Why Not Just Starve Myself to Lose Weight? There are so many reasons why not to starve yourself, mainly because it will cause a loss of muscle not fat. Also it is impossible to continue to starve yourself forever, so at some point you will gain all the weight back…and then more. The fat the human body stores is not nutrient rich enough to sustain bodily function, therefore the body must eat its own muscle. Starving yourself literally means that the body will ‘cannibalize’ its own muscle eating it for fuel. Remember the goal is to lose fat not ‘weight’.
I know some of you are probably saying to yourself “I don’t care what I lose as long as I lose some weight”. You could not be more wrong!
Losing muscle not fat will make it considerably harder to keep weight off in the future, as muscle burns approximately 25 times the calories of fat per day so by losing muscle you slow your metabolism.
Losing muscle not fat will not make ‘look nice’. The excess weight we normally want to lose [such as stomachs, thighs etc] is fat, not muscle. If you drop 10lbs of muscle through starvation…it will not come off the areas you want it to such as your midsection. Instead it
will be muscle tissue. You will end up smaller yes, but not toned. In fact, most the time you will end up even flabbier looking!
Muscle is far more compact than fat, so losing a small amount of fat will actually make you appear smaller than losing a larger amount of muscle.
Also, it is extremely unhealthy.Would you starve your kids for days? No you wouldn’t because you know it is bad for them. So why do it to yourself?
© 2008 Australia-Bodybuilding.com
