No, it doesn’t.
Anyone who has battled obesity, including sportsmen who must go through a cutting period after gaining some muscle mass, may find it extremely difficult to lose weight.
And as a personal trainer and strength coach, I frequently get inquiries from folks wondering if they can accelerate their weight reduction by going on a starvation diet.
Although the concept of practically reducing your calorie intake is alluring, most individuals are unaware of how this works, or the risks involved.
Read on to find out what this investigation has found.
Does Starvation Cause Belly Fat Loss?
When you starve, you will initially shed some belly fat, but that impact may go fast. Even worse, the effects of weight reduction might have an impact on your organs and lean body mass. In a moment, more on these negative effects. Usually, when you eat fewer calories, your body is forced to use stored fat as energy.
That’s a fantastic characteristic of the human body, allowing us to gain weight in the summer and fall to get ready for the fact that there won’t be as much food available in the winter. However, your body will perceive it as a threat if you completely stop eating and go on a starvation diet.
Additionally, research has indicated that excessive and extended calorie restriction diets may cause the body to retain fat. As a result, you might not lose weight nearly as effectively as you would if you limited your calorie intake less severely.
What Effect Does Hunger Have on Your Body?
You won’t merely restrict weight loss if you eat so little that you’re starving. You also need to watch out for possible negative effects.
Biological adaptation
According to studies, the first weight loss that results from dramatically reducing your food intake might be rather substantial. However, the basal metabolic rate (BMR) alters when the body becomes aware of what is happening. This implies that you don’t burn as many calories, which restricts how much weight you can shed and establishes a ceiling for your body fat percentage.
Organ Performance
Vital organs may begin to contract in size to conserve energy when you lose weight, and your body begins to burn less calories. Although it’s unknown how soon this occurs, several of these organ size decreases have the potential to develop into a major problem that results in long-term harm.
Behavioral Effects
Another thing to think about is the possibility of mental health problems and eating disorders when you take drastic measures to lose weight, such as not eating at all. Obsessing over fat metabolism and decreasing belly fat might ultimately result in serious psychological issues and issues with self-esteem, however, it’s not a certain negative effect.
Body mass
Bodybuilders and high-performance athletes need to be aware of this in particular. You will lose weight quickly in the form of lean body mass if your calorie intake is drastically reduced to almost nothing. And when your body starts getting its energy from lean muscle, things can get really bad for your general health.
When you starve yourself, you may go without food for several days or even a week in some situations.
At first, a diet with so few calories may help you achieve your weight loss objectives, but as your metabolism adjusts to the lower energy levels, fat loss may slacken. Contrarily, intermittent fasting entails extending the interval between your final meal of the day and your first meal of the following day.
Say, for illustration, that you consume your evening meal at 6 o’clock and then just consume water thereafter. The following morning after waking up, you wait until 10 or 11 am to eat breakfast.
Or perhaps you skip breakfast and wait until lunchtime at 1 o’clock.
In contrast to starving yourself, you will still be eating a healthy diet but with fewer calories. Your metabolic rate shouldn’t be much affected, and you’ll burn calories more effectively, especially if you exercise while fasting.
Are Starvation Diets Effective?
No, starving diets don’t actually help you lose weight. A certain combination of macro- and micronutrients is extremely important to your body. Lean muscle mass and other fat-free mass, such as organs, will also likely be lost along with any body fat that you do lose.
Additionally, it’s not unusual for people to go on a starvation diet and then gain weight more quickly when they resume eating. Once they overeat to compensate for their deprivation, the weight they had lost is returned, and their body mass increases instead.
Safer and Healthier Methods of Weight Loss
Healthy Dieting
Maintaining a calorie restriction diet that starts with a 10% calorie deficit is the single most crucial aspect of lasting weight loss. Your body still receives all the nutrients it requires to maintain normal organ and muscle function in this way.
After a week of doing that, you can reduce your calorie intake further, but I would only go down by approximately 30% to 40%.
That’ll be tough enough to sustain without suffering from hunger.
You could try using a natural fat burner product as well. These products frequently include substances that reduce your appetite and aid in weight loss.
Physical Activity
The next thing you must do is schedule at least three aerobic workouts every week. You’ll need to stay active and perform a lot of gentle exercise on the remaining days. One of the simplest methods to burn more calories and more fat is to do this.
It will take 4-5 visits to the gym for bodybuilders in a cutting phase, but you still want to maintain the same intensity with a little less weight and a few more reps to reduce the fat mass.
Short Summary
When trying to lose weight quickly, many people who suffer from fat storage turn to severe diets.
A calorie deficit diet and how much you consume determine your body weight in significant part, but starvation has consequences that many people are unaware of.
There are other, safer, and more efficient methods of weight loss without hunger.