Why A Low Calorie Diet Plan Will Slow Fat Loss
Those who seek to quickly burn fat often opt for low calorie diet plan to try and produce the best possible results, feeling as if cutting food quantity to extremely low levels will force the body to use more stored fat as energy. Unfortunately for those who mistakenly construct a natural fat loss diet plan on a low calorie basis, results do not meet expectations.
When the body experiences an extreme calorie deficit, the first response is to utilize carbohydrates stored in the liver and muscle tissue as energy, since food quantity is low. This causes what appears to be immediate success, as scale weight drops dramatically (sometimes up to 5-10 lbs in one week), but the presumption is that this weight reduction is in the form of fat, when, in fact, due to the loss of carbohydrates in muscle tissue, the weight loss is actually in the form of water retention, which has no connection with the goal (to burn fat from problem areas).
Once carbohydrates have been depleted from the body, the next step is to seek alternate energy sources to fuel daily activities (since calories are low), but because the body becomes concerned with the small amount of food consumed, instead of efficiently burning away stored body fat as the preferred source of energy, muscle tissue is instead catabolized. This occurs since the body actually attempts to preserve body fat in case a famine is taking place (this is a built-in mechanism that we all have to protect ourselves when food supply is low). A vicious cycle then begins, because as muscle is burned away, metabolism (the rate at which the body burns calories) slows, which causes energy levels to drop significantly, and ultimately reduces the amount of fat that is burned from the body by a substantial margin.
Lastly, because metabolism has been negatively impacted by the muscle loss and starvation scare, the body is just waiting for the moment when food intake is increased, seizing on this as an opportunity to store away fat at record pace to prepare for the next possible famine. This is why those who follow low calorie diet routines tend to gain back all of their lost weight quickly, and find themselves even fatter than before they started to follow such a diet strategy.
The only type of natural fat loss diet plan worth following is one that does not starve the body of food, as this promotes a faster metabolism, helps to retain muscle, prevents dips in energy levels, and ensures that weight regain is not right around the corner.
