If you’re hungry, eat.

Starving yourself will not result in healthy long-term weight loss. Even on a short-term basis, it will mostly cause only a loss of water weight, not much actual fat.

If you eat 1500 calories or less for weeks on end and find that you’re not losing weight, it’s likely because your metabolism has adapted. Some people even try to eat only 1200 calories or so. This can cause a multitude of problems. Not only will your body go into starvation mode and metabolize fewer calories a day making significant permanent fat loss unlikely, but you can become seriously deficient in essential vitamins and minerals.

I don’t generally recommend excessive calorie counting. I didn’t count calories through the majority of my weight loss, and if you are obese and just starting out then cutting back a bit and taking a daily walk will be enough to start losing weight.

However, if you’ve already lost a significant amount of weight and reached a weight loss plateau you might get frustrated and think that starving yourself is the only way to lose weight. Think again.

Your metabolism regulates itself based on your eating patterns. If you regularly eat 1500 calories your body will adjust to that level of caloric intake. If you regularly eat 2000 calories your metabolism will adjust also.

The thing to do is to keep your body guessing and don’t force your body into fat-storing starvation mode by letting yourself go hungry.

Try a protein rich diet of around 1500 calories a day for three days. It’s best to eat in 5 or 6 mini-meals of 200-300 calories each and keep the total daily intake below your maintenance level. On the fourth day raise your caloric intake a bit at each meal so that your calories match your maintenance level.

There are several factors which determine your caloric intake maintenance level, such as weight, height, age, lifestyle and level of physical activity. For help calculating your caloric intake needs visit this link: http://www.hpathy.com/healthtools/calories-need.asp.

According to this, and other caloric intake calculators I’ve used, I can eat well over 2000 calories a day and maintain my weight. This has proven to be true for me. If I regularly eat between 2000-2500 calories and remain moderately active my weight doesn’t go up or down. Below maintenance for me is 1900, which is still a lot of calories. However, if I eat 1800 calories for weeks on end I only lose weight in the beginning, and mostly water weight at that. After a while, my metabolism recalculates the situation and weight loss stops.

To keep my metabolism revved up I try eating around 1500 calories or less, well below my maintenance level, for three days. On the fourth day I let myself be more flexible and add all sorts of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. For the next few days my body thinks I’m going to eat 2000+ calories, but I eat much less than that and my body goes into fat burning mode.

If I’m hungry, I eat. It might be something small, like an egg or a protein bar, but you don’t want your body to feel like it’s being starved. It’s important to make smart food choices and to not let yourself become nutritionally deficient.

Find the richest sources of the vitamins you need. For example, you could eat a 2500 calorie a day diet and be missing essential vitamins like K or D. If you add a baked piece of salmon and just two Brussels sprouts to your day you can get just a bit more than 100% of the recommended daily value of both K and D along with a good dose of protein, some omega-3s and many other vitamins.

Do your homework on the nutritional value of various foods and find out what you’re missing. A good place to start is The World’s Healthiest Foods at http://www.whfoods.com.

Dropping dead of a heart attack or ending up with crippling osteoporosis as a result of starving yourself just aren’t reasonable risks to take in order to lose a few pounds.