You’ve probably been told for years that weight loss all comes down to one simple equation: eat less, exercise more.
So you religiously follow that rule, enthusiastically diving into a plan that dramatically cuts calories while increasing your trips to the gym, your number of runs, or whatever type of exercise you take part in.
You might get some pretty good results – at first.
But then what happens?
After a while, the scale doesn’t budge.
You feel hungry all day, and you probably get irritable and grouchy too. You may not sleep well and you don’t have enough energy to get through the day, let alone work out again.
Does that sound familiar?
It’s a vicious cycle! You might get frustrated and give up all together, or you might try to cut your calories even further so that you can at least reap some reward for all of that suffering you’re doing, but those stubborn pounds STILL aren’t coming off.
Now you really want to pull your hair out.
The whole “eat less to weigh less” and even “fat is bad” thinking came into fashion with what seems to be a very logical, mathematical fact:
One gram of protein and one gram of carbs has 4 calories. One gram of fat has 9 calories, so eating a gram of fat yields 9 calories and 1 gram of any carbs or protein yields 4.
So the next natural step is to avoid fat, and to say, well, “let’s just eat 500 or even 1,000 calories less a day!”
This very popular myth often leads to virtually starving yourself.
You’ve probably heard all those stories about gorgeous supermodels that eat almost nothing but celery all day – somehow they manage to look perfect, so we think that by doing the same we’ll achieve similar results.
While decreasing calorie intake is a good way to lose weight, if you eat too few calories it can actually hurt your weight loss efforts and cause those nasty side effects you’ve probably experienced like fatigue, diarrhea, dizziness, difficulty concentrating and other mental or physical problems.
Not only that, but it lowers your metabolism which is the main reason you’re probably not losing weight.
One of the most important things I want you to remember is that when your body doesn’t get enough calories, your resting metabolic rate significantly slows, which means you burn calories a lot slower than you did BEFORE dieting.
Your body is a lot smarter than you might realize – it senses a reduction in the fuel it needs for proper functioning, and while it might work fine for a short period, eventually it sounds the alarm that energy must be conserved in order to survive.
If you continue to force yourself to live on a very low calorie diet, you’ll start to lose muscle mass because the body begins using muscle for fuel and holds onto fat.
The less muscle you have, the fewer calories you’ll burn.
Your leptin levels also decrease which causes the brain to get a signal that the body doesn’t have enough fuel to function properly, further slowing metabolism.
So what DOES work?
There really isn’t one perfect number for every person when it comes to the amount of calories you should eat each day as there are so many different variables.
As a general rule, women should not consume fewer than 1200 calories, and men shouldn’t dip below 1500.
But what you eat is almost as important as the number of calories you take in.
Limit or eliminate processed junk foods and focus on eating healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, fish or lean meats.
Don’t be afraid of foods that contain healthy fats like coconut oil as they can help you stay fuller longer, raise the metabolism and even increase fat burning!
Now, doesn’t it make a lot more sense that there is really NO need to make yourself miserable in order to achieve the body you want?!
If you’re ready to STOP the confusion on what, when and how much to eat to burn off stubborn belly fat, click the link below:
=> 137 fat-burning recipes and meal plans
Yours in health & happiness,
Danette
P.S. Please feel free to share this important information with your friends and loved ones.
