5 minute read
The Problems with Low-Calorie Diets
BY LISA KILGOUR, rhn
This is a question I often get: “How many calories should I be eating in a day? Is it 1,200? 1,500? Even 1,200 calories feels like a lot to me some days.”
For many people, a 1,200 calorie diet is a starvation diet, So why is 1,200 calories seen as something to strive for every day? Have you ever been on a lowcalorie diet? Or, have you ever attempted an ultra-low calorie diet, like 1,200 calories or less?
Chances are high that if you have, then eventually you got ravenously hungry. Super ravenous. Or had crazy cravings. Or maybe your energy plummeted.
Here’s the truth: 1,200 calories is way too low for the average human body to function properly. Waaaaaaaay too low. It’s actually the caloric needs of a toddler. Yes, I said that correctly—it’s the caloric needs for a 2- to 3-year-old child, not a fully grown adult.
But almost every diet and meal plan uses this number as the magic weight loss number. It’s so common that many people I talk to see 1,200 calories as something to strive for every day. They feel that 1,200 calories is the most they should eat in a day.
In reality, your body needs at least 1,200 calories to function properly if all you did was sit on the couch and watch TV. If you, say, walked to the kitchen and prepared a meal, then you’d need to eat more to deal with that energy output. Add a walk around the block or a trip to the gym and
LISA KILGOUR, rhn is one of Nature’s Fare Markets’ nutritionists and sought-after speaker and educator who helps people heal from diverse and complex health issues. She has spoken at TEDxKelowna and is the author of Undieting: Freedom from the Bewildering World of Fad Diets. Check out the nutritionist schedule on page three and book your free appointment today at naturesfare.com. Learn more: lisakilgour.com
now your body thinks you’re starving. Most people need 2,000 to 3,000 calories for their body and metabolism to function properly.
Yes, for most of us, a 1,200 calorie diet is a starvation diet. Cutting calories this low to lose weight is setting your body up for failure. Your body becomes desperate to get out of starvation mode and starts to entice you with food. Research has found that restrictive diets like this are the best predictor of weight gain in the future (I’m sorry).
So, where did this magic weight loss number come from? This was first proposed in 1920 by Dr. Lulu Peters, who recommended that all women count every morsel of food they eat and to eat no more than 1,200 calories. Countless health experts have followed Dr. Peters’ regime over the last 100 years, making it quite ubiquitous. and they don’t understand why the scale isn’t moving. They bring them to me for help and advice. And, on pretty much every single one of them, the most they’ve eaten in a day is 1,200 calories. Often much less than that.
This always breaks my heart. This is the chart of a very determined person, who is feeling hungry most of the day in the hopes that the scale will change. They’re doing what they were told to do perfectly, but it’s not working.
In the book Intuitive Eating, authors Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch urge readers to embrace the goal of developing body positivity and reconnecting with one’s internal wisdom about eating—to unlearn everything they were taught about caloriecounting and other aspects of diet culture and to learn about the harm of weight stigma.
Sure, at first you will probably lose weight on this very low-calorie diet…until your body decides enough is enough and slooooows your metabolism down so you’re not starving anymore. At that point, your weight plateaus and you might find it very easy to gain that weight back. Your body won. It didn’t like starving, so it rejigged its energy output to work under this low-cal regime.
It can be hard to tell the difference between healthy eating and dieting because the dieting industry has been around for 200+ years and it has influenced all parts of our food conversation. But, you can have a bit of a laugh at them too. If you take a look at all of the diets at once, you’ll see how ridiculous they are. to steer clear of the latest shiny new fad diet when it promises such an easy “solution”.
There’s a much better way—let your body guide you. No counting or starving, just eating whole food that you enjoy.
This means your grandmother, mother, and maybe even your great-grandmother lived under this terrible dieting “rule”. No wonder it’s so ingrained into our collective psyche.
New clients often show me calorie counting charts because they’re trying to lose weight
Lulu Hunt Peters (1873–1930) was an America doctor and author. She recommended that all women count every morsel of food they eat and to eat no more than 1,200 calories. Health “experts” have told us: • To eat only rice, potatoes, and vinegar • That ladies should never eat in public unless it’s lobster salad and champagne (yes, this was an actual recommendation and yes, it was made by a man) • To only eat cabbage soup • To trade potatoes for bacon, bread for fried chicken • To eat bars, shakes, and other expensive supplements instead of cooking real food
When you look at all of these diets all at once, it’s easy to spot (and, frankly, mock) a fad diet. But when you’re desperate to lose weight and/or feel better, it can be much harder To start, tune in and be curious about what your body is craving. There’s a reason your body is craving chocolate, potato chips, or candy. Sometimes it’s a nutritional deficiency like magnesium, sodium, or carbs. Other times those cravings pop up because your body is tired of feeling deprived and starving and it knows it can tempt you to eat those foods.
Adding more nutrient-dense whole foods to your day can curb your cravings…but so can saying yes to those foods. Saying no creates a stronger urge to eat them and you tend to eat more (to learn more about this idea, check out the book Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch). A pleasurably enjoyed square of chocolate can calm many cravings.
This is Undieting. This is real-life healthy eating. And this is heavenly.
