Did you know that eating too little can actually prevent you from losing weight? It's true. When you eat below a certain amount of calories (this level is different for everyone), your body enters "starvation mode" and tries to hold on to all the fat that it has so that it can survive.
The good news is that by eating more food, you can fire up your metabolism and start losing weight again.
Here are four signs that you should start eating more:
- You have a lot of weight to lose. The higher your weight, the more calories your body burns just to function on a daily level. A good rule of thumb is to figure that [your body weight X 10] is the number of calories that your body needs to maintain its current weight. If you want to lose weight, you should subtract 500 from this number and that is how many calories you should eat in a day.
- You have a high muscle mass. Muscle burns more energy than fat, so if you have a higher muscle mass, then you may need to eat more calories to keep your body fueled.
- You exercise a lot. If you exercise hard for an hour a day, five times a week, then you may need more calories. Strenuous exercise burns a lot of calories and if you are not eating enough to maintain this level of activity, you're body will think that it's starving (even if you actually are eating) and will try to keep its fat for energy.
- You've hit a plateau. If you've been successfully losing weight by eating right and exercising and your weight loss suddenly comes to a screeching halt, you may need more food. Your body has gotten used to this level of food and activity. Try eating an extra 200 calories a day and see if that doesn't fire up your metabolism.
Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is one of the most comprehensive books on nutrition, weight loss, and muscle gain that I have read. It contains much more detailed information about eating enough food to lose weight.
And if you are ready to start making healthy changes to your lifestyle, check out eDiets.com. They offer over 20 different diet plans to choose from.
Shannon Tani is a former fattie, who weighed over 220lbs. She has currently lost over 70lbs. One day she realized that people would rather hear dieting advice from someone who's "been there, done that" than a boring old doctor who's never been fat a day in his life. So she started the website Better Off Fat to share her experiences and ideas.
