Do you find that no matter what diet you try or how much
exercise you do, you just can't seem to lose fat anymore?
Were you once pleased with your fat-loss progress, but now
find yourself staring this big, ugly plateau in the face?
You've tried high carb, low carb, lots of cardio, little
cardio, fat burners--the list goes on--but nothing seems to
work anymore. That flab isn't going anywhere.
Frustrating, isn't it? It's like a brick wall standing in
your way, isn't it?
Your problem may be a damaged metabolism--a very real
phenomenon--caused by prolonged dieting. I know that may
sound scary, but it's not as bad as some people make it out
to be. With all the extremely low-calorie eating and hours
of cardio that some people do day in and day out, it's
actually very commonplace. Rest assured, you're not alone.
The good news is that it's generally repairable. Contrary
to popular--albeit ill-informed--opinion, metabolic
"damage" is not permanent and metabolism does not shut off.
Yes, it slows down, but this is actually a normal and
expected response when you're eating sub-maintenance
calories.
There is a physiologically-based adaptive response that the
body undergoes when eating in a caloric deficit. The
regulatory hormones all adjust over time to preserve
bodyfat. And the effect is magnified the leaner you get
(which is often associated with the longer you're trying to
lose fat). End result? Slower, if not altogether stalled,
fat loss. No matter how good your nutritional program, if
you're eating in a caloric deficit, your metabolism will
attempt to adjust accordingly.
Ok, enough of the whys. How do we get that metabolism
humming again? First off, you need to lose the short term
thinking and adopt a longer term mindset. This is critical.
Even though this might go against 'common wisdom', you're
going to have to eat more, at least for a little while.
Yes, you read that right – eat more, not less. You
might find it hard to wrap your head around this concept,
but trust me, it's necessary. However, just ramping right
up to an appropriate caloric intake isn't necessarily the
right approach for everyone. There is more than one way to
approach the repair but I'd suggest you do it in steps -
systematic and regular increases. This has the benefit of
one, allowing you to gradually get used to eating more
food, two, potentially preventing some fat regain, and
three, maybe even causing some fat loss. So one approach is
to determine how much you're eating on an average day and
then take your present intake and just add 10-20% to it
every few days until you hit maintenance calories.
At this point, you need to stay at maintenance for a couple
of weeks before even considering going back into a caloric
deficit. Might you gain some weight at maintenance? Maybe,
but some will surely be water, muscle glycogen, etc.
Basically nothing to worry about – easy come, easy
go. Again, long term versus short term thinking. You need
to correct the problem before you can move past it. Two
weeks at maintenance will make further fat loss much more
likely when you return to your caloric deficit. Chances are
you'll start feeling a lot better though, and you'll have
some great workouts.
Planned periods at maintenance calories are one of the most
underrated fat-loss strategies out there. Remember, the
purpose of the two weeks at maintenance calories isn't to
maintain; it's to make the subsequent calorie deficit more
effective at fat loss. Think of it as a 'resetting of the
system'. Then you hit your deficit again and presto, more
fat loss.
With a slow metabolism you can generally assume somewhere
in the neighbourhood of 14x bodyweight is going to
approximate maintenance calories. It might even be a bit
lower depending on how severe your caloric deficit has been
and for how long, but keep in mind that metabolism is only
going to slow so much. It doesn't shut off. These
maintenance numbers are an approximation, but so are the
more complicated equations that can be used to determine
caloric requirements.
After the two weeks at maintenance are up, you return to
your caloric deficit. However, this time take a moderate
approach and shoot for approximately 12x bodyweight in
calories. If you're female and a bit lighter in bodyweight
to begin with, you might need to start lower in order to
create a sufficient fat-burning caloric deficit. Stay there
for a couple weeks, assess your progress, and make
adjustments as needed. If you're getting leaner and your
measurements have decreased, stay there. If you're not, try
decreasing calories by another 10% and reassess again two
weeks later.
Remember, these caloric recommendations are just
approximations; they're starting points. Everyone is a bit
different, so the key to long term success is being able to
trouble shoot your program. A quick closing note on that
very topic. If what you're doing isn't working, doing it
longer isn't going to make it suddenly start working. Your
program needs some trouble shooting What you do is based on
the results of what you're doing. Getting the results
you're after? Stay the course. Not getting the results
you're after? Make changes.
There is no reason to continually suffer the effects poor
prior fat-loss efforts have had on your metabolism. There
is no reason you should have to suffer a permanent sentence
of stalled fat loss. Planned periods at maintenance
calories are the key. However, they aren't just for
repairing a sluggish metabolism. They can and should be
used periodically throughout your fat-loss phase to promote
continue fat loss. A periodic resetting of the system will
go a long way to maintaining healthy metabolism and and
continued fat loss.
----------------------------------------------------
Erik Ledin, B.Kin, CSCS, CISSN, is the President of Lean
Bodies Consulting Inc., an online consulting firm that
reaches globally and specializes in physique contest
preparation, fat loss, nutrition and overall physical
enhancement. He can be reached at
http://www.leanbodiesconsulting.com
No comments:
Post a Comment