3 Reasons Why Eating Less Than 1000 Calories is a Waste of Time

When you want to lose weight, it can be tempting to drop your calorie intake extremely low. Most people reason that the less they eat the faster they’ll lose weight, but this is definitely not true.

If you’ve ever been tempted to do this, take a look at the following important reasons why eating less than 1000 calories is a waste of time.

Reason #1

The first and obvious reason is because your body needs more than 1000 calories to sustain itself. Yes, you could technically survive on 1000 calories or less, but you’d be extremely malnourished, weak, and sickly. Maybe you don’t mind that if it’s only for a short period of time while you lose weight? Then read on because the next reason might change your mind.

See: Calorie Deficit Calculator

Reason #2

Eating less than 1000 calories also sets you up for a major binge-fest. Did you know that many food cravings are caused by a deficiency in one or more nutrients? Did you know that many other food cravings are caused by uncomfortable emotions? Eating fewer than 1000 calories will certainly cause your levels of key nutrients to dip too low, but you’ll also feel irritable, stressed, fatigued, and deprived, which immediately makes you start craving certain foods with a vengeance! You may be able to deny those cravings for awhile, but they’ll just get stronger until you finally give in – and when you do give in, you’re probably going to eat everything in sight.

Reason #3

If those two reasons aren’t enough for you, eating too few calories is also a waste of time because of the damage you do to your metabolism. When you drop your calorie intake too low, your body immediately goes on high alert and slows everything down to conserve energy and protect vital organ functions. So even if you are able to drop a few pounds quickly at first, your weight loss will soon stall. Worse, as soon as you go back to a normal calorie intake, you’ll start GAINING weight because now your metabolism is slower than it was before so you can’t eat as many calories and maintain your weight.

As you can see, it really IS a waste of time to eat less than 1000 calories. There are many more effective ways to lose weight, like eating moderately and exercising to burn more calories. That is a formula that has worked for centuries and it will work for you too.

How Many Calories Should You Eat?
At a bare minimum, the general rule of thumb is that women should eat at least 1200 calories a day; men should eat minimum 1800 calories a day.

Do you exercise a lot? Have a job where you’re standing all day? You’d need to eat more than the minimum.

Use the FitWatch Total Daily Calorie Needs calculator to figure out how many calories a day you need to eat to maintain your weight.

Use the FitWatch Calorie Deficit Calculator to figure out how many calories a day you need to eat to lose weight. The calculator will not let you go below the minimum.

You can read more about calories here: How Many Calories Do You Need to Lose Weight?

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