I heard that “metabolism slows down” and that our body becomes “more efficient”…how? What does this concretely mean? Also, how can we get out of this loop and start losing weight again?
I wrote “diet” because I’m talking about a DIY one, but I guess diets made by professionals also have to be adjusted every now and then.
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A 35 year old male at 5′ 10″ weighing 200 pounds that does little to no exercise a week needs 2,218 calories a day to maintain his weight. If he wants to lose a pound a week, he needs to drop his calorie intake to 1,718 calories per day.
The problem is after, say, a month, he’s down to 196. Now he only needs 2,196 calories per day to maintain his weight, but he but he needs to cut back his daily to 1,696 to continue his weight loss of one pound per week.
After another month he’s down to 192 pounds. His maintenance need is down to 2,175. If we wants to continue with a pound a week, he needs to cut his daily intake *again* to 1,675.
As you lose weight, your caloric needs drop, so you need to keep adjusting your intake to match. A lot of people don’t do that. They get their initial target number and they’ll lose weight, initially, but eventually their body will reach the point to where their reduced intake will match the maintenance need.
It’s actually a hell of a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the general idea.
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