Although it’s a nightmare for dieters, a slower metabolism can actually be a good thing.
We have known for more than a century that calorie restriction can increase animal lifespan and metabolic slowdown can be the mechanism. This could be why the tortoise lives ten times longer than the hare. Rabbits can live for 10 to 20 years, while “Harriet,” a tortoise “supposedly collected of the Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin, was estimated to be about 176 years old when he died in 2006.” Slow and steady can win the race.
As I analyze it in my video. The benefits of calorie restriction for longevityone of the ways our body low Our resting metabolic rate is achieved by creating more efficient, cleaner-burning mitochondria, the power plants that fuel our cells. It’s as if our body approves its own fuel efficiency standards. These new mitochondria create the same energy with less oxygen and produce less “escape” of free radicals. After all, when our body fears a famine is coming, it tries to conserve as much energy as it can.
In fact, the largest calorie restriction trial to date found metabolic slowing and a reduction in oxidative stress induced by free radicals, which can slow the rate of aging. The flame that burns twice as bright lasts half as long. But whether this results in greater human longevity is an unanswered question. Calorie restriction is often saying “to extend life expectancy in each species studied,” but that it’s not It is even true for all strains within a single species. Two authors of an article, for example, do not even share Same point of view: One doesn’t believe calorie restriction improves human longevity at all, while the other suggests that a 20 percent calorie restriction starting at age 25 and maintained for 52 years could add five years to your life. Either way, reduced oxidative stress would be expected improve our health.
Members of the Calorie Restriction Society, calling themselves CRONies (for Calorie Restricted Optimal Nutrition), appear They may be in excellent health, but they are a rather unique and self-selected group of individuals. You really don’t know until you put it to the test. Enter the CALERIE study, the Comprehensive Evaluation of the Long-Term Effects of Reducing Energy Intake, the first clinical trial to proof The effects of calorie restriction.
Hundreds of non-obese men and women were random to two years of 25 percent calorie restriction. They only ended up achieving half of that, but they still lost about 18 pounds and three inches off their waist, shedding more than half of their visceral belly fat, as you can see in the chart below and at the 2:47 mark in my video.
That translated in significant improvements in cholesterol, triglyceride levels, insulin sensitivity and blood pressure, which you can see in the graph below and at 2:52 in my video. Eighty percent of those who were overweight when began They were of normal weight at the end of the trial, “compared to a 27% increase in those who became overweight in the control group.” 
In the famous Minnesota famine study, which used conscientious objectors as guinea pigs during World War II, the study subjects suffered both physically and psychologically, experiencing depression, irritability and loss of libido, among other symptoms. However, the participants started out thin and cut their calorie intake in half. The CALERIE study ended be four times less restrictive, only about 12 percent below the initial caloric intake, and enrolled people of normal weight, which in the United States today means overweight on average. As such, subjects in the CALERIE trial experienced nothing but positive quality-of-life benefits, with significant improvements in mood, general health, sexual desire, and sleep. They only ended up eating about 300 fewer calories a day than they had started. So, they got all of these benefits—the physiological benefits and the psychological benefits—by simply eliminating the calories equivalent of a small bag of chips from their daily diets.
But what happened at the end of the trial? As researchers Mountain range in the Minnesota Starvation Study and in calorie deprivation experiments conducted with Army Rangers, as soon as the subjects were released Because of the restriction, they tended to gain the weight back quickly and sometimes even more, as you can see below and at 4:18 in my video.
The thinner they are began the more their bodies seemed to drive them to overeat to accumulate additional body fat, as seen in the graph below and at 4:27 in my video. On the contrary, after completing the CALERIE study, although their metabolism slowed down, the participants detained about 50 percent weight loss two years later. They must have acquired new eating attitudes and behaviors that allowed them to keep their weight down. After prolonged calorie restriction, for example, cravings for sugary, fatty, and junk foods may actually increase. go below. 
This is part of my series on calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, and time-restricted eating. Watch related videos below.
