What is a low calorie diet?

Low calorie diets is an extremely restrictive diet that involves limiting your overall number of calories that you eat or drink in a day. The purpose of this fad diet is to lose weight, however this weight loss is usually temporary with 95% of dieters regaining the weight they lost. Practicing this diet can most often have negative side effects and health risks. Weight loss can be a great thing, it can boost your confidence and improve your health. But, a low calorie diet promotes weight loss in an unhealthy way that is harmful for your physical and mental health. 

What exactly does a low calorie diet do to your heart? With limited amounts of food, you are less likely to get the nutrition that your body needs and can cause serious damage without those nutrients. According to the European Society of Cardiology, the sudden drop in calories causes fat to get released from the body and gets taken up by the heart muscle. The heart muscle prefers to choose between fat or sugar as fuel and being swamped with fat worsens its function. This absence of nutrients will cause a loss of heart muscle mass, which ultimately leads to heart damage. This diet also leads to low levels of blood sugar which can lead to heart palpitations.

Why do low calorie diets set you up for failure in the future? Since you are eating so few calories than your body needs, this results in your metabolism slowing down. A slower metabolism causes your body to burn fewer calories, causes muscle loss, and more of the calories consumed will be stored as fat in the body. This resulting slower metabolism from eating less doesn’t just happen during the time that you were on the low calorie diet but can persist long after the low calorie diet has stopped. A lower metabolism may be a big factor as to why the majority of people regain the weight they lost after the diet is stopped. 

Are there any other risks of following a low calorie diet? Yes, there are, a major one is nutrient deficiencies. By reducing the calories that your body needs, it is very difficult to meet your daily nutritional needs. Energy deprivation can cause fatigue, dizziness and brain fog. It puts you at an increased risk for developing gallstones, and developing nausea, diarrhea and constipation. Low calorie dieting is detrimental to your mental health as well. By following this diet, you can get higher levels of stress and anxiety, with lots of that worry coming from the thoughts of “Am I losing weight,” “I can’t eat anything” and “Am I losing enough weight?” which starts to become obsessive and leads to self-doubt and unhappiness. Most research shows that caloric restriction can induce antidepressant-like effects of depression. Nutritional deficiencies and the impact restricting ourselves has on our mental health can contribute to low levels of serotonin, dopamine which are needed to regulate mood and happiness.

So, what can I do to ACTUALLY lose weight and increase my health? Low calorie diets are not the option. In fact, most fad-diets today can lead to these negative health effects, which is why intuitive eating is so helpful. Intuitive eating is practice that is sustainable for the long-term. Intuitive eating rejects the toxic diet culture and embraces a more compassionate approach to nutrition. Studies have shown that intuitive eating has a higher retention rate than diets, including low calorie diets. 

Instead of focusing on weight loss, change the focus to be on how good eating nourishing food makes you feel. How energized are you? How happy do you feel? Restriction comes with harmful effects, shift your focus on well balanced meals. Listen to your body and eat until you are full. Doing this will increase the amount of nutrients you consume, that you need to feel satisfied. When you shift your focus off weight loss, off calorie restriction and practice intuitive eating, the weight will come off without the constant pressure and unlike low calorie diets, it is a lot more likely to stay off. More importantly, you will feel good doing so, you won’t be depriving yourself, obsessing over the scale and feeling depressed over that number.