FAT LOSS (1b) YOUR BIGGEST MISTAKE

VERY LOW CALORIE DIET ; FAT LOSS SABOTAGE

When we're bombarded with images of gorgeous celebrities who seem to lose weight in record time, it's no wonder we're often tempted to cut our already low calorie intakes in an effort to shift an extra pound or two each week.But surprisingly, rather than helping us to reach our target weight more quickly, severely restricting calories actually prevents our bodies from burning unwanted fat stores effectively - and unfortunately, this means that weight loss slows down.

Why does a very low calorie intake slow down weight loss?

Quite simply, your body goes into 'starvation mode'. This mechanism, which is thought to have evolved as a defence against starvation, means the body becomes super efficient at making the most of the calories it does get from food and drink. The main way it does this is to protect its fat stores and instead use lean tissue or muscle to provide it with some of the calories it needs to keep functioning. This directly leads to a loss of muscle, which in turn lowers metabolic rate so that the body needs fewer calories to keep ticking over and weight loss slows down. Of course, this is the perfect solution if you're in a famine situation. But if you're trying to lose weight, it's going to do little to help you shift those unwanted pounds.

So how many calories should I have to prevent starvation mode?

Unfortunately, there's no single answer to this question. As everyone's metabolism varies in the first place, so too will the point when the body starts to use muscle to provide it with calories in a 'famine-type' situation. That's why WLR works out suitable calorie intakes for each member on an individual basis and never lets you opt to lose more than 2lb a week, which would require a severely restricted calorie intake. In other words, if you stick to the calorie intake recommended by WLR, you can be sure your body won't go into starvation mode.

As a general rule though, most nutrition experts recommend never going below 1,000-1,200 (if you are on a fitness program then 1400 calories for women and 1700 calories for men)calories a day if you're dieting on your own. It's also worth bearing in mind that the body doesn't suddenly 'enter' and 'leave' starvation mode it's a gradual process - so you don't need to panic if you do go below your calorie intake very occasionally.

So what happens my body on fewer than 1000 calories a day?

• Your metabolism slows down to conserve energy.
• Your body uses blood sugar, made from carbohydrates, for fuel just as a car uses gas (petrol). Without blood sugar, the brain and central nervous system, as well as other bodily systems, will cease to work efficiently.
• To try to counteract the lack of blood sugar from carbohydrates in the diet, your body will break down fat, which is what you want, but it will also breakdown muscle and other lean body tissue.
• Losing lean body tissue can be very dangerous. Even organs can be broken down to use as fuel.
• Losing lean body tissue can also be counter-productive. Muscle tissue increases the resting metabolic rate. With reduced amounts of muscle, your metabolism will slow. When you come off the diet, increased fat cells will form because your metabolism is slow and so your body needs less blood sugar for fuel. It is also a survival mechanism in case of another 'famine'.
• With very low calorie diets, an imbalance in minerals and electrolytes can occur, which can be dangerous. These govern the balance of fluids in the body allowing nerves and muscles to function.
• Osteoporosis can be another danger, especially for women. Often dairy products like eggs, milk and cheese are cut out of a very low calorie diet so cutting out a major source of calcium leading to loss of bone mass.
• Anaemia (a lack of iron in the blood) can also be another risk. If taken to extremes, women can find that menstuation (periods) becomes irregular or stops altogether.
• A lack of serotonin in the brain can be another problem which leads to clinical depression.
• You might find that the lack of essential nutrients on a very low calorie diet leads to a deterioration in the condition of your hair and nails.
• One of the great dangers of this kind of dieting is that you can become acclimatised to it. As your body reduces some of its functions, including those of the brain and nerves, and as depression takes hold due to a lack of serotonin, you can slip into anorexia nervosa - a truly life threatening condition.
• As mentioned above, when you finally come off this diet, you will almost certainly regain all the weight you have lost plus more leading to yoyo dieting, now believed to be dangerous.

What's the link between muscle and metabolism?

The metabolic rate - the rate at which the body burns calories - is partly determined by the amount of muscle we have. In general, the more muscle we have, the higher our metabolic rate; the less muscle we have, the lower our metabolic rate. This explains why men, who have a high proportion of muscle, have a faster metabolism than women, and why a 20-year-old has a higher metabolism than a 70-year-old - again, they have more muscle.

Ultimately, muscle burns a lot more calories than fat so when we lose muscle, our metabolic rate drops and we burn fewer calories. In fact, research shows that the body loses a proportionately high amount of muscle with a very low calorie intake and this may considerably suppress metabolism by up to 45 percent.

This explains why it's crucial to do as much as you can to protect your metabolic rate, especially when you're dieting. And this means dieting sensibly with a suitable, rather than a very low calorie intake so that you lose fat rather than muscle.

Is there anything else I can do to stop losing muscle when I'm dieting?

As well as making sure you have sufficient calories to burn fat rather than muscle, it's also possible to build muscle, which in turn boosts metabolism. And the way to do this is, of course, to increase the amount of exercise you do. While areobic activities such as jogging, swimming, fast walking and aerobic classes help to tone muscle and burn fat, strength or resistance training in particular will increase the amount of muscle you have in your body. And this is good news because for every extra 1lb of muscle you have, your body uses around an extra 50 calories a day! This means an extra 10lb of muscle will burn roughly an extra 500 calories a day without you doing anything - and that's a sufficient amount to lose 1lb in a week.