Why Your Low Calorie Diet Isn't Helping Your Long Term Weight Loss

By Russ Howe


Have you ever followed a very low calorie diet and noticed how difficult it is to lose weight? If so, you are one of the millions of fitness enthusiast out there trying to build a better body but not experiencing the results they want. Today's article will explain why you can't lose weight on a low calorie diet unless you get a few fundamental rules in place first.

The basic advice in the fitness world for those looking to lose unwanted body fat is to eat less and exercise more, but this rule is only a very loose guide to success. There are many individuals who are doing too much dieting and too much training, surprisingly ruining their own chances of success in the process.

To ensure that you not only lose unwanted body weight but also keep it off forever, you need to ensure that you do not follow these trends and end up on a near starvation diet coupled with endless hours of cardiovascular exercise. That is a sure fire recipe for failure.

We all know somebody who has fallen victim to that particular trend, due to the fact that it's often featured in celebrity magazines and pushed as the number one method to lose fat.

The reality is very different from those theories, of course. If you have ever followed one of those diets you will know that you cannot operate on a 500 calorie diet and exercise for two hours per day. You will run your body into the ground. These individuals usually go through a very specific cycle:

They drop a few pounds at first due to the sudden shock to their system. They get to a sticking point after around two weeks. After around one month, they hit a wall where they seemingly cannot lose any more no matter what they do. They begin severely restricting calories even further and increasing cardiovascular exercise even more. They get frustrated at the lack of results, quit and binge eat. They pile all of their weight back on and end up heavier than when they started their diet.

Of course, once the individual ends up in that situation they often blame themselves and begin a new diet, adding an even greater calorific restriction and increasing cardiovascular exercise as a punishment for their previous failed effort.

You may wonder how on earth the body can not lose any unwanted pounds despite barely eating and working out all the time, but the answer is very simple. The metabolism is slowed by the body in reaction to the starvation diet and extra high workload being placed on it by the individual. The body is concerned that it is being starved, therefore it refuses to let you burn off any of it's valuable fat stores because it needs them to keep you alive.

In most cases you'll simply be losing lean muscle tissue, which is why crash diet addicts often look quite ill when they reach their end result. In order to fix this regime you simply need to rethink your diet and training. Forget the outdated notion of long cardiovascular exercise and replace it with a HIIT routine combined with regular weight training.

The more lean muscle you can encourage in the gym, the easier you will find it to burn fat outside of the gym, too!

In terms of calories, you must first correct the issue you have created from could have been years of abuse. Slowly begin increasing your calories by around 5 percent each week until you reach a point where you can teach your body to survive on a decent portion of food each day while maintaining your present weight.

Who do you think will find it easier to lose body fat - the person eating 500 calories per day or the person eating 2000 per day? Obviously, the latter. They have more calories to play with and therefore will find results a lot easier to come by. You should never, ever be eating less than 1000 calories per day if you are regularly exercising.

If you have reached a point where you think you can't lose weight on a low calorie diet and want some answers, the first thing to do is look at your present diet and your training regime. If you recognize any of the signs in today's post then correcting this issue has to become a priority before you cause serious damage.

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