The most common mistake women make!

there are numerous others, what it boils down to is finding what works for you, for some of us eating 5 or 6 small meals a day works for others 3 meals a day works. I just listen to my body as the needs can change daily.

Ok people I decided to write this one for the women as they seem to make this mistake all to often as well as some men, but more so the women.
1) When they join regardless of how much they weigh or their stats they instantly go for that golden 1200 cal/day minimum.
2) They workout as much as possible and eat as little as possible.
3) They totally starve the body for fuel and nutrition this way and either have 0 weight loss or have a great start until the body adapts and then stops them dead in their tracks.

Now I know what you are thinking, less in + more out = greater fat loss and to some extent that is true until you factor in the bigger picture here. I also know that there are the naysayers who have lost lots of weight doing just that, well here is a news flash for those women I bet you may have lost fat but the bulk of what you lost is the muscle girls, slowing the metabolic rate down to a snails pace. Now I can sit here and preach all day long about diet and advice but I am not going to do so in this post, short and sweet I will give you the condensed version in an analogy that is deadly accurate and gives you a crystal clear overall picture.

Think of it like driving a car, you have a limited amount of gas before the car starts to break down. The calories or fuel that mfp gives you will get you to your destination driving at 80 mph. Now think of exercise as getting you there at 120 mph but not stopping for fuel means that the tires get worn down faster, the car will break down easier and in the end will explode. The body is the car, the calories are the fuel, the tires are your muscle without proper fuel they break down and in the end the body feeds off itself. The point of the exercise is to increase the metabolic rate (the speed at which you can safely drive) not to burn off the fuel (calories).

Cardio burns fuel off in the short term, weight training raises the overall metabolic rate and increases your fat loss but neither will do you any good if you are not fueling the body right. All that hard work, sweat, tears in the mirror when you are not seeing results are because you are your own worst enemy. Work with your body and not against it. You can choose to be a prius or a "insert fav exotic or muscle car here", does not matter which, but the "fav exotic or muscle car" is a lot more fun and that is the one who feeds their body right and rips down the road of fat loss blowing right by you like you are standing still.