What people don't seem to grasp is the fact that, say an individual was to lose a substantial amount of weight it does not mean they will instantly look lean. In fact, a lot of people who are a little overweight and lose weight by doing excessive cardio and are in a huge calorie deficit will not look 'lean' at all. This is because, when you lose the fat there's simply nothing underneath. Muscle creates this 'toned' look. Therefore, nutrition is essential when you're looking to 'tone up a bit for summer' it doesn't mean just go into a major calorie deficit and spend hours on the treadmill. Not only is that dangerous to you and your health, but it's just not effective, in the long term you'll be in a far worse situation, you'll feel crappy and you won't actually see the results you want.
When undergoing an extremely low calorie diet you will lose weight. In fact, initially you'll probably lose a lot of weight. A lot of people are encouraged by this and continue to reduce their calories. This weight will be fat, but a lot of it will be lean muscle tissue (the thing that makes you toned in the first place) When the scale goes down, often people will see this as a positive and continue lowering their calories. But what they don't realize is that their progress will be extremely short lived, not only are they losing lean tissue, but their metabolism will slow down in order to reserve energy. Your body is clever, it won't allow you just to keep losing weight at such a rapid rate. You'll hit a plateau and your calorie deficit will become more and more extreme just to see any kind of difference. Meanwhile, your body is still tapping into your lean muscle as an energy resource.
When you don't eat enough, your body will look into other ways to get its fuel from. This can mean altering other bodily functions. For instance when your body is in a stressed state it is far more likely to try utilize it's energy from glycolysis (carb reserves) rather than using the fat metabolism to burn fat. When your body doesn't have enough nutrients, you as a whole are weakened because it will take from many other processes going on in your body. You won't feel right, you won't train right, you won't reap the rewards at the gym.
Another factor to take into consideration is Leptin, this hormone circulates the body more so in calorie deficit, it's what gives us those hunger cravings and also signals a slowing metabolism. The way to decrease its presence? have a re-feed day, up your calorie intake for a day, you don't have to go crazy, it just means increasing your calories by 20-50%. This will give your metabolism the boost it needs.
High fat diets to get lean
Lots of studies have been conducted linking a high fat diet with a lower percentage body fat. It really does seem crazy but once explained it makes complete and utter sense. Even the process by which food energy is converted into metabolic energy requires essential fatty acids in the membranes of the mitochondria. So pretty much, fat oxidation (fat burn) requires fats. The body has a limited capacity to store carbs as a fuel source where as fat storage is unlimited. it is our secondary energy source, but a very important one. By eating a higher fat diet you can pretty much make your body rely on fat as a fuel rather than glucose or carbs as a fuel. I can truly clarify that a low fat diet isn't the way to go when you're looking to get lean. Don't be afraid of fat my friends.
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