Have you ever tried to eat less to keep fit but your weight keeps bouncing back? Or do you end up gaining more weight after you have tried all the ways to keep fit, including not eating at all?

Many people often grumble, ‘I have been eating so little but why can’t I slim down? Is it possible to keep fit by eating less and not exercising? Why do I fail every time I try to keep fit?

In fact, there is nothing wrong to eat less, but everybody seems to be obsessed with dieting instead of eating less. It means we eat very, very, very little. Excessive dieting can cause two possible phenomena at the same time.   
The first phenomenon: Excessive dieting with excessive exercising.

Why is this not a good phenomenon? Because excessive dieting with excessive will cause your body to mistaken that you are in a starving state, and whatever you have eaten will turn into fat for storage as fat is the best source for storing energy. In another word, excessive dieting and excessive exercise will cause you to store fat more easily. It will also produce a ‘yo-yo effect’ that causes your body weight to go down speedily, but the weight lost will rebound quickly afterwards.  Hence, you will repeat the cycle of getting rid of your fat and having it back again, and your body weight will go up and down continuously. It’s a nightmare! 

The second phenomenon: Excessive dieting and not exercising at all
Each of us has our own basal metabolic rate (BMR). This means your body will still consume energy even when you are lying there without movement and without taking any food. BMR is the minimum energy required to maintain our lives (such as breathing, heartbeat, delivering of oxygen). The BMR for female is generally between 1000-1200 calories, and for male it will be between 1600-1800 calories. It is good to eat less when you want to lose weight, but it will not be advisable for you to eat below your BMR. When you are over dieting, your body will gain energy from your own muscles when there is lack of replenishment of energy from food. It will cause you to lose your muscles eventually.

The efficiency of energy consumption of muscles is 7-10 times higher than fat. Therefore, when you lose your muscles bit by bit, your BMR is declining too and the effectiveness of your energy consumption will become deteriorated. It will then be easier for your fat to accumulate. That’s why some people become fat even when they just drink plain water! 

Eating less will cause your body weight will decrease in short term, but it is only a false impression caused by loss in your muscles and body water. In fact, your body fat is increasing! You may appear thin but loaded with fats inside your body, makes you look soft and flabby, without muscles tone and sexy body shape. Is it really what you want? 

We all need to know a fact that we cannot be dieting for our whole life. If suddenly we were to take our meals properly one day, once the body receive energy, it will turn the food into fats and we will soon bounce back in our weight!

Many studies have proven that a control in diet needs to go alongside with regular exercise to maximize the effect of losing weight in the most sustainable and healthy manner. You can’t rely solely on diet to be successful in losing weight, it will only cause harmfulness and severe consequences to your body, like endocrine disorder, menstrual disorder, emotional instability, poor sleep quality, hair fall, dull-looking skin or complexion, and even anorexia nervosa, etc.

Lastly, you need to accept and cherish your own body, and cultivate the habit of having a balance diet and proper exercise. Don’t rely too much on excessive dieting to slim down. There is no prescription and there is no short cut, the emphasis is consistency, for keeping fit is a lifetime effort!