I hate Catch-22s and when it comes to fitness and weight loss, you find a lot of catch-22s. One of these catch-22s is that while eating less may seem to constitute a result of weight loss – too few calories can actually be a problem for anyone who is looking to shape up or lose weight.
When you cut back on calories too much, your body is biologically programmed to protect itself from various environmental conditions including starvation. So when you don’t eat enough, your body goes into starvation mode. When your body does this, it begins hording every calorie it can and storing fat because it doesn’t want to starve to death.
Your Metabolism Slows Down
Your metabolism will actually begin to slow down in an effort to conserve and your body might even burn muscle long before it burns fat. When this happens, you’ll find that work outs become harder, injuries easier to sustain and ultimately, your exhausted all the time and you can’t seem to get enough sleep and you might even get sick easier than before.
What you want to do ultimately is to get your calories from lean protein sources and non-starchy veggies. The average person needs about 1500 calories a day. So if you are eating lean chicken breast, turkey breast and plenty of broccoli, squash, peppers and mushrooms along with a regular regimen of exercise you’re going to burn off your fat storage.
You are giving your body the nutrients it needs and keeping it out of fat storage mode and at the same time, you are burning excess energy through exercise. Another good recommendation my doctor gave me was to eliminate the simple sugars after six in the evening. This can help you stabilize insulin levels and keep them from hindering your weight loss progress.
Calorie burning programs that include weight training (remember, muscle burns more fat). When you work out early in the day, your metabolism stays higher – providing you with hours more of calorie burning beyond your workout. So before you decide to starve yourself slender, consider that there are better and healthier options to achieve your goals.
Have you ever had problems with eating too few calories?
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