Calories in and out - is it such a simple equitation?
There are plenty of different strategies we can consider while losing weight and one of most common ones is restricting calories. But is it really the best one?
Let’s have a look first what we need the calories for:
1. Basal metabolic rate (BMR): this is the energy we need to cover the basic functions, including the proper functioning of your brain, kidneys, heart, lungs and nervous system 2. Digestion: Our bodies use some calories to digest and metabolize the foods we eat. It is also called thermic effect of food (TEF). 3. Physical activity: everyday tasks and activities
For sure if we provide more calories than we use the excess energy can turn into the additional fat but restricting the calories might not work always for us.
Here are some reasons why might not be the best strategy?
- When we focus on calories and restrict a lot of the diet there might be certain nutrients which will not be provided to our bodies and our body might not only be craving for more calories but also for more nutrients so at some points we will start reaching for more food after the time of restriction, bringing us back to the initial state, the nutritional quality of nutrients is very important!
- When we restrict the calories intake our body start switching into starvation mode - this is then leading to the reduction of the basal metabolic rate, reducing the amount of calories we are burning - and if suddenly we eat more the body will not be capable to burn the higher amount of calories again so the excess calories can change into fat cells again
- While lowering the calories down the basal metabolic rate will go down as well - if we restrict the calories by 30% we the RMR will reduce by as much as 23% (depending on the studies)
- Instead of losing fat we might start losing muscles mass, especially when we do not provide enough protein in our diet - and muscles cells use more calories than fat cells throughout the day, even while you are resting
- Calories restricted diet can also impact our hormones balance - a research has shown that LH luteinising hormone levels partially depend on the number of calories available in a woman’s diet, similarly the level of estrogen can go down on calories restricted diets impacting women’s fertility, bones or heart health.
So while it is important on the amount of food we put on our plates restricting the calories might not always be the good strategy, I believe every process should be gently adjusted to everyone.
If the weight loss is your goal for this year - why not to book a free consultation with me and see what strategy we could work on together?
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