Are You Eating Enough Calories to Support Your Metabolism?
Do you know if you’re eating enough calories for your body to be able to support its metabolism? If you’re restricting your caloric intake by too much, you may be slowing down your progress instead of helping it.
It may seem strange that you might need to eat more to lose weight, but if you’re not eating enough calories for your metabolic needs, then that’s exactly the case. It sounds counterintuitive, but it makes a lot of sense as you come to understand your body and the way it works.
Remember that your body doesn’t just need energy to be able to complete workouts or activities when you’re moving your arms and legs. You require nutrition simply to be able to be alive. Your various organs and systems need energy from food to be able to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing and your stomach digesting. Moreover, beyond energy, you need macronutrients and micronutrients to feed your cells the specific chemicals they require to heal, replace themselves and resist disease, among other functions.
Since your body isn’t just in “off” and “on” mode, it needs a certain amount of energy to keep running. If you’re not giving it that minimum amount of energy from your food, there are consequences that can occur. Among them can be a reduced rate of weight loss. Being certain that you’re eating enough calories every day can prevent that unwanted side effect.
While it is true that you’ll likely need to cut back on your daily caloric intake to encourage your body to burn through stored body fat for energy, there is a limit to the amount that you can cut back. Excessive calorie restriction can backfire very quickly. Moreover, it can continue to work against you over time.
Consider the commonly cited example of the top contestants from the popular reality television show, “The Biggest Loser.” Nearly all the winners and runners up have since regained their lost weight and many are now heavier than they were when they started. Their extreme dieting has been blamed, as many of the contestants didn’t eat enough for their metabolisms, slowed their metabolic rate and are now still paying for it as their bodies work against them.
Signs you’re not eating enough calories every day may include:
• Thinking about food all the time
• Skipping meals or snacks
• Being unable to stop binge eating
• Not getting your period when you used to
• Suffering from chronic headaches
• Feeling consistently fatigued
• Being regularly irritable
