Low Calorie Dieting Dangers
When you drastically cut calories your body fights back by burning less calories and becoming much more efficient at fat storage.
The extreme low calorie diet is still a favorite way for people to try and lose weight. Online group plans, the latest soup diet, or a plan that tells you to drink a chemical concoction in substitution for real food. All they are doing are cutting your calories an unhealthy amount to give you fast results.
These plans often help you drop 10 – 20 lbs quickly but at great expense.
Either increasing caloric expenditure or reducing caloric intake is necessary in order to lose weight. Unfortunately if your calories are too restricted your body will fight you.
For accurate measurement of weight loss there are some excellent scales that upload the information to a program on your computer like this online scale for weight.
The best way to lose weight is to make friends with your own metabolism and work to increase metabolism naturally.
Here is an example of my 7 Day Diet that I use. Its actually what I used to lose 40 lbs.
Your body needs a certain amount of calories to survive and a severe caloric restriction will begin to work against you as it will compromise your existing metabolic rate.
When you radically cut your calories your body will not only use fat but will also begin to cannibalise your lean muscle because it will need it for fuel. What you really need is to maintain and develop your muscle mass to burn off excess stored body fat,
Basically you may appear thinner after the weight loss but by muscle to fat ratio you are actually fatter. Not a healthy way to be.
The other effect of low calorie dieting is that it initiates our body’s ‘starvation response’. Our bodies are basic biological organisms whose purpose is to simply survive. If your body perceives a famine it will conserves energy by slowing down your metabolism and it will become much better at storing fat.
The impact that muscle loss has on weight maintenance is usually weight gain. If your initial weight loss includes a high percentage of muscle loss, it may look good on the scale, but you have also lost your most efficient fat burners (muscle mass) and once you try to go back to a ‘normal’ diet your metabolic rate is likely decreased so you will gain fat faster.
Your body will remember this period of famine and prepare itself for future periods of deprivation by maintaining a slow metabolism and highly efficient fat storage capabilities. Your body is hard wired to survive in spite of you.
An easy way to start without completely shocking your system is to note what and when you eat for a couple of weeks. As enticing as it is to drop 20 lbs in a short period of time, you will come out much further ahead if you begin with a 100 – 500 calorie deficit.
Maintain a food dairy and say good bye to the 1200 calorie diet and be sure eat from all the food groups. Increase your caloric expenditure by walking or going to the gym or working out at home. If your weight plateaus and you would still like to loose more, refer to your journal and, (depending on your current weight and health), again reduce your caloric intake and or increase your caloric expenditure.
If you are still unsure what to do consult a nutritionist or dietitian as they can help you with scheduling and menu planning that fit your life. It takes time and practice but remember once you learn how to eat and stay active, you will never be overweight again.
Tell it