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Diet & Your Body

We all know that to lose weight we have to cut down on the amount of calories we take in and burn more off than we consume, but how low can we take our calorie intake, does it mean the lower we take it the more weight we lose? Surprisingly the answer is no, even more surprisingly is rather than the fact of helping us lose more weight it restricts us.

If we severely restrict the amount of calories we take in then it prevents our bodies from burning unwanted stores of fat and this simply means that weight loss slows down or we don’t lose any weight.

How this works

By severely restricting the calorie intake the body defends itself against what it sees as starvation, which simply means the body will make the most of the calories it does get from what you eat and drink.

The body will protect the fat stores and instead use muscle or lean tissue to provide it with the calories it needs to function properly. Doing this will lead to loss of muscle and the metabolic rate will lower enabling the body to keep working and this leads to the slowing down of weight loss.

How many calories are needed to prevent this happening?

As every person’s metabolism is different there is no easy answer but as a general rule most experts in nutrition recommend staying above 1,200 calories to prevent your body going into protection mode.

There is no hard and fast rule however and the body just doesn’t go into protection mode overnight it’s a slow process so therefore it won’t hurt occasionally if you do go under the recommended daily calorie allowance.

Why does the metabolism affect the muscle?

The rate at which the body burns the calories is called the metabolic rate and is governed by the amount of muscle we have, as a general rule the more muscle we have the higher our metabolic rate.

A lot more calories are burnt with muscle than fat so when we lose muscle the metabolic rate drops and fewer calories are burnt. This explains why when we are dieting it is important to protect the metabolic rate, this means dieting with a sensible intake of calories.

What else can I do to prevent losing muscle?

Increasing the amount of exercise while dieting can help build muscle; this in turn helps to boost the metabolism. Activities taken on a regular daily basis such as swimming, fast walking and jogging will all help to tone muscle and burn fat.

Ways to speed up your metabolism

• Being active is an excellent way to speed up your metabolism, especially aerobic and resistance training.

• Eat small meals often rather than eating one or two big meals.

• Eat plenty of foods rich in protein such as lean meat, fish and skinless chicken.

• Use spices in your cooking, chilli is thought to speed the metabolic rate by 50% for up to 3 hours after eating it.

• Drink green tea instead of your regular brew.