There are a lot of different methods out there to aid you in your weight loss journey. Some of them can seem tempting to attempt because they seem simple or less effort than others. But there are some “weight loss” tips that really aren’t helpful, and should be avoided.
One of these is starvation. Some people try intermittent fasting to try to lose weight. This is where you skip the first two meals of the day, eating just dinner, to push your body into starvation mode during the day, burning extra calories. There are a lot of reasons why this isn’t an effective weight loss solution, but the first, and most important reason is that it’s dangerous. Starving yourself for weight loss is never a good idea.
Weakened body
Starving yourself throughout the day puts your body under unnecessary stress. Your body doesn’t realize that you’re not in danger, and so it goes into survival mode. You don’t burn extra calories from not eating, and because you’re not giving your body the fuel that it needs via calories from your regular meals, your body focuses all of your energy to keeping you alive. You’ll find yourself cranky and irritable, and unable to focus on simple daily tasks. You may also experience some nausea and exhaustion. These are all signs that your body isn’t being nourished, and signifies that your body desperately needs food in order to keep functioning.
Fat stores
In addition to being miserable for your entire day because you’re depriving yourself of the food you need, you’re also letting your body think it’s in danger. Because your body thinks it’s starving, when you eat your single meal of the day, it will store as much of it as possible as fat, to be used as energy in case of starvation. If you do this every day, you’ll store up more fat from your body going into a panic than you’ll burn from skipping two meals.
There’s a reason you get hungry throughout the day, and that’s because your body needs nutrition regularly in order to function properly. It can be easy to think that starvation will help you lose weight, but what will actually help you lose weight is to maintain a healthy diet that’s high in lean proteins, and lots of fruits and vegetables. You should also be drinking enough water each day. If you’re not giving your body unhealthy things to store as fat, and no reasons to store unnecessary amounts of fat, you’ll find the pounds slipping away easier than you thought.
