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Watch Why Low Calorie Diets Don’t Work:
So many women decide it’s time to lose weight at the beginning of the new year.
It’s time for a change, time to take charge of their over eating. Maybe they will even decide to start exercising too.
Sadly though, many women decide to succumb to very strict low calorie diets thinking they are the key to losing weight.
A low calorie diet for a women would be eating less than 1500 calories in a day. Very low calorie diets recommend 800 calories in a day. Pass the celery!
Low Calorie Diets Do More Harm than Good
Everyone has to eat enough calories each day just to keep their body functioning: to breathe, to digest their food, to keep organs working. This number of calories is called a Basal Metabolic Rate. You can use this calculator to figure out your BMR here.
If you eat below this personal BMR, your body will start to turn on itself and eat lean muscle mass to function.
Lean muscle mass is exactly what we want, though. This is what fires up our metabolism to burn more calories, keeps us strong, toned and prevents injury.
Low Calorie Diets Do Not Work Long Term
You may start a low calorie diet, tracking your food intake and eating less to find that you have lost 3-5 pounds the first 2 weeks or so. Don’t be fooled by this weight loss. Part of this decrease is a decrease of food in your system (or bowels). Secondly, you could also just be losing water weight.
This kind of weight loss is not sustainable and will eventually stall… and pretty fast honestly.
Your body will catch on that you aren’t eating as much and will dial your metabolism knob back to adjust to functioning on less calories. Additionally, you will get hungry and cheat… but now your body will go into storage mode immediately because it has been starving for more nutrition.
And be honest with yourself…. you will cheat on a low calorie diet.
What’s the Answer?
Low calorie diets are not the answer. A better approach is to eat for health while fueling your metabolism.
Eat more Thermogenic Foods.
One way to do this is to increase foods that boost your metabolism. Some of these include: coconut oil, eating hot peppers and chilies, and drinking green or oolong tea. Eating more low calorie vegetables burn calories just by chewing and digesting them. You can also try this supplement that I love to speed up my metabolism using thermogenics.
Eat more often.
Eat every 3 hours to keep your metabolism fired and fueled. When you go long periods of time without eating, your body goes into temporary starving mode. Then you eat, and your body thinks it needs to store more for the next “fasting period”.
By eating on a regular and consistent basis, your body stays fueled and doesn’t have to worry about a time without food.
Strength Train.
The more lean body mass you have, the higher your metabolism will be. To increase your lean muscle mass, you need to start building more muscle. Sounds easy. Start out by doing simple weight resistant movements. For beginners this may be using a resistant band like in these exercises. For stronger individuals, you can start with squat and lunges while holding weights, or you can just lift heavy things.
The more muscle and less fat you have will increase your BMR as well. You will be able to eat more just being you. Now that sounds like my kind of an eating plan.
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