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

By Russ Howe


We have all been there before. You've dieted hard and you've done tons of cardiovascular activity but you step on the scales and nothing has changed. You reach the conclusion that you just can't get in shape, that you simply can't lose weight on a low calorie diet with regular exercise. Today you'll find out why this happens and how to sort it out.

The general rule for those looking to drop some pounds, of course, is to eat less calories and exercise more. However, there are thousands upon thousands of people out there who are doing too much of one thing and not enough of the other. In rare instances, you even find people who are doing too much of both things.

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.

At some point, almost every adult gets sucked into that quick fix trend. Mainly because it's featured in celebrity magazines which are aimed at overweight people attracted to instant solutions rather than hard work. Either way, it's bad advice.

If you have ever followed a diet which calls for eating less than 1000 calories per day while battering the bike or treadmill every night, you will know it's not the most effective or lifestyle friendly choice. Individuals who go down this route usually encounter the following things:

After experiencing a quick weight loss for a period of about a week while their body reacts to being starved, they quickly hit a wall. They mistake that quick loss for progress, so they continue restricting calories and hammering cardio sessions on the gym floor. They suddenly realize that they can't lose any more body fat no matter how much they try. This leads to frustration, causing the person to eat lots of junk foods in anger and pile on any pounds they had lost in the first place.

When the person finds themselves in this situation, which most of us have undoubtedly experienced at some stage or another, we falsely put the blame on our own lack of effort and begin a new routine which is largely based on the same principles as the last failed effort, except with even more stringent calorie restriction and more work on the gym floor.

Is it even possible for someone to exercise religiously and eat barely any food but lose nothing? Actually, yes it is. The body doesn't like to be starved and it combats this by slowing down your metabolic rate in order to preserve fat in a bid to keep you alive. Despite punishing yourself, you are not burning fat.

Instead, it will feed you lean muscle and learn how to adapt to survive on a low calorie intake. Almost all of the carbohydrates and fats in everything you eat will be stored in a bid to bolster it's reserves of these all important fuels which crash diets often advise you to cut out. Long, steady state cardiovascular exercise has also been shown to have a detrimental effect on lean muscle tissue, making a severe problem even worse. Instead, switch to a short but effective HIIT routine coupled with a regular resistance training program.

Building more lean muscle is key when it comes to losing fat, because the body will find it far easier to burn off fat as it gets leaner and stronger.

When trying to structure the perfect diet, the first rule is the eliminate any thoughts of starving yourself or cutting out certain nutrients like carbohydrates. If you are reading this and perhaps noticing that you may have put your own body through this in the past, the best way to get back on track is to slowly increase your calories each week rather than suddenly jumping up.

How much you eat can determine how easy it is to drop unwanted poundage in future, too. For instance, a person who maintains 200 lbs eating only 500 calories per day will find it very hard to get further progress because they are already malnourished, whereas a person eating 2000 calories per day will find it easy.

If you walk into any fitness suite you will hear countless men and women saying that they can't lose weight on a low calorie diet and wondering what they need to do to sort it out. Rather than running straight to the first personal trainer you see, simply look at your eating habits and exercise routine. You will usually find that the issue is right under your nose.




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