Many people think that calories are the thing to watch out for, since eating too many calories leads to weight gain right? That’s why most people think that the fastest way to lose weight is to cut down their on calories every day.
All in all, if a dieter is eating 2,000 calories a day and they cut back to 1,500 calories per day – then clearly cutting those extra 500 calories lead to weight loss, right?
Well, actually this is not entirely true.
If you actually try to cut your calories too much (like starving yourself and skipping meals) then you'll ultimately reach a dieting "plateau" (a point where the scale doesn’t drop any lower no matter how little you are eating).
Firstly, let’s talk about how the average person starts a new diet.
The scenario usually goes a little something like this...
One day after getting dressed you look at yourself in the mirror. You notice your clothes don’t fit as loose as they did before, you also look a bit chubbier...And on this day you get “angry” with yourself, you’re upset with what you see in the mirror – and you decide that you’re going to lose that weight no matter what it takes.
You are filled with so much motivation and emotion on this day, and you feel determined to do whatever it takes to slim down.
So what's the first thing you decide to do?
...You begin skipping various meals and cutting way back on calories in an attempt to starve yourself and lose weight, since you're convinced that calories are the enemy.
The above scenario is how you start to begin your “starvation diet.”
The first day of dieting you feel so motivated to lose weight that you go and skip breakfast.
Unfortunately, this motivation doesn't last for long, because after a few hours get hungry and begin to feel weak -- because your body is not used to skipping meals like this, and your body is not used to being without calories for so long.
Anyway, by the time lunchtime comes by you’re so hungry that you feel miserable --- but yet you still tell yourself that you can handle this diet (You certainly don’t want to feel like a quitter do you?).
So perhaps you have a piece of fruit for lunch (or something light, with low calories), since you still believe that you can starve yourself thinner.
Finally, hours later when dinnertime comes around you’re so miserable and hungry that you have a huge headache – and this is the time when you finally realize that starving yourself might not be such a good idea after all.
After the first day of starving yourself you feel terrible, but you’re so determined to stick to your diet since you don't want to be a quitter -- so you’ll probably hold out for another few days on this diet.
Or, if you are really brave then you may even try for a week or two.
However, regardless of how long you actually hold out -- you won't lose the fat you sought out to lose and the final result will still be the same.
You see, even after two weeks of starving yourself you won’t have achieved any weight loss at all. In fact, your body will still look exactly the same when you look in the mirror.
Why is this true?
This is true because most of the weight lost you see lost during a starvation diet is just water weight, and not real fat loss.
You need to realize that any water weight lost during a starvation diet will be gained back immediately when you stop dieting and start eating normally again.
Also, whenever you starve yourself you cause a third factor to come into play...
You see, whenever you starve yourself your body will start burning fewer calories each day.
For instance, let’s say that you normally eat about 2,500 calories per day.
....But then you suddenly cut way back on calories you’re eating -- so that you're now eating only 1,000 calories a day.
Guess what happens?
Even though you’re eating 1,500 fewer calories a day your body will begin burning 1,500 fewer calories a day – so in reality your weight will stay the same even though you’re eating 1,500 fewer calories a day.
When this happens the scale will stop going down regardless of how little you are eating each day, and this is known as a weight loss plateau.
This is why most starvation dieters cannot make the scale go down anymore after just two weeks of dieting. They all hit a plateau where the scale just refuses to go down any further, no matter how little they eat each day.
Now you know why you’ve always failed when trying to starve yourself in the past, since it’s just not possible to lose weight by starving yourself.
The truth is that serious weight loss can never be achieved by using a starvation dieting.
Serious weight loss can only be achieved by giving your body the right types of calories at the correct times each day, which is something that we talk about below...
Your body is actually like a big engine -- and the truth is that your body needs all 3 types of calories (protein, carbs, and fat) to some degree.
To learn more on weight loss plans that work, come check out
