I think attempting to lose weight by reducing calorie is a big mistake.

Our bodies don't look at fat as a sign of sickness. Our bodies look at fat as a precious energy reserve which one day will save our lives when food becomes scarce.

Our bodies are regulated. This means that if your weight is 150 lbs, there is data stored somewhere in your brain which says that your weight must be 150 lbs. If for any reason your weight went up or down, your body will always return your weight back to 150lbs.

Additionally, our bodies are self learning. This means that the data which sets our weight amount can also be changed. If your body discovers at any time that you may face a food shortage period which requires more than the body fat set for you, it will change that setting.

Now let us assume that you didn't like your weight and decided to eat less until your weight becomes 130 lb. During the diet you will be saying "I'll suffer for a while until I lose my excess fat so I become fit and healthy!". Your body will be saying "My God! Here is my first food shortage. I'll do my best to use my energy reserve wisely to stay alive hoping that the food shortage will be over before all my reserve is gone!".

At the end of your diet, you'll be saying "Now I'm fit. From now on, I'll be eating enough food to get all the energy I need but not enough to gain any fat back. This way I can live happy and healthy forever!" Your body will be saying "The food shortage is over. Thanks to my energy reserve I could survive this one, however the next food shortag may not be as easy. From now on, I should waste no time rebuilding my energy reserve back and some more so that I can survive the next hader one!"

After doing some research, you'll be saying "My body requires 1800 calories a day to get all the energy it needs, so I'll always make sure to eat no more than this amount." Your body will also do some research and say "I need to replace the lost 20 lbs with 30 lbs. So, if I get 1800 calories a day, I'll use 1300 of them for energy which is the minimum I can live with and use the remaining 500 to make body fat with. This way I can reach my goal in about 30 weeks."

You start eating 1800 calories of food a day, but then discover that you are not full. You feel hungry and dizzy. You resist for a while, but then you surrender and eat as much as it takes to stop your hunger and diziness. At the end, your body reachs its goal and your weight reachs 160 lbs.

You feel bad and forget about dieting. Your body sees no reason to change your weight, so it keeps your weight steadily at 160 lbs and things stay the same for sometime.

One day you wake up and say "I'm not going to surrender. I'm going to start a longer diet to lose 30lbs this time and will never gain them back!" You repeat what you did and unfortunately each time you do it, you end gaining more.

This is the typical trap most obese people fall in. This is what keeps the nation's obesity rate growing year after year. Also, this is the endless game which makes some companies big money endlessly.


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