The general consensus on weight loss is that you must create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. But there is also evidence that if you consume too few calories your body will respond by burning less calories and conserving energy by lowering your metabolism.

So how do you effectively reduce your caloric intake enough to lose weight yet still consume enough to keep your metabolism in high gear? Well here are some general pointers to consider and to investigate further.

First determine your RMR-that is your resting metabolic rate. Your RMR is the amount of calories your body requires to just maintain itself. Yes, breathing, digestion, your heart beating, your eyes blinking—all the normal stuff that means you are alive—all require a certain amount of calories. A general idea of your RMR is 10 x your body weight, for example if you weigh 150 lbs. your approximate RMR is 1500 calories. That is a general idea. Everyone is different and yours may be more or less but for an approximation that will work.

Then of course you need to add some calories for your level of activity, a small amount if you are sedentary or work at a job that is sedentary and more if you exercise or work at an physically demanding job.

The trick is to reduce your calories below what is required for your RMR and your activity level but not to go below your RMR. For example if your RMR is 1500 calories and with your added activity level your calorie level is 2300, reduce your calorie level somewhere below 2300 but stay above 1500.

I read recently that according to the World Health Organization the definition of starvation is below 1800 calories for a woman (it was more for a man, but since I’m not a man I didn’t pay attention, sorry). Anyway that was surprising to me. Most American women are in starvation mode everyday, me included! Has that affected our metabolism’s to the point that it has caused our weight problems? Everyone always says “eat less” but do we really need to ‘eat more’ to jumpstart our metabolism’s so we can just eat normally? Many of us are fearful to ‘eat more’. I mean what if I eat more and I wake up 10 lbs. heavier? But…..Wouldn’t it be nice if I ate more and my metabolism kicked into high gear and I lost weight easily and maintained weight loss easily because I now have a “fast metabolism”?

Wouldn’t that be nice!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 13th, 2006 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Nutrition, Weight Loss, 101 Ways, Women's Health, Health and wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.