Have you ever wondered why your low-calorie eating isn't producing lasting weight loss results? Here's why.
“I want to lose weight. How do I do that? I know! I just won’t eat, or maybe I’ll just eat 500 calories a day? That’s gotta work!” Maybe you’ve found yourself thinking this from time to time? Well let me save you the disappointment and frustration; it doesn’t work.
Now I know there are some of you out there that are convinced you’re on a restricted-calorie diet that’s safe and effective. Let me put it this way, in all my years of working with weight loss clients, I’ve never worked with one that had permanent success with this type of eating plan. Sure, no results are permanent, but you know what I mean. When someone drops 10 lbs. in 2 weeks, and then puts it right back on, plus 5 more lbs. on top of that, that’s not really considered permanent; that’s considered yo-yoing.
Let me put it this way, in all my years of working with weight loss clients, I’ve never worked with one that had permanent success with this type of eating plan [low-calorie].
I admit, it’s hard to understand how eating very few calories can cause you to put on more weight. After all, we’re constantly having it drilled into our heads that if you want to lose weight, you have to be more active and eat smaller portions. The problem is, eating too small of portions can send our bodies into starvation mode.
Picture this: You’re in the middle of the Sahara Desert, and you haven’t had anything to eat in 2 days. Are you dead yet? Well, hopefully not, as long as you can stay hydrated. Our bodies are amazing creations because they will do whatever it takes to maintain our survival. To keep us alive in a desert, with no food, our bodies will start drawing energy from the protein and fat in our bodies. Our bodies will break down our muscles in order to get the necessary energy (glucose) for our bodies to keep running, and if absolutely necessary, our bodies will break down fat for energy. Like I said, though, this is when it’s absolutely necessary. Without carbohydrates in the body, our body fat can’t be broken down to safely supply energy to the brain. 1 This is a whole other topic, but if you remember, I go into more detail about it in the section about carbohydrates.
Alright, back to the part about our bodies breaking down muscle for energy. As I’ve said before, our muscles are our calorie burners. Without muscle, our body’s ability to burn calories is useless. So doesn’t it make sense that if we burn off muscle, we lose the ability to burn off fat? Well, that’s exactly what happens. When trying to lose weight, you want to lose body fat, not muscle. Burning off muscle means you’ll decrease the amount of fat that you’re burning off, and on top of that, your body covets its muscle. When you lose muscle (and the water with it), your body is looking to put it back on as soon as possible. Hence, the yo-yo effect that can happen with weight loss. You may lose 10 lbs. in 2 weeks, but most likely you’ll gain those 10 lbs. back in no time. Have you ever lost weight but months later ended up weighing more than you did when you first started your weight loss efforts? Well, now you know why.
Okay, so that’s the first part to starvation mode: muscle breakdown.
Here’s the second part to starvation mode and why eating less can actually be worse than eating more.
You stand a better chance of losing body fat and keeping it off by developing an active lifestyle that follows a moderately restricted-calorie eating plan consisting of balanced, healthy food choices every 2-3 hours.
Back to the desert we go. We already know that if we don’t feed our body, it’ll break down muscle for energy, but another thing that happens is fat storage. If we’re in the desert and haven’t eaten for a few days, our body will wise up and realize that it needs to store any food that it does get. As a result, our body slows down its metabolism to conserve energy (partially because our muscles are deteriorating). 1 With a slower metabolism comes more fat storage. The same can be said when deciding to go on a low-calorie or no-calorie diet. By not eating every 2-3 hours (5 meals per day), our body will start to store more of the food we eat as fat because it has to conserve the little energy that it is getting. Instead of losing “healthy” body fat weight, we’re actually losing water and muscle and putting on more fat. In some cases, you can actually see the scale jump up!
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever tried to lose weight by cutting down to an abnormally small amount of calories only to find that the scale won’t budge or actually climbs? Well, that low-calorie eating plan is most likely the reason for the disappointment. Even if you do lose weight, you’ll most likely put it back on because it was water and muscle that you lost, not body fat.
So the next time you’re thinking about cutting your calories way back, think again. You stand a better chance of losing body fat and keeping it off by developing an active lifestyle that follows a moderately restricted-calorie eating plan consisting of balanced, healthy food choices every 2-3 hours.
References:
1 Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2003). Nutrition concepts and controversies, (9th ed). Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Dan Falkenberg is the co-founder of Your Live Trainers. He can be reached at DanFalkenberg.com.
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