Is your low calorie diet preventing fat loss?
Even though we are getting heavier and heavier as a western society, our calorie intake is actually getting less. In studies looking at hunter gatherer societies, in which no members of the tribes were overweight, they found that the average calorie consumption was 2800 per day. In our modern society we consume an average of 2000 calories per day. Yet we have significantly higher fat levels.
The impact of calories on fat loss
Studies also show that interval training results in significantly more fat loss than traditional steady cardio, even when the calorie expenditure of the interval training is significantly lower than that of the traditional cardio. This gives us even more evidence that calories are not the issue. Food quality and the hormonal impacts of training are more important. Dieters who lose weight by cutting calories regain nearly 100% of the weight within five years with less than one out of six maintaining the weight loss for an extended period of time.
So what could be happening here? There are five commonalities of people with an excess of fat:
- High Stress levels.
- Gastrointestinal disorders.
- Thyroid issues – particularly in women.
- They follow low calorie diets.
- The have inconsistent eating patterns such as skipping meals.
The effects of stress of fat loss
High levels of stress and a poor diet, low nutrients, high fat and high sugar foods, cause damage to the lining of the gut. Once this damage occurs endotoxins are absorbed into the blood stream. Those endotoxins bind to immune receptions which cause inflammation. These immune cells can congregate at fat cells, secreting even more inflammatory hormones. The worse your gut health, the more fat and inflammation you will have. The more fat you have, the more inflammation is produced by that fat. The more inflammation produced by fat, the worse your body will burn fat. It’s a nasty cycle.
In addition to this, the higher your fat levels, particularly around your middle, the less fat you can burn. Due to a complicated cascade of hormones that are caused by high levels of belly fat, your body’s metabolism is confused into burning carbs rather than fat. As a result, carb cravings are high and that fat becomes a stubborn thing to burn off – your body just can’t burn fat properly.
Low calorie diets and lack of proper training can also result in a slower metabolism. As we’ve discussed, lower calories are not the answer.
So what can you do?
Lower your stress, follow sensible diet and supplementation protocols to heal your gut, make sure you eat enough nutrient dense food and do all of this consistently!
Top it off by training hard, mostly with weight training and intervals and you’ve got a recipe for success.
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