You see Santa Claus IS actually aware that his belly is too large. And he DOES know that it’s because he eats 12,798 mince pies every year on 24th December. But he CAN’T work out why he’s getting FATTER every year.
You see, because he overindulges (and has clearly got quite good at it), he compensates the rest of the year by cutting calories. Many hundreds of years back, this calorie restriction worked well. Each year, he would get fat at Christmas and then slowly slim-down over the year that follows. He’d do this by each day missing meals and/or snacks as much as possible, in an effort to reduce calories. You see, he thought that the best remedy to the Christmas Bulge was to stop eating during the day and then only eat dinner. And a dinner with no carbs, at that. In fact, in the first few years, by the time December came, Santa looked a lot like Chris Froome in his physique.
What he noticed, however, is that as the years went by, he was able to lose less and less weight each time he dieted.
And he also noticed that his belly grew even BIGGER after each subsequent Christmas, no matter how much he starved during the preceding year.
This is due to 2 phenomena called insulin resistance and metabolism.
You see, when someone has got fat, their metabolism (calorie-burning potential) has actually INCREASED.
Yes, a fat person actually requires more calories to survive than a thin one!
So, when Santa started rationing himself each January, to eating only HALF the calories his body needed, not only was he eating WAY TOO LITTLE calories even for a normal person…he was literally STARVING himself and his body needs.
So, yes, he effectively lost fat; BUT he also lost a LOT OF MUSCLE MASS. What’s more, each year he dieted, his body became more and more insulin resistant.
This meant that when the following Christmas came around, his body’s overall burning capacity was LESS than it was before. So, the 12, 798 mince pies he then ate got stored MUCH MORE QUICKLY than before. And what’s more, his waist circumference started getting bigger than the previous year.
Why? Because he has become more insulin resistant. In other words his body has to produce WAY MORE insulin to metabolise food, than before. And insulin predominantly stores fat on the belly area, more than other areas. So, fat tummy shows a body having to produce MORE INSULIN (it has become insulin resistant).
So, each cycle of starving and bingeing sadly leads to a roller-coaster of up-down-up weight cycling. Each down cycle becoming less effective than the previous year, and each up cycle becoming fatter than the previous year and much more belly-centred than ever before.
The result? A pretty substantial, fat-bellied storage machine in a red coat, who finds it nearly
impossible to lose weight no matter how many calories he cuts.
Ho ho ho indeed.
Recognise a little bit of Santa in you, or someone else you know?
You see, the more we calorie-restrict, the more our ‘burning-capacity’ drops. And this is worsened by the fact that the calorie-restriction alters the brain function by becoming an emotional control-freak who, at the slightest hint of temptation, turns into a rabid hunger machine, able to focus only on little else other than eating unhealthy food.
It is this ‘restrict-binge-lose-gain’ pattern that has become a major contributor to the onset of 2 frightening lifestyle diseases: obesity-related Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
How should he have tackled it? Well, he should have started an eating regime long before Christmas knowing that a huge overindulgence was coming his way. ! Instead of eating teeny tiny meals for a day or two before Christmas…. He should have been eating rather BIG portions of SUPER-LEAN and healthy meals at each and every meal, at least 3 times a day, his metabolism would immediately re-ignite, (his calorie-burning capacity), and so ensure that when his Christmas Day feast arrived, he would be fully equipped to simply burn off all of these excessive intakes, without any weight gain.
So, the old adage, “Eat, Drink and Be Merry” can still be obeyed without fear. Just make sure that you do it healthily, plentifully and regularly months before D-Day (or should I say C-Day). Then, that day’s indulgence won’t be too out of control, and won’t do nearly as much damage, if at all.
The healthy meals up until C-Day should be Low GI and Low fat, in order to maintain a high ‘furnace’ metabolism. Click here for daily Low GI and low fat meals that even Santa would enjoy…..
And here are some very low fat Christmas ideas for you to have fun with!