Why restrictive dieting leaves us hungry, tired and frustrated — and how to approach weight loss in a healthier, more sustainable way.
How many women have spent years going on diets?
Counting calories, skipping meals, cutting portions, feeling hungry and promising themselves that this time they’ll stick to it.
Perhaps you’ve tried surviving on 1,000 calories a day.
Perhaps you’ve lost weight, only to find yourself feeling exhausted, craving food and eventually returning to your old eating habits.
And then the weight gradually comes back.
It’s a familiar cycle.
But here’s something I think every woman needs to understand.
Our bodies aren’t designed to thrive on chronic undernourishment.
When we continually restrict our food intake, our bodies respond in ways that can make maintaining weight loss increasingly difficult.
And that’s why I believe we need to move away from traditional restrictive diet culture and towards a more sustainable approach to nutrition.
1. Why Very Low-Calorie Diets Are So Difficult to Maintain
Let’s imagine you’re used to eating around 2,000 calories a day.
Suddenly, you decide to reduce your intake to 1,000 calories.
That’s a substantial reduction in energy.
Initially, you may lose weight quite quickly.
But after a while, you might notice:
You’re thinking about food more frequently.
You feel hungry between meals.
Your energy levels are lower.
You’re more irritable or tired.
You’re craving high-energy foods.
Your workouts feel harder.
You’re finding it increasingly difficult to stick to the diet.
These responses are understandable.
Your body needs energy for everything from breathing and maintaining body temperature to walking, thinking, exercising and repairing tissues.
When energy intake becomes severely restricted, your body begins making adjustments.
And those adjustments can make long-term weight management more challenging.
2. What Happens to Your Metabolism When You Diet?
One of the most interesting things about weight loss is how the body adapts to eating less.
Your metabolism is the collection of chemical processes that keep you alive and functioning.
Your total daily energy expenditure includes:
Basal metabolic rate: The energy needed to maintain essential functions at rest.
Physical activity: The energy used during exercise and everyday movement.
Digestion: The energy required to digest and process food.
When you lose weight, your body generally needs fewer calories because there’s less body mass to maintain and move.
But something else can happen.
The body may also reduce energy expenditure beyond what would be expected from weight loss alone.
This is called adaptive thermogenesis.
For example, you might unconsciously move less, feel more tired or experience changes in the energy your body uses at rest.
This isn’t your metabolism switching off.
And it doesn’t mean that weight loss becomes impossible.
But it helps explain why maintaining a large calorie deficit can become increasingly difficult.
Your body adapts to the energy available to it.
3. Why Restrictive Diets Can Make Us Hungrier
Our appetite is regulated by a complex system involving the brain, digestive system and hormones.
Two important hormones are:
Ghrelin, which helps stimulate hunger.
Leptin, which communicates information about the body’s energy stores to the brain.
During weight loss, changes in these and other appetite-regulating signals can increase hunger and make it harder to feel satisfied.
This is one reason why someone who has lost weight may feel hungrier than they did before dieting.
It’s not simply a question of willpower.
There are real biological processes involved.
And when we combine these changes with an extremely restrictive eating plan, the temptation to abandon the diet can become overwhelming.
4. Are You Getting Enough Nutrients?
Another concern with very low-calorie diets is nutritional adequacy.
When we dramatically reduce the amount of food we eat, it becomes much harder to obtain all the nutrients our bodies need.
Particularly important for women are:
Protein: Essential for maintaining and repairing muscle.
Iron: Important for oxygen transport and energy metabolism.
Calcium and vitamin D: Essential for bone health.
Omega-3 fatty acids: Important for normal cellular function and cardiovascular health.
Magnesium: Involved in muscle, nerve and energy metabolism.
Fibre: Supports digestive health and the gut microbiome.
A poorly planned restrictive diet may leave us short of several of these nutrients.
Nutritional deficiencies can contribute to fatigue and poor wellbeing, although cravings aren’t necessarily a sign of a specific deficiency.
Often, food cravings during dieting are simply a response to hunger, restriction, habit or the appeal of highly palatable foods.
And this brings me to something I feel strongly about.
Weight loss shouldn’t come at the expense of our health.
5. Why I Prefer a More Flexible Approach: The 5:2 Diet
One approach I find interesting is the 5:2 diet, a form of intermittent energy restriction.
Instead of significantly restricting calories every single day, the traditional 5:2 approach involves eating normally on five days of the week and reducing energy intake on two non-consecutive days.
Traditionally, the reduced-calorie days have involved approximately 500–600 calories, although modified approaches may use higher intakes.
The attraction is flexibility.
For some women, knowing they only have two reduced-calorie days each week can feel more manageable than constantly restricting food.
It may also be easier to fit around social occasions, family meals and everyday life.
However, it’s important to understand that research hasn’t consistently shown the 5:2 diet produces greater long-term weight loss than conventional calorie restriction.
Its main potential advantage is that some people find it easier to follow.
And adherence is enormously important.
A nutrition plan only works in the long term if it fits into your life.
The five regular eating days should provide sufficient, balanced nutrition rather than becoming opportunities to overeat or compensate for restriction.
The reduced-calorie days also need careful planning, and this approach isn’t suitable for everyone, particularly people with a history of eating disorders, those who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or people taking certain diabetes medications.
Very low intakes such as 500–600 calories should be discussed with a healthcare professional, especially when exercising regularly.
6. Focus on Nutrient Density, Not Just Calories
Whether you’re following a 5:2 approach or eating consistently throughout the week, food quality matters.
I encourage women to think about what they’re getting from their food, rather than simply how many calories it contains.
A nutrient-dense diet provides protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and beneficial fats alongside the energy we need.
For example, compare a meal of refined carbohydrates with a meal containing salmon, quinoa, vegetables and olive oil.
Both provide energy.
But the second offers a broader combination of nutrients that support muscle health, satiety and general wellbeing.
The aim is to make every meal count nutritionally.
7. Choose High-Fibre, Quality Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates aren’t the enemy.
But the type, quantity and combination of carbohydrates we eat can influence blood glucose, fullness and nutritional quality.
I particularly like encouraging women to include:
Sweet potatoes.
Quinoa.
Brown rice.
Lentils.
Chickpeas.
Beans.
Oats.
Buckwheat.
Plenty of vegetables.
These foods can provide fibre, minerals and slower-digesting carbohydrates.
Lentils, beans and chickpeas are particularly useful because they provide both carbohydrates and plant protein.
Rather than relying heavily on refined flour products and low-fibre convenience foods, choose whole-food carbohydrate sources more often.
That doesn’t mean white rice or white potatoes must be completely eliminated.
Potatoes, for example, provide potassium and vitamin C, and their effect on blood glucose depends partly on portion size, preparation and what they’re eaten with.
The goal is to improve carbohydrate quality, not create another unnecessarily restrictive set of food rules.
8. Why Protein Is So Important for Women Trying to Lose Weight
If there’s one nutritional message I want women to understand, it’s the importance of protein.
When we lose weight, we don’t automatically lose only body fat.
We can also lose muscle.
And maintaining muscle becomes particularly important as we get older.
Protein helps support muscle repair and maintenance, while resistance training provides the stimulus needed to preserve and build strength.
Protein is also particularly useful for satiety.
It can help us feel fuller after meals, making a calorie deficit easier to manage.
For many active women, aiming for approximately 1.2–1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily is a useful starting point, although individual needs vary.
One practical approach is to spread protein across the day.
Breakfast: approximately 25–30 grams.
Lunch: approximately 25–30 grams.
Dinner: approximately 25–30 grams.
Additional protein-rich snacks can help you reach your daily target.
For example:
Breakfast could be eggs with cottage cheese or Greek yoghurt with nuts and seeds.
Lunch might be salmon with quinoa and vegetables.
Dinner could be chicken, fish or tofu with lentils and roasted vegetables.
Protein-rich snacks might include yoghurt, edamame, cottage cheese or a protein smoothie.
And remember, you don’t have to consume protein immediately after finishing a workout. Your overall daily protein intake and its distribution across meals matter more than rushing to eat within a narrow window.
9. Why Strength Training Changes the Weight-Loss Conversation
This is where I believe women can make an enormous difference to their long-term health.
Instead of focusing exclusively on losing weight, we should also be thinking about maintaining and building muscle.
Resistance training helps preserve lean mass during weight loss.
It improves strength, supports bone health and contributes to better metabolic function.
Muscle is metabolically active tissue, although gaining muscle doesn’t dramatically increase resting calorie expenditure.
The benefits of strength training extend far beyond simply burning calories.
It’s about improving body composition, maintaining physical function and supporting healthy ageing.
I encourage women to aim for at least two strength-training sessions each week, gradually progressing their exercises as they become stronger.
And don’t underestimate the benefits of walking, cycling, swimming, yoga and other forms of movement.
Regular activity supports cardiovascular health, insulin sensitivity, mood and general wellbeing.
10. Exercise Isn’t Just About Burning Calories
One mistake we can make is treating exercise as a way of compensating for eating.
Eat something, then try to burn it off.
But exercise is so much more valuable than that.
Physical activity helps improve how our muscles use glucose and can support blood sugar regulation.
Even a short walk after a meal can help reduce the post-meal rise in blood glucose.
And when we combine regular movement with resistance training and balanced nutrition, we’re supporting our bodies in several different ways.
You don’t need to exercise intensely every single day.
Recovery matters too.
The aim is to build a lifestyle that includes enjoyable movement, not to punish yourself for eating.
11. Why Sustainable Weight Loss Is About More Than Willpower
I think one of the biggest problems with traditional diet culture is that it encourages women to believe that success comes from constant restriction.
Eat less.
Ignore hunger.
Be more disciplined.
But our bodies are complex.
Appetite, sleep, stress, hormones, physical activity, food availability and eating habits all influence weight management.
A successful approach needs to consider the whole person.
For some women, that might mean a moderate daily calorie deficit.
For others, a carefully planned 5:2 approach may feel more manageable.
And for others, improving food quality, protein intake, meal structure and physical activity may be the best place to begin.
There isn’t one perfect diet for everybody.
12. My Philosophy: Nourish Your Body, Don’t Starve It
I want women to move away from the idea that getting healthier means constantly eating less.
Instead, let’s focus on eating better.
Let’s eat sufficient protein to maintain muscle.
Let’s enjoy healthy fats, fibre-rich carbohydrates and colourful vegetables.
Let’s make sure we’re getting the vitamins and minerals we need.
Let’s build strength and move our bodies regularly.
And if weight loss is a goal, let’s create a realistic, sustainable energy deficit without sacrificing our health or quality of life.
I understand why the 5:2 approach appeals to so many people.
For those who enjoy that structure, having five regular eating days and two planned reduced-calorie days can offer flexibility.
But it isn’t the only route to success, and it shouldn’t become another form of extreme restriction.
The best diet isn’t the one that makes you lose weight the fastest. It’s the one that helps you achieve your goals while staying healthy, strong and able to enjoy your life.
Because healthy ageing isn’t about being as small as possible.
It’s about having the energy, strength and vitality to live well.
Eat well. Build muscle. Feel strong. Age strong.
In Flow Studio | Nutrition, Strength & Healthy Ageing
This article provides general educational information and is not a personalised dietary prescription.
