Are you wanting to lose weight very quickly? If you are, the starvation calorie diet may be just what you’re looking for. These types of diets are considered an extreme form of dieting and they are highly popular. That still doesn’t mean they are the right diet for you.
A diet is considered low calorie if it involves taking in less than 1200 calories per day. The idea of a low calorie diet is to lose weight quickly. If not utilized correctly they can be dangerous and as such it is important to plan your low calorie diet with a professional dietician or nutritionist before starting.
The best form of dieting is to burn more calories than you take in. However a very low calorie diet can actually do more harm than good. When your body is craving more calories (energy) it can affect your metabolic rate. This means your body actually starts to eat away at your muscle mass instead of burning your current fat reserves.
It is doing this for the purpose of converting the muscle mass to energy, because starvation mode to your body means holding on to the fat reserves it has since it doesn’t know when it will get more fat.
Consuming only a very limited amount of calories per day is almost like starving yourself. Your body is more than likely used to taking in over 2000 calories per day and up to 5000 or more. If you all of a sudden drop to say 600 calories or less your body moves into starvation mode. Your metabolism then slows down to conserve energy.
While you are on a starvation diet your body will learn to live with fewer calories. That means if you go back to your old high calorie habits (as all too many people do) you will have a sudden gain in weight. Think Oprah.
The only real way to determine your ideal daily calorie intake is by using a basal metabolic rate calculator. You will then know how many calories you need to be healthy and to support your lifestyle. As men and women are obviously different their ideal calorie intake is also different.
In essence a super low calorie diet can be dangerous. What you really want is a diet that, while lowering your calorie intake, can trick your body into using up those fat reserves for fuel burning instead of using your muscle mass.
There’s an image that comes to mind whenever someone mentions the word diet and that’s hunger. They don’t have to be synonymous any more. There are a lot of new diet programs out there that follow new guidelines for losing weight. They make it so easy to lose real weight and fat that you are almost guaranteed that you will keep it off for good.
But if you haven’t tried one yet and you are still trying to lose weight on your own, here are some tips to curb your hunger pangs and keep you on track.
1. Eat smaller healthier meals more often than the regular three meals a day. If you do this your body never has time to get weak and shaky and need to have something, anything in your stomach right away. Six or seven small meals are much better than 3 large ones.
2. If you find that even before your smaller meals you need something to curb the hunger, try a healthy fat and protein appetizer like a handful of almonds. The raw or roasted ones with sea salt are the best.
3. Always drink a large glass of lemon water (use fresh lemons, please!) sweetened with stevia before each meal. It will help you feel fuller faster and it will also help your body digest food. Lemon water, although is acidic outside the body, once it enters your body it becomes alkaline. It is very important to keep your body’s ph in balance and even lean more towards the alkaline side. It is a known fact that cancer cannot live in an alkaline environment.
4. Protein and fiber will help curb the appetite. For a small meal or snack you can eat sliced apples dipped in organic peanut butter, or celery dipped in peanut butter, or cubed low fat cheese with apples or grapes. The peanut butter and cheese have the protein and the fruits and celery have fiber. You could substitute low fat cottage cheese or try low fat yogurt with a spoon of wheat germ too.
5. Sometimes you really need some carbs if you will be doing a lot of activity. Try a bowl of brown rice with a small pat of real butter (yes, real butter) and some natural sea salt. My daughter (she is 15 now) likes to have a bowl of brown rice with a little butter, slice of low fat cheese and an egg on top for her breakfast. You will be full for hours with a breakfast like this.
6. Breakfast really is important, so try to always have a high protein and fiber breakfast like oatmeal. Buy the kind that takes 5 minutes to cook. The instant kind is too processed and has too many preservatives. Try it with some frozen berries that you add in the last minute or two of cooking. Use a little real butter and top it off with rice milk. If you have been trying to drink soy, but don’t really like the heavy taste – try rice milk. It tastes very similar to cow’s milk.
7. Last but not least may be my favorite of all and that is hot flavored tea. My cabinet is full of every flavor from blueberry to strawberry and even chocolate tea. I always sweeten my tea with a spoon of raw honey (try Whole Foods) and top it off with Land O Lakes Fat Free Half and Half. Something about a nice cup of hot tea helps curb your appetite. You can sweeten with raw sugar or stevia if you like, but another benefit of honey is that after a while you won’t be bothered by pollen season.
I hope you will be able to use some of these tips in your own weight loss plan. If you have been looking for a new diet to help you lose fat please check out the link below.
