Tell me about a 'calorie crash'...

Can someone please explain this in more detail to me? I think I understand the basics of it (i don’t want to do it) but I would still like someone with more knowledge to fill me in on all the details.

If your talking about drastically reducing your daily calorie intake to a very small number, aka a crash diet, it’s a bad idea.

You might lose a lot of weight at first, but your body will not only be burning fat, but also muscle (which, of course is bad). Also your metabolism (how fast your body burns calories) will slow waaaay down. So then when you do eat a regular amount, your body’s slow metabolism won’t burn the calories and they will get stored as fat. You will put the weight back on as fat (but you don’t gain back the muscle you lost).

And since you have less muscle, it will be harder to lose weight in the future.

Ok. That makes a lot of sense now. Thanks!

ps: the cake is a lie

Good thing I read this – I don’t want to do that to myself either!

Ha…I officially love you though detox…

THE CAKE IS A LIE!

What about zig zag or calorie shifting diets? I read a bit about that. You drastically reduce calories for a period of a few days (3-5?) then increase for a few days then back down. It supposedly keeps your body guessing and therefore keeps metabolism high.

bulldog: sorry buddy, that’s just not true. All diets are fads because at the end of the day there is only one thing driving your body, and that’s science facts.

Proper Nutrition isn’t a fad. Eating clean, ‘whole’ foods in a 30/30/30 macro nutrient breakdown (protein, carbs, healthy fats) with a 300 to 500 calorie deficit from your BMR – CONSISTENTLY – ALWAYS leads to fat loss (short of disease, etc).

That’s it – end of story, there’s no pill, book, patch, diet, magic, voodoo or prayer that will help you apart from these simple principles.

As for ‘crash’ diets (ie, starving yourself) – sure you’ll lose weight, of course, I’m not saying you won’t, but you’ll also ruin your health, liquify whatever muscle mass you have and eventually give up and binge again, or continue and become anorexic.

Excellent reply, cigaro78.

I keep reminding friends/family whom moan about their weight that “crash dieting” plus most of the other “manufactured hyped up celebrity diets” (reducing calories below your base metabolic rate) are generally a complete waste of time. Yes you’ll lose weight initially. Then your body adapts to burn less calories. Then you start eating again, and, hey presto, you put MORE weight on! Yo-yo effect.

Best idea (and healthiest by far) is to exercise REGULARLY – preferably weight-training – increase your muscle mass, and thus increase your base metabolic rate, and burn more calories. And EAT CLEAN as cigaro78 says! None of this manufactured processed CR*P that is supposedly food.

Good post by cigaro78.

Though one thing:

italics with a 300 to 500 calorie deficit from your BMR italics

Shouldn’t you say something like “consuming 300 to 500 fewer calories than you use each day”

Since BMR is the calories you need at complete rest to maintain your body weight.

A sedentary person will need bmr x 1.2 to maintain weight and a 300 to 500 calorie deficit from that to lose it.