There is a fairly widespread idea when trying to lose weight, namely that the less you eat, the faster you will achieve it. However, many experts have already debunked it, since besides not being healthy, it isn’t true either. One of the best-known opinions comes from the communicator and pharmacist Marián García, known as Boticaria García, who has made it a mission to debunk this idea on several occasions, such as during an interview for laSexta, where she clarifies that eating less in a drastic way can not only slow weight loss, but cause the opposite effect.
The “Empty Plate Paradox”
Stopping eating abruptly, contrary to what many people think, can end up making you gain weight even more. This happens because calorie restriction without control triggers a distress signal in our body. According to the expert, we enter the so-called empty plate paradox: “The less you eat, you may end up accumulating more fat, even in the abdominal area.” This occurs for purely biological and hormonal reasons. As the expert explains, “if you eat little, your body knows you could die and enters a state of alarm.” At that moment, cortisol—the stress hormone—is released. What ends up causing fat to accumulate in the abdomen, since it is the first area this hormone targets when it has no control. In addition, with not enough energy, the body cannot produce muscle or hormones, which ends up causing a constant sensation of tiredness that makes the desire to train disappear. All of this together leads to frustration, which then results in even more fat accumulation.
The tips from Boticaria García on fasting, fruit, and exercise
In addition to warning about how dangerous it is to eat too little, the pharmacist also debunked other very common myths about food and sport during the interview.
She explained that intermittent fasting helps with weight loss only because, by the end of the day, you end up eating less overall, but she makes clear that it has no magical power and that “it isn’t for everyone”, especially if you have had issues with eating.
On the other hand, regarding the famous orange juice in the morning, she advises eating the whole fruit because juicing it strips away the fiber and the sugar enters the bloodstream much more directly.
Finally, she urges women to shed their fear of lifting weights in the gym, dispelling the idea that using large dumbbells will make you “too muscular” overnight. Moreover, continuing on this topic, Boticaria García clarifies that doing many repetitions with one-kilogram weights is useless because the muscle needs real effort to change, clarifying that “it’s better eight of heavy effort than twenty-five of light effort” and suggesting starting with elastic bands to gradually raise the level and avoid overloading the body.
