Hey! Welcome back to my blog!
I wanted to take sometime to talk about this familiar notion that people often believe to be true…
If you continually cut calories from your diet – it will keep yielding weight loss
I know on paper that looks right and sounds like it should work. Well to be honest, for a small amount of time this will work – but then your body will begin to fight back. Once this happens, only one thing will become paramount – Preservation.
Deeply seeded within all of us is an instinct for survival. As soon as your body triggers this mechanism – your weight loss journey will shortly be coming to an end & you’ll be holding on to all of your fat storages for dear life.
Lets take a look at how your body responds to constant calorie reduction & why it doesn’t work in the long term!
1. Adaptation to Low Calories
When you begin to alter calories too low, your body won’t just continually burn fat it will begin to
adapt to converse energy. Some of these adaptions include
- Reducing your Basel Metabolic Rate (BMR) which means you’ll burn fewer calories when resting
- Reducing your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). All random movement you do outside of the gym that accounts for a lot of calorie burning will slow down. You’ll fidget less & make decisions that mean you won’t have to move around as much.
- Hormones like leptin, thyroid hormone, and insulin drop – while ghrelin (hunger hormone) rises— making fat loss harder and cravings worse.
If you keep cutting calories every time weight loss slows, you’re not just eating less—you’re training your body to burn less. That’s a recipe for plateaus, frustration, and eventual rebound.
2. Less Food Often Means Less Muscle
When calorie deficits become too low and ongoing for long periods of time, your body will find creative ways of finding energy. That hard earned muscle will be next on the chopping block in a process called catabolism – where we break down muscle tissue to use as an energy source.
This is often counterintuitive to what people are looking to get from this whole process. Muscle in any capacity doesn’t only make use stronger its makes us more metabolically active! Having more muscle will increase your BMR as your body works hard to hold onto it. This is why you often see those who are more muscular are often leaner (not always the case).
We can solve this problem by keeping protein intake high when we are on a calorie deficit to promote muscle preservation. If you’re a regular exerciser, somewhere between 1.5-2x BW/Kg should be more than enough to keep your muscles in tact.
3. You Run Out of Wiggle Room
As often is the case with anything in life – people will often think more is better. I can lose weight steadily eating 1800kcal a day? Well think how fast it would be if I ate 1200kcals a day!
Its this thinking that inevitably leads to the problems I’ve listed above. Its not as simple as a calorie in vs calorie out equations – we have to take into account the long term impact drastic dieting can have on people even years after they’ve stopped eating that way.
4. Smarter Strategies
- Use moderate deficits and work from there, remember it doesn’t just have to be a reduction in calories – you can also increase your expenditure (exercise)
- Protein is key! Focus on this macronutrient and work your fats/carbs around it
- Lift weights, its not all about cardio – doing a mixture of both bodybuilding style exercise and cardio will get you where you need to be much faster!
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5. Final Thoughts
Almost everyone had been stuck in the weight loss paradox at some point in their lives. I would suggest removing the need for the scales to say a certain number and worry more about how your body is changing over time. The scales can’t tell you that. If you’re struggling or frustrated my inbox is always open – drop me a message anytime.
Cheers,
Sam ✌
