Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3 NIV

In 2010, I met with a personal trainer who taught me about the body’s metabolism and how it impacted our diet and how it effected muscle gain for weightlifters.

Her training was very much in line with a many materials on the subject. It was backed in science. And it goes something like this.

Your metabolism is like a coal furnace. You have to first get the fire going by feeding it fuel that is easy to burn, such as a tablespoon of peanut butter on low-carb, whole-wheat bread.

Then you have to keep the fire stoked with regular fuel. You accomplish this by eating at least every two to three hours. Your meals should include plenty of protein with some carbs. You continue this through the afternoon.

After 3:00 p.m., you start to prepare for the fire to burn out for bedtime. So, you eat only lean meats and green vegetables after three.

Fruits are good in limited quantities, but must be limited to morning and lunch.

Eating a high-carb meal, such as white bread or French fries, will dampen the fire and stop or slow your metabolism.

The reason behind keeping your metabolism stoked is to keep the calories burning. The presumption is, in order to lose weight, you must keep your metabolism high.

This is backed by science.

But taken out of context, this can be misleading.

For example, it might be easy to assume that one must consume more calories to burn more calories. This is rubbish. This was dangerous for me because I bought in to that fallacy and gained a lot of weight.

Fasting is also scientifically supported. And by fasting, I mean either not eating for significant portions of the day or reducing the size of your meals while still eating many small meals per day and therefore reducing your caloric intake by at least 25 percent.

I have been successful in losing weight while at the same time slowing my metabolism. I eat frequently because I want to avoid hunger. But I keep my calories low.

Our bodies are incredible, efficient machines, not easily fooled or manipulated. In the end, we still have to burn more calories than we consume.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14 NIV

Recently, I saw my physician and he instructed me to start lifting weights. I was concerned he was going to change my diet by increasing my calories and protein intake so I could bulk up and build muscle. But he didn’t. He told me to make no changes to my diet. Just add the weightlifting.

Your body will know what to do.