Your Body Hates You

The above statement is one that I like to use often, and is one that I "stole" from Lyle McDonald.

I like to use it whenever someone asks me why it's a bad idea to not eat when trying to lose weight (more specifically fat). I can understand the rationale of some people who feel that the best way to lose weight is to just flat out not eat. It makes complete sense, really. I mean if someone has around 40 lbs of fat to lose, surely the body will just use the excess fat as fuel and burn it off faster than Britney Spears can totally bomb her big "comeback."

Thing is your body hates you and is waaaaaay smarter than you. When you reduce calories too low, the body doesn't realize that you're doing so in order to look good in a bathing suit. It views this drastic drop in caloric intake as you going into starvation mode, and it will do everything in its power to keep that from happening. How?

One word: Leptin

Leptin is a protein based hormone that is made in your fat cells (of all places) and one of its main jobs is to communicate information to your brain (via leptin receptors located on fat cells), such as how much body fat you have and how many calories you're currently taking in per day. The more body fat one has or the more calories he or she is taking in per day, the more leptin that is floating around in the body; and vice versa. It should be noted that caloric intake controls leptin levels a bit more than overall body fat levels.

To make a long (and very complicated) story short, when someone drastically reduces their caloric intake in an attempt to shed body fat, leptin levels can drop as much as 50% within 1-2 days. As a result, the body goes into "panic" mode and sends a signal to your brain that you're starving and will basically go into preservation mode telling your body to starting storing fat (rather than burning it off). Side note: your body will also start burning off muscle, which is the last thing you want it to do. This is why diets that call for a drastic reduction in calories or when someone basically doesn't eat in the hopes of shedding body fat doesn't work in the long run.

Obviously there are many other variables that I could (and should) elaborate on, but the resounding conclusion to take home is that you can not go against millions of years of human evolution and expect to come out the winner when following less than optimal protocols.

So what is one to do?

Well for starters, don't listen to anyone who wears sunglasses indoors. It's dumb and they should not be trusted. Secondly, take dieting breaks every few weeks and bring caloric levels back up to maintenance levels. Doing so will not only keep you sane, but will provide many physiological advantages as well (bringing leptin levels back up to normal). Thirdly, lift weights. What makes muscle, keeps muscle. Don't be lame and lift pink dumbbells for 20 reps or go out and run a marathon everyday (ever notice how those people still kind of look "skinny fat?"). Go to the gym, lift some heavy weights, scare people, and go home.