The Problems With Low Calorie Diets

Most people have been on a diet. Some people have been on more than others—a lot more. There are a lot of different types of diets out there. There are over 2,000 registered diets with the FDA. That’s a lot. Unfortunately there isn’t a one-size fits all diet that will work for everybody and bring miraculous, forever results. What the majority of people who go on diets have been made to believe is that when they do go on a diet that they must restrict their calories. Makes sense right? Eat less food, lose more weight. It works, but only for a short period of time.

That’s why today I am going to focus on low calorie diets. Most of the diets out there are. But I want to share with you the problems associated with these low calorie diets (LCD) and why if you are looking for permanent weight loss and a healthy body you should never go on one.

I am going to stray away a little from the medical definition of LCD, which is a diet consisting of 1200 calories or less. I’m going to talk about LCD based on you and your size.

We all have what is known as a basal metabolic rate. This is the amount of calories you would burn if you just lied in bed all day watching TV. It varies from person to person, but the major factors contributing to differences are height, weight, body fat percentage, lean muscle percentage, and exercise/activity level. Exercise and activity level will change it the most. So you need to find out how many calories you are burning per day with all the other factors taken into consideration. You can search ‘BMR calculators’ online to find yours; just make sure it takes activity into consideration.

Now once you have figured that out it is now time to determine if you are on a low calorie diet based on you. It’s simple—if you are getting 500-1000 calories below your BMR you are on a low calorie diet. My take on this weird, I know. Even if you are getting 2300 calories a day, if you supposed to be getting 3400, then you are on a LCD.

Let’s get into the problems you will experience while on a low calorie diet based on you. First off, your body is starving. Even if you are not hungry the body is. It craves more calories, because calories to the body are energy. And to perform at a top-notch level your body needs energy (calories). When your body is starving it goes into survival mode. In survival mode it does a couple of things. It starts to ‘eat’ protein from your body, so basically the lean muscle tissue you’ve trained so hard to earn. Also, when you put more food in the body it will have a better chance of converting to fat.

All the stuff I just mentioned leads to one thing—a slower metabolism! This is the last thing you want if you are trying to burn fat and lose weight. You want your metabolism racing like an Indy car on the straightaway towards the finish line. And to do this you need to eat and create a caloric deficit of between 200-1000 calories under what you burn off for the day. This will create a 1-2 pound loss a week of fat. Anything more than that, and you are losing hard earned, metabolism revving lean muscle tissue, and water. Plus, your body will burn fat off very slowly, and try to preserve it as much as it can. This is why when most dieters lose weight, their body fat hasn’t changed much, and they still have folds of fat, and become frustrated with their diets.

So in order to lose fat you have to EAT! I cannot stress that enough. If you starve yourself you may lose weight, but you will also lose lean tissue and water, and eventually you will plateau. Then when you stop starving yourself the weight will come right back on, and usually with a little extra.

If you don’t have a lot of weight to lose you want to consume no more than 500 calories under your BMR. If you have a lot of weight to lose that number will be as high as 1000, but never more, because then you will put your body in survival mode. As you lose weight the number of calories under your BMR will drop.

Please note if you are overweight you are going to be consuming a lot of calories at the beginning. More so then you are probably used to. But keep in mind this number will drop as you continue to lose the weight. Remember this is how you do it for safe, permanent, and effective weight and fat loss. You are in it for the long haul. So what if it takes you a little longer to reach your goal.

I hope this was helpful to you. Remember the key to fat loss is you have to eat. You have to EAT! And you have to eat consistently with supportive foods. Foods like whole grains, veggies, fruits, lean proteins, nuts/seeds, healthy fats, and occasionally supplements. Good luck!