In order to lose weight quickly many dieters make the mistake of cutting out almost all food in the diet. The attitude I often hear is “I need to lose weight fast, so I’m not eating anymore!”. I actually had one client falsely believe, that if she stopped eating, she would lose weight faster than normal and therefore need not exercise. The harsh truth is, we don’t get anywhere in life by sitting on our butt!

Yes, it is true, you will lose weight by not eating, but when you realise where the weight loss comes from it’s easy to see why we should aim for the recommended 1-2 pounds per week goal. When we stop eating the body goes into what, is often referred to as starvation mode, this is when energy is conserved. We experience a rapid drop in weight, but this starts to slow as the body adapts to these changes.

The trouble is up to 95% of the weight lost will come from water in some way or another. Fluid can easily be lost from the body resulting in a corresponding weight loss; actually many sports professionals still lose fluid this way in order to make weight for a sports competition. Fluid loss is inevitable during any diet program. In fact, even with a sensible diet we lose some fluids, in some cases the result could be made up of a split of around 40% water and 60% fat, however the difference is that 60% fat loss will be much harder to regain back. Remember, the more weight loss is made up of water, the more likely that weight will be regained after the diet or program has ceased.

Often the most sensible weight loss plans, usually mean a higher percentage coming from fat loss, and therefore much less likely to regain weight after program. Not eating to lose weight is not the best method, eat less energy than required, but make sure you eat well!

* Always seek the approval from a qualified dietician before making changes to eating habits or before starting any new diet.