Stop Severely Restricting Calories
It is "diet season" and as many of you know, I'm not a fan of conventional "diets" for a few reasons:
They don't teach you how to actually eat in a real setting so you have to keep coming back
Which means they're preying on people's insecurities and selling b.s. to make money
Many of them restrict calories WAY TOO MUCH, and yes, that is a thing and I'm going to explain it all today so keep reading.
But first, a few reminders...
NO ONE NEEDS TO DIET. You have the choice to do what you like with your body and you can choose to pay for diet programs if you like, but it's never required, not even if you want to lose weight.
LOSING WEIGHT DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MAKE YOU HEALTHIER. Intentional weight loss can be incredibly physically and mentally unhealthy depending on how it's managed.
WEIGHT IS NOT A GOOD INDICATOR OF HEALTH. It's one number that doesn't tell much at all. How do you move? How does movement feel physically? How is your bloodwork? How is your mental health? You cannot tell how healthy someone is based on what their body looks like, period.
NO ONE IS BETTER OR WORSE THAN ANYONE ELSE AS A HUMAN BASED ON THEIR SIZE OR SHAPE. We have an anti-fat bias in our society. News flash: You're not better than anyone because you are smaller or weigh less than they do. Not even if you work out more than they do. Not even if you eat a more nutritious diet. And if you think that makes you better than someone else, it probably just means you're being a judgy asshole.
Ok so, here's why we don't want to restrict caloriestoooooomuch:
Calories are units of energy. Your body needs energy to survive.
Everyone has a basal metabolic rate, or BMR, which is the amount of calories you need tosurvive.
That means simply to exist, not moving, not blinking, just lying perfectly still and letting your organs do their thing to keep you from croaking.
You can easily find anestimateof your BMR using an online calculator likethis one.
Let's try it out:
A 40-year-old man, who's 6'0" and 200 lbs, has a BMR of roughly 1959 calories per day.
A 40-year-old woman, who's 5'6" and 160 lbs, has a BMR of 1474 calories per day.
That calorie number is NOT the number of calories you should be hitting. It is NOT the number you should be going under.That is the number of calories you need to exist without eating, talking, or moving a single muscle.
IF YOU ARE EATING LESS THAN YOUR BMR, YOU ARE NOT EATING ENOUGH.
*This is not my opinion. This is basic math and nutrition science.*
"But Justine, I've been following a 1200 calorie per day diet for months and I still haven't lost any weight. How do you explain that?"
Easy. Think of it like a budget.
If you had a lifestyle that was based of two incomes and suddenly something happened and you were down to one income, you'd probably need to make some changes. Cut some expenses, get rid of some non-essentials.
That's what your body does when it's not getting "enough" calories. It assumes that you're living in lean times and it has to make do with less, so it starts to budget.
Your body's job is to keep you alive -- it literally does not care what you weigh or if you have abs -- so instead of things like building lean muscle or maintaining optimal hormone levels, it starts to downshift its metabolic processes. What little energy (calories) that comes in goes to essential stuff like your lungs, heart, etc.
Things like building muscle and maintaining reproductive function are "extras" that have to get cut. This is why many elite female athletes, bodybuilders, and chronic extreme dieters often lose their periods, and it's a huge red flag for over-training and under-eating.
So what happens when you eat more? Think about what would happen if you got that second income back. You'd be able to spend more money on cool stuff. When your body doesn't have to slow its metabolism, it can spend those calories on cool stuff like growing your muscles, keeping your hair and nails healthy, and improving your sex drive.
YES -- there still needs to be energy balance. For those concerned about their weight, there's a sweet spot between consuming excess calories which will ultimately lead to weight gain, and consuming too few calories for extended periods of time which will set off a cascade of metabolic disruptions.
I'll explain more about energy balance and calorie expenditure next week but for now, remember thateven if if fat loss is one of your goals,you need to eat ABOVE your BMR.
For an extended and very detailed look at metabolic adaptation, you can check outthis article.
For more basic nutrition info, you can snag my"What Should I Eat?" guidesor my"Meal Prep Made Easy" e-book, which features a whole section on nutrition basics and macronutrients.
