Is Eating Too Little Sabotaging Your Weight Loss?

One of the most common patterns I’ve seen from clients. 

I want to start this off by acknowledging the validity of the first law of thermodynamics. Weight loss will be dictated by energy balance. This not debatable at this point. So this will not be an article talking about how “calories don’t matter.” They do. 

I want to talk about a pattern that I’ve seen commonly with clients. Also, with myself. This pattern is often a disruptor with a weight loss goal. It can even backfire to such a degree, that weight gain can occur. Even though you feel like you’re really restricting yourself. 

This starts with the premise of eating too little for weight loss. Can you eat too little to lose weight? No. You can’t. The bigger the energy deficit, the more you’ll lose. It’s pretty simple in theory. The problem is, the application of that theory. In misguided fashion, I have seen people consistently just slash their calories. Often to ridiculously low levels. In the acute sense, this will cause rapid weight loss. The only problem is the sustainability of it. It’s not — like not even for a week sometimes. It’s more-so a recipe for disaster and even weight regain. 

People usually cut their calories during the week with ease. Almost every client I’ve ever had track calories, ate the least on Monday. Which wasn’t too surprising when I thought about it. Energy balance impacts hormonal secretions that play a role with your appetite regulation. Most commonly leptin and ghrelin are brought up — although there are plenty more. Ghrelin is commonly called the hunger hormone. Which seems to be increased when you enter a caloric deficit. Making you hungrier. Leptin on the other hand seems to help regulate your appetite and energy expenditure. Low levels seem increase your drive to eat and conserve energy. High levels tend to reduce your drive to eat and increase energy expenditure. 

So what the hell does this have to do with Monday eating patterns? 

These appetite related hormones have transient changes related to energy balance. Meaning they don’t only respond to long term dieting. And the most high calorie environments tend to be on the weekend. Casual drinks, brunches, going out for dinner etc. All of the fun stuff that is definitely needed, but also comes with a price. So as we over consume all weekend, our drive to eat is most likely lowest on Monday. Tie that in with the guilt/punishment that we associate with that weekend behaviour. Then add in the motivation of “new week, new me!” and voila — a recipe for a 1200 calorie Monday.

So what’s the issue with that you may ask? You over indulged on the weekend, so you cut back during the week. Sounds like balance, right? Well, sure. That is one way to balance it out. But in my experience, it’s better at beginning a cyclical binge/restrict pattern than it is at actually balancing your energy intake with success. By success, I am referring to successful weight loss. Here is the trend that I so commonly see and that might resonate with you. 

Monday-Thursday: High levels of exercise and very little food. Plenty of salads and low calorie options. Less alcohol. No “fun foods” allowed. etc. In this scenario you may feel like you’ve really sacrificed. By the sounds of it, you have.

Friday-Sunday: Less exercise. More social outings. More grazing. More alcohol. Less focus on what you’ve actually eaten. Upon reflection you think “it wasn’t that bad”. And hey, it wasn’t — it just probably wasn’t conducive to your goal.

The fundamental issue with this pattern takes into account your environment. Let’s call a spade a spade. Weekends are weight gain environments for a lot of us. They’re more opportunistic for social drinking events. They are often associated with “cheat days” for those trapped within diet culture. They are less routine based — which can mean more sporadic eating and less exercise. All things that can be obstacles with weight loss. Now, severe weekday restriction only makes navigating that weekend environment even harder. In this situation, you’re walking into a high calorie environment, while being even hungrier from excessive restriction. 

Your drive to eat might be through the roof. The availability of food to eat might be higher than normal. Your inner dialogue of rewarding yourself from a successful week of dieting might be ramping up. All leading you to overeat in such a fashion that you basically tilt the energy balance scale back to maintenence. Or even worse, a positive balance (weight gain). Before you get defensive and think I’m calling you a glutton — I am most surely not. I have done this often and basically so has anyone who’s ever severely dieted and gained it back. This happens because you’re fighting so many external factors that it can become near impossible to overcome. Most of us can’t just out-discipline the biological drive to over eat + the psychological restrict/reward pattern + the social influences that support increased energy intake (going out to eat/going for drinks etc). 

Every successful weight loss journey has overcome these obstacles. So I’m not saying they’re futile. I am saying that overcoming them becomes less and less likely when you restrict more and more. Especially if you have higher physiological, psychological or environmental obstacles that lean in favour of weight gain. Such as a higher reward response to hyper palatable foods — dopamine being a commonly related to this. Or a long history of coping with stress with comfort foods. Or even a robust social life that constantly makes more tempting foods/drinks highly accessible — with the added peer pressure for you to indulge. If you face these obstacles to an even larger degree than most, then crash dieting is an even worse strategy for you. 

So what can you do? 

My first piece of advice is to stop this cycle where it starts. Monday. If you find that you eat very little on Monday and that trend progresses until the weekend — then this is where you should begin. Eat more on Monday. If you’re trying to lose weight, eat a sustainable deficit target. 

Example:
Maintenance calories → 2300 calories
Sustainable target → 1800–1900 calories
Unsustainable target → <1800 calories

This is obviously oversimplified. But in my experience, anything more than 500 calories tends to be unsustainable for most. It may not be for you, but this is more generalized. Also, if you’re one of those people who has several factors working against them as I had mentioned before — then I do not recommend going above a 500 calorie deficit. Folks like that would actually be served better between 250–500 calorie deficits. Especially if you have long term weight loss goals. As the odds of you sustaining a large deficit indefinitely are slim to none. 

Once you have committed to a sustainable target, stay close to it as consistently as you can. Yes, that means even on a Monday when you tend to under eat. Also, yes, that means even on the weekend when you tend to over eat. Will it still be tough? Of course. Losing weight is not easy. It takes cognitive restraint, effort, consistency and patience. Whoever said it was easy, is an asshole. We’re aiming for manageably challenging— not impossible. In this context you will still need to apply restraint in those challenging environments, but you just won’t have to do so in a ravenous state. Which is what we’re aiming for. 

Example:
Maintenance calories → 2300 calories
daily target → 1800–1900 calories
Or
Monday-Thursday Target → 1700–1800 calories
Friday-Sunday Target → 1900–2000 calories

Rather than:
Monday-Thursday Target → 1200–1500 calories
Friday-Sunday Target → Fuck it.

Will you still fall off track at times? Of course. You won’t be 100% compliant. There will be weekends and occasions where you intake more than planned. It is foolish to expect otherwise. We’re just aiming for those to be less frequent by having a more sustainable plan. That’s all. And this will just be easier to do if you’re not walking into every weekend absolutely deprived. 

So the question remains — Is eating too little sabotaging your weight loss?

I think the answer lies in your current results and the patterns that are getting you them. If you can’t seem to lose weight even though you’re restricting heavily during the week, then yes, I would say you are. I think the first solution is to try and eat more on a daily basis while still being in a deficit. Albeit a smaller, but more sustainable one. 

If you are currently getting results and feeling good about your process, then I’d say the answer is no. That seems obvious. I just wanted to bring to light the implications of severe restriction. Not only do I think they’re unhealthy long term, I also don’t find it very effective for weight loss in the short term. 

Once again, sustainability reigns king. So the best approach I recommend for weight loss is the one that works but one that you can sustain indefinitely.

-Coach Dylan

References:

1. Plasma ghrelin levels after diet-induced weight loss or gastric bypass surgery
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12023994/

2. Revisiting leptin’s role in obesity and weight loss
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430504/

3. Reward, dopamine and the control of food intake: implications for obesity
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3124340/

4. Feeding-induced dopamine release in dorsal striatum correlates with meal pleasantness ratings in healthy human volunteers
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12948725/