When it comes to weight loss, it is all about the calories. While it may be tempting to drastically reduce your calorie intake to lose weight quickly for whatever reason, this can be dangerous to your health. Consuming too few calories can lead to a number of negative health effects, both short and long-term.
Slowed metabolism:
Triggering statement but not as dramatic as most people think. What really happens here is the reduction in NEAT (Non-Exercise Thermogenesis). With drastic cuts in caloric intake, the body tends to reduce its activity levels. This can manifest itself in several ways, such as feelings of tiredness, unmotivated, groggy, lack of interest and enthusiasm, etc. This can play a big role in quote "slowing metabolism" as NEAT can account for as much as 15 - 50% of TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). This reduction in NEAT is more detrimental to creating a caloric deficit than the slowing of metabolism as a result of a big caloric deficit. This is because "starvation mode" is a means of conserving energy. This can make it more challenging to lose weight over time.
Make no mistake about it, metabolic rate actually slows down and you can cause metabolic damage in extreme cases, but before that happens, your body would fight you and research has shown that willpower is a muscle, and all muscles fatigue with overuse.
Nutrient deficiencies:
When consuming a very low-calorie diet, it is much harder to meet vitamin and micronutrient targets. This is generally the reason why when individuals get weight loss surgery, they are placed on a variety of multivitamins to make up for the lack of adequate nutrient consumption.
There is a growing body of research that when it comes to vitamins and minerals, it is generally better to get them from whole food sources as they are better absorbed and utilized by the body as opposed to supplementation. It is also important to note that a supplement is simply just that, a supplement, and as such should not be used to replace a nutrient source, but accompany it in order to meet daily required values.
Loss of muscle mass:
When you lose weight too quickly, you may be losing muscle mass as well as fat. This can make it more difficult to maintain your weight loss over time. When weight loss is not accompanied by adequate amounts of resistance training, the rate of muscle loss during a large caloric deficit can be alarming. However, regardless, strength training is a tool to reduce muscle loss when losing weight, if the deficit is too high, muscle loss could match or exceed fat loss.
If you are trying to lose weight, it's important to create a moderate caloric deficit that is sustainable over time. A safe and effective rate of weight loss is typically one to two pounds per week depending on the amount of weight to be lost and the individual's ideal body weight. For example, if a person is 150 lbs overweight, having a bigger goal of 3-5 lbs is not unheard of or uncommon.
When closer to your ideal weight, losing the last couple of pounds can prove very difficult. This is due to the little margin of error available to you. If you think about it, it is harder to lose weight when your BMR is 1500 kcal and your maintenance is 1800 kcal as opposed to someone with a BMR of 2000 kcal but a maintenance calorie of 3200 kcal. What you need to do is be patient and keep track of your activity levels.
As stated earlier, one of the body's ways of reducing caloric expenditure is by reducing your activity levels subconsciously. The only way to make sure you are on top of this is by paying attention to your activity levels and making sure you are counting your calories correctly.
If you need help figuring out how to count your calories, read this post below to crack the code of calorie counting.
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