Vote Against a Crash Diet

If you cut calories too drastically, your nutrient intake may not support your lifestyle, proper training and recovery. This can increase the risk of injury, illness and over-training syndrome. The latest sports nutrition guidelines also warn against eating too few calories and reaching a dangerously low body fat percentage. That’s because both can disrupt reproductive function and diminish bone health.

The lowest safe recommended body fat percentage is 5% in males and 12% in females. However, these levels are not necessarily best for all athletes, so discuss what’s best for you with your coach and sports dietitian

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Cutting calories too quickly can also negatively affect hormones and metabolism. To decrease body fat, athletes should eat about 300–500 fewer calories per day but avoid eating less than 13.5 calories per lb (30 kcal/kg) of fat-free mass per day. If you don’t know how much fat-free mass you have, get your body composition estimated with either a skin fold test or bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA). You can also get your body composition measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) or underwater weighing. These are more accurate, but also tend to be more expensive and harder to come by.

Bottom Line: Crash diets can increase your risk of illness, injury and negatively affect your training and recovery. Therefore, avoid cutting your calorie intake by more than 300–500 calories per day.

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