When you restrict calories to a severe degree, or fail to eat on a regular schedule (you should eat six times per day), your body goes into starvation mode. In starvation mode, fat is hoarded. Fat is a storage fuel and its main purpose on your body is to keep you alive when food is in short supply. Muscle on the other hand is a highly metabolically active tissue. It requires a lot of fuel and energy to be maintained. It is also extremely heavy. Therefore, when the body is confronted with decreased food intake, it figures the smartest choice for a fuel source is muscle.

For some women, you may think losing muscle is a good idea, but it is not. One pound of muscle burns 35 calories per day , at rest. Simple math will tell you that the more muscle you have on your body the more calories you burn every single day. This is one of the reasons that men have an easier time losing weight than women.  Men simply have more muscles on their body than women.

Muscle is the secret to long-term weight loss success. The more muscle you have on your body the more calories you will burn.  This equates to being able to eat more calories and still maintain your weight. For those concerned about looking overly muscular from lifting weights, fear not. Most people can easily put on 10 pounds, or more, of muscle and the only change that they will notice is that they look more "tone". You will certainly not be overly muscular.

Simply stated, most diets fail because a large percentage of the weight lost during the diet is muscle mass. This loss of muscle slows your metabolism and causes you to gain weight even though you may be eating a reasonable diet.