It may seem counterintuitive, but the truth is that consuming fewer calories can actually slow your fat loss journey.
When people want to lose fat, they automatically jump to reducing their caloric intake. And it makes perfect sense! Fewer calories in = more fat loss, right?
In theory, yes. But the truth is that eating fewer calories can negatively impact your fat loss journey, not to mention your overall health!
All About Calories
Before we dive into how consuming fewer calories can hurt your fat loss journey, let’s first go over how calories and metabolism work.
Put simply, a calorie is just a unit of energy. It’s equivalent to the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of a gram of water by 1°C (1.8°F or 4.1868 joules) and serves as a measurement of the energy content of food and drinks.
For many people trying to lose fat, calories are automatically the enemy, but the truth is that our bodies need calories for everything we do, from breathing to circulating blood and digesting foods to fighting off infections. However, if you eat and drink more calories than you expend, your body will store the excess as body fat, causing you to gain weight.
So, how many calories do you need? It depends on your age, size, physical activity level, environmental temperature, dieting behaviors, and hormonal status! As a general guideline, the average man should consume around 2,500 calories daily, while the average woman should consume roughly 2,000 calories daily to maintain a healthy body weight.
To estimate your specific calorie needs, you’ll need to determine your basal metabolic rate (BMR), calculate how many calories you’ll need to maintain your current weight, and think about how many calories you’ll need to consume to lose weight (this number should be somewhere between your BMR and daily caloric requirement).
The Impact Of Eating Fewer Calories On Fat Loss
When people want to lose weight, they often turn to diets and drastically cut back on their caloric intake. However, this approach can be counterproductive. In fact, research examining The Biggest Loser shows that metabolism will significantly slow after a dramatic weight loss — and regaining that weight won’t return your metabolism to its previous levels.
A low-calorie diet can decrease the number of calories your body burns by up to 23%, so keeping the weight off will be EVEN MORE DIFFICULT! People will need to stick with extremely low-calorie diets, which is unsustainable in the long run.
Why does this happen? Our bodies are just too good at adapting! If you deprive your body of calories and don’t consume enough calories to meet your basal metabolic needs, your body will think you’re going to starve and automatically start conserving calories. Its survival instincts will kick in and slow your metabolism to save energy, meaning you’ll burn fewer calories per day and begin converting extra calories into fat. Which is the opposite of what you want….
Your body’s metabolism works hard to create a new balance when you consistently don’t consume enough calories, which can lead to weight loss plateaus. No matter how little you eat, you won’t be able to lose any weight. It’s frustrating and discouraging — and it happens to nearly everyone.
When 65 dieting women were analyzed, their bodies burned 50 fewer calories per day on average — and those who were overweight or obese used hundreds of fewer calories a day. Every 10-calorie drop in BMR meant one more day to achieve their weight loss goal, meaning the greater the change in BMR, the longer it took to reach weight loss goals. So, if your metabolic rate drops and your fat loss journey slows to a crawl or comes to a complete halt after a calorie reduction, don’t worry! It’s completely normal.
Luckily, you can overcome metabolic adaptation and continue your fat loss journey in a few ways. For example, reverse dieting (slowly increasing your caloric intake while lifting weights) can raise your metabolism and restart your fat loss. Similarly, frequent exercise and other lifestyle changes can keep your fat loss journey going smoothly.
Lose Fat The Right Way
Losing fat and keeping it off is tricky, especially given how our metabolism reacts to restricted-calorie diets. And that’s not the only way severely restricting your caloric intake can affect your body! Following calorie-restricted diets can also cause you to feel fatigued, reduce your fertility, weaken your bones, and prevent you from getting enough protein, vitamin A, calcium, biotin, thiamine, and other nutrients.
Need help losing fat in an effective, healthy, and sustainable way? I’ve got you covered! Reach out to me today at happyhelen@gmail.com to get started!