Metabolism/fat burning

Question
Hello, I have sent you questions before, I don't know if you remember or not. But, my question today is, I've seen a lot of people say eating to low calories will make you gain weight because your body thinks you are starving and stores fat and slows your metabolism. Is this really true? If it is then how are anorexic people so deathly thin, and even though with crash diets you gain it back as soon as you stop, but they still lose weight for the small amount of time they are on the crash diet. So is this really true? Even if you eat low, if you exercise, doesn't exercise boost your metabolism, so wouldn't you still lose a lot of weight? Thanks for answering.

Answer
Louise,
When you radically cut back on your calorie intake your metabolism slows down- Which means that your body reduces the number of calories it needs to survive. At some point if you are really starving yourself (like an anorexic, you will go below that number of calories- so you will continue to lose weight.

The issue is that as soon as you resume eating even a few more calories over this low metabolic number, you will gain weight and because your body thinks you are starving it will be less willing to burn the fat for energy- which means your body will use protein from your muscles for energy instead- which reduces muscle mass- which lowers your metabolism. It becomes a downward spiral.

The best way to lose weight is to eat a sane amount of calories, do cardio 4-5 hours per week and strength train for 1-3 hours per week.

Hope this helps,
Lela

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