How Many Calories Should You Cut?

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Supplements, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Back in my bodybuilding days, we would stay pretty “bulked up” most of the year, and then go on a super low calorie crash diet about 6 weeks before the show we were going in. It worked, but not well, because a crash diet like that has so many negative side effects. The strange thing is that if we had just eaten better during the year, we wouldn’t have had to do the crash diet thing and we would have looked and felt better as well. So file that in your “live and learn” category. Since people (bodybuilders and regular folks) still use this method for weight loss (especially girls getting ready for the summer swimsuit season) it is important to know exactly what you are doing to your body- and it isn’t good. MSN Health has a good article on how low is too low when it comes to dieting. One thing I always get people to do when they ask me for diet advice is to write down everything they eat for a 3 day period so I know what to change. A lot of times it is really easy to cut 500 calories day from their diet just in crap- snacks, sugary drinks, extra desserts, etc. without having to do anything drastic. So check out the article and come up with a healthy plan to lose weight in 2008!

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Drastic perturbations of the body’s normal balance are highly disruptive. It does what it can to survive. In the case of semi-starvation, once the body’s blood sugar supplies are used up, the body breaks down protein stores—think muscle mass and enzymes—to help create more blood sugar that the brain and blood cells need to survive.

The body suffers when protein tissues are lost. So to slow down the rate of protein breakdown, the rate of fat breakdown speeds up. As a result, ketones are produced (noticeable because of a putrid, fruity breath), and these are used by the cells that normally rely on glucose for energy. With ketones present, the loss of protein and lean body mass is minimized for a while. Severe levels of this state, known as ketosis, can lead to ketoacidosis, which is dangerous and potentially fatal.

Not only that, cutting calories too low puts you at risk of missing out on nutrients your body needs to function. One reason that many very low-calorie diets are supplemented with vitamins and minerals, or why they recommend that you take supplements when following the diet, is that eating too little food can leave you lacking. The problem with relying on supplements is that there are many food-substances that aren’t in supplements, and it’s always more healthful to get nutrients from real food over pills.