Nutrition Myths - You Need to Starve Yourself to Lose Weight

Many people think that in order to lose weight, eating less is best. After all, you only lose weight when you burn more calories than what you consume. People trying to reduce their weight often make the common mistake of eating too little, thinking that this will help speed up their weight loss. This strategy usually backfires within a short period of time. Severely restricting the amount of calories consumed can dramatically decrease the amount of energy you have for working out or even doing daily physical tasks and can intensify food cravings (usually for the worst types of foods high in saturated fats and sugars). In addition, when people severely cut back the amount of food they eat, they can be unintentionally limiting their intake of important vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Studies show that weight loss occurs over a period of time measured in weeks or months. Thus, significantly cutting back the amount you eat over a few days will not have a significant or immediate impact on your weight. The better way to lose weight is to eat enough food to provide the calories and nutrients for you to be strong and healthy to do your workouts, but just a few hundred calories less than what you need to maintain your current weight.