7 Warning Signs You're Eating Too Low Calories (don't ignore)

If you're eating 1,200 calories thinking you're speeding up fat loss, but the scale won't budge and you don't look any different, you might be in a calorie deficit that is too low. After coaching over 25,000 clients with their fat loss journeys and losing fat myself, I found that there are 7 warning signs that your calories are too low. And in this video, I'm going to show you what they are and how to fix it. So you can actually lose fat without destroying your metabolism, losing muscle, or feeling miserable. Starting with warning sign number 1, you're losing weight too fast. And this is the one that tricks almost everybody. You step on the scale Monday morning, you're down 3 pounds. You step on the scale Friday, you're down another 2 pounds. And you're like, yeah, this is great, I'm crushing it. But here's what you don't realize. If you're losing weight too quickly, you're not just losing fat, you're also losing muscle. And when you lose muscle, your metabolism Metabolism slows down, and you'll have to keep eating lower and lower calories to keep losing weight. So yeah, the scale's dropping fast right now, but in 3 to 4 weeks when you plateau, you're confused as to why you can't make any more progress even though you're doing everything right. Think of fat loss like putting out a fire in your kitchen. When you lose weight too fast, you take the fire hose and you blast it across the entire house. Yeah, the fire is gonna go out quick, but you're also destroying the rest of your house. That's your muscle. You're not just putting out the fire, you're demolishing the entire building. And now you have nothing to rebuild. But when you lose weight at the right pace, you're putting the fire out in the kitchen only and leaving the rest of the house intact. That is you burning fat and keeping your muscle. You get rid of the problem without destroying everything else in the process. So here's the rule for how fast you should be losing weight. You should be losing 0.5 to 1% of your total body weight per week. So if you weigh 200 pounds, that's 1 to 2 pounds of fat per week. Now in the beginning when you first start, maybe you'll drop some water weight, but after that you need to follow this because anything faster than that consistently, you're losing too much muscle, metabolism is slowing down, and you're setting yourself up to stall in a few weeks. And by the way, if you need to know what your calorie deficit number should be to make that happen, you can click the link in the description below of this video to use my totally free calorie calc. And I know this sounds backwards, but losing weight slower will actually get you to your goal faster because you're not destroying your metabolism along the way. Which brings me to warning sign number 2: if you need cheat days to survive. If you're crushing it Monday through Friday, hitting your calorie goal, hitting protein, eating clean, but then by Friday night or Saturday or Sunday you feel like, screw this, I earned a cheat day, I need to have a cheat meal— here's the thing, that's not supposed to happen. Cheat days Aren't just a part of dieting. Think of your calorie deficit like holding your breath underwater. When your deficit is too aggressive and your calories are too low, it's like taking the smallest breath possible and then diving down to the bottom of the ocean. You're underwater, holding it, holding it, but you can only last so long before your body screams at you to come up for air. That's your cheat day. You explode to the surface and you gulp down massive amounts of air, aka gulp down. Massive amounts of calories because you've been suffocating all week. You're not lacking discipline or willpower or just mentally weak. You're literally just desperate for some relief from your calories that are too low. But when your deficit is reasonable, it's like taking a full big breath of air before you go underwater. You're still underwater, you're still in a deficit, but you're calm, you're in control, you're not freaking out. You can stay under longer, and when you do come up, you're not gasping for air. You just take a normal breath and keep going. So here's the reality: if you need a cheat day, your deficit is too aggressive. A properly set deficit like 500 to 750 per day— and again, you click the link below to use my free calorie calculator— gives you enough room to actually enjoy food. You can fit in pizza on a Friday night. You can have dessert on a random Tuesday. You can go out to dinner and not feel like you ruined everything. You don't need to cheat because your diet isn't a prison sentence. So right now, if you're thinking, but I my cheat day to survive. That's the whole point. You shouldn't need to survive. You should be able to live. So raise your calories. Give yourself some more room. Build in your favorite foods instead of banning them and having your calories too low. The goal isn't to white-knuckle your way through 6 days just to binge on the 7th. The goal is to create a deficit you can actually sustain without feeling awful. And speaking of feeling awful, that brings me to warning sign number 3: your strength is declining in your workouts. If 3 weeks ago you were benching 185 for 8 reps, and last week you barely got 6 reps, and this week you can barely do 185 and you have to drop back down to 175, and you think, well, yeah, I'm in a calorie deficit, I'm losing weight, this is normal, I'm gonna lose strength— wrong. That is not normal. That's not supposed to happen. And if it is, that's a sign your body is screaming at you that something is wrong. Think of your body like a construction crew building a house. When you're eating enough, the crew has everything they need to build that house— plenty of wood, plenty of tools, plenty of bricks. Everybody's working great. But when your deficit is too aggressive, the supply trucks that bring the bricks and the tools stop showing up. Now the crew doesn't have the materials necessary to keep building the house, AKA your body doesn't have enough calories to keep building strength and building muscle. And this was happening to one of our clients, Michael. Before he came to us, he was to be in a calorie deficit and lose fat, but his workouts just kept suffering. He couldn't improve on his squat or his bench. He felt exhausted halfway through his workouts, and he was getting frustrated his body wasn't changing. So when we created his plan, we actually increased his calories, which he thought was crazy. But not only did he continue to lose body fat, as you see, he got stronger in his workouts. He started to enjoy and look forward to his workouts again, and he realized you can do both— lose fat and build strength and muscle at the same time. And by the way, if you're interested in learning more about our online coaching program, you can click the link in the description below of the video. So here's the truth. If you're losing strength, you're not in a proper calorie deficit. You might not set PRs every single week and make as much progress as you would when your calories are higher. Your lifts should at the very least stay the same, if not go up slowly. If your strength is dropping week over week, that's a massive red flag. And if this is happening to you, I would add back in 200 to 300 calories. 300 calories per day. Give your body the fuel it needs to perform. Now for the next warning sign, let me ask, are you thinking about food constantly? If the answer is yes, keep watching. Warning sign number 4, you have constant food noise. You wake up thinking about breakfast, you eat breakfast, and then 30 minutes later you're thinking about your snack. Once you eat the snack, 30 minutes later you're like, what's next for lunch? I can't wait to get to lunch. You go to bed at night, you're lying there thinking about what you're going to eat tomorrow. Food is living in your head rent-free 24/7. And the worst part is you might just tell yourself, oh, this is a part of dieting, this is how I'm supposed to feel. But what if I told you that's not normal? A constant obsession of food noise and willpower is not how you should be living your life in a calorie deficit. Think of your brain like a car dashboard. When you're eating enough, the dashboard is quiet, there's no warning signs, everything's okay. But when your deficit is too aggressive, your check engine light comes on, and then your your fuel light comes on because you start to get a little bit low on that, and then it's time to change your oil. Your tire pressure is off, and these warning signs just keep showing up, and that's all you can see when you're trying to drive is all these warning signs, and now you can't focus on anything else. That's food noise. Your brain is screaming at you because you're trying to run on empty, and it's trying to get you to eat. And that's not a discipline problem, that's a survival mechanism. So here's the reality: if you're thinking about food nonstop, your deficit is too low. A proper deficit should make you hungry 30 to 60 minutes before your meal, and maybe you go to sleep with a little bit of hunger, but you shouldn't be obsessing over food every waking hour. You shouldn't be meal planning in your head 24/7 or counting down the minutes until you can eat, because if you are, that is your body turning up the signs on the hunger signal because it thinks you're starving, and from its perspective, you kind of are. So if this is happening to you, I would add back in 150 to 250 calories per day to start and see how that helps. But now for our next warning sign— this really isn't a warning sign, it's your body actually shutting down, and you need to pay attention because warning sign number 5: you lose your period or your sex drive tanks. Ladies, if your cycle has always been regular and now it's just gone— you missed 1 month and then 2, 3 months and there's nothing— that is a warning sign. And guys, if you used to have normal sex drive and now you couldn't care less, you're uninterested, and you feel like you're running running on zero energy, libido, interest, that's also a warning sign. And a lot of people will just think, well, I'm stressed, I'm busy, I'm getting older, or worse, I'm just losing weight, so this is a part of the process. No, that is not a normal part of the process. This is a massive red flag, and your body's saying we don't have energy to support basic reproductive function anymore, we're shutting it down to survive. Think of your body like a city power grid. When there's plenty of power coming in, the whole city runs smoothly. The Hospitals are lit, homes are warm, streetlights are on. But when that power supply drops to critical levels, the grid has to make decisions. What stays on? What gets shut off? And first, the nonessential stuff goes. Restaurants close. Gyms, unfortunately, close. And if the power keeps dropping, the city shuts off even more. And now it's only keeping the absolute essentials online. Hospitals, emergency services. Your body does the exact same thing. When your calories are too low in your calorie deficit, Your body looks at what is essential for survival right now. I don't care about anything else. And so your body isn't broken, it's just protecting you, but that protection comes at a cost. So if this is happening to you, whether you're a man or a woman, and it's been more than 1 to 2 months, add back in 300 to 500 calories per day, and I promise you will still lose fat, but it doesn't have to come at the expense of your hormones or your health. And while that is a very serious warning sign, warning sign number 6 isn't just about survival. This affects every single hour of your day, and it makes your life kind of miserable. Warning sign number 6: you have constant brain fog and can't focus. If you sit down at work and 10 minutes in your brain feels like it's moving through mud, you read the same sentence 3 times and still comprehend it, or you're in a conversation and halfway through you realize you have no idea what that person just said, Or if simple tasks that used to take you 10 to 20 minutes now take you an hour. If these are happening, and maybe you just think, I'm tired, I just need my morning coffee, I'm stressed— what if I told you it was none of those things? And what if I told you the reason that this keeps happening to you is because you're eating too low calorie? Think of your body like a laptop running on its battery power. When your laptop is fully charged, everything is running at full speed. You can have 15 tabs open, you could stream a video, you Play games on it, no problem. But when that battery hits 10%, what happens? The screen dims to save power, programs start running slower, the videos just keep buffering and they never really play because your laptop is switching into low-power mode. That's exactly what happens to your brain when your calorie deficit is too low. Your brain burns about 400 to 500 calories per day just existing. It's one of the most energy-hungry organs in your body. So when you're not eating enough, your brain goes into low-power mode. It slows down, tasks take longer, focus disappears. And it's not because you're stupid or you just can't focus. Your brain doesn't have enough fuel to run at the top speed. One of our clients was a paralegal, and she had to do a lot of work on her computer. And she noticed as the weeks went by, she would get less and less done, and she would feel like she couldn't focus on her task throughout the day. So we readjusted her calories, and within Within a week, she already started to feel better. When you're eating too little, not only does your brain not get energy, but your blood sugar starts to drop as well. And this makes everything slow down during the day. And I know a lot of people feel like they're being super productive if they're not eating a lot throughout the day because they're not eating a ton of calories and it'll lead to fat loss. But you're making yourself less effective at the things you need to do throughout the day. So here's what you do. If this is happening to you, add back in 200 to 300 calories per day. Give your brain the fuel it needs to actually function, and you should be able to think clearly, focus on tasks, and get through your day without feeling like you're at percent battery. And if you can't do that, trust me, no amount of fast weight loss is worth suffering the rest of the day. Which bleeds into the next warning sign because this will make everything else worse. Warning sign number seven: Your sleep is suffering big time. If this is you, you're exhausted all day. You're counting down the hours until you can get home and. You get under the covers and go to sleep, but then when you go to lie down, you're just wide awake. Your mind's racing, your body feels wired even though you're dead tired. Or maybe you do fall asleep, but then you wake up at 2 or 3, you can't fall back asleep, you just stare at the ceiling thinking about food. And when your alarm goes off, you feel like you didn't even sleep at all. Think of your body like a house with a security system. When everything is secure— doors are locked, alarm is set— the house is calm. You're inside sleeping peacefully. But when calorie deficit is too low, your body's security system detects a threat, AKA not enough energy coming. Now the alarm goes off, your stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline start to spike up, your heart rate stays elevated, and this is what causes you to lie in bed exhausted but not be able to actually sleep. So here's the reality: if you're not sleeping through the night consistently, it's likely your calorie deficit is too low, because when you're undereating, your body releases those stress hormones to keep you Alert and mobilize the energy you do have, and that's the opposite of what you need to sleep. So here's what you do. 1, add back in 200 to 300 calories per day. 2, eat some of those calories 2 to 3 hours before you go to bed, and make sure some of those are carbohydrates, because like we said, your brain needs energy. So those carbohydrates will get used by your brain, which can help keep you asleep. And number 3, if you're waking up in the middle of the night starving, that's not normal. That's also a sign you need to eat more of those calories like we just said. If you're experiencing more than 3 of these signs, you need to eat more, not less. And if you want a personalized plan to dial this in so you can lose fat without destroying yourself and you can know you're eating the right amount of calories, click the link in the description below to learn more about our online coaching program. And after you do that, you can watch this video here because now I'm going to give you the brutally honest timeline for how long it's going to take to lose that stubborn lower belly