DON'T STARVE!

We all know why we shouldn't consume too many calories: obviously overeating will lead to weight gain.

What a lot of people don't realize, however, is that it is also detrimental to your body & to your weight loss efforts to consume TOO FEW calories!

When you decide you want to lose weight, it's very tempting to go on an extremely low calorie diet that promises quick weight loss. But, here are four reasons that strategy will actually PREVENT you from reaching your goal weight:

1. You may feel like the diet is "successful" in the first couple of weeks when you're losing weight quickly, but you are actually not losing much body fat! Instead, you are losing muscle mass & water.

2. Losing muscle decreases your metabolism because muscle is active tissue that consumes calories. With a slower metabolism, it will be much more challenging to lose weight & keep it off.

3. Seventy percent of your body weight is water, and water is essential for all your organs and cells to function properly. It is necessary to have an adequate amount of water in your cells in order for your fat to be metabolized, and for your muscle cells to perform well.

4. A steep reduction in calories triggers your body's starvation-defense mechanisms, so it ultimately slows the weight loss process down. It makes you hungrier and leads to feelings of deprivation which will ultimately cause you to go back to old habits.

Lose weight slowly (1-2 pounds per week) to ensure that it is actually fat that you're losing, and you will have a much better chance of keeping the weight off permanently.

If you need help sticking to healthy eating habits & designing your meal plans to ensure a consistent weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week, make an appointment with our nutritionist, Narina, and/or consider joining the next session of our AAY! Nutrition for WEIGHT LOSS program, which will start in January.