exercise + caloric restriction

[beaver1]

Hi all.....

I'm you're newest newbie, so please forgive my ignorance. I understand you need to burn more calories than you consume to lose weight, but what I don't understand is if your calorie consumption is VERY low and you are exercising a lot, what is your body using for energy? All the ugly fat on your body, right? So why is it so important to continually fuel your body with food if you've got butt loads of fat to use as fuel?

Thanks!

 

[wonderwoman]

first of all welcome to the forum beaver!

to answer your question, when your body senses it's getting less food than it usually does, it's "self-preservation" switch is triggered. because your body believes it's about to starve, the first thing it does is shut down its fat burners to preserve fat. that's why your body burns so few calories slowly on starvation type diets (lets say under 1,000 a day). it will go on to burn other things first like protein from your lean tissue which will cause muscle loss. so you may lose weight, but its not REAL weight and it will only be temporary since most people cant stay on a very low cal diet for any length of time.

 

[beaver1]

thanks Wonderwoman

That makes sense - - - but now I'm worried that if I do start eating, even if it's just a little bit that I will blow up. Gawd, I hate this!

 

[NothinToLose]

Also your metabolism slows down when you eat too little, so you don't burn as many calories as you used to. Also, muscle burns more calories then fat while at rest, so if muscle tissue is used as a source of fuel, it will slow down your metabolism even further.
If the damage is already done, I guess the thing to do is to increase exercise, esp. muscle building and increase food intake to your recommended. Most nutrition sites/articles say that eating under 1200 cals/day will negatively affect your metabolism. I think it depends on person's original weight/hight and basal metabolic rate, but going much lower then 1200 is generally not recommended.