Probably the most common thing I see people doing wrong in their pursuit of fat loss is that they cut calories way too low. Everyone is in the pursuit of instant results and many believe that drastically reducing their calorie intake is the fastest way to shed those unwanted pounds. Little do they know that by reducing their calorie intake to such low levels makes it even harder to lose fat and get in great shape.

DESTROYS OUR METABOLISM

Our metabolism is the most important factor for successful fat loss. We should train and eat in order to stimulate it. The simplest way to have a fast metabolism is to have muscle. This is because muscle is metabolically active…by that I mean that it burns calories. Every extra pound of muscle we have burns an extra 50-100 calories a day. This is why it is imperative to add or at try to maintain as much muscle as possible when trying to lose fat.

Compare our metabolism to that of a car engine. The larger the engine the more fuel it burns, even when its sitting at the lights. That’s how we want our metabolism to run. A faster metabolism helps us burn more calories in every activity we do, including sleeping. Now obviously, we don’t want a metabolism than burns fuel as slow as a scooter!

Now the problem with low calorie dieting is that it burns a lot of muscle, which slows down our metabolism. This happens because the body realises that there is less food coming in, so it slows down how many calories it burns so that it can survive on the newer lower calorie intake. It becomes a bit more careful of using up energy, and becomes more selective. This is obviously bad!

The reason this happens, is because our excess body fat, is our last ditch survival plan. It is stored to prepare for times of food shortage. You see, if we cut calories too far, our body will realise that food is scarce and it will go into a state of panic. It will do its best then to hang onto its fat stores because it doesn’t know how long this food shortage is going to last. Since there is not enough food coming in, and our body wants to hang onto our fat, it alternatively breaks down muscle tissue to use as energy. This loss of muscle means a slower metabolism.

You may have experienced this first hand, getting good initial results on a low calorie diet for a few weeks. However after a few weeks your results have come to a standstill. This is because your metabolism has slowed right down to adjust to the calorie intake and is burning next to no fat, because it doesn’t want to!

TOO HARD TO STICK TO

Let’s face it, its no fun eating a low calorie diet. Constantly feeling hungry and tired, who wants that? Restricted calorie diets are just way too hard to stick too. They deprive us of not only eating enough food, but also of eating foods that we enjoy. This double whammy causes our cravings to intensify to the point that it becomes unbearable, resulting in us giving up.

LACK CONSISTENCY

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