How under eating makes you gain weight.

The calorie bro's are probably rolling their eyes at the title of this email as they continue to drill the message of a calorie deficit. They for sure would think it's nearly impossible to gain weight from under eating because as conventional wisdom goes, if you were undereating, you would surely lose weight. Which is true, but what about the ramifications of chronically restricting?

These are the folks that enter my sphere. The ones who seemingly can't lose weight despite their dieting and exercise efforts. "I eat so good, I follow all the rules, my diet numbers, but my weight keeps creeping up."

We already know a calorie deficit is a prerequisite for fat loss, we get it, it's old news. Can we stop talking about it already? Those same calorie bros are also 20-year-old something males, who are muscular fitness freaks, not middle-aged folks with a sluggish metabolism who are tired, hungry and have been chronically dieting for most their lives.

So, there's that.

It's not about cracking the whip on your willpower or tightening the reins (you have been doing this for years and it's NOT WORKING). It's about understanding that your body is screaming for sustenance and safety, and it'll find a way to balance the books if you try to shortchange it too harshly.

Ever find yourself running on fumes by day, tirelessly trying to stick to your meager portions of lame diet food, only to turn into a snack-slaying, feast-conquering beast by night? Or maybe you've been playing the role of the "good dieter" all week, nailing all your diet numbers with your "clean eating" plan and perfectly weighed and measured food, only to find yourself on a no-holds-barred eatathon come the weekend?

The Daytime Fast, Nighttime Feast Cycle

You spend your entire day nibbling, grazing, eating small meals and white knuckling your hunger. You skip meals, you drink shakes, you "fast" in efforts to control your weight, and of course you're too busy to make time to feed yourself. By the time the sun sets, your body is so starved for energy that your only thought is devouring everything in sight. This isn't a lack of willpower, it's your biology. When you finally let yourself eat (because, let’s face it, you will eat), your body stores as much energy as it can, preparing for the next famine. Translation? Fat storage goes into overdrive. The caloric load by the end of the day due to your nighttime feasting is probably more than if you were to just nourish yourself through the day. End result? You eventually gain weight.

The Weekend Binge Blowout

Now, onto the weekend warrior's diet dilemma. Restricting all week then going off the rails on the weekend is a recipe for metabolic confusion. Your body doesn't know if it's coming or going, and this yo-yo approach can slow down your metabolism. The result? You guessed it—more weight gain. Any deficit you thought you were achieving during the week equaled itself out over the weekend.

It all boils down to survival. Your body doesn't understand "dieting" and for sure doesn't give a damn about your attempts to squeeze into a smaller dress size by summer. It interprets severe calorie restriction (whether it's eating like a bird all day long or being a compliant little dieter during the week to have the wheels fall off on the weekend) as a famine. So, when you finally feed it, it switches into panic mode, storing energy for future famines (aka your next diet).

So, there you have it, my friend (and calorie bros), how undereating eventually leads to gaining weight.