When trying to get into that dress, or get that beach body in time for the holidays it can be tempting to drastically cut calories and more or less starve yourself until you get there. Unfortunately this is very common, and the rise of photoshopped celebrity photos is not helping the cause.
We know that you must take in less energy (calories or kilojoules) that what you require throughout the day in order to lose weight but taking this to the extreme can do more harm than good!
The rise of the photoshopped celebrity selfie role models
Each individual has different energy requirements depending on age, gender, body composition and activity level. In order to lose weight you need to take in less energy so that the body can burn stored energy (fat) as an energy source. Although it may be tempting to reduce your energy intake by skipping a meal or two you could do serious damage to your metabolism and negate any weight loss.
This is especially important if you are a parent with a teenage kids who look up to celebrities showing off their *perfect* un-realistic and quite frequently photoshopped physiques on social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
How starving yourself actually makes you store more fat
We live in a world where it is easy to access food – it’s everywhere – in the fridge, pantry, the corner shop or the supermarket but it wasn’t always like this. Think back to the days where humans had to hunt for their food – they were not able to simply visit the shop to pick up a meal. Back in this period where we had to hunt for our own food there was a risk of not having food for long periods of time. Those individuals who were good at storing fat (stored energy for later) were more likely to survive as they would last longer when there were gaps in food supply. This means that in times of starvation humans can be prone to storing and conserving body fat stores.
Coming back to present day we have ample food available but our bodies will still work in the same way. If you deprive your body of food (and energy) to the point where you are starving yourself your body will revert back to its survival mechanism and try to conserve as much of its stored body fat, for as long as it can. This may also cause trouble with your metabolism – your body needs food to ensure that metabolism occurs properly.
The vicious cycle of starving yourself
If you completely deny yourself food you will get grumpy, irritable and may be more likely to binge on food. And this has two direct consequences:
-It develops a feeling bad reward pattern causing you to hit the snacks unconsciously when times get tough
-And by bingeing on sweet and savoury snacks you are much more likely to gain weight leading to an endless cycle of starving, bad mood, need for comforting foods, weight gain.
Instead, break out of the cycle and treat your body as a temple
So what should you do? Our experts agree that instead of looking for drastic improvements and wanting the celebrity toned look, its much more effective to take a more holistic approach.
Treat your body as a temple, and feed it daily with great tasting healthy foods, stimulate it with daily exercise, and nurture the soul with fun activities, socialising with friends, meditation or a good book.
If you do need to take in less calories aim to eat regular meals (and snacks if you need them), consume more nutrient dense foods and less treated foods watching your portion size.
These changes don’t have to be drastic, and actually work best if you start small and focus on incremental improvements. As BJ Fogg, PhD who has studied human behaviour for 20 years at Stanford University puts it, tiny habit changes can lead to monumental improvements in the long term!
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