Why Low Calorie Diets Cause You to Gain Fat

Too often those who have some weight to lose believe that the best course of action for them is to severely limit their calorie intake.  Now on the face of it that might seem like a good idea.  However, when you begin to understand your body's inner workings nothing could be further from the truth.  Research has shown that 1 pound is comprised of about 3500 calories.  Therefore, it seems to make logical sense that if you were to cut 1000 calories from your diet every day then you should be able to lose about 2 lbs each week.  While this may work initially, it definitely doesn't work over a prolonged period of time and even when it supposedly did "work" you have to wonder what percentage of your weight loss was actually fat. 

Extreme low calorie diets (or starvation diets) will ultimately raise your body fat percentage rather than lower it even though you may have lost weight during the diet.  How is this possible, you ask?  It is very simple.  Much of the weight that you lose on a very low calorie diet is muscle and not fat.  when you step on the scale you feel that you have achieved success because the number went lower but the truth of it may be that you have most likely made yourself less healthy.  You are what would be termed "skinny fat." 

Now during the diet there is a great chance that you slightly lowered your body fat percentage but what has occurred is that you have altered your body's chemistry.  Once you end the diet, you will quickly gain the weight back and even though you might end up at the same weight as you were before you started the diet you now have a higher percentage of body fat. 

Let's look at a few reasons why this occurs.

The ultimate key to you losing weight and losing the right kind of weight is to find a way to raise your metabolism. The higher your metabolism the greater your ability to burn fat. Low calorie diets, however, do just the opposite. They slow down your metabolism. When you don't provide your body with enough fuel (food, in this instance) your body will recognize that it is being starved and will go into defense mode. It will try to protect itself by slowing down your metabolism. Studies have shown that with severe calorie restriction that you can actually decrease your metabolism by anywhere from 20% - 40%. Have you ever wondered why you struggle to lose weight when you eat so little? This is why? Have you ever wondered why the last 10 pounds or so on any diet are always the hardest? This is why. What you need to be doing is finding ways to speed up your metabolism.

Muscle is the one thing that you have working in your favor.  The more of it that you have the better.  Muscle requires more energy from your body to maintain it.  Therefore, the more muscle you have the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories you will burn.  However, low calorie diets cause you to lose muscle instead of gaining it.  If you are not actively exercising in a way that you are creating muscle while you are dieting then a great portion of the weight you lose will actually be muscle.  It is part of body's self defense mechanism.  Your body recognizes that you are starving yourself and it seeks to get rid of that in your body which is burning the most energy.  Therefore, your body begins to burn muscle for fuel rather than the fat that you are trying to lose.  Once again this has an adverse effect on your ability to lose weight since this will slow down your metabolism.

When you body is not provided the amount of fuel that it needs to function correctly throughout the day you begin to feel lethargic.  Rather than going to the gym to exercise you decide to take a pass.  Rather than taking your normal walk around the block you decide to sit on the couch and watch TV.  Because you have decreased your energy level you will decrease your activity level.  When you decrease your activity level you will decrease the number of calories that you burn each and every day.  As a result, it is more difficult to lose weight.

Low calories diets leave you in a constant state of hunger.  When I find myself in a constant state of hunger all I do is think about food.  People on a diet most often obsess about food.  This is yet one more of your body's defense mechanisms.  Your body knows it is being starved so it sends out cravings for food.  Unless you are a person of extreme willpower you will give in to the cravings and fail at the goal of losing weight.

No one stays on a low calorie diet forever. Once you go off such a diet then you are much more prone to gain weight since you have no slowed down your metabolism and are not burning calories at the same rate that you were before beginning the diet. Once you begin to eat normally again, you will put on weight and will most likely erase any weight that you lost. Your slower metabolism will come back to haunt you.

Instead of going on a low calorie diet you should read the hub about how to lose weight without going on a low calorie diet. It just may be the information you were looking for.