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Successful weight loss comes from a combination of healthy habits: daily activity, a reasonable calorie deficit, nutrient dense food options, and adequate hydration and sleep. But while people often talk about the things you should be doing to create a healthy lifestyle, it’s not often discussed which habits commonly tied to weight loss are actually making it harder to reach your goals. According to a registered dietitian, there’s one thing above all that you should avoid when trying to lose weight–and it’s not what you might think.
Restricting calories is one of the biggest inhibitors of healthy weight loss, according to registered dietitian Trista Best. While a calorie deficit is needed to actually cut down on pounds, restricting too intensely could actually have a backwards effect on your metabolism, making it harder to lose. Best explains, “We are told that a fast metabolism is best, while also being encouraged to restrict the amount of calories we take in to lose weight. These two pieces of weight loss advice can often be counterproductive because calorie restriction actually slows metabolism.”
If your metabolism has slowed down due to your diet, you’ll feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle to lose weight and keep it off, which can lead to even further restriction. Best explains, “Metabolism refers to that number of calories that someone needs to keep their bodies running efficiently and carry out normal daily life functions.” While everyone has a different metabolism and therefore a different number of calories needed to function, restricting past those calories for weight loss will actually have the opposite effect.
It may seem counterintuitive to maintain a higher number of calories for weight loss, but Best explains that your body adjusts to what you’re feeding it, and will begin to burn fewer calories in an attempt to avoid starvation. “To lose weight, there should be a calorie deficit, but this can come through dietary changes and exercise rather than calorie restriction,” she summarizes.
At the end of the day, healthy weight loss will be easier to maintain if you prioritize meeting nutritional goals and eating enough calories to sustain your daily activities, instead of drastically reducing your intake to try to lose weight more quickly. While this may provide faster results, deprivation will never be a long-term solution, and your body does not have to suffer in starvation mode for you to reach your goals.
