Skipping meals in an effort to lose weight? You might be doing more harm than good.
It’s a widely held belief when it comes to weight loss, you need to eat fewer calories than you’re burning off. And it seems pretty logical, right? Well, yes and no. More and more, we see the science showing it’s a little more complex than that.
In fact, extreme and prolonged calorie restriction can actually cause you to gain weight! The reason? Starvation mode.
Our body is pretty neat at keeping us alive…
And it’s got lots of tricks up its sleeve to pull out when it thinks we’re in danger.
So when you don’t eat enough, your body starts thinking it’s under threat from not having enough resources to sustain you. (“Enough” is different for everyone, dependant on age, gender, weight and activity. But most experts don’t recommend ever dipping below 1,000 calories per day.)
Cue starvation mode.
Not having enough resources stresses your body right out out! And that stress releases hormones that cause it to hold on to stored energy resources (body fat) and increase inflammation.
“Your metabolism slows down to conserve energy, because it doesn’t know when it will be provided with adequate fuel again,” says our in-house dietician, Natalie Bourke.
Non-vital functions such as reproduction can also shut up shop, which is why many women who undereat and/or overtrain actually stop menstruating.
Eating processed crap makes it worse.
Yep, turning to “low fat” or “low calorie” packaged foods in an effort to shed the kilos probably isn’t doing you any favours. That’s because not all calories are created equal.
“I see a lot of people who are obsessing over calories going for things that are ‘low fat’ or ‘zero calories’,” says Natalie. “These products are almost always ladened with compounds (and sugar) that increase inflammation and provide little nutrient value. This then perpetuates what’s already going on inside the body!”
If you just JERF, you won’t have to worry!
“For the love of butter, guys, just focus on eating nutrient-dense, REAL food!” says Natalie.
“I see it time and time again in clinical practice. People struggle with weight loss on low-calorie diets, but once they starting eating the right amount of real food for them, they shed kilos – and find their body’s optimal healthy weight.”
JERFing means you’ll able to trust the hunger and satiety signals that your body is sending you and eat accordingly, instead of obsessing about the calories in that head of lettuce. What have you got to lose?!
What’s your approach to weight loss? Will you give JERFing a try?
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