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"Cutting more than 500 calories/day doesn't lead to sustainable results." Sure it does, if you KEEP IT low (enough). That's the problem with viewing a diet as

by m_eiman 18y ago

"Cutting more than 500 calories/day doesn't lead to sustainable results." Sure it does, if you KEEP IT low (enough). That's the problem with viewing a diet as something you do for a while, and the return to what you've always eaten. If you want to follow a diet to get permanent results, you need to do it for the rest of your life.

vidarh 18y ago
The point of the advice is that if you cut too much your body starts catabolism (destroying muscle tissue). Ever kg of muscle you lose reduces your basal metabolic rate, and so if you go on a really restrictive diet you will find that you can't go back up to what was previously your maintenance level without gaining weight again. Yes, you need to keep to A diet for the rest of your life to avoid adding weight back, but if you cut reasonably low amounts of calories of your maintenance level you will be able to go back to a much higher level when you've reached your target weight than if you cut a high amount of calories to get your weight loss.
- m_eiman 18y ago
  As somewhat of a sidenote: The currently most hyped diet in Sweden (and possibly other parts of the world too?) is LCHF - Low Carb High Fat (a variation on the Atkins and GI theme if I've understood it correctly) claims to be different from other diets. From what I've understood the idea is to eat practically no carbs, which will trigger something called ketosis in the body, which in turn supposed to be good. Read all about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-carbohydrate_diet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-carbohydrate_diet Whatever you do, don't start a diet debate with LCHF fans, they tend to be fairly fanatic :) (although in a curteous way, they'll overwhelm you with references to various studies, papers and whatnot).
- shard 18y ago
  This is why you must continue weight training while cutting, so that your body knows it needs to keep the muscle, and you can lose more fat than muscle. Your maintenance level will drop, but once you cut low enough, you can bulk back up and pack on more muscle than fat, which brings your maintenance level back up as well. Repeat this process until you are at the weight and bodyfat level you desire, then just maintain.

by m_eiman 18y ago

vidarh 18y ago

The point of the advice is that if you cut too much your body starts catabolism (destroying muscle tissue). Ever kg of muscle you lose reduces your basal metabolic rate, and so if you go on a really restrictive diet you will find that you can't go back up to what was previously your maintenance level without gaining weight again. Yes, you need to keep to A diet for the rest of your life to avoid adding weight back, but if you cut reasonably low amounts of calories of your maintenance level you will be able to go back to a much higher level when you've reached your target weight than if you cut a high amount of calories to get your weight loss.

m_eiman 18y ago
As somewhat of a sidenote: The currently most hyped diet in Sweden (and possibly other parts of the world too?) is LCHF - Low Carb High Fat (a variation on the Atkins and GI theme if I've understood it correctly) claims to be different from other diets. From what I've understood the idea is to eat practically no carbs, which will trigger something called ketosis in the body, which in turn supposed to be good. Read all about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-carbohydrate_diet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-carbohydrate_diet Whatever you do, don't start a diet debate with LCHF fans, they tend to be fairly fanatic :) (although in a curteous way, they'll overwhelm you with references to various studies, papers and whatnot).
shard 18y ago
This is why you must continue weight training while cutting, so that your body knows it needs to keep the muscle, and you can lose more fat than muscle. Your maintenance level will drop, but once you cut low enough, you can bulk back up and pack on more muscle than fat, which brings your maintenance level back up as well. Repeat this process until you are at the weight and bodyfat level you desire, then just maintain.