The 5 Best Reasons Why You Should Stay Away From Very Low Calorie Diets

In order to get rid of belly fat you must understand what diet really means. A diet is any severe restriction of food or calories that is temporary. Most conventional diet programs call for extremely low calorie diets. While in reality low calorie dieting never lasts and most of the weight you lose from low calorie dieting is muscle weight, not fat. If you want to lose body fat then you should know the truth that diets never work. In this article I wish to share with you 5 major reasons to why most diets, especially low calorie diets never work.

1. Very low calorie diets slow down your metabolic rate

The first thing that occurs during a severe calorie shortage is a decrease in your metabolic rate. The lower your calories, the slower your metabolism becomes. Simply put; when you eat less, your body burns less. When you eat more, your body burns more. Thus by slowing down your metabolic rate, you reduce the chances of your body to burn fat and eventually you will not be able to get rid of belly fat and/or lose weight.

2. Very low calorie diets make you lose muscle

Muscles are very important when it comes to burning fats in the body. What very low calorie diets do is that it eventually puts your body into starvation mode after sometime. At such a point the body will have to find ways to conserve it's energy. And one of the ways to do that is by expending the muscle tissue. If that happens then you end up being weak and this will distort your health.

3. Very low calorie diets increase activity of fat-storing enzymes and decrease the activity of fat burning enzymes

The chief fat storing enzyme is called Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL). When you drop your calories too low, your body will produce more LPL and less fat burning enzymes. In other words, when you don't eat enough, your body changes its chemistry to make it easier to store fat in the future and thus reduces the chances of getting rid of belly fat.

4. Very low calorie diets increase appetite and cravings

When your body goes into starvation mode, this triggers increased appetite and cravings in an attempt to get you to eat more food. The hunger and cravings can be so strong that you become ravenous. It's virtually impossible to stay on a diet when you are extremely hungry and all you can think about is food.

5. Very low calorie diets decrease your energy and work capacity

Such diets leave one tired and unable to sustain high levels of activity or intense workouts. It is said that the first sign of under nutrition is the loss of energy and the inability to sustain prolonged physical work. There is a direct relationship between calories consumed and the physical work a person can do. If you have no energy to work out, you're going to feel lousy and seriously compromise your results. The ability to train hard aerobically and with weights is critical for your long-term success at fat loss.