What is a Good Low Calorie Diet?

We all know that the basic law of weight loss is to eat fewer calories than you burn every day, so a low calorie diet makes a lot of sense. But beware – low calorie does not mean you have a good low calorie diet! Low calorie can make you fatter!

Let’s start with the basics – the average person needs around 2,000 calories each day to maintain weight. Anything less than this and your body burns fat to make up the difference – and so you lose weight. This is the basis of all successful weight loss programs, but there is a bit more to it if you want a good low calorie diet.

Understand that calories are the fuel your body runs on. “Easy” calories come from the food we eat every day, and converting fat back into calories actually is harder – so the food we eat is essential to keep the fire burning! If you imagine your metabolism is like a campfire – then the fat is that big old lump of damp wood you just threw on… Sure – it WILL burn, but it needs some “easy” fuel to keep the heat up.

This is the problem with most low calorie diets – and we’ve all heard the celebrity claims to be living on two celery sticks a day – but in the long run, these are not sustainable diet plans. In the beginning, your metabolism keeps going, so you may well lose weight. But in the longer term (and we’re only talking a few days to a week!) – your body will go into starvation mode, your metabolism will shut down and you will have too little energy to exercise. Then, when you drop off the wagon, every single calorie you eat gets stored as fat – so you can actually end up bigger than you were!

That was enough to convince me – but there is more… When you cut out too many calories, you are typically cutting out too many nutrients that your body needs too. Vitamins, minerals, oils – the things your body needs to build muscle, hair, nails and bones – definitely not good for your long term health.

All this comes back to one thing – you need to educate yourself and get a solid, healthy diet plan in place. Visit weight loss review sites and make sure that you find a good low calorie diet plan – you want to be healthy enough to enjoy your new body!