Does Starving Yourself Help You Lose Weight?
In order to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. What if you totally cut down the calories? Well, you accelerate the weight loss, but rapid weight loss is not easy and healthy. Starving may provide you some short-term weight loss, but you will gain weight again once you start eating food.
The maximum weight loss your body can initiate in one day (either muscle or fat) is half a pound. The weight you lose more than this amount is water weight, but your body will start gaining weight once this water is replaced. Your body will not burn fat when you are starving because it requires fat to keep you alive. Body breakdowns muscle in the deficiency of fuel. The muscles get smaller. They utilize less energy and work less, letting you survive longer on the stored fat. Thus, you lose more muscle mass when you starve your body.
As per your metabolism, your body needs a specified amount of calories every day to carry out bodily functions such as –cellular repair, breathing, pumping blood, and hormone production. Starving leaves no energy for the body to perform these essential functions. When you starve for a few days, you can also experience dizziness, weakness, nutritional deficiencies, nausea, digestive distress, irritability, fatigue and depression. Undergoing a starvation diet for a long time can have a serious impact on your health and result in multiple organ failure and even death.
When you starve, your metabolism slowdowns to save energy and survive the professed famine. This happens within a few days after starting a starvation diet. Now, when you start eating, your body will keep that food stored until the next starvation period. Thus, you will gain weight even after consuming lesser calories.
As it is impossible to put on extra weight only in a few days, it is unlikely to lose weight quickly. The slower the rate of weight loss the more maintainable progression will be. When you lose weight slowly, you can maintain the changes for a long time without suffering from extreme feelings of deprivation.
How does slow or fast metabolism influence weight?
People often blame their slow metabolism for their weight gain. They have cut down their calorie intake and do regular exercise, yet they cannot lose weight, so they expertly conclude that they are not losing weight because of a slow metabolism! Is metabolism really the reason? And if so, is it possible to boost metabolism to lose weight faster? Well, metabolism is indeed associated to weight. But in contradiction of common belief, slow metabolism does not result in the weight gain. Although metabolism affects the body’s basic energy needs, it is food and physical activities that eventually determine how much you weigh.
What is metabolism?
Metabolism can be defined as a process by which the body converts food into energy. During this process, calories present in food are combined with oxygen for releasing energy. The number of calories utilized by body to carry out basic functions is termed as your metabolic rate or metabolism rate. Many factors determine the metabolism rate, including:
- Size and composition of the body
- Age and sex
- Physical activities performed by the body
- Food processing capacity of the body
Metabolism and body weight
Metabolism is a natural process. Your body has plenty of mechanisms that regulate metabolic rate to meet its needs. Unfortunately, weight gain is quite complicated. It is a combination of diet composition, hormonal controls and genetic makeup that somehow influence weight gain. Bodyweight is also affected by lifestyle such as: sleep patterns, stress and physical activities. All of these things cause an imbalance in the energy equivalence.
It is possible to lose weight by boosting the metabolic rate. For that, you will have to follow a weight loss diet plan which automatically boosts the metabolism. Certain foods are very effective in increasing the metabolic rate. So, sleep properly, eat sensibly, exercise regularly and maintain a healthy metabolic rate.