Why a Calorie Deficit Doesn't Work
One of the most commonly used ways to lose weight is the caloric deficit. The idea is simple: eliminate as many calories as you can in order to decrease the number on the scale. Generally, the recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men. But the goal of a calorie deficit is to drop below that. And if you’ve ever tried it, you know how difficult it is to consume fewer and fewer calories. In this race to the bottom, you’re undoubtedly going to encounter some problems along the way. So, let me explain why a calorie deficit isn’t the best solution for long-term success.
The problems with a calorie deficit
Limiting the amount of food you eat can lead to some initial weight loss. But not for everyone. I’ve heard of plenty of women who are unable to lose weight in this way. Beyond the frustration, there are several reasons why a calorie deficit won’t work in the short term for some and in the long term for nearly everyone.
It’s a race to the bottom – a zero-sum game
The human body is equipped with a built-in self-preservation mechanism. The average person burns around 1,800 calories a day doing nothing. That’s without exercise or movement of any kind. You can literally stand on the treadmill and burn calories without even turning it on.
You will burn approximately 75 calories per hour just sitting there. Depending upon your age, a sedentary woman will burn between 1,800 to 2,000 calories daily.
Your body needs 2,000 calories each day just to sustain itself. So, when you start dipping below that, it will certainly take notice. You might catch it off guard at first. But when you continue to consume fewer calories than is needed on average, your body will start holding on to them. This is what is meant by “survival mode.”
At first, you’ll lose weight because your body will burn through all the calories you’ve consumed and start dipping into reserves. But once your body realizes it’s no longer getting a sufficient number of calories it will become more efficient with its energy expenditure. It will quickly figure out how to do processes with fewer calories.
Your body will always prioritize your brain’s function. While the brain represents just 2% of your body’s total body weight, it accounts for 20% of its energy use. That means during a typical day, you use about 320 calories just to think.
(Different mental states and tasks can subtly affect the way your brain uses energy.)
Once your body senses it’s not going to be getting adequate calories for the foreseeable future it begins holding on to calories. At first, it does this by slowing down your metabolism.
Your body will do things like lowering your core temperature, decreasing energy output, and even reducing your ability to concentrate. you to stop thinking as much.
It leads to stress → more stress prevents weight loss
Pursuing a caloric deficit leads to another unfortunate consequence: stress. You don’t need a food psychologist to tell you that dieting is stressful. Always worrying about the number of calories in a given food and whether you’ve surpassed your daily quota is unenjoyable.
And if there was any doubt, research has confirmed it: “Restricting calories increased the total output of cortisol, and monitoring calories increased perceived stress,” concluded a study that examined the connection between low-calorie dieting and cortisol levels.
The results concluded that a calorie deficit diet increases levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. And if you’ve ever taken to a pint of ice cream after a stressful day at work, you know that stress eating is a real thing. And stress alone leads to weight gain.
Your hormones work against you
Your biology is not a fan of your caloric deficit either. To show its disapproval it increases ghrelin, a hormone that regulates your hunger, and decreases leptin, the hormone associated with satiety.
Once these two hormones have been thrown out of sorts, unfortunately, they don’t return to normal levels very quickly.
“Even one year after dieting, the levels of leptin, peptide YY, cholecystokinin, insulin, ghrelin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide, and pancreatic polypeptide have been found to differ from baseline values,” explained a 2011 paper titled Long-term persistence of hormonal adaptations to weight loss.
More than 95% of dieters gain the weight back within five years and more than two-thirds regain even more weight than they lost initially according to the research.
All you do is think about food – you become food-obsessed
It starts when we’re kids… and unfortunately, it doesn’t change with age. What happens when you’re told you can’t have something?
It’s all you can think about, right?
Psychologically, your brain becomes more aware of food. And hormonally, as you just learned, your body increases ghrelin levels you increase your appetite. It doesn’t take long before you’re obsessed with food.
We see the same thing in animal studies. Research suggests that when animals are chronically deprived of calories, the reward of a food stimulus becomes more intense.
Your “set point” body weight is working against you
Do you ever feel like you just can’t get beyond a certain number on the scale? Maybe your weight will fluctuate five pounds one way or the other. But in general, it hovers around the same range of ten pounds or so no matter how hard you try.
It’s as if you’re unable to break through the floor of a particular number on the scale.
There’s a theory that suggests the human body tries to maintain its weight within a preferred range. Energy intake, storage, and use are modified to maintain the level of body fat.
There are advocates in agreement and disagreement with the theory. But one thing is certain: your body works against your weight loss goals – if not in the short term then certainly in the long term.
Conclusion: there’s a better way to lose weight
A caloric deficit may seem like a simple, straightforward approach to losing weight. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Your body works overtime to make sure it maintains as many of those calories you try to eliminate.
Want a more effective weight loss plan? I’d love to show you how you can lose weight without feeling restricted. Scheduled a call and I’ll take a look at where you are and then we can talk about putting together a plan that allows you to lose the weight without the stress.