It is that dreadful morning again when you look in the mirror and see that your clothes are fitting tighter than normal. A quick recount of yesterday caloric consumption says your down from 2,000 calories per day to 1,500 per day and that 500 calorie reduction has to result in weight loss, right? You protest that you should be loosing 1 to 2 pounds per week, not gaining weight. Well, actually this is not exactly true. Understand the ugly truth why focusing on strict calorie reduction does not lead to weight loss.
Diets focused strictly on counting calories lead to a starvation diet where the goal is to use self-discipline to skip meals and reduce food consumption. Instead of significant weight loss, you experience significant energy loss because your body is not accustomed to being without calories for so long. Without a reasonable daily caloric consumption, you will feel weak and miserable, potentially experience headaches, and be constantly hungry. These effects are direct results from your body adjusting to burning fewer calories per day.
The worst part about starvation diets is that the small amount of weight loss comes from the reduction of water weight, and not real fat loss. Remember that any "water weight" lost during the diet will be gained back immediately when you stop dieting and start eating normally again.
After experience two weeks of misery, most starvation dieter's stop seeing the scale go down and more. They hit the "weight loss plateau." All the water weight that can be reduced is out and their body has completed the adjustment to the new caloric intake level.
Now you know why you have always failed when trying the starvation diet. It is just not possible to lose weight by this dieting method. The truth is that serious, long term weight loss can never be achieved by a starvation diet.
Serious weight loss can only be achieved by giving you body the right type of calories at the correct times each day. Your body is actually like a big engine that needs all three types of calories (protein, carbohydrates, and fat) to some degree. To begin losing weight quickly, change your eating habits to consume the correct portions of protein, carbs, and fat so that maintain your energy level while reducing your weight. To find out more, learn about Fat Loss 4 Idiots and stop starving yourself by counting calories.
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