I understand that you are somewhat desperate; many of us were at
some point, and it's not hard to understand why when someone's been
trying to lose weight, one way or another, for many years. At one point
it just kind of gets to you and you feel ready to do everything and
anything just to be done with it already. I was close to that very
moment myself at one point.
First I will tell you how fast you can expect to lose weight when starving yourself, and then I will show you why you really need to reconsider this approach.
When you starve yourself, you are basically consuming zero calories. Assuming your body's daily calorie requirement is 2,000 calories (this is calculated on an individual basis, I'm just using this number as an example), then by starving yourself you are depriving your body of exactly 2,000 calories.
Your body will then attempt to access those calories from a different source. First, it will attempt to tap into your body's fat reserves. But since the body is unable to burn more than approximately 1,500 calories per day directly from your fat reserves (this is an average number, by the way, and there is much more to it than that - I'm simplifying for the sake of the argument), your body will still need to access an extra 1,000 calories from somewhere, since it needs a total of 2,000 calories to function properly. And to gain those extra calories, the body will start burning your muscles.
So if you starve yourself, you can expect to burn around 1,500 calories from your body fat, and around 500 calories from your muscles per day. This means you will lose close to 3 pounds of pure fat per week (since there are 3500 calories in 1 pound of fat), about 3-4 pounds of muscle (since there are 800 calories in 1 pound of muscle), and tons of water weight. This means that when you starve yourself, and particularly if you are overweight or even obese, you can expect to lose around 10 pounds per week for the first few weeks - after that, it's anyone's guess, as the body will be so wound down from this process that nothing will function properly.
As you see, you are going to lose a TON of muscle tissue in the process. This is the first reason why starving yourself is a terrible weight loss strategy. But what you should really be worried about is that when you enter starvation mode, your body will simply begin to malfunction - you'll begin to experience night terrors, start obsessing about food like never before, and begin to lose concentration and cognitive functions. If you keep up with it, you'll start getting muscle spasms, irregular heart beat, hallucinations (the brain won't have any energy so it will simply start messing up), and ultimately pass out and, soon enough, die.
Believe me, there are MUCH healthier and less risky ways to achieve your weight loss goal. There is a ton that can be done in as little as 4 to 8 weeks, and you'll be happier than ever if you do it the right way. You just need to use the right approach - and that doesn't necessarily equate to eating only vegetables and oatmeal every day, far from it actually.
First I will tell you how fast you can expect to lose weight when starving yourself, and then I will show you why you really need to reconsider this approach.
When you starve yourself, you are basically consuming zero calories. Assuming your body's daily calorie requirement is 2,000 calories (this is calculated on an individual basis, I'm just using this number as an example), then by starving yourself you are depriving your body of exactly 2,000 calories.
Your body will then attempt to access those calories from a different source. First, it will attempt to tap into your body's fat reserves. But since the body is unable to burn more than approximately 1,500 calories per day directly from your fat reserves (this is an average number, by the way, and there is much more to it than that - I'm simplifying for the sake of the argument), your body will still need to access an extra 1,000 calories from somewhere, since it needs a total of 2,000 calories to function properly. And to gain those extra calories, the body will start burning your muscles.
So if you starve yourself, you can expect to burn around 1,500 calories from your body fat, and around 500 calories from your muscles per day. This means you will lose close to 3 pounds of pure fat per week (since there are 3500 calories in 1 pound of fat), about 3-4 pounds of muscle (since there are 800 calories in 1 pound of muscle), and tons of water weight. This means that when you starve yourself, and particularly if you are overweight or even obese, you can expect to lose around 10 pounds per week for the first few weeks - after that, it's anyone's guess, as the body will be so wound down from this process that nothing will function properly.
As you see, you are going to lose a TON of muscle tissue in the process. This is the first reason why starving yourself is a terrible weight loss strategy. But what you should really be worried about is that when you enter starvation mode, your body will simply begin to malfunction - you'll begin to experience night terrors, start obsessing about food like never before, and begin to lose concentration and cognitive functions. If you keep up with it, you'll start getting muscle spasms, irregular heart beat, hallucinations (the brain won't have any energy so it will simply start messing up), and ultimately pass out and, soon enough, die.
Believe me, there are MUCH healthier and less risky ways to achieve your weight loss goal. There is a ton that can be done in as little as 4 to 8 weeks, and you'll be happier than ever if you do it the right way. You just need to use the right approach - and that doesn't necessarily equate to eating only vegetables and oatmeal every day, far from it actually.
About the author: Mark Nazzal specializes in 1 on 1 online weight
loss and fitness coaching. You can contact him for help with your
specific dieting or exercising issue through his website, where a large
number of helpful articles are also available: Help Me Lose Weight
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_J._Nazzal
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