subject: Eating Less Calories To Cut Fat? Avoid These Popular Mistakes! [print this page] Eating Less Calories To Cut Fat? Avoid These Popular Mistakes!
Restricting calories is a great way to drop some pounds. Matter of factly, recent studies show that no matter what diet you're following, it's effectiveness comes down to burning more calories than you take in, which is the whole principle of a low calorie diet. However, if you make these common mistakes you may be doing more harm than good.
Two of the more frequent blunders dieters make while on a low calorie diet is stripping an excess amount of calories out of their diet and/or not consuming an array of healthy foods. A lot of people tend to cut too many calories out of their diet to speed things up, however, in this instance more isn't better and can even be dangerous. Why? Because a drastic drop in calories can cause fatigue, hunger, a loss of muscle mass and other side effects.
Significantly lowering your caloric intake also goes hand in hand with the other common mistake; not eating a large variety of foods. When you drastically cut your calories to around 800 a day (commonly referred to as a VLCD or Very Low calorie Diet) it's hard to receive all the nutrients your body needs.
One of the most overlooked drawbacks of cutting too many calories out of your diet, and one that 95% of all dieters face is regaining all the weight back they lost (and then some). This is because when you significantly reduce the amount of calories you eat your body's metabolism lowers and it goes into fat storing mode. So when these dieters return to normal eating habits they gain all the weight back and sometimes even more due to their lowered metabolism.
When followed appropriately, however, restricting a small amount of calories, slowly implementing small changes into your diet and consuming healthy foods, a restricted calorie diet is an excellent way to lose weight and improve your overall well being.
