Dieting – The Best Method to Lose Weight ?

Most people had success doing diets to lose weight.  By restricting your calorie intake,  you see results in a short period of time.  But, is it the best method to lose weight?  Is it safe and can you stay on with it permanently?

First, it is important to know what is lost during this process as losing weight doesn’t mean losing fats in the first place.  In fact, in most conventional diets, what you are losing is muscle tissues, not fats!  Second, as diet is temporary, most people can’t maintain it so they end up just like before when they go back to their normal lifestyle.

A very low calorie diet sends your body into “starvation response mode”, a natural defense mechanism to offset the effect of food supply shortage in you body.  Because of this, it slows down your metabolism – slow metabolism means less energy is used and fewer calories burned.  Therefore, you cannot perform physically well as you always feel tired.

The most harmful effect of a very low calorie diet is losing lean muscle tissues.  At this stage, where your body is finding ways to conserve energy, it will convert your muscle tissues into glucose for energy, since muscle has an active metabolic properties, therefore, much easier for the body to use than fat cells.

A very low calorie diet also increase your appetite and cravings making it difficult to stay during the process and when you get off with it, you become a voracious eater!

So, going back to the question, is diet the best method to lose weight?  You better think twice…