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Often times we see cases where people work really hard and eat religiously as prescribed by their trainer or nutritionist and they reduce weight drastically. But what happens soon after they get applauded for the before and after photos? Most of them cannot adhere to such strict food restriction and too much cardio oriented training and they eventually start falling back to their old patterns to "live a little" justifying their behavior.
While it is common sense for us to blame these people for such fall back, in reality they are not to be blamed. It is the ignorance of their trainers and nutritionists, simply a lack of information or practice on their part to not provide the client with a smart plan to get out of the diet. The result, poor client gains twice as much weight as they started with or fall into the "Yo-Yo" effect where you keep losing weight and gaining weight until you burn out and blame yourself and the entire health and nutrition system for all of this.
Don't be a yo-yo dieter. Instead be a part of a more sustainable method of nutrition that not only helps you lose "fat" weight but also maintain the newly lean physique which you always wanted.
What happens in a non-sustainable Yo-Yo environment?
When you take the restrictive non-sustainable diet approach with excessive exercise to lose weight as quickly as possible, you are basically putting your body through the below patterns:
- Restrictive feeding over a long period of time leads to hunger and cravings, sleep issues, mood swings and nutrient deficiencies.
- Over exercise does more harm than good. When you do more that what your body can take, you are not only more susceptible to injuries but it also disrupts your hormones to make you hungrier and crave more leading to consumption of additional calories.
- Overall, you are shaking too many of your hormones to disrupt your sleep, hunger, mood, energy and craving or the SHMEC principle (As introduced to me by Dr.Jade Teta )
When you lose a lot of weight in a short duration of time with the above non-sustainable ways:
Your fat cells become smaller in size as you lose fat
This leads to reduced Leptin (satiety hormone - that which makes you feel full) and raises Ghrelin (the hunger hormone - that which makes you feel hungry)
You tend to eat more due to this
Additional smaller fat cells attach to the existing fat cells. But since most cells are still smaller in size you continue to secrete Ghrelin or feel hungrier
This goes on until all the cells blow up to be larger in size which leads to even bigger size than where you started
You might have felt the same when you start losing weight and suddenly feel a lot hungrier or when you are gaining weight and don't feel like eating.
Consequence: You feel underconfident and overdependent on these fad diets and gimmicks instead of focusing on the root cause - "Metabolism/Energy balance"
Until and unless you know how to fix your fat set-point, you will keep yo-yoing! To fix your fat set point, you need to maintain your lean physique for almost an year as suggested by research and evidence. But to do that you need to understand that you cannot diet so strictly and cannot continue to workout hard forever and thus there are solutions like:
Weight training with progressive overload
Emphasis on full body recovery
Eating a higher % of protein(roughly 1.5-2g/kg of bodyweight per day)
Eating a lot of low calorie high fiber foods like fruits and vegetables to keep full
Manipulate your daily food plate and eating order to include foods you like without jeopardizing your goals
Lose weight gradually, not drastically
When the calories get too low, you need to understand how to include "Diet Breaks" to keep the metabolism running
How to slowly increase calories - also called "Reverse Dieting"
All these are separate topics on their own and I cover them in my training, workshops and consultations.
The whole point of this article was to make you aware of how the fad diets and short-cuts are keeping you away from your goals and more so, make you come back to your trainer or nutritionist or dietician because you are confused and seek guidance from everywhere losing confidence in your own abilities gradually. Whereas in reality, this is not that complicated. People and solutions that major in the minors are the ones you should be wary of.
I hope this article was of some value to you. If you wish to understand in detail, we can connect. Please drop a comment below or DM me on my Instagram @outlaw_lift
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Hi,
Thank you for reading this article, hope it added some value to you.
I am Vidhu Mahana, a dual certified Strength and Nutrition coach. You can connect me on my Instagram to stay up to date with the latest fitness related content, myth busting, strength training, cardiovascular training and group challenges - @outlaw_lift .
I am also an avid traveler and you can stay connected with me in all my travel journeys - @outlaw_wander .
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