Why Cutting Calories Backfires: Tracey Trimmer's Panic Mode Explained

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You can lose weight on a strict diet and finish heavier than the day you started. Tracey Trimmer, who wrote The Trimmer Method, says that is exactly what cutting calories sets up, and she has a name for what your body does when you try it: panic mode.

Most of us were taught that weight loss is simple arithmetic. Eat less, weigh less. Tracey says the arithmetic leaves out the one thing in the room that has opinions about it, which is your body.

What your body does when the food suddenly shrinks

Tracey explains that when you restrict calories hard, your body goes into panic mode. It reads the smaller portions as a sign that food is running out, so it protects itself. In her words, restricting calories sends your body into panic mode and causes it to store more fat.

That is why a diet can feel so strange from the inside. You are eating less, you are hungry, you are doing everything right, and the body you are trying to change is working against you the whole time.

The pounds that disappear first are the ones you wanted to keep

Here is the part of Tracey's argument that stopped me. Yes, you will lose weight in the short term on a crash diet. She says the weight you lose is mostly water and muscle, and only a little of it is fat.

Why does that matter so much? Because of what muscle does. Tracey says muscle is the tissue that helps you burn calories and fat, while fat tissue does nothing but come along for the ride. Muscle is the weight you want more of, because it works on your fat all day long, even when you are sitting down.

So follow it through. A crash diet strips off water and muscle, and muscle is your fat-burning equipment. When the diet ends, you have less of it than before. Tracey says that is why putting fat back on is easier once you come off a diet, and why the weight comes back.

Why eating more is the way out

If starving the body triggers panic mode, the answer Tracey gives is to do the opposite. She says you need to eat more, not less, and she means it literally. The idea is to eat enough that your metabolism never suspects a thing, so your fat-burning thermostat stays turned up.

For most people, she says, that means eating much more than they are used to eating, without the guilt, the deprivation or the cravings that come with a diet. Her program talks about six meals a day, so there is never a long stretch where your body starts to wonder where the next meal is coming from.

The picture she paints is the reverse of dieting:

• You eat regularly through the day, so you are full and content instead of counting the hours until dinner.
• You feed your muscles, which are the tissue that burns fat for you.
• You stop dreading the next meal, because nothing on your plate is a punishment.

Tracey knows what the other side feels like. She says she was once clinically obese, that her life revolved around the next meal, and that she still loves her food. She says she lost sixty pounds with this program and has kept it off for years, and that is her own story. Results vary from person to person, and if you have a medical condition or take medication, talk to your doctor before you change how you eat.

What this does to the way you think about food

There is a second effect that has nothing to do with metabolism. When you are always cutting back, food becomes the main event of your day. Every small portion leaves you thinking about the next one.

When you eat properly, that noise fades. Tracey says the program takes your appetite and your emotions into account as well as your body, because a plan that leaves you rumbling an hour after you eat is a plan you will drop. No food is forbidden in The Trimmer Method, so there is nothing to sneak and nothing to feel guilty about.

What you get if you want to see the whole method

The Trimmer Method is Tracey's diet-free program, in a version for women and a version for men. It costs $37 as one payment, down from $49.95. Three bonuses come with it, worth over $85 together: a report on fasting for weight loss and detox, a report on how to stop emotional eating, and an ebook on building a physique with workouts of about 20 minutes.

It is covered by the 60 Day Ironclad Weight Loss Guarantee. If you are not happy, you email The Trimmer Method Support Team within 60 days and you get a full refund.

If panic mode explains a few of your past diets, you can hear Tracey explain the rest of it in her free presentation on the official site.

Click here to see The Trimmer Method and what it asks you to eat instead, and find out how many meals a day Tracey really wants you to have.