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How to Boost Your Metabolism on a Diet
By: John Barban
In order to lose weight you must eat less calories than you are currently burning off. This simple advice becomes complicated by the commonly held misconception of 'starvation mode'.
The basic idea with 'starvation mode' is this:
If you don't eat enough calories in a day your metabolism will slow down and end up storing most of what you eat as fat. Or when you eat very low calories for too long, and you go back to eating 'normally' you will store more fat than before.
This is absolutely ridiculous and illogical. Let me explain.
For starters, I could not find any scientific research that shows this happens at all.
Secondly; Your metabolism is mostly determined by your body mass. The amount of food you eat in a day has a very small impact on your metabolic rate and not enough to have any real impact on weight gain or loss.
If you lose muscle mass while you are dieting then yes your metabolism will decrease slightly. But a slightly decreased metabolism doesn't mean you will somehow just magically store more fat each time you eat. All it means is that you now need to eat less to maintain your new lighter bodyweight.
Third: "When you go back to eating 'normal' you will experience a rebound effect and store more fat". This is backwards thinking because there is no such thing as eating 'normal' For example: Lets say you weigh 200 pounds and you eat 3500 calories per day...and this is what you call eating 'Normal'
Now lets say you reduce your intake to 2000 calorie per day for 10 weeks, and now weigh 180 pounds (that would be a nice 20 pound weight loss!)
As soon as you go back to eating your 'normal' 3500 calories per day, you will eventually gain weight and weigh 200 pounds again.
This is not a rebound and has nothing to do with this idea of 'starvation mode'. Your body isn't all of sudden storing more fat, it is simply the amount of calories you need to eat to keep you at 200 pounds, vs the amount of calories you need to eat to keep you at 180 pounds.
The term 'starvation mode' is not even a scientific term, it is a term created by the diet and fitness industry. You can't even find this term written in nutrition or human physiology research.
It is this false idea of 'starvation mode' that is scaring people away from one of the most effective ways to lose weight in our society of food and diet confusion. And that new way to lose weight is fasting. Intermittent short term fasting is a an effective and easy way to lose weight. Short term fasting is an easy way to significantly reduce your calorie intake without any negative side effects to your metabolism. There is good research to indicate that is also can contribute many other healthful benefits.
The bottom line is that there is no harm done to your metabolism be reducing your calories intermittently mixed with days of eating 'normally'. This style of dieting also allows you to eat what you like, when you like, and helps remove the guilt many people have associated with eating. This may very well be one of the only true ways to lose weight and enjoy food all at the same time.
John Barban is a professional strength and conditioning coach and nutrition expert. He has extensive experience designing nutritional supplements and has developed his trademark workout for women 6 Minute Circuits. John is an expert contributor to http://www.efit-today.com/public/department59.cfm and recomends the diet program http://www.eatstopeat.com , and believes it is the best new diet for easy and effective weight loss.
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