Why Starvation Diets Don't Work for Losing Fat

If you are like many people you may think that starving yourself or eating just a very small number of calories each day is the best way to quickly lose fat. Logically it makes sense - lower your food intake and you will lose fat, right? Actually, it's not quite that simple. Read on to learn why starvation diets don't work to help you lose weight and what you can try instead.

Have you ever gone on a diet, lost a little bit of weight and then either hit a plateau or gained the weight right back as soon as you went off the diet? One of the main reasons that happens is because the diet that you were on was not giving your body the energy that it needed and your metabolism slowed down to compensate.

See, your metabolism is pretty smart and adjusts itself based on the number of calories that it is used to you eating (along with several other factors). When you consume 2000 calories a day for a long time it naturally assumes you will continue to do that, so it adjusts itself to run for a 2000 calorie diet.

Now, say you go on a diet that severely limits the number of calories that you eat each day. For instance, let's say you drop down to just eating 1000 calories a day. At first you are going to see weight loss because your metabolism is still running based on the 2000 calories you were eating prior to the diet. However, after a little while your metabolism catches up and slows down to accommodate the lower number of calories you are eating.

When this happens you hit a plateau with your diet and it becomes more difficult to lose weight. Not only that, but when you go off the diet and start eating normally again, your metabolism will continue running slower for a period of time until it has a chance to adjust for your increase in calories again. That's why often times when you go off a restrictive diet you immediately gain back the weight that you lost.

One way around this is to follow something called the "shifting calorie theory." Basically, what this means is that while you are dieting you constantly vary the amount of calories you eat, the times that you eat them and the types of food that you eat. This keeps your metabolism guessing and doesn't give it time to adjust and slow down. This is a very effective way to lose weight quickly and to keep it off for good.

Fat Loss 4 Idiots, a popular diet, incorporates the shifting calorie theory and has helped many people who were stuck to begin losing weight. You can check out our review of Fat Loss 4 Idiots and get more information on how it works here:

Click Here to Learn More About Shifting Calories with Fat Loss 4 Idiots