<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nNow this machine is running as it always has, and here you come along, and all of a sudden you drop those calories. Most people think that your body is just going to go along its business doing what it always does but since you don’t have enough calories coming in, you think it just won’t push to fat and actually take the fat out of the body to maintain. VOILA! Weight loss. That isn’t actually the case at all. Your body actually freaks out. It isn’t in the usual state that it is used to, so it goes into protective mode. It starts giving areas of your body what it thinks it needs. First, it is fat, which why most people usually see some sort of fat loss early on with low-calorie diets. But your body wants fat. It NEEDS fat. That’s why it is so stubborn to lose (and not horrible to have!). Fat is an energy store in case the body needs it (like when you cut calories!), it protects vital organs and is used in various ways through the body. So when you first cut calories, your body opens those stores and lets go of some fat. But then this comes to a screeching halt because your body doesn’t want to lose all of it’s fat. So it starts slowing your metabolism so you don’t burn fat and it can save its stores and starts burning muscle in the body of its place.\u00a0Your metabolism makes your weight loss. There are people who naturally have high metabolisms and they lose weight and won’t ever stop eating. People like me have slow metabolisms, where I look at a hamburger and gain 3 pounds. Dropping calories is a great way to bring your metabolism to a screeching halt and hinder any sort of weight loss. And this is exactly what happens to me when I cut my calories, but this was way worse than a slow metabolism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Low-Calorie Diet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n As I stated earlier. I always try out things for myself before I can accurately talk about them. I recently ended a 22-day low-calorie diet. I was supposed to go for 30 days, but this diet was so horrible I decided to cut the diet short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WHAT I DID<\/strong>: I usually take in between 2200-2400 daily pretty religiously. I don’t deviate from my normal diet. Some days I am over. Some days I am under. This is my average. For my diet program, I decided to cut down to 1200 calories daily. 1000 calorie cut per day. 7000 per week. If my math is right, that should be a 2-pound weight loss a week simply by virtue of my diet. 4-week trial I should be 8 pounds down from the end of it. The starting weight was 195 pounds. I did not really change WHAT I ate, just the amount. I used myfitnesspal iPhone app to track my caloric intake (which was my first time using it and I must say – it is pretty slick!) so I can be sure at the number of calories compared to my goal and then also compare that to calories burned. I normally don’t track calories burned, but rather 30-45 minutes of activity each day. For this trial, I used my Suunto Heart Rate monitor to get an accurate track of calorie burn. The goal is to burn 500 calories in each bout of exercise, 4-5 times per week. Workouts ended up being about 35-40 minutes so I really did not deviate from my normal workout routine. 500 calories burned 5x a week is another 2500 calories gone that should add to my weight loss. I figured that if I can stay on point, I should be around 10 pounds down.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWeek 1:<\/strong> This diet started off great! I actually lost 7 pounds the first week! Now, this was mostly water and easy fat like every other diet when you first get going (body finding equilibrium as above). I was actually thinking this may be great. Sure, I was hungry all the time but it was only a matter of time before my body adjusted and it works itself out. My workouts were great – I had pop in my legs, cardio was not affected and I was rolling along. Diet was on point and my calories were exactly where they should be. Ending weight: 188 pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWeek 2:<\/strong> I started to struggle in week 2. My body wasn’t adjusting like I thought to the calories and I was still hungry all the time. It was harder and harder to maintain calories. I was on point 98% of the time, but I did have those weak moments where I had to take in 200 calories more before I go insane. I started to get headaches, but I thought those would subside as my body adjusted. My workouts started getting tougher. I am a cardio junkie and normally can crank through a workout no problem. Using my heart monitor, my heart rate was higher than normal. I was doing the same work but my body was working harder than normal. I still managed to get all diet and workouts in for the week. The worst part: I LOST NO WEIGHT. All that work, all that hunger, for nothing. Talk about a motivation killer. Thank god I was only doing this for 30 days. Ending Weight: 188.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWeek 3<\/strong>: My breaking point. I was supposed to go about 4 weeks on this one, but I ended the day after week 3 ended. Fatigue started to set in. I was tired all the time. I had problems sleeping (getting and staying asleep). When I first woke up in the mornings, I experience this weird vertigo sensation. My workouts were not there. I had such fatigue in the legs, the second I stepped on a machine my legs would tighten up. I had no cardio stamina and I struggled to get hit that 500 calorie threshold. Heart rate was still higher than it normally is when I work out. After a workout, I would feel weak in the legs and couldn’t seem to get enough water in me to prevent instant cramping. My diet was still on point with the low calorie, and I was actually adjusting to the caloric intake and wasn’t that hungry as often as I was the first 2 weeks. But here is the kicker for me: I GAINED WEIGHT. I was dumbfounded when I stepped on the scale and say a 2-pound weight gain. 2 POUNDS!! I am supposed to be losing 2 pounds a week just off the diet and here I am on point, gaining weight. All the struggle, all the pain, all the fatigue, to gain weight. I was unmotivated, to say the least. Ending weight: 190.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI woke up on Monday morning starting week 4 and was sick to my stomach. Not sure what it was related to, but it was at that point I decided to throw in the towel. I got what I needed – I tried it out and now can talk about low calories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERVIEW<\/strong>: Your body needs calories to function. If you want to be a fat-burning machine, you need to have the calories to get that machine running. If you don’t put gas in your car, it isn’t going to run. Your body is the same way. My tipping point on this diet was my weight GAIN. My body was in such a shock of low calories that it actually held on to every single I ate and instead of using it for energy that I need (causing fatigue) it held on to it making sure it had what it needed to function.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI in no way shape or form ever advocate a very low-calorie diet. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSure – if I stuck with it longer I may actually have seen results, but at what costs? Losing all my muscles? Passing out at the gym? It isn’t safe. I was “cheating” on my diet by eating an extra 200 calories?!?! Since when is that OK?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure – I may have done it a bit extreme and I could have eased into it having my body adjust to less and fewer calories, but at some point, my body would get smart at what I am doing and do the same exact thing it did on the speed version. I still would have been fatigued, but only 8 weeks into instead of 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bottom line is you can’t cheat yourself thin. It takes work. It takes dedication. And it takes EATING. Don’t ever let some guru tell you differently. Your body needs calories to function. But it needs fresh and healthy calories. Thinking you can eat a big mac and use those calories, you are in for something else (another post for another day). Eat healthily. Eat clean. Get some physical activity and you will get those results. But better than the results, you will be healthy. Your blood will be clean, your heart will function fine and you will feel better than ever. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go make a plan to get my own body feeling better than ever after wrecking it for 3 weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am a firm believer that I am my own best science experiment. If there is a new (or old) diet, a new workout program, a new book, a new learning method, anything – I believe that the best way for me to be able to talk about is to try it out. I will […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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