Why you can't starve yourself slim

When you do extreme things to your body to lose weight (like hardly eating at all), you trigger a series of adaptive metabolic, hormonal and behavioral "defense mechanisms" collectively known as "the starvation response."

Here Are Some of the Consequences of Starvation Mode:

1. Your fat cells sound the alarm and release less leptin. Leptin is the "anti-starvation hormone" that tells your brain you are well fed with plenty of reserve energy. When leptin goes down, fat-burning goes down.

2. Your appetite rages out of control. Your brain flips on the appetite switch and hunger hormones increase. You become a ravenous food-seeking machine.

3. Your body releases fewer fat-releasing and fat-burning enzymes such as hormone sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase and your body doesn't oxidize fat for fuel as efficiently as normal.

4. You lose muscle. Maintaining muscle requires energy. Extreme diets are like an "energy crisis", so excess muscle becomes expendable and you cannibalize your own lean tissue.

5. Your metabolism slows down. Levels of T3, the active form of thyroid, fall, decreasing your metabolic rate, so you burn fewer calories each day.

Bottom line: It's hormonally, metabolically and psychologically impossible to achieve permanent fat loss by starving yourself.

You can't fight these biological defense mechanisms with willpower. Your body is too smart for that.

Eventually, extreme diets lead to frustration, binge eating, weight re-gain, and you end up with less muscle and a slower metabolism than when you started.

So how can you get slimmer and healthier, lose fat and build muscle?  Eat more nutritious foods and focus on fat burning activities.

If you want to learn more about nutrition and exercise for fat loss - call me on 0789 483 6439 or email freshstartfitness@live.co.uk

(The information above was extracted from an article by Tom Venuto, Fat Loss Coach and Author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.  Tom's website is www.BurnTheFat.com)