Calorie Counting Doesn’t Work For Weight Loss
Most people believe that calories are the “enemy”, since eating excess calories leads to excess fat, right? That’s why most people believe that the fastest way to lose weight is to cut way back on calories each day.
After all, if a dieter is eating 2,500 calories per day and they decide to cut back to 1,500 calories per day – then obviously those extra 1,000 calories have to result in weight loss, right?
Well, actually this is not exactly true.
In fact, if you try to cut your calories too much (via starving yourself and skipping meals) then you’ll quickly reach a dieting “plateau” (a point where the scale refuses to drop any lower no matter how little your are eating).
Firstly, let’s talk about how the average person begins a new diet…
The scenario usually sounds something like this…
One day you look in the mirror and see that your clothes are fitting tighter than normal, and you look more overweight than normal. …And on this day you get “angry” with yourself, you’re angry with what you see in the mirror – and you decide that you’re going to lose weight no matter what it takes.
You are filled with lots of motivation and anger on this day, and you feel determined to do whatever it takes to get slimmer. So what’s the first thing you do?
…You begin skipping meals and cutting way back on calories in an attempt to starve yourself thinner, since you’re convinced that calories are the enemy.
Anyway, the above scenario is how you begin your “starvation diet.”
On the first day of dieting you feel so “motivated” to lose weight that you decide to skip breakfast.
Unfortunately, this motivation doesn’t last for long, because after a few hours your hunger begins making you feel weak — because your body is not accustomed to “skipping meals” like this, and your body is not accustomed to being without calories for so long.
Anyway, by the time lunchtime arrives you’re so hungry (and weak) that you feel absolutely miserable — but yet you bravely tell yourself that you can handle this diet (because after all, you certainly don’t want to feel like a quitter).
So you perhaps have a piece of fruit for lunch (or perhaps another small food item instead), since you’re still convinced that you can starve yourself thinner.
Finally, hours later when dinnertime arrives you’re so miserable and hungry that you have a major headache – and this is the moment when you finally begin to realize that starving yourself might not be such a good idea after all.
After this first day of starving yourself you feel horrible, but you’re determined to stick to your diet since you don’t want to be a quitter so soon — so you’ll likely hold out for another few days on this diet.
Or, if you are particularly brave then you may even hold out for a week or two.
However, regardless of how long you actually hold out — you won’t get any slimmer and the final result will still be the same.
You see, even after two weeks of starving yourself you won’t have achieved any serious weight loss at all. In fact, your body will still look the same when you look in the mirror.
Why is this true?
This is true because most of the weight lost during a “starvation diet” is just water weight, and not real fat loss.
You must remember 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 “hidden” factor to come into play…
You see, whenever you starve yourself your body will begin burning fewer calories each day.
For instance, let’s say that you normally eat about 3,,000 calories per day.
….But then you suddenly cut way back on calories — so that you’re now eating only 1,000 calories per day.
Guess what happens?
Even though you’re eating 2,000 fewer calories per day your body will begin burning 2,000 fewer calories per day – so in reality your weight will remain the same even though you’re eating 2,000 fewer calories per 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 are eating 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 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 begin losing weight fast we recommend using the new Idiot Proof Diet from Fat Loss 4 Idiots — because it does not require any calorie counting (it’s one of the only diets in the world which forces fast weight loss without the need to count calories).
Jacob Freeman
You can begin this new diet right here. myfatlossblog.blogspot.com/
nicole said,
October 18, 2008 @ 8:48 am
This is stupid. Calorie counting is the only effective (not to mention cheapest), and best long-term form of weight loss, weight gain, or weight maintenance. It can be a very slow process, but nevertheless, if you are physically unable to tell what it feels like to consume exactly 2000 calories every day, and most people can’t, then you must keep a running total of your consumed calories throughout the day. You will take no more than 5 (10 tops) minues out of your day in doing so. It’s not a big deal. Calorie counting is one of the habits of physically fit people over 30. As a bonus with calorie counting, you’ll see which habits of yours are tending to push you over your set limit. Mine happens to be eating dessert and late night snacks in front of the tv - NOT my hamburger and small fry at lunch time, and NOT my starbucks skinny latte in the morning.
There is a shred of truth to the above post, however. Yeah, if you set your limit too low, your body will start holding onto your fat for dear life - literally. You must not set your daily limit too low, and you should work up to a large daily calorie deficit, like 1000, and as a rule of thumb, as a woman, you should NEVER consume fewer than 1200 calories each day, as this is the number of calories required by your body to perform necessary functions to live healthily. Go to Fitday.com, it’s what I use. Figure out the number of calories you burn each day based on your height weight age and activity level, then plug in your weight goal and work toward that goal. Yes, work toward that goal. Don’t go buy pills or do something irrational and expensive, just do your daily calorie counting and you will reach your goal. It’s a simple as pie.
I should add, however, that doing exercise is the easiest and healthiest way to reach, say, a 1000 calorie daily deficit. If you exercise for 50-70 minutes and burn 500 calories, then you can EAT 500 more calories …since you worked out! Genius right? I know. So burn 500 calories/day, and set your calorie limit to be 500 less than you’re already burning in a day, and boom…you’ve got a 1000 calorie deficit for that day and you’re working toward your goal. It’s how it’s done…I’m telling you. I speak from experience! Although, I would aim for a 500 calorie daily deficit though. It’s much more reasonable and realistic, and heck, that’s still 52 lbs of weight loss in one year. I’m okay with that.
nicole said,
October 18, 2008 @ 9:02 am
Oh, and furthermore, if you’re looking at the logic of Jacob Freeman’s post, then you should ask, “Well, how, pray tell, does anorexia make people so deathly thin?” Anorexics consume sometimes only a few hundred calories each day, and yet they’re, well, anorexic looking, boney, underweight, unhealthy. Their bodies don’t go into “starvation mode” causing them to hold onto every last inch of bodyweight for dear life. They lose, and lose, and lose and lose all of their weight until they’re close to death or worse. So, logic says, that any amount of a calorie deficit will cause weight loss…lets just make sure it’s a healthy deficit. Don’t eat fewer than 1200 calories in one day…and spend a couple months working your way up to such a huge deficit, just to be on the healthy side.
Oh, and, if you’re looking for healthy, low calorie food that will work well for your itty bitty (and hopefully temporary) calorie consumption? Commonsense says fruits and vegetables and lean meats and low calorie starches are what you aim for…not 1200 calories in chips ahoy. Eating 1200 calories in chips ahow would be what a dumb, failure-bound person would do. Don’t be dumb and failure-bound when you are trying to be an accomplished goal-achiever.
One last thought, if you consume roughly 2000 calories per day for the rest of your life, it’d take 2-3 years, but you would lose all of the weight that makes you over weight, and level out at the perfect weight for you - probably a weight that’s at the lower end of your goal. Do you hve patience to wait for a couple years? Most people don’t, so they spend hundreds on gimmicks, just to find themselves chunky, still, after 2-3 years. Oh, if they would’ve only had the patience and discipline. In addition, if you consume 1200-1500 calories per day while reaching your goal, this DOES NOT, I repeat DOES NOT mean that you must continue to consume such a tiny number of calories to maintain your new wonderfully healthy weight. No. Once you reach your goal, then you switch to roughly 2000 calories per day, the amount that MOST average humans burn by metabolism on a daily basis. Yes, unbelievable isn’t it? So go ahead. Work hard for a few months consuming fewer calories, and then increase your calories back to 2000 and be happy that you achieved a major, major feat without buying anyone’s expensive weight loss gizmo!
www.nfoblogs.com/hoodia.php said,
April 3, 2009 @ 11:19 am
www.nfoblogs.com/hoodia.php…
Wow, it is finally good to find a good page with some relevant information. I normally find a lot trash, but this is good and worth it….