

It's like hibernation mode.

Martha: 2:52

So it's hibernation mode? Yeah, interesting. So what happens is there's two things that happens you store, stores, so you grow and you gain, gain, but also you lose muscle mass too, because your body has to burn something and so there's like all sorts of things that's happening in your body. So not eating enough is super unhealthy for you.

Jeremy: 3:12

So just unpack that. What you're saying is that when you're not eating enough, when you do eat the body, instead of actually applying that to the normal metabolic processes, it actually just stores it because it's expecting not to be fed enough, and that will back up and ultimately cause a lot of problems, including weight gain and muscle mass deterioration and all sorts of stuff.

Martha: 3:34

And all sorts of things. That makes sense. Obviously, everybody's different, but you can develop gastric issues. There's just so many things that comes with not eating enough. And I have to say, jeremy, that most of the cases that come through our door, people are not eating enough. And people sit in front of me and like I don't understand, I don't eat and I'm gaining weight. And then we have to explain to them that this is why, and then we have to work really hard to get them to eat and they're like what do you mean? I'm going to a weight loss center and you're making me eat and I'm like yes, yes, we need you to eat. So it's very, very.

Martha: 4:25

It's a problem in our society, and one of the reasons why is because everything is a priority before what our bodies need, and I was super guilty of that. Like I will go all day without eating. I will go all day without eating. And then what happens is, jeremy, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock at night, I'm starving. And so guess what we do? We go to the next, the quickest day we can get in our mouth, like, what's around us? Is there a drive-through? What's in the pantry? What can I cook really quickly? So it's usually not the best food for us to eat. So now we're gaining from not eating.

Martha: 5:12

And then now when we do eat, we're fueling our body with over-processed foods and whatever it is, that's fast, because now we're like starry, now we're hangry, so then it's like a vicious cycle. So people and I'm not being judgy, I did it myself, I'm like super guilty of this Put everything else a priority over their bodies. And then we're fatigued, we're not feeling well. We have to take care of this, that and others, and now we're just drinking coffee all day just to make it through. Trying to take care of our kids and our family and our soccer games and the doctors' appointments and all of these things that are part of our life takes priority. And then you find yourself like man I'm tired, my body's tired, I'm gaining weight, my knees are hurting, my back is hurting, I'm not sleeping good at night. It's just a whole ball. It's a snowball effect.

Jeremy: 6:19

Yeah, I think it all goes back to like with anything else in life creating habits for success and creating routines, having meals at the same time I'm as guilty as anyone in this Western society.

Jeremy: 6:33

We live in this fast-paced life, getting things on the fly, but to get up at the same time every morning, at least during the week, and then have a routine in the morning and make sure you sit down for that breakfast whether it's 7.38, whatever it is, the same time every day and having a portion control, because you can't just eat For me it's like I just eat until I'm completely full and that's way too much.

Jeremy: 6:54

We did an episode before about portion control and mapping that all out and I feel like having that prepared every week, having something made for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or having a plan at least, or at least having, when you go to Publix to shop for dinner, at least having a menu set if you're going to cook and buy the ingredients for the dishes that you're going to make, and that will actually prompt you to want to make the food that you prepared, instead of doing what I do, which is just buying the same thing at Publix every time and then hoping that I cook something. It was important to map all that out, I'd imagine.

Martha: 7:27

Right for sure, and we're super good at mapping things out for our employer, mapping things out for our children, mapping things out for our church or whatever else we do in our lives, and the last person that we do it for is ourselves. Yep, and let me tell you that people whoever's listening needs to understand that they need to do that until because, at one point in their life, they're going to have to, because it's going to catch up to them.

Jeremy: 8:05

Yeah.

Martha: 8:06

Like it did to me. So, 42 years old, I was super sick, my gut system was a mess, my sciatica was hurting. I was 42, going on 80. And I was like man. I got to do something because I want to be a life for my grandkids and I want to be youthful in my latter years because, instead of going from doctorate appointment to doctorate appointment, I want to go from country to country traveling. I want to go from travel to travel this country and that country, then doctorate appointment to doctorate appointment, and so I had to face that at 42 years old.

Martha: 8:44

So it'll catch up to you and so it doesn't take that long to make a plan for yourself and make a plan for your kids, because if you're doing it for yourself, you're also, most of the time our kids are also following the same structure that you have for yourself. You know, yeah, and I wish I knew what I know now when my kids were younger, because I didn't and I raised them in that great eaters, and now we're doing better thing now. But so, yeah, so there's a snowballing effect that not only affects yourself but also your children and your family. Not being enough is not good for you. Now there's ways that there's.

Martha: 9:29

Intermittent fasting is not going to be good for you, but you have to know how to do it and you need to know if that's really what your body needs or your body responds well to. So that's where Inspire Roy Las comes in and like OK, so let's talk. Let's look at your body type, let's look at your fat mass, let's look at your metabolic age, let's look at your lifestyle. We put all that together and figure out, like, which is the best way to get you to eat, and so we do that. Yeah, it's an issue in our society, for sure, jeremy.

Jeremy: 10:05

Yeah, absolutely. I love the approach that you guys take. It's not just about the diet, it's not just about the exercise, it's a holistic, a whole body mindset approach to wellness. And you are, of course, doing wonderful work over at Inspire, roy Las Martha.

Martha: 10:23

Thank you, and you know what? Now, one of the things that's happening in society is that people are eating a lot of prepackaged meals because they want to eat, but because they're so busy doing everything else, they're like well, how can I feed my body? The most efficient and easiest right? And we have to be careful with that, because prepackaged meals are not always whole foods, so they have to be very picky about which ones they choose, and so I want to share that with the world that I, although I'm very happy that you want to eat, just make sure that, when you do, you're feeding your body whole foods. That the way that we say on Inspire is, that's giving you life. You're feeding your body life. So make sure you're feeding your body, number one, and make sure you're feeding your body life, because there's a lot of foods out there that are not, and we can talk about that in another episode.

Jeremy: 11:26

All right, sounds good. Martha, always a pleasure.

Martha: 11:32

Thank you.

Jeremy: 11:33

You have a wonderful day.

Martha: 11:36

You as well.

Jeremy: 11:38

And everyone. Thanks for tuning in and we will see you on the next episode.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Bye. Thank you for listening to the Inspire Weight Loss Davy podcast. To get your journey started, visit inspireweightlosscom or contact 954-837-8811.