Posts Tagged ‘glycogen’

What are the potential hazards from eating too little to lose weight? We often hear that the best program to lose weight once and for all is to limit the intake of calories (eat less than the daily requirement of calories) and exercising regularly.

If you eat too much when you try to lose weight or stabilize your weight, the calories you eat will be used to ensure your survival, and very little muscle glycogen is stored. Muscle glycogen (with reserves from the carbohydrate consumed) energy is preferred for most exercise, and when there are few, you feel exhausted and are obliged to reduce the intensity of your exercise accordingly.

You might know that muscle glycogen depleted gradually during prolonged endurance exercise such as running a marathon. However, few people still know the depletion of glycogen may also occur on several days of training, when the break (out of reserves) exceeds the replacement of glycogen (filling of reserves), as happens when you follow a calorie diet too.

Your glycogen stores fell more and more over time when you go on a diet too strict and before you know it, your legs might be as petrified as tree trunks and you have pain when you do the exercise. As a result, you might end up doing less and less physical exercise before giving up completely. It is therefore a great danger associated with eating too little to lose weight.

Chronic fatigue is not the only danger on account of wanting to eat enough to lose weight. When you eat too little, your body slows its metabolism (the rate at which it burns calories) for up to 30%. The slowdown continues even during a time after the end of your plan.

Another danger from eating enough to lose weight when you stop a restricted diet (a diet too low calorie or excludes many important nutrients), you may find that you gain more weight than you have lost even if you don ‘have not eaten more than you did before starting the diet. Once your body gets used to getting fewer calories, your calorie intake above are higher than what you need now.

You may also lose a number of problems if you ever plan. Repeated cycles of weight loss and weight gain (called the yo-yo) can get your body resist degreasing extra weight. It is a phenomenon already observed by studies on animals as on humans.