The other day I talked about how using the scale was a bad idea in terms of assessing health and getting the body that you want.
I talked about how when the scale stopped moving people had a tendency to drop calories. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing to start, the problem comes when people use this as their only form of adjustment. After a while you’re going to start to run into some serious problems!
For the purpose of this post I am going to talk about people who are just focusing on a reduction in WEIGHT using the scale as their only indicator of progress. Remember that weight loss is different to fat loss, and people should focus on the other indicators mentioned in the previous post.
Let’s say we have an individual who is on a diet of 2000 calories a day. They are exercising a few times a week and are seeing results in their weight reduction. After a few weeks the weight loss stops, so they do what they think is right and drop calories by 500 per day.
They are now taking in 1500 calories everyday (this is quite low). The weight loss starts up again and they manage to lose a few more pounds, then it halts again. So what do they do now? Most people drop by another 500 calories because that’s what worked before right?
The weight loss starts up again but this time it stops a lot quicker. By now the dieter is probably feeling tired all the time, feeling run down and may have any number of the following issues,
Getting colds and infections all the time.
Dry skin.
Poor sleep quality.
Irritability.
Loss of sex drive.
Skin tender to touch.
Weight gain.
Plus many other symptoms.
Weight loss as now pretty much stopped. even if they did ridiculous things like dropping even more calories or add in more exercise.
So what’s happened?
Well they have gone far to low, far to soon. As they have dropped calories without looking at the plan as a whole, and the body has down regulated their metabolism to combat the lack of nutrients and fuel.
This is called metabolic or adrenal damage (another article for another day).
Your body is now in a state where it will do everything it can to not lose weight. As far as it knows, it is on the brink of starvation. All your body wants to do is to survive, it has no idea that you are trying to make weight or just want abs for the summer!
The scope of this is far beyond this brief blog post, however here are a few things that you can do to prevent it in the first place,
Know what you are doing. If you don’t, ask your coach or a professional.
Make sure you are eating a sensible amount of calories for your body and your activity.
Get the right nutrients in! Make sure you aren’t neglecting any macronutrients.
Consider refeed meals if your calories are low.
Look at adding activity in before you cut calories.
Make sure that you are recovering from your training and you’re not just running yourself into the ground.
Running your calories to low for to long can do some serious damage to your metabolism and body.
Having a damaged metabolism can effect your ability to build muscle and lose fat in the long run. You may also experience a number of other symptoms that will effect your life dramatically.
NOT GOOD!
Make sure that you are making intelligent, calculated changes to keep you moving towards your goals while keeping you HEALTHY!
Remember that while calories do count in a fat loss plan, there are many other factors that make just a big difference!
Stay healthy,
Mike
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