If you have decided to get serious about losing weight, then you have probably started to make far more sensible choices with your diet, as well as incorporating a solid exercise routine.
Or maybe you haven’t.
Maybe you’ve bought into the latest diet marketed to the masses? Whether it be the “HCG diet”, “low-fat-low-carb-high-protein”, “Atkins Diet“, some new “miracle diet pill”, or the latest newfangled “detox diet“, DIET is still a 4-letter word.
However, unknown to most people, one of the biggest reasons people gain weight is simply NOT eating enough. Counter-intuitive? Absolutely!
Although a healthy diet and plenty of exercise are essential tools for losing weight on a consistent basis, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
In the enthusiastic early days of a diet, many people tend to take a far more restrictive approach than is necessary. Cutting your calories too low too soon can actually be counter-productive, as we’re going to explore today.
Why Not Eating Enough Food Causes You To Gain Weight aka “Crashing On Your Crash Diet“
The body is a very intelligent machine in the sense that it knows how to effectively regulate its many processes to support homeostasis.
In the context of dieting and weight loss, this means that if you restrict your food intake too drastically, your body will simply decrease its metabolic rate so it is burning fewer calories.
Of course, if your body begins to burn fewer calories each day, then it is going to be far more difficult for you to lose weight, but the problem is even greater than that.
One of the biggest reasons people gain weight is simply NOT eating enough food!
If you aren’t providing your body with the energy it needs to fuel your daily activities, then it will have to begin sourcing it from somewhere else. You might be thinking the first place it will look is your stored body fat, but it is far easier for your body to begin breaking down your lean muscle mass so it can be converted to glucose and burned for energy.
This result is a snowball effect, where you are holding less muscle, meaning your metabolism begins to dwindle even further.
Before you know it, you will have essentially crashed your metabolism. As a result, you will have to gain some of what you have lost by eating more food, simply to get your metabolic rate back up again.
3 Tips to consider when trying to Lose Weight
…and when I say weight, I’m referring to body fat.
- Ensure you are drinking enough water each and EVERY day
- Know your body fat to lean muscle ratio – feed your muscle, starve your fat – base your daily need (or BMR) on lean mass not body weight
- Practice the 40/60 split when reducing calories i.e. if you are trying to cut 500 calories per day, then cut 40% from diet and 60% with exercise (eat 200 calories less than your BMR and burn 300 calories with exercise)… I like food too much.
Follow these guidelines and you’ll not only reach your goals, but you won’t starve yourself in the process — after all, UNDER-EATING is just as bad as overeating as far as the scale is concerned!
How to Effectively Start a Diet and Succeed
If all else fails, there’s always the Mouse-Trap Diet
When you first start dieting to lose weight, the best thing to do is to cut around 300-500 calories from your regular diet, or your ‘maintenance calories’.
To figure out your maintenance calories, you can use a basal metabolic rate or BMR Calculator; this will tell you how many calories you need to consume to maintain your current body weight.
Cutting just a few hundred calories each day will enable you to lose somewhere in the region of 1 – 3 lbs per week, which is just about right to make sure you are predominantly losing fat and not muscle.
If your weight loss stalls for a week or two, then you can simply cut another couple of hundred calories or consider adding a little extra exercise.
Remember that when it comes to weight loss, less is often more, so there is no need to go to extremes to meet your goals.
Suggested next post: How to Lose Weight when You Live with Diabetes
I was eating around 1,600 calories at 5’4″ and 187 lbs for several weeks and saw no change in weight (gained and lost a pound over those weeks and same with measurements). I’ve eaten really low before at 1,200 and was able to lose some weight– but I also lost my period and was starving all the time. I recently got my RMR tested and my RMR came to be pretty high at 2,076. I’ve been eating at that level on non-workout days and at around 2,250 on workout days (4X a week cycling between weights, cardio, HITT) for about 2 1/2 weeks now. Since I started eating this much (I measure it all out) I gained 2 lbs! I am at a loss… shouldn’t an RMR be accurate? I am so confused! Should I continue to eat at this level and see what happens? Maybe my body is being adjusted?
I know others who can’t eat as much as their RMR indicates without gaining weight, so you’re not alone. I find that the most accurate is to track (like you are) and adjust to how your body reacts. Obviously a diet so hardcore that you lose your period is not the way to go but maybe try a nice in-between the 1200 and 1600 for a few weeks and see what happens
Hi. I’m 19yrs old.. I’m not eating a lot of food.. There were some incidents happened in my life on 4 months before.. I always took my regular amount of meal everyday.. But, i have gained about 15kg in this 4 months.. What can i do? 4 months before i was in 65kg and now i’m 80kg and above..
A sudden weight gain of 15 Kg is not something to just be dismissed. Please see a doctor and have the appropriate blood tests done.
Hi, in the past I have been binge eating at night and gaining up to 2 pounds over night, then not eating the next and repeating the same process. My weight flucuated betweeon 130-125 before this time. I have improved and have stopped binge eating. I feel like my metabolism slowed down because of this, are there any ways to speed it up?
Congratulations on breaking the binging cycle! That’s an amazing accomplishment. I’d suggest keeping a close eye on what you eat (if you can do that without triggering any unwanted eating patterns) and focusing on a combination of resistance training and cardio. Give it time, and with a structured calorie deficit you will see results
HI,
I am 16 years old and have been eating clean for more than a year now. However, my weight is not dropping, I am eating foods such as sushi, vegetables, egg, chicken, potato, a small handful of nuts and fruit. I try to minimise my intake of bread and rice for a long time now and have not put a sweet or chocolate or chips or any junk food in my mouth for more than a year now. However slight changes happen and then if I eat one little extra fruit I gain all the weight back and I mean the way I look (really bloated stomach even though i don’t feel bloated). I have been trying for so long to loose weight now and nothing seems to work. I used to go to the gym for one month straight and burned 300-900 calories a day but saw no change. I really don’t know what I am doing wrong. I weigh 75kg and want to be 55kg what can I do?
You can eat all the right “clean” food but if you’re not at a calorie deficit you won’t lose weight. My approach would be to track what you eat and your activity for 2-4 weeks and make adjustments based on what you see. If you maintain with your current plan you’ll have to decrease calories or increase your activity. And remember change takes time and consistency
Hello I’m 15 and I used to be very overweight and I have lost over 25 kilos over bearly eating for this whole year and lost my period and recently I think iv gained weight over this week when I have bearly eaten everything what should I do
So that is obviously not a sustainable or advisable approach. You can lose weight without starving yourself. My approach would be to add in 50-100 calories a week and slowly build up to a sustainable level. That will be scary at first, but your body clearly needs more food. If you can, consider hiring a coach or nutritionist to help guide you.
And you might want to step off the scale. Instant weight loss or gain is not really possible, so if you’re up 1 lb. overnight it will most likely not be fat but rather water or food/waste still in your system.
How much weight will I gain and when would I be able to eat normal again
If you don’t overeat you shouldn’t gain fat. I highly recommend working with someone who can guide you in a structured way. I can only give general guidance
Hi there, I have a slight problem… I recently realised that I am not eating enough. Today I felt like I ate a lot (with healthy snacks and all) and decided to put every info into a calorie counting app. I had 1400Kcal. In the previous weeks I had even less, sometimes when I checked it didn’t even reach 700Kcal. However, I did not lose weight (or at least not much). I feel lightheaded, dizzy and extremely weak. I don’t do much excercise, I walk for 1-2 hours 3 times a week. Could not eating enough lead to dizziness, even tho I did not lose weight? Should I try eating even more and risk gaining weight?
Not eating enough could be what makes you feel extremely weak however it could also be a lot of other things. I’d recommend you start by seeing a doctor to ensure that you don’t have any other underlying issues. Although an extremely low-calorie diet isn’t recommended, if you’re in a calorie deficit you should lose weight. If your doctor gives you the green light you can start slowly increasing your calorie
I do 484 calories while at work eating oatmeal, 2 bananas and any vegetables I cook when I leave work I workout at gym burning about 300 to 400 calories a day then I go home and eat more veggies for dinner is that bad to I only do it during the week but I lift weights…so do you think this way is good or bad long-term
If you’re telling me that you’re eating less than 500 calories a day, then yes, I think that’s a horrible idea. If you insist on eating that little please reach out to a registered nutritionist so they can help you get the vitamins you need
you have a typo. “If you are providing your body with the energy it needs to fuel your ” should be ” if you are not providing”
Thank you for letting us know. We have fixed it now.
Hi
I’ve always been a size 8 to 10. Until in my 40s. I did stop eating much because I just can’t face it or not hungry at all. My family make me something at times and say if I don’t eat then they wont. Mostly once a week. But mostly I have two sandwiches of ham or cheese and salad cream no butter and on white bread. But since not eating much and constantly in pain with IBS I have gained weight up to a size 12. Please can anyone help . Its quite frightening.
Thank you wendy
If you’re gaining a significant amount of weight and hardly eating I suggest you see your doctor. The lack of appetite and weight gain could be a sign of an underlying issue.
And remember, you also have to consider what else you’re consuming when you look at your daily calorie intake, such as calories drinks and snacks
Hello am 15 years old and am very over weight and I have been making my self to starve for the whole day but nothing works I have been doing it for so far 3 months and about exercise I am really very lazy to do them even though I go for jogging just one lap am already tired so what would you advise me I
If you’re truly not eating anything (which I wouldn’t recommend for anyone) and not losing weight then you need to see a doctor because then something is off. If you boil it down you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose body fat. So you can reduce your calories or move more. Try tracking everything you eat (including calorie drinks) and see where you’re at. There might be calories sneaking in where you least expect it
Hi! I used to have an eating disorder and have been recovering for about a year. However, a few months ago I fell back into the mindset and I began to severely restrict my calories (going from ~2700 cals a day to ~1100 cals a day). This slowed my metabolism down so much! I gained 20 lbs in about 3 months. What would you recommend I do to lose those 20 lbs? I fear that eating more to restore my metabolism will make me gain weight by a caloric surplus, but eating less will only slow my metabolism more and pack more pounds on. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!
In an ideal world, you’d increase your calories slowly and work away from the obsessive food behavior. That is, of course, easier said than done. If you don’t feel like you can do that on your own, one option could be to work with a nutritionist who specializes in diabetes, as well as a psychologist.
As for your weight gain. You shouldn’t gain 20 lbs. if you’re in a calorie deficit. If you gained 20 lbs. in 3 months on 1100 calories, I’d recommend you see a doctor because that sounds like something else might be going on.
Hey, I’m also in recovery from a eating disorder and lately have fallen in to bad patterns… instead of loosing weight on a low intake of food a day I seem to be gaining… it’s frustrating sense I don’t have any answers to why this is happening. Just wondering if you got to the bottom of the reason you’re body gained weight?
I agree – my advice would be to extend the diet period. Also I’ve found the simplest way to lose weight is substitute lettuce for bread and when you feel peckish, have a prepared bowl of salad in the fridge to snack on. The difficulty I have is breaking the behavioural pattern of reaching out to the fridge every time an irritation or anxiety causing stimulus pushes me in that direction. Also, if making the vingrette for the salad – go easy on the olive oil. Add cider vinegar and a little salt and black pepper and also consider adding a little of your favourite sauce. Salads can be very filling. Especially if you add gently cooked anf cooled diced aubergine along with thinly sliced cucumber.I lost 10kg in 6 months by gently dropping out at least one slice of bread from six slices per day this also reduced the intake of sandwich spread/butter. Slow is best and likely to be more sustainable. Most important try not to eat anything past 7pm on any night.
Hi, I fall into the category of dieting to much and as a result of that I am unable to lose weight. I understand the process etc but I fail understand what you are saying, Are you able to explain it in more simple terms. Thanks
Hi Wendy,
I’ll try and simplify Dai’s point.
When you diet for too long and too aggressively it seems that your boy adapts to the calorie deficit and weight loss becomes increasingly hard. We also tend to bounce back and gain a lot of weight when we stop dieting.
What you can do is slowly increase your calories until you get to a higher calorie baseline, keep it there for a while (months preferably) and then diet down slowly from there. I’d also recommend that, if you can, you keep track of your food intake. Many get very surprised at what they actually consume when they do that.
I have just completed the 800 Fast, 2 weeks, by Dr Michael Mosely and not only did I not loose anything I actually put on 2 kilos. This is very disheartening. Is it possible I am one of the people who wasn’t eating enough? Help please.
That does sound frustrating. 2 weeks is not a long time to diet though, so it might be that you just need to stick with it for a little longer. However, I wouldn’t recommend that low calories without the supervision of a trained professional. The weight gain can’t be fat if you’re in a serious calorie deficit. It could be water or waste.
You could try sticking with it for longer or switch to a more sustainable plan and add in 20-30 minutes of additional activity a day (like walking)
Hi I’m 15 and I have been on a diet for almost 2 months already. So far I’ve lost 10kg in that period of time. I have also been working out on a daily basis. Recently I’ve been adding much more intense work out and I kept the same amount of calorie intake. But somehow I stopped losing weight ever since last week, and your suggestion was to increase my daily intake slowly, starting from two days ago I tried increasing it slowly but it gained me so much kg for some reason. Can you help me out with that?
A one week stop in weight loss doesn’t really tell you anything. Weight loss is not linear, you might just have been holding water or not been using the restroom as frequently the last week. So going sticking with your original diet for a little longer probably makes sense.
As for weight gain. There is pretty much no way that you can gain several kilos of fat in that short amount of time. If you’ve upped your carbs or eaten more fibre you’ll be holding more water (not a bad thing, water binds to fibre), and you’ll be carrying around more waste in your intestine.
So don’t panic, and try to focus on body fat percentage and weight loss over time