3 Ways to Maintain or Improve Your Energy Levels When You Are Dieting

Dieting is not an effective weight loss tool.  In fact, dieting will actually make weight loss next to impossible.  The premise behind dieting is that the individual will limit their caloric intake enough to lose one to two pounds a week.  But more often than not, the person who is desperate to lose those pounds today is likely to try to limit the calorie intake even more.

A pound of weight is equal to 3500 calories.  That means in order to lose a pound of fat you have to either burn off another 3500 calories a week and maintain the food intake you are enjoying now or cut the calorie intake or a combination of both.  So if you are a woman who normally eats around 2000 calories a day and she wants to lose a pound to two a week she must cut the calorie intake to 1500 and increase the amount of exercise she does.

The question becomes can she continue to maintain the calorie count on a daily basis for the long-term to maintain her weight loss or will she eventually feel tired, weak, fatigued and deprived of the foods she enjoys?

And to increase the likelihood of failure decreasing calorie intake and feeling tired and weak will also decrease the metabolic rate and slow the anticipated weight loss.  Without weight loss what’s the point of cutting the calories?

The goal is to increase the metabolic rate and burn more calories.  And in order to do that you actually have to eat.

1  Eat six small meals every day.  It may sound like a lot but six small meals will provide your body with as much calories as it needs but spread out over a period of time so there are no gaps in the day when the body is without energy. If you eat only three large meals a day then you are more likely to eat junk food when you’re hungry.  But eating six meals means you won’t feel hungry, your metabolism will stay  high and you’ll never go more than a couple of hours without eating.

Split your three large meals into six smaller ones.   Incorporate less processed foods and more raw material such as fruits and vegetables – both of which you can eat as much as you want.

2 Drink a lot of water.  The added water is now available to help the extra toxins and waste products from the body making metabolism easier for the body.  It also keeps you feeling full, plumps your skin cells so you look younger, keeps the metabolic rate moving and keeps your kidneys healthy.

The standard number of ounces of water that is recommended is 64 or 8 – 8 ounce glasses.  But if you are trying to lose weight and increase your metabolic rate then it’s better to drink 10 -12 glasses per day.  Spread them out over the daytime and begin to cut off the drinking by 7 or 8 pm (depending upon what time you go to bed).  This will save you from getting up all night to go to the bathroom.

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