Do You Eat Enough to Fuel Your Body?

When you first start on a weight management plan, it’s easy to look at calories as your enemy. In fact, many people fall into the trap of actually consuming too few calories, which can make it harder to lose weight, especially over time. Your body needs to have fuel in order to run properly and if it doesn’t you may notice that you just don’t feel right, and that you don’t have enough energy. This makes it hard to stick to your diet, and if you are too deprived, you may actually be slowing down your own metabolism.

The first step to take is to figure out your basal metabolic rate. This is the bare minimum of calories that your body needs for basic functions, such as running your brain, keeping your heart beating and keeping everything running smoothly. It’s not wise to drop below your basal rate, particularly for any extended period of time. This will end up slowing your system down and you may find it impossible to lose weight. In fact, many people that plateau may have simply reached their basal rate and they are not eating enough to lose weight.

You can find a basal metabolic rate calculator online that will help you determine your basic needs. They will need information such as your height, current weight, your age and how much exercise you get. Be honest so that you can get a good idea of just how many calories you really need. If you do need to burn fat, it is acceptable to go a little below that basal rate, but you should never drop below 1200 calories. You can also add more exercise to increase the amount of calories that you burn, which will actually help you raise your metabolism.

Once you determine what your daily basic needs are, you’ll be able to start working on a basic diet plan that will provide you with the weight loss you need, without sacrificing your health as a result. Try not to go more than 500 calories less than your basal rate, and instead, add more exercise to help you burn more calories.

Some signs that you are not consuming enough calories can be a headache, which is common when you are suffering from a lack of protein, general tiredness, fatigue, simple malaise and generally just not feeling up to snuff. While it is common for your body to through a few of these changes initially when you start a weight loss plan, within a week or so you should actually start to feel energized. If you don’t, you may not be eating enough to keep your body functioning properly.

While we all want to lose weight quickly, it is much smarter to take the time that it takes, watch your caloric intake and make sure that you don’t go overboard when it comes to cutting those calories. Your body needs fuel if you want to get healthy.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-10-29 05:32:03. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts
  • The 8 Minutes in the Morning Diet The 8 Minutes in the Morning Diet was created by Jorge Cruise. He makes a personal guarantee that you will lose a full two pounds every single week without having to deprive yourself of food or count your calories when you follow his 8 Minutes in the Morning Diet. All......
  • feelgoodlookgreatLose Weight, Look Good and Feel Great! It is the goal of many people to lose weight, look good and feel the best they can. The problem is that this goal is hindered by distorted interpretations of what is good. Every one knows what good body shape is, and there are countless diets, exercise machines, and other......
  • Full Body StretchTrim Your Waist By Avoiding These Pitfalls Nearly everyone wants to lose inches off their waist and there are many schools of thought on how to accomplish this. Many people believe that the best way to trim your waist is to do hundreds if not thousands of sit-ups or crunches, but in reality, this method will......
  • holiday-feastThe Holidays Are Coming - How to Stay on Your Diet The most wonderful time of the year is almost here, but for thousands of dieters, this is no time for joy. This is a time of dreading holiday parties, of adding ten pounds or more to their frames and generally being miserable. The holidays don’t have to be synonymous with......
  • waterWater's Role in Weight Loss Water is an extremely important element that is absolutely vital when it comes to losing weight. Most people are aware of the fact that cutting down on calories and exercising are necessary for weight loss, but they often eventually run into a plateau, which can occur for a number of......
Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites
  • Daddy, I'm Too Busy For Exercise NowAre You Too Busy for Exercise? [caption id="attachment_255" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Daddy, I'm Too Busy For Exercise Now"][/caption] Don't Let Being Too Busy Derail Your Exercise Routine One of the most common complaints that many people have is that they are simply too busy for proper exercise. I know that I always have about 600 blogging tasks......
  • RateLadder.com LoanNew Loan Funded — payoff current loan and new invest on business — $25,000 at 29.00% — E Credit — DTI 37% My very first E credit loan... A new loan funded (payoff current loan and new invest on business — $25,000 at 29.00%).  I participated via a manual bid (lured by the excellent extended credit and interest rate?).  The borrow had E credit and 37% DTI.  As a reminder my standing orders only......
  • Will Your Retirement Nest Egg Be "Puny"? Financial Planners are Not Happy with Retirement Planning by U.S. Workers I don't really enjoy starting the weekend with bad news but it seems that financial planning professionals are now openly complaining about their clients.  They are complaining about working adults of all ages.  They seem to be particularly upset with......
  • accountantManaging Your Finances and Your Future One of the hardest things for many of us to do is to manage our finances properly. It can be hard if you’ve had no training and you’re used to just spending freely, whenever you want. There are thousands of people out there that can’t balance their checkbooks let alone......
  • 5 Things to Consider if You Want to Own a Franchise Three friends of mine were looking at buying a sandwich franchise together. They interviewed the owner several times and pored over his accounting books to determine if this is going to be a good financial decision for them. Eventually, they decided the franchise was not the right opportunity for them......
Online Stores If you liked this article, vote for it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon.

Time the change your life? No longer content to live a sedentary lifestyle and revel in couch potatoism? Click here to download the 31 page the 100% FREE eBook "How to Lose Weight and Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle."

Tips For Picking the Right Foods

If you are focusing on losing weight and making lifestyle changes, the first two weeks are undoubtedly the hardest. Your body and your mind need time to adjust to your diet, and this initial period requires a lot of motivation and a desire to stick to your new plan. Anytime you make lifestyle changes, it [...]

Continue reading → Tips For Picking the Right Foods



Is Natural Weight Loss Possible?

With all of the medical advances out there, and the concern over side effects, many people are getting interested in natural weight loss methods. While there are a few out there that are thinly veiled scams, natural weight loss can be possible, when you have the right foundation and the right outlook.
One of the biggest [...]

Continue reading → Is Natural Weight Loss Possible?



Making Winter Fitness Plans

As summer winds to a close, it’s time to start thinking about what you plan to do to keep fit over the winter. If your current exercise plan requires you to be outdoors, or if you live in an area where extreme temperatures or weather events make it hard to travel to a gym, it’s [...]

Continue reading → Making Winter Fitness Plans



Is Swimming The Ultimate Exercise?

When it comes to finding the right workout plan, it may be a good idea to consider giving swimming a try. As the nation watched Mark Phelps make history in 8 swimming events, more people started getting interested in just how good swimming can be for your body. As you can see from the shape [...]

Continue reading → Is Swimming The Ultimate Exercise?



Books: Get Your Motivation Back!

With January over, many people will be either be well on the way to making their new years resolutions or have already ditched them. If you’re part of the first group, good for you! You deserve many kudos for sticking with your diet and exercise plan. If you’re in the second group, now’s the time [...]

Continue reading → Books: Get Your Motivation Back!



Saint Tropez Diet By Apostolos Pappas, PhD.

The Saint Tropez diet has gotten it’s fair share of press, most likely due to the fact that it’s another one of the diets that claims that eating the right food will make your body do all the work so you don’t have to. But is that claim rooted in scientific fact? The author makes [...]

Continue reading → Saint Tropez Diet By Apostolos Pappas, PhD.



Reverse Diet Review

Pros -

Users felt that this diet was simple for them to understand.
Users felt like the food in this diet was tasty.
Users felt that the level of exercise required in this diet was acceptable.
Users felt that this diet made them feel healthier over all.
Users felt that this diet offered a great amount [...]

Continue reading → Reverse Diet Review



Wickedly Spooky Halloween Roundup

Happy Sunday to all my readers! Today’s all about the roundup. As usual we have the Fitness Health Network of which I am a part of so go ahead and browse through the posts. You’ll find they have a lot of great things to say. A little further down are some posts from reader blogs. [...]

Continue reading → Wickedly Spooky Halloween Roundup



Learn to Automate Your Eating Habits

If you want your diet and exercise effort to work the way you intend for it to, then eating right has to become something that is as automatic for us as it was for our ancestors. It may seem like an insurmountable achievement, but really, it’s a lot easier than you may initially imagine. According [...]

Continue reading → Learn to Automate Your Eating Habits



Email Updates