Over-Dieting: A Dangerous Diet

Dieting commonly reaches the optimal fat burning. One of the most important element in optimal diet processes is the effect on hormone level. Hormone is the most important chemical substance produced by physical substance. High-low hormone levels influence building or damaging muscles.

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Our body naturally produce various hormones which are meaningful for recovering muscles, growth, and recovery. Dieting to reduce fat in the physical substance, if it’s not observed carefully, will decrease growing hormone level and affect less muscle density.

The big problems resulted from over-dieting are weak tyroid function, less testosteron hormone level, weak physical immune system, and decreasing leptin level in physical substance.

Therefore, it’s required the best way for diet. In order to avoid the negative conditions and maintain muscle mass while burning fat.

1. Problems Emerged From Over-dieting

a. Weak tyroid function

Tyroid hormone specifically helps to manage how much calorie burnt by the body every day. This hormone also affects muscle growth by accelerating or reducing protein synthesis. Strict over-dieting causes negative effect because it will reduce drastically tyroid hormone. In effect, body will burn less calorie. Although you eat in a small portion, low tyroid body cannot effectively burn fat. Reducing tyroid level causes the reducing metabolism level and negatively reduces physical ability for burning fat.

b. Less testosteron hormone

Reducing calorie drastically and greatly correlated with reducing testosteron hormone production (hormone that helps the process of muscle growht) causes muscle mass difficult to maintain. Healthy testosteron hormone level is valuable to help fat burning process through two mechanisms:

Healthy testosteron hormone increases the amount of beta receptor in physical substance (this receptor is provided in fat cells and helps to destroy stored fat).

Testosteron also blocks lipoprotein lipase activity (an enzim absorbing fat from blood circulation and store it) around fat cells.The most unwanted effect of over-dieting is to reduce testosteron hormone levels.

c. Weak physical immune system

Physical immune system plays role as security system to protect your body from illness, bacteria, virus, and anything that damage physical substance. Over-dieting caused by strong over-calorie reducing in long-term will result a negative effect in physical immune system.

Weak physical immune system gives directly negative effect to physical ability in maintaining muscles. The weak immune function also results cortisol increasing in which it’s resulted from stress or illness. This hormone will damage muscles.

The increasing cortisol production also causes testosteron reducing. Body with weak immune system will be complicated to fight free radical as stress producing component, including stress resulted from high physical activities, such as hard weight training.

The increasing amount of free radical in physical substance will emerge resistance to insulin, a condition which raises insulin level, a contributor of fat storing process in our bodies.

d.Low leptin level

Leptin is a valuable hormone to help body arrange weight. It results two unprofitable conditions during diet process.

• Reduce drastic leptin degree will cause the increasing hungry intensity (more meals than required).
• Reduce leptin will also weaken metabolism level, it makes our bodies difficult to destroy physical fat.

Those conditions above clearly emerge unprofitable problems to do an effective diet.

2. Strategy in Doing Optimal Diet

a. Reduce carbohydrate consumption at least 30 per cent

If you’re used to consume 500 grams carbohydrate per day, don’t reduce it below 350 grams drastically. Reducing 30 per cent carbohydrate is effective to help to reduce fat. Drastic reducing carbohydrate until the very low level greatly will be a boomerang and result narrow muscles, and also emerge hormonal problem as described above. Continuous diet pattern and slowly application are more effective steps to burn fat while maintaining muscle mass.

b. Choose a correct time to consume simple carbohydrate

Many serious fitness participants fulfill carbohydrate requirement with complex carbohydrate gradually digested, such as wheat, cassava, soybean, rice red, sweet potato. The purpose is that carbohydrate sources cause less insulin releasing than simple carbohydrate, such as sugar, flour, and white rice, and it’s believed that lower insulin level will build more conducive situation to fat burning process.

It’s the best way to do, but there is a strategy applied to get the best result, that is to make priorities for complex carbohydrate resources, in the other hand, simple carbohydrate, especially after doing weight training or cardiovascular exercises.

In the two periods, fitness participants ideally change the complex carbohydrate sources with the simple ones, such as raisin, white nice, or low-fat bread. After doing high intensity exercises, simple carbohydrate will be easier absorbed and substitute glicogen supply in muscles fast.
The condition of increasing after doing exercises also helps to maintain muscles’ tissue for not fired. When insulin level increased without increasing calorie level, it will result a conducive situation to protect musles’ mass without resulting fat increase. In other words, the body may touch the anabolic effect than insulin without fat pile effect.

c. Reduce the amount of carbohydrate consumption in days-off

In the break-times when it doesn’t allow to do weight training, reduce the amount of carbohydrate consumption. Reduce carbohydrate consumption until 100-150 grams on the day you have high physical activities (like hard weight training), but balance it with protein consumption until 3-4 grams per kilograms weight.

Temporary increasing protein in the same time when reducing carbohydrate can improve muscles’ abilities to absorb glucose. When you’re back at the previous condition and return to protein level (or more suitable with the requirement and practice intensity) per kilograms weight, carbohydrate absorbed in muscles to create anabolic condition although you’re running a thight died. When carbohydrate stored in muscles, it won’t be stored as physical fat.

d. Don’t practice cardio exercise excessively

Cardio exercise is an effective method to reduce fat. This exercise burns calorie and most of it is fat. If over-dieting reduces tyroid and testosteron hormone level and weaken body immune system, excessive cardio exercise will be worsen the hormonal balance.

In other words, too much cardio exercise will reduce an important hormone level to process fat burning and muscles building. The effect is that the body becomes worse. Excessive cardio practice is a wrong way and resulting muscles’ mass decreased. A simple guidance to use is 45 minutes for cardio exercise session applied four times a week, it’s the optimal time to maintain healthy and tyroid levels, and also better body immune system.

e. A cycle to keep high metabolism level

Once in 10-17 days (not weekly) is usually made an increasing amount of consumption to avoid decreasing metabolism level because of daily decreasing calorie. It’s signed by sympthoms like weight that doesn’t make any reducing (static) or losen muscles (lose the muscles thight and density). At the same time, calorie increasing, can help to maintain leptin and testosteron levels to be healthier and body immune system is not weak.