I've written over one hundred articles related to the destructive effects of calorie deprivation but here's the diet dilemma in a nutshell. Diets are all varieties of calorie restriction. When you take in fewer calories than your body needs to sustain metabolic demand, you lose weight. The scale tells you the diet's "working," but the scale cannot distinguish between lean body mass, internal organs, bone, fat, or water. It simply tells you how many pounds you weigh under gravity at a given moment in time. Intellectually you believe it's working, but physiologically your body's making some endocrine shifts, trying to protect you from the threat of starvation.

When caloric intake is too low, you have some built in mechanisms that serve to protect you. One such mechanism is the increase in cortisol production combined with an increase in lipase production. This puts you in a state where you're ready to store fat and where you begin to break down muscle tissue. If you lose water and muscle, the scale continues to tell you you're doing OK, but with each pound of muscle you sacrifice you radically slow metabolism and you cripple your fat burning potential. Eventually, neurotransmitters go to work attempting to drive you to fat, which is the most calorie dense nutrient, and sugar, which provides the quickest energy.

This is yet another protective mechanism designed to drive you to food . . . but because you're caught up in the diet mentality, you believe these "cravings" indicate a lack of willpower. As you fight off the cravings, they intensify, and when you finally give in . . . the whole machine changes! The hormonal system all but yells "food is here" and it begins rapid conversion of nutrients into triglycerides which are easily stored as fat. Your blood sugar spikes resulting in residual low blood sugar which results in energy compromise and yet greater sugar cravings. It's almost impossible in this state to avoid the post-diet "binge" and because most dieters fail to understand the ramifications of cutting calories, they blame themselves and set out in search of another diet. When I describe "supportive nutrition," I'm suggesting we meet energy and tissue needs by taking in adequate protein, complex carbs, fibrous carbs, and essential fats.