Wednesday's Wisdom - A Low Calorie Diet is NOT the Way to Go!

In order for me to keep up to date with what’s going on in the fitness and nutrition industries I subscribe to newsletters, just like you did, to hear from the experts and learn. I can then provide you with the most up to date information as well.

This week I received this great article from an industry expert, Allison Moyer, and I could not have said it any better myself! I thought I would simply pass along Alli’s newsletter to you all regarding a low calorie diet.

I talk with my clients about the importance of being aware of the calories you are taking in –some people are too high, while others are too low. Both can be detrimental to a successful weight loss and fitness program. While counting calories can be cumbersome and a PITA (pain in the A$$), Alli talks about why a low-calorie diet is NOT the way to go, and if you are not counting calories, how do you know if you don’t track it?

Happy reading and have a great week!

The following is taken from the Alli-Fitness email newsletter dated 9/29/14: enjoy!

“Drastic Dieting Might Not Be The Way To Go For Fat Loss”

“Contrary to popular belief, to lose body fat you DON'T always have to drastically cut back on your calories.

Sure- you can and you'll lose weight, I'm sure of it, but the damage it will do to your body will hardly be worth it. Operating long term in extreme caloric deficits winds up doing several things that are counterproductive to long term metabolic efficiency in your body such as:

1) Putting your body at risk for catabolism (muscle wasting)

2) Creating an environment in which your body thinks it's starving- and when your body think it's starving it tends to want to STORE rather than burn what scant calories you're giving it

3) Unfavorable metabolic adaptations. Your body is smart- so smart in fact that it will SLOW its metabolism down in order to MATCH caloric intake. This is why people who have been dieting "forever" wind up having to eat less and less and less to continue to see results. Their metabolism continues to slow. And inevitably, you CANNOT maintain a severe deficit for the rest of your life- it's unrealistic. And when you finally can no longer handle the low caloric intake and begin to consume more food, guess what- you no longer possess an efficient metabolism. The increase in calories is only going to cause you to pile back on the pounds you lost.

This is why people wind up yo-yoing with weight all the time. They diet too hard, too long, cannot sustain it and voila weight comes back on. And then they freak out and get right back on whatever extreme diet they were on before, and round and round we go. Constant weight loss and weight gain also creates an increased risk for heart disease, further metabolic inefficiency, instable blood glucose levels and cellulite... yay!

If you're going to be eating in a caloric deficit make sure you don't stay there longer then 3-4 weeks without adding in free meals, a re-feed or other forms of caloric increase to help keep metabolism humming. DO NOT just "starve" yourself for week after week on end.

And ultimately instead of looking to drastically cut calories- I suggest you think about making SMALL changes that you can SUSTAIN. Exercise some PATIENCE when it comes to weight loss and body fat reduction and make incremental tweaks to your diet and lifestyle to help COAX rather than FORCE your body to respond in your favor.

Cleaning up the food sources you consume, eating more whole foods, timing your carbs appropriately around exercise, drinking more water and getting more sleep are some EXCELLENT small changes just off the top of my head.

So instead of attempting to starve yourself to death and do 3 hours of cardio a day, start by making one or two small tweaks. Give it a week or two, and if you're not seeing results, tweak again. Small changes can yield big results- if the RIGHT small changes are made.”

Allison Moyer
Alli-fitness