Slashing the calories SLOWS fat loss?

Hi folks,

Yep, you’ve probably seen it in the media this week. Another piece of research has been published to further confuse those of us trying to adopt a healthy lifestyle! Basically it states that if we dramatically reduce our daily calorie intake (e.g. by 500 cal), then over time this can slow our metabolism (i.e. our calorie burning efficiency) or even causing it to plateau. 

Let’s clear it up & put it into context. This study is useful as it demonstrates that extreme / fad diets aren’t effective & are unsustainable. If you want to reduce your amount of body-fat, the best way is still to reduce your daily calorie intake by roughly 200cal (typically from any fatty & sugary foods).

To accelerate the process and make you fitter, involve different activities & exercise. The most effective exercises involve using the whole body working against a resistance as this will boost your metabolism, even at rest! Such ‘metabolic workouts’ are the latest trend hitting the fitness industry but should only be done with professional supervision. Also it’s worth remembering that you need to eat enough healthy foods for your working muscles to work & recover, so if you are reducing your calorie intake bear this in mind. Good indicators of too little calories are dizziness during workouts or prolonged muscle soreness after every session (not just from tough exercises).

If you’re a type company manager then use the above info to help out any groups of employees that are struggling to get healthier. Email it or put it on a poster to give them a helping hand – remember last week’s blog on workforce engagement?

Hope this tidy’s things up a bit,

James