"You're Not Eating Enough To Lose Weight" Is Terrible Advice • Russ Howe PTI

I once heard a personal trainer tell a lady:

“It sounds like you’re not eating enough to lose weight.”

Fucking kill me now.

That was 18 years ago, and it’s something which I still think about to this day.

It’s a phrase which seems to pop up in the media (and on the gym floor) every few years, and all it really does is cause confusion for people who are already feeling overwhelmed by the nuances of nutrition.

So today I’m going to clear away the confusion by diving deep into the science on this topic, and I’ll show you why the absolute fucknuckles who say “mAyBe YoU’rE nOt EaTiNg EnOuGh CaLoRiEs To LoSe WeIgHt” are dead wrong.

What About Starvation Mode?

I’m just gonna come right out and say it:

Starvation mode doesn’t exist!

I’m leading with this because the theory that “you’re not eating enough to lose weight” always comes back to the belief that you’ve pushed yourself into so-called “starvation mode”.

This phenomenon is where the body believes it is being attacked (by your diet), so it begins hanging on to every last piece of fat that it can, which makes it impossible for you to lose weight.

Makes sense, right?

And it explains why you couldn’t shift those last few stubborn lbs no matter how hard you tried.

So by telling you to eat more food, these self-appointed experts are essentially helping you get out of starvation mode, and in doing so, they say you’ll kick-start fat loss in no time.

There’s just one problem… it’s fucking nonsense.

You see, there hasn’t been a single study (ever!) showing a person has triggered “starvation mode” – nor has there ever been a case (ever!) of somebody who “isn’t eating enough calories to lose weight”.

So don’t fall for this bullshit.

Rather than give you some actionable nutrition advice which can really help you, those fucking charlatans would have you believe that you’re the first person in human history to essentially starve yourself fat!

We can also look at real world data here, because if “starvation mode” was real, then starvation itself wouldn’t occur.

Heck, the people in third-world countries would no longer need to worry about walking seven miles per day to get food. They’d just jump on Susan’s 28-day detox cleanse and their body would miraculously enter “starvation mode”, causing them to retain weight at any cost.

Sounds ridiculous now, doesn’t it?

Of course it does!

But that won’t stop your residence workplace bell-end from trying to convince you that “starvation mode” only happens to people in the Western world who work in office blocks.

Anyway, we can end this “stavation mode” nonsense once and for all by looking at some science, because it was actualy debunked all the way back in 1944!

Researchers at the University of Minnesota were testing out methods to refeed the world’s hungriest populations in the aftermath of World War II when they conducted one of the most brutal studies of all time. They took a group of 36 men and put them through a gruelling 3-hours of exercise per day while literally starving them (no joke).

Guess what?

So-called “starvation mode” never fucking happened.

Instead, the participants just kept on losing weight until the whole process got downright dangerous. After six months of this craziness the study was over, and each trainee had lost an average of half their body weight, with some almost dying in the process. (7)

NOTE: Before we move on, I’d like to briefly mention metabolic adaptation. Many people confuse this with starvation mode, but it’s not the same thing. Metabolic adaptation is the process by which your body reduces the number of calories you burn throughout the day as you lose weight. This happens because less mass requires less fuel. (8, 9)

not eating enough calories to lose weight

The Real Culprit

The reason I came down so hard on “starvation mode” is because it often leads people down a dark path where they begin thinking there is something wrong with their body.

It can lead them to thinking they are “broken”.

That’s not the case at all.

What’s really happening here is mathematics.

Either your calories have been incorrectly set, or you’ve been making misakes in tracking them.

Sorry to call you out on your bullshit, but you want results,not friendship, right?

If your calories were set incorrectly and you have been struggling to lose weight, then increasing them is only going to make you gain weight.

Alternatively, if you haven’t been tracking your calories accurately then your numbers are out of sync anyway. I’ve met countless men and women over the years who ask things like, “Hey Russ, why can’t I seem to lose weight when I only eat 1000 calories per day?”, and the answer is ALWAYS the same – they’re not tracking their calories properly!

In some cases they’re not tracking at all, but for the vast majority of people it’s that they exclude things like drinks, biscuits, and sauces. Heck, some people even exclude their whole weekend! According to MyFitnessPal, there’s a 43% reduction in logins on Saturday and Sundays. All of this basically means that you’re eating more than you fucking think. (5)

How To Fix This

Okay, let’s sort this out.

If you think the reason you can’t lose weight is because your calories have been set incorrectly, we fix this by reducing your target.

You don’t need to do anything drastic here (in fact, it’s best to keep it simple), just reduce your current target by 10% and take note of how your body responds over the next couple of weeks. (6)

Using this approach you will eventually find the “sweet spot”.

Alternatively, if you haven’t been tracking your food properly we fix this by getting a good nutrition tracking app.

I recommend either MyFitnessPal (free) or Carbon Diet Coach (paid but better).

After one week you’ll have proper data to show you where you’re at. You should make a note of how your body responds with that calorie intake, and then follow the advice I gave at the start of this section until you too find the “sweet spot” for results.

Remember, weight loss is governed by the law of thermodynamics (calories in versus calories out).

This means it’s all about how much you put in (by eating) and how you take out (by living/exercising).

There has never been a situation where someone was gaining weight while in a calorie deficit, so any “expert” who tells you that you are “not eating enough to lose weight” is fucking wrong. (1, 2, 3, 4)

What About Weekend Binges?

Here’s the final issue we must fix.

If you constantly fall off-track at the weekends and binge out of sheer frustration, then you’ll probably fall into the trap of believing “Why can’t I lose weight when I only eat XXXX calories per day?” without realizing that you’re actually eating way more than XXXX calories when we factor in your weekends and get a daily average figure.

This tells me that your current diet is all wrong for you.

It’s not that you’re not eating enough to lose weight, but rather than your targets are so challenging that you can’t stick to them for long enough to see any results.

It’s easily done, because everyone wants to see faster progress, so we jump on bullshit fad diets which set unrealistic calorie targets and leave us feeling like fucking zombines.

The answer is to set a more sustainable daily calolrie target so that you can be more consistent. Go get yourself a good nutrition tracking app, use it for a week to get some data, and then follow the steps I gave you above.

Did that all make sense?

Great, now get back to the fucking gym!