Have you ever asked yourself the question, "Why can't I lose weight when I'm on a low calorie diet?" I know many people who have. If you haven't asked yourself that question, then perhaps you've asked, "How come I gain all of the weight back after my diet is done?" Either way, the answer is pretty much the same. The first thing we have to understand is what happens to your body when you go on a low calorie diet.
So it probably makes sense to most people that if you cut your calories, you'll lose weight. That is true in theory, but here's what really happens. Let's say you have a diet that says to only eat 1,000 calories per day. If you live an active lifestyle, you probably need around 2,000 - 2,500 calories to maintain your weight. If you are sedentary, you'll only need between 1,500 and 2,000. Obviously this varies depending on how active you are, how much muscle mass you have, etc. These are general rules of thumb. Now, usually what happens when you start a diet like that is you initially lose weight. Perfect! That's exactly what you wanted! More often than not though, you hit a weight loss brick wall. Not another pound is coming off. Why? You've been doing everything right! There's a couple of reasons.
1) Your body adjusts to the new diet.
2) Your metabolism slows as a result of the adjustment.
So your new weight maintenance is the 1,000 calories. If you start eating more than that (like you used to), you will gain weight back. Usually it's more weight than you started with. I've seen it too many times. Since your metabolism is running slower, you're not burning as much as before. Kind of a stinky situation. So what can you do from here to start fixing the problem? Well, that's what I'll cover in my next post. If you'd like some more information, just sign up for my newsletter. For now, just know that diets are temporary solutions that don't work in the long run.
