Do you believe the statement that low calorie diets will actually make you fatter? To get rid of fat, the law of energy balance states you have to consume fewer calories than you burn. In essence, you must have a "calorie deficit" to burn fat off your body.

However, how you establish a calorie deficit has a major impact on whether or not you lose fat. Whenever you decrease your caloric intake your body thinks you're starving! When you do something extreme to your body (like hardly eating) your metabolic rate slows down in order to protect you. This defense mechanism is also known as the “starvation response." When your body senses starvation mode it may respond by:

1. Releasing fewer fat-releasing and/or fat-burning enzymes such as hormone sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase.
2. Releasing less of the hormone leptin (which under normal circumstances is the chemical responsible for signaling your brain that you are well fed and not starving).
3. Releasing less of the hormone T3 (the active form of thyroid hormone – known as the metabolism-regulating hormone).
4. Using muscle as fuel. Muscle is metabolically-active tissue, which means it takes a lot of energy just to keep it. When your body senses “starvation” it responds to the energy crisis by making muscle tissue expendable and your body cannibalizes its own lean tissue.
5. Increasing appetite hormones. When you're body senses starvation a part of your brain (the hypothalamus) switches into high gear and stimulates your appetite – sometimes to the point where you become ravenous and cannot fight these physiological cravings with willpower.

It is metabolically and physiologically impossible to achieve permanent fat loss by starving yourself. Any program that's extremely low in calories may work in the short term but in the long run, very low calorie diets can actually make you fatter.

Eventually, they lead to binge eating and weight re-gain and you end up with less muscle and a slower metabolism than when you started. The truth is, you don’t have to starve yourself to get a lean body. In fact, you can eat more and burn more fat!

Here's how:

• Avoid very low calorie diets. Any diet that suggests “starvation level caloric intakes (1200 or less for women and 1800 or less for men) is counter-productive. And, even if you’re trying to lose weight remember that active people need more calories.
• Customize your energy intake to your activity level, age and gender. Your caloric needs may be much higher or lower than the average person. If a diet program recommends the same amount of calories for everyone - that should be a red flag to stay away.
• Decrease your caloric intake just a little below maintenance. Decrease your calories conservatively – by only about 10-20% below your daily maintenance level. A mild calorie cut doesn't trigger the starvation response.
• Increase your calorie deficit more by increasing activity (rather than decreasing intake). If you're not doing so already, you should include strength training with weights at least three times per week. Second, you should do at least three moderate to vigorous cardiovascular workouts a week. Third, if you wish to accelerate fat loss more, or if you need to break a progress plateau, you bump up your activity even further by adding additional cardio sessions or increasing the intensity or duration of your current workouts.

The secret to permanent fat loss is to burn the fat not starve the fat. Eat more, burn more instead of eat less, exercise less.

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