To Restrict Or Not To Restrict Calories?

• By vishwa on Nutrition

• November 8, 2010

My friend and Guru, Todd, said to me in our recent discussion that he lost 20 pounds in 3.5 days as he was under a high protein diet with lots of vegetables and gained 20 pounds again in three days. He did the latter by means of increasing his carbohydrate intake. Of course, the context of our discussion was entirely different from what I am trying to discuss here. I have to state that I would not employ such extreme means of fat loss. I am by no way suggesting that what he did was wrong, but such extreme means of dieting has its pitfalls to people in general, for people are not used to less, as most of you think that you are born to eat.

Athletes who have to reduce or increase their body weight, boxers and martial artists, within a short time employ such drastic methods to get into the required body weight group. And I have personally seen that in a weeks time I can reduce my body fat, which would mostly be fat, up-to 3 to 4 kilos. I can do this by playing around with my calories and bringing in some changes in my exercise regime.

What Am I trying to state here? I know that those of you who are fat the above statements can be sounding to be beyond your reasoning and chances are that you may dismiss the above finding to be entirely false, for you cannot fathom such outcome. Believe me, the more you are into physical training and aware about your caloric intake, the more you will learn about how your body exactly responds. It may take several years to accomplish it, but once you know how your body functions, then you should also know that you can change your body composition at will, for gaining and losing weight will be relatively easy.

As I stated above such extreme means of fat loss can be counterproductive. You may feel enervated, irritated, lose interest in your work, have food cravings, and sweet tooth. Chances are that you may end up gaining more weight than you would have lost. This being the reason I don’t recommend anyone to cut down their calories and lose weight, rather I would suggest them to be physically active and burn the fat. In addition, the need of the hour is to eat sensibly, which means to avoid eating junk food, start eating protein in every meal, consuming moderate amount of carbohydrates, and eating lots of vegetables will help to lose fat the healthy way.