Counting Calories, Does It Work?

By Carrie Spry

Reducing calories will not help you lose weight. Calories are not the enemy here. If you eat 2500 calories per day and reduce yourself to 1500 calories per day, you won't necessarily lose weight. Your body will simply burn fewer calories. You will reach a dieting plateau. This means that you may lose a few pounds; however, once you reach a certain point, it will be impossible to lose weight.

What makes a person go on a diet in the first place? Well, it usually builds up to a specific point, or several, and one day, you look in the mirror and enough is enough. You are going to lose weight if it kills you. Your clothes are getting too tight and you are disappointed and frustrated with what you see. Does this seem familiar to you? I was once in your shoes and am finally feeling good about myself. Anyways, on this day you are particularly motivated and decide to go on a diet.

Today you have enough anger, motivation and frustration that you decide that you are going to do whatever it takes to lose it this time. You start by skipping breakfast; after all, you'll be having lunch in a few hours. Getting closer to lunch, you feel like you might not make it. You begin feeling week, the motivation has worn off, and everything around you is reminding you of food. Your body is not accustomed to being without food for so long.

By now you feel miserable, but still bravely tell yourself that you can do this. You don't want to be a quitter and you want to lose weight. You must keep on. So now for lunch you decide on a salad or some kind of fruit. Or maybe a small portion of something else. You're still convinced that eating less will get you to your goal.

By dinner time you have a headache and chances are you are hungry. Do you really want to go through this every day? But today, you are still motivated enough to say yes. You stick with this diet for the remainder of the evening.

If you're brave then you may have held off for a week or two, chances are, you've gone back to your ways after only a few days. Usually diets link this end in some kind of binge which officially declares the end. Even if you were able to stick to it for a few weeks, you won't have lost any significant weight. You may have even made it worse. Since your body thinks it was starving, it begins to absorb every calorie that enters it.

You may have lost a few pounds during this type of diet, but the weight that was lost is just water weight, not real fat loss. And all that water weight will be gained right back when you eat normal again.

Now you know why you've always failed when trying to starve yourself in the past, since it's just not possible to lose weight by starving yourself. Serious weight loss cannot be achieved by starvation diet. Serious weight loss can only be achieved by giving your body the right types of calories at the correct times each day. - 33373

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