One of the most common mistakes when dieting is cutting calories too much: this mistake is usually made for two reasons. On the one hand, you do not know your daily caloric needs, and alas, many nutritionists and dieticians to whom patients who want to lose weight turn to, neglect to ascertain this important fact, or apply formulas that, even with the various changes, they remain somewhat crystallized.

To get an effective idea of ​​your daily caloric needs, it is necessary not only to take into consideration weight, sex and height as well as age, but also to have an idea of ​​the starting body fat percentage, therefore of the total lean mass, of the habits of the patient, physical activity and work.
Often when you want to lose weight this very important fact is overlooked , ending up confusingly choosing a 1000, 1200 calorie diet. A big mistake.
As these researchers have established, studying the story of the contestants of the eighth season of The Biggest Loser, where obese participants are put on 1300 calorie diets with daily physical activity, the metabolism can slow down so much, if the caloric deficit is too drastic, that a at the end of the diet, not only does it return to its original weight, but continues to gain weight indefinitely. The reason?

While basal metabolic rate has been shown to return to baseline levels after a few weeks of normal calories, it is the body’s ability to burn calories during activities that is chronically reduced.
Of the participants of The Biggest Loser season eight , only one did not regain the weight they lost, while four gained more weight than they were initially obese.
So how to set the right calorie deficit?