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Are These 5 foods REALLY Unhealthy?

Are These 5 foods REALLY Unhealthy?

by | Sep 26, 2023 | Blog, Diet

STOP labeling foods as “good” or “bad.”

First off, foods do not have any moral value and assigning them one onlyends up making us feel guilty for eating specific things.

And that guilt is often what truly sabotages our results and prevents us from creating sustainable habits and lifestyle changes.

Because foods are NOT just healthy or unhealthy….as much as we want to put whole, natural foods on a pedestal and demonized processed foods.

And what foods are right for you may be different than what foods are right for someone else.

Every food has upsides and downsides to it – both benefits and risks.

That’s why I wanted to share the UPSIDES to 5 foods we often don’t see as healthy and that we should cut out from our diet if we want to lose fat!

(Want to learn more about the foods you need to reach your goals? The Dynamic DNA Nutrition Test)

 

The first food I often hear people say they need to cut out, yet crave sooooo much, is…

CHOCOLATE! 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard something like…

“I struggle to lose weight because of those chocolate cravings, especially at night…they get me!” 

Well I’m here to tell you something amazing…

You don’t need to cut out chocolate to see amazing results and if you’re going through menopause or perimenopause, a little chocolate in your diet as your dessert may even have a beneficial impact! 

I know we often feel like we need to cut out things like chocolate because it is potentially sugar and fat, but chocolate does contain micronutrients that may improve our health.

And often us trying to restrict things we enjoy instead of striking a balance sabotages our long-term consistency and results.

So instead of cutting out chocolate, add your dessert in first if you’re tracking macros. 

Of course, the devil’s in the details and the TYPE of chocolate you consume does have an impact on the benefit. 

You do want to include chocolate that is 70% or darker to truly get the benefits. 

But by consuming 70-80% dark chocolate as part of your dessert, you are going to add a variety of micronutrients and antioxidants and even some additional fiber into your diet. 

For example, the flavanols in dark chocolate can help improve your heart heath and lower blood pressure.

Flavanols have even been shown to reduce insulin resistance, which can be helpful for women during menopause, especially where we can tend to become a bit more insulin resistant, leading to weight gain around our middle. 

Dark chocolate also has magnesium, which can help improve the quality of our sleep.

This can make it a great dessert during perimenopause and menopause when we may suffer from more sleep disturbances and struggle to get those quality z’s. 

Dark chocolate is also a good source of phosphorus, which can improve our bone and teeth health. 

As we get older, we want to do everything we can to keep our bones healthy to avoid falls and fractures!

So if you love chocolate, try including bars that are 70% or darker into your dessert. 

Even breaking it up into greek yogurt with some fruit for a filling protein dessert with great health benefits!

The second food that is so often villainized is Red Meat. 

But this is where we have to look at the nuance to each food as all red meat isn’t created equal!

There is a very big difference between processed and unprocessed red meat and even a huge variation in the exact nutritional breakdown of different cuts of meat from the same animal! 

So often though all red meat just gets lumped together.

But there are leaner and fattier cuts of red meat that we can include to not only hit our macros to lose weight but promote optimal health for us personally.

And red meat is a great source of creatine, heme iron, zinc and vitamin B12. 

If you’re working hard to build muscle, even as you lose fat, you may find that adding red meat into your diet is key because it can help you increase your creatine intake naturally. 

Especially as we get older, it becomes harder to build lean muscle.

So increasing our intake of creatine can help us promote more optimal muscle growth. 

Not to mention the micronutrients found in red meat are beneficial as well.

The form of iron, heme iron found in red meat, is a more bioavailable form, which means it can be better absorbed by the body. 

Iron contributes to proper brain function, energy metabolism and the formation of red blood cells. 

Getting enough iron is especially key as we get older to help us prevent osteoporosis.

And during menopause if you’re not getting enough iron, you may experience greater levels of fatigue.

Zinc and B12 are also essential for us as we get older improving our bone, eye and even heart health.

B12 may also play a role in slowing the aging process and keeping our tissues healthy.

And during perimenopause and menopause, when the hormonal changes can impact our mood and energy, getting enough Vitamin B12 and zinc are even more key! 

If you’re going to include red meat, consider grass-fed options and even look at different cuts to adjust your fat intake based on what you need! 

The third food that is often written off, but I think can actually be a weight loss super food is…

POPCORN. 

People often see popcorn only as something devoid of nutritional benefit loaded down with movie theater butter.

But not only does popcorn have nutritional benefits, containing fiber, antioxidants and a range of micronutrients, it also is a great way to help yourself maintain your calorie deficit and stay consistent.

If you’re hit with a craving for a salty snack, popcorn is a great high volume, low calorie option to keep you feeling full and satisfied.

The number of handfuls and bites you get with popcorn can be super satisfying and help you stay consistent.

It can also make for a fun treat on the weekends when watching TV or a movie with the family. It can help you not feel like that person on a diet while everyone else indulges! 

And popcorn contains a whole range of B vitamins as well as Vitamin A, E and K.

It also contains polyphenols, which are antioxidants that have been linked to better blood circulation and digestive health, as well as a potentially lower risk of certain cancers.

Keeping our digestive system and gut healthy can even lead to better weight loss results!

Just make sure if you include popcorn, you’re making it at home or aware of the additives that can come with buying it premade. 

And if you are really focusing on portion control, single serving packs to make are a great option!

The 4th food I wanted to discuss because it is so often demonized yet not consuming enough can have a negative impact is…

SALT. 

Salt has gotten a bad rap as being responsible for blood pressure issues.

But including enough salt is key to proper hydration and a balance of electrolytes to support a healthy nervous system. It’s not just about increasing our water intake.

Salt is also needed to form stomach acid, digest food, and absorb nutrients properly.

However, not all forms of salt are not created equal.

Often when we’re getting too much salt, we’re getting it from processed foods and not quality salt sources.

And this is part of the problem.

Instead we want to focus on things like sea salt or pink himalayan salt that can both have a beneficial impact, improving the quality of our sleep because they contain many helpful electrolytes and trace minerals for regulating hormone levels. 

We also need to stop demonizing something just because it is bad for a specific population and health concern.

Too often this leads to healthy individuals restricting something they should be including in their diet.

I mention this because recent research has even shown that low-salt diets have been linked to promoting insulin resistance in healthy individuals.

And that people who consume a moderate amount of salt were in the lowest risk category for heart problems and death, even lower than people who ate less salt.

The “moderate” sodium intake used in this study was about 4,000 – 6,000 milligrams per day.

So realize that the quality and source of the food you’re including can have an impact and just because it isn’t right for one person doesn’t make it not right for someone else!

The 5th and final food I wanted to discuss is…Bread. 

Often when people want to lose weight, they think they need to cut out all carbs, and bread is among the first they list to go. 

Bread has also gotten more hate as going gluten-free has become more and more popular even though many of us will have no issues consuming gluten and bread could be an enjoyable way to increase our carbs to create that anabolic environment for growth. 

And not only can bread be included in our diet, but there is so much variation in the health benefits different types of bread may provide.

Not only are there more whole-grain variations of bread that contain more fiber, but even sourdough bread can provide more health benefits than we realize. 

While it isn’t gluten-free, sourdough bread may even be tolerated better by those with IBS or a gluten intolerance or sensitivity.

And because of the unique fermentation process for sourdough bread, it can help improve our gut health and unlock more of the B vitamins in the bread.

Sourdough is also usually made with fortified flour, which can bump our iron and folate intake! 

So just because there are some very processed breads out there that may not provide as much nutritional benefit, we shouldn’t just demonize all breads but find the ones that help us enjoy our meals and create a sustainable and healthy lifestyle!

While not all of these foods may be right for you and your dietary preference, we want to recognize the benefits of including a diversity of foods in our diet to create a healthy, sustainable lifestyle balance.

There are always downsides and upsides to everything we include and the more we understand the nuance to everything, the more we can find what we need to reach our goals and feel, look and move our best!

Want to learn more about the foods you need to reach your goals?

–> The Dynamic DNA Nutrition Test

STUDIES:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30061161/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5539137/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22301923/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2017.00036/full
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22110105/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21036373/

7 Bad Habits That STOPPED Me From Losing Weight

7 Bad Habits That STOPPED Me From Losing Weight

by | Sep 17, 2023 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

I’ve made all the mistakes when it comes to trying to lose fat, gain muscle and create a sustainable lifestyle.

But I like to think all of my…interesting experiments…weren’t for nothing.

Because I’ve made so many I can help my clients avoid making those same mistakes and wasting time.

That’s why I wanted to share 7 bad habits that kept me from losing fat for the longest time!

And I’ll be honest…most sabotaged my success because they were simply unsustainable and created a mindset of restriction and deprivation.

Because while achieving our goals does mean making sacrifices at times,
we also have to learn to create a balance, meeting ourselves where we are at.

And that’s why I think this first bad habit is something many of us have had sabotage our results…

Focusing On Eating Too Clean. 

I literally ended up curled up on the bathroom floor of a hotel in San Diego. I was pasty white, in a cold sweat and looked like death. 

All because I’d been eating only chicken and broccoli and extremely clean, one ingredient foods for weeks before the vacation. 

One spicy sangria and a couple of appetizers later and I was sick. 

It’s because I’d created these extreme limitations on myself that not only had left me miserable for weeks, while not seeing better results faster, but they led to me being sick at the first deviation from my clean eating plan.

Too often we try to make ourselves feel guilty for not hitting some arbitrary standard of clean.

But this mindset of good and bad foods not only assigns moral value to foods that don’t have any, leading to GUILT when we eat one thing we aren’t supposed to, but it also can sabotage our results and long-term consistency. 

This extremely restrictive clean mindset can lead to an obsession with food.

It can also lead to us creating nutrient deficiencies.

And it can lead to us ultimately feeling so miserable and deprived we give up. 

And then we feel that reaching our goals is impossible and we just don’t have the willpower. We start to even DREAD the idea of making diet changes.

And all because we’re trying to force something unsustainable.

Instead of focusing on “eating clean,” focus on small swaps to foods and ingredients based on what you’re currently eating. 

Realize that whole natural foods are key BUT that you can and SHOULD include the foods you love.

However, this does bring me to bad habit number 2….

Including Too Much Food Diversity. 

After attempting to cut out all unclean foods, and the massive backfire I suffered…not to mention I literally couldn’t even look at chicken and broccoli for awhile… 

I went to include as much diversity as humanly possible.

I thought it was a great idea to include things to keep my meals interesting and get micronutrients from a diversity of sources. 

And while we do want to include a diversity of foods for optimal health to get vitamins and minerals in different forms…

Trying to include too much diversity can be overwhelming and lead to actually more cravings!

The more we give ourselves, the less of a routine and habit we get into and the more we WANT.

It becomes then a slippery slope of more and more foods creeping in. 

And the less nutrient dense they are and the more processed, the easier it becomes to overeat and feel hungry even when we’ve eaten enough calories.

Not to mention it can make grocery shopping, meal prepping and hitting those macros more overwhelming when there are so many more pieces to the puzzle. 

Simplifying and focusing on a set grocery list and meal plan with a few key ingredients each week can help us stay consistent and not be overwhelmed as we make changes! 

Studies have even shown that we are less likely to overeat when eating the same things repeatedly, making it easier to maintain our macros and calories to lose the fat!

It leads to fewer cravings and a better shut off mechanism when we’ve consumed what we need! 

The 3rd bad habit is a hard one to change when we want results as fast as possible…

It’s Always Going Hard And Never Cycling Intensity.

Sometimes less is more.

And sometimes if we back off when we aren’t motivated or proactively give ourselves a break, we actually stay more consistent overall. 

If you’ve been dieting and in a deficit for a while, you may both physically and mentally start to feel the impact of the lower calories.

Your body does want to fight the weight loss process as weight loss is seen as a threat to your survival.

So you will find that cravings go up even as you get leaner and your mind fights against what you know you “should” be doing. 

You may even feel demotivated to train in the way you need.

This is where potentially a deload week or a dieting break may come in handy.

The key is doing these things strategically and with a plan not just eating everything in sight while you lay on the couch for a couple of weeks doing nothing. 

But give your body a break from the calorie deficit, maybe including even a few foods you’ve wanted but haven’t had.

Just be strategic in giving yourself guidelines to eat at maintenance calories and even hit easier macro ratios.

Don’t let this become a free for all. 

And then you may find you’re more motivated to train with the increase in fuel or that a deload week allows your body a break to repair and rebuild while also giving you a mental break from the strain of constantly pushing that progression. 

But be proactive if you’ve been dieting for awhile and give yourself that strategic break. You may be surprised by how much it even helps you bust through a plateau!

The next bad habit is one I think many of us fall prey to that prevents us sticking with the habits we need to see the body recomp we want…

And it is – Only Using The Scale To Measure Progress. 

I think the scale can be a great tool. And I think it can even be a good thing to weigh daily.

But the scale also doesn’t show us the full picture.

It can make you feel like you’re actually even losing ground when results are truly building. 

And this is because the scale just tells you your weight in that moment on that day.

It doesn’t tell you if you’ve gained weight because you’ve gained muscle while losing fat or if you’ve lost weight by losing muscle and even gaining fat.

And seeking to see faster results on the scale, can actually sabotage your fat loss efforts, especially your long term maintenance.

Because the faster we seek to see results on the scale, the more we often end up losing muscle mass and NOT just fat.

So if you want to focus on truly losing fat to look leaner, you need to track your progress by taking body measurements and progress pictures. 

Especially progress pictures of areas you don’t even care about changing. 

Because often the places we want to lose from the most are the LAST to go.

So by taking multiple angles and areas, we can see fat loss occurring in other places to know to stay the course! 

The next bad habit is one that I’ve found personally the hardest to break…especially because I always enjoyed training…

It was – Trying To Out Exercise My Diet.

Many of us fall into this habit because it actually does work…to start! 

But relying on this is also what ultimately keeps us stuck in this yo-yo dieting cycle, struggling to lose more and more as we get older.

It works because most of us are more comfortable being uncomfortable in our training than we are with making nutritional changes. 

We also can create that calorie deficit to start by doing MORE in our workouts.

And it makes us feel really in control to push hard. 

We feel good about our hard work. 

But working hard doesn’t mean we’re working hard in a direction that moves us forward.

And over time, our body adapts to the training stimulus, which means we aren’t then creating the calorie deficit we once were. 

So at that point either our diet needs to change or we need to train harder and longer.

At some point, trying to only do more with our workouts will burn us out, lead to injury or even ultimately result in metabolic adaptations that make it harder and harder to lose as we get older.

The simple fact is, our nutrition has to match our goals. 

And by adjusting our diet we can see our performance in the gym even improve as we achieve fabulous body recomp.

We will truly see the hard work and sweat we are putting in during our workouts PAY OFF! 

And I think it’s really key we recognize that at times…it WON’T feel like our hard work is paying off.

We won’t see linear progress toward our fat loss goals. 

But this is why I think this next habit is so key to break…

Treating Your Workouts Only As A Means To Lose Weight.

While we do want to design our workouts and our nutrition to work together toward a singular goal, I also think it is key we set complementary goals that further motivate us to do the habits we need to see results. 

And that’s why I found that a secret to consistency and success in losing fat and keeping it off is actually Setting Performance Goals while also NOT seeing my workouts as just a chance to burn more calories and lose faster.

By focusing on a specific performance goal, like improving my push ups, conquering a skill, lifting more weight in a specific lift, addressing an imbalance…even training for a competition…

I help keep myself more motivated to train hard. I have more purpose for each workout. 

And then I have something to track in the gym to see my hard work building toward. 

This ultimately also helped me lose fat because it kept me doing the habits I needed.

I wanted to eat to fuel and feel my best, which resulted in better body comp. 

I wanted to do the recovery I needed to be able to train hard. 

By setting complementary goals, like performance goals for our workouts, we better help ourselves to stay motivated to do the habits we need even when fat loss results are slow or we hit a plateau. 

It allows us to celebrate other wins to keep moving forward!

And the final bad habit I think sabotaged for years and kept me stuck losing the fat to only regain it and feel like I was starting over every January with a new cut was…

Not Doing SOMETHING When It Was Better Than Nothing. 

Every holiday season I would make an excuse not to track. “Oh I know the portions I need to eat.”

“Oh I can find balance I’m not being that off plan.”

“Oh I can take today off.”

And every holidays I would pack on the pounds.

I realized that, while there are times of year I don’t track and stay consistent, the holidays was not one of those times. 

But I also knew the habits I enjoyed when motivated in January wouldn’t fit the holiday season. 

That’s when I realized the power of 1% improvements.

Just being a little more consistent, focusing on doing a minimum, could help me move forward even during a time I didn’t care as much or have the motivation and focus. 

Too often we try and rely on a perfect 21 days or 6 weeks. 

But doing the ideal only during those times doesn’t allow for true habit changes or results to snowball. 

So it’s key we stop the all or nothing habit changes and realize that sometimes something is better than nothing, embracing doing the minimum at times! 

If you’ve been struggling to make consistent and sustainable changes, and have fallen into these bad habits, focus on making one change today!

We need to keep constantly learning and remember that small swaps and changes add up!

Ready to create sustainable habits that help you achieve your leanest, strongest body EVER and maintain those results till your final day on this planet?!

Join my Dynamic Strength program!

Meal Plan To Lose Fat Faster (Without Ruining Your Metabolism)

Meal Plan To Lose Fat Faster (Without Ruining Your Metabolism)

by | May 14, 2023 | Blog, Diet

Wish you could look lean whenever you wanted?

Like always be at your most fabulous for a vacation or big event?

Well I’m going to share how you can actually accomplish this and stay leaner all year around.

The secret is MINI CUTS.

And I’m going to explain what mini cuts are and how you’ll be able to design your own by the end of this video.

What Is A Mini Cut?

Mini cuts are NOT something you do long term.

They are hard.

They are miserable. They aren’t fun. You’ll feel hungry. Your body will be a bit mad.

But the point of them is to kickstart those results.

And to feel extra fabulous for that vacation or event.

To stay lean, you can’t be in a deficit forever.

And, even if you aren’t yet at your goal, if you’ve been dieting for longer, you need to take a break at points.

Because you will hit a plateau or reach a point of diminishing returns.

The longer and stricter we’ve been dieting, the more our body and our mind will fight against us.

That is why at points you have to shift into maintaining your results, even if you aren’t yet fully at your goal. 

During these times you want to increase your calories and focus on more balanced macro ratios.

These are a BREAK for your body and mind but ESSENTIAL if you want to see the full benefit of mini cuts.

By maintaining your results for a time, you create a new set point off of which you can build.

You can then strategically use more intensive deficits and macro breakdowns to achieve amazing results very quickly and get that extra definition whenever you want.

And these strategic deficits and intense macro breakdowns are called mini cuts.

And you’ll only use these strategically for 1-3…4 weeks max.

They are to look extra fabulous for that big event or even to overcome a plateau when you’ve been stuck.

Mini cuts are times where you are going to go to an extreme that you know is NOT sustainable but with a purpose and an exit strategy.

You are doing this built off of those key fundamentals not just doing some shake or detox fast fix.

And because the mini cuts are short, you won’t sabotage your metabolic health or feel restricted for so long you can’t get back on track after!

So…How Do You Set Your Macros And Calories For Your Own Mini Cut?

Yup. You’re going to have to track to really use these mini cuts to your advantage. Precision is key so we don’t lose muscle and focus on that recomp quickly.

We need that data to help us avoid the cut backfiring because we are going to be going to a strategic short-term extreme.

To set your calories, a good starting place is 10x goal bodyweight (which may even be your current bodyweight if you’re already lean).

This number is going to be low.

If you are super active and super lean, you may simply cut 500 off of your usual maintenance if you track consistently.

But you are pushing the most extreme deficit here for a very short term!

Then adjust your protein.

You want your protein intake between 45-50% for this mini cut.

You can then divide the rest between carbs and fat, but the more active you are and the leaner you want to be, the more you will want to keep carbs higher while dropping fat closer to 20%.

Often for a mini cut with clients I recommend something like 45% protein, 35% carbs and 20% fat.

I’ll show you how I would hit this ratio with a full day of eating at 1400 calories.

Full Day Of Eating – 45% protein, 35% carbs, 20% fat at 1400 calories

Pre-Workout:

Because my calories are low and I want to maintain my lean muscle mass, I will often train earlier in the morning after a protein shake and some coffee.

I love this morning routine and find the coffee allows me some time to wake up and gives me a bit of an energy boost while my calories are low.

The protein shake is also key so that I have those amino acids available to help me repair and rebuild from my lifting.

During my workout, I’ll consume my BCAAs.

I find because I’m in an extreme deficit and not getting “enough” of anything, these help me recover faster from my training and protect my lean muscle.

I also am very strategic during these mini cuts to focus my progressions on lifting over cardio.

Post Workout/Breakfast:

After my workout, I’ll head home and have breakfast. I generally make an egg white omelet with smoked salmon as well as oatmeal.

I love using the Everything Bagel seasoning and Melinda’s hot sauce on the omelet.

Because sauces often pack a calorie punch, hot sauces and seasonings will be your best friends to make meals still tasty so you aren’t completely miserable with your calories so low and macros being stricter.

I also love the oatmeal packets that have a bit of flavoring.

If I don’t have one, I may add my own sugar free syrup!

Lunch:

I then have lunch before I get too hungry.

The exact timing may vary based on what I’m doing, but I like to make sure I’m never starving when I next eat or I find it easier to end up wanting to overeat or eat so fast I don’t really taste it.

I also try to drink some tea or water before I eat to feel a bit fuller from the meal.

For lunch, I keep it simple, pan-searing some chicken with some frozen sweet potato chunks and broccoli.

I’ll use some sugar-free bbq sauce on my chicken as well as garlic salt on the potatoes and veggies.

Finding things that give your food flavor is key. Trader joe’s has some amazing seasonings for diversity and there are tons of sugar-free sauces to bring some fun to boring chicken!

Yes, it is more processed BUT because of the low calories and intensive macro ratio, your overall food quality will have to be high with lots of whole natural foods anyway so that 80/20 balance to not make yourself feel extra miserable is key!

And if I’m in a pinch, I often even get the Good And Gather cooked chicken to reheat. Always good to have options for when you’re on the go!

Dinner:

For dinner I love shrimp. They are easy to get frozen and basically have on hand no matter what.

I’ll cook them with rice and a stir-fry vegetable mix.

I’ll add in sesame oil and soy sauce and top off with sriracha because I love the spice and flavor. Adding in some garlic as well can be good to make things tasty.

Bonus if you are a spicy food person as well, capsaicin is a chemical that has been shown to increase the rate at which the body burns calories. So an extra metabolic boost is never bad while adding flavor!

Dessert:

Next is dessert. And yes, even in a cut I need my sweet treat to end the night.

I’ll usually have a greek yogurt and rice cake with peanut butter and fluff.

I often have a few brands of yogurt in the fridge to hit whatever macros and calories I need. And I have pre-planned a few rice cake variations as well.

Always key we have options we can adjust if something does pop up during the day or we are craving something specific!

I also personally have a diet soda with dinner or dessert. I find it extra satisfying and a bit filling when you know you’ve slashed your calories low strategically.

All about finding that balance so you can maintain the aesthetic you want without constantly being on a diet!

SUMMARY:

They aren’t fun. Or easy.

And they are intense.

But they are a short term pain to be able to look the way you want, whenever you want and stay leaner all year around.

Mini cuts are a great option if you need that extra kickstart or want to feel extra fabulous for an event.

Just remember you are using these short-term and strategically.

Make sure to really plan ahead as these calories are low and the macro ratios are intense!

Learn how to create YOUR lifestyle balance…

–>The 3 Phase Strategy Built For Your Body and Your Goals

Eat MORE And LOSE Fat?! Here’s How

Eat MORE And LOSE Fat?! Here’s How

by | Apr 24, 2022 | Blog, Diet, fat loss-featured

I know we’ve always heard calories in vs calories out is all that matters. And that you need to eat less and create that calorie deficit if you want to lose weight.

However, more is not better when it comes to a deficit, and trying to eat less and create a bigger deficit may backfire if we want to achieve sustainable fat loss results and our ideal lean aesthetic.

Because as much as your goal may be weight loss, you want fat loss. And fat loss can’t be rushed by eating less.

Actually forcing an extreme deficit may be why we’re even GAINING weight while under eating not to mention losing muscle instead of just focusing on fat loss.

I’m going to break down what happens when we undereat and why cycling ratios over cutting calories is key! And then I’m going to go into how to create the appropriate deficit for your needs and goals and why we may have to RE-TRAIN your body to eat more before we can focus on cutting!

Our Body Fights Weight Loss

The reason we need a deficit to lose weight is because we need to force our body to use its own energy stores to fuel. When we have less energy coming in than we need to fuel our activity and survival, we utilize stored energy. This is how we lose weight by using stored glycogen and mobilizing fat stores to fuel!

However, our body wants to maintain balance, even if the balance isn’t necessarily healthy or ideal. And the longer we’ve been at a certain weight, or above our ideal, the more our body doesn’t want to change from that point.

Our body wants to resist change and protect its fuel stores and avoid “starving” which is what it is so to speak “scared of” when you go into a deficit and start consuming less. It’s why our body resists losing weight.

And this is even when we do it in a HEALTHY way with a small deficit, nutrient dense foods and macro ratios matched to our needs and goals.

 Now…What Happens In An Extreme Deficit? Why Can It Backfire?

When you try to create a more extreme deficit and slash your calories extra low, you may see results faster to start initially. Your body immediately is depleted and needs to tap into stored energy.

However, your body adapts as quickly as it can to avoid this extreme deprivation impacting overall survival. While annoying for our weight loss efforts, this is a natural protection response.

When our body is continually under fed, ghrelin increases, which is the hormone that triggers hunger, particularly for sweet and fatty foods while leptin decreases, which is the hormone that regulates energy intake by telling the brain to stop eating. 

We also start to expend less energy to conserve our stores. So even if you’re trying to train harder to lose weight, you may find your workouts suffer and your output decreases.

Even if you do manage to train hard and push through, our bodies compensate by actually starting to burn fewer calories at rest.

Not to mention, underfueling especially if you aren’t conscious at all of macros, very quickly will lead to muscle loss. 

And losing muscle only further slows our resting metabolic rate.

If we’re under fueling and over training, our basal metabolic rate drops and non-exercise thermogenesis, or the calories burned from things like fidgeting decreases. 

Basically, we suffer from metabolic adaptations that allow us to function on the reduced calories. Which ultimately means that us starving ourselves with 900 calories a day becomes all our body thinks it needs to survive as it regulates all other functioning to match the intake you’re giving it. 

It leads to us NOT losing weight while under eating and feeling the need to slash our calories lower to get results. It also leads to us feeling extra hungry.

And when we then do overeat, we ultimately store this energy as fat because our body doesn’t “need” it to fuel. It’s adapted to the lower calories despite the hunger signals!

Have You Destroyed Your Metabolism?

The short answer is…not permanently. Yes you’ve created metabolic adaptations, BUT these can be reversed.

Will it take time and be uncomfortable and require you to sometimes go backward with your results before you move forward? 

Unfortunately, yes.

But if you don’t take time to reverse these adaptations, you’re going to keep undereating and still gaining. Your going to keep perpetuating the same cycle and not be moving forward anyway. 

While it’s hard to go against things we’ve been taught, like eat less to weigh less, you’ve got to step back and EAT MORE to reverse the metabolic “damage”

It’s the only way. 

And yes, it may lead to you gaining weight to start.

But A. This can be muscle you actually are starting to gain, which will ultimately HELP your metabolic rate and lead to better results faster.

And B. You’ve got to allow your body time to return to hormonal balance to then move forward if you ever want to see progress, and maintain those results long term.

So as sucky as it is to honestly take actions you know may move you further away from your goal to start, it’s the only way ultimately to truly move forward and see results.

So how do you get yourself out of this cycle of starvation and re-train your body to eat more?

Step Back – Re-Train Your Body To Eat More!

Variations of this retraining process are called Reverse Dieting.

Depending on your mindset with it all and how many big changes you feel you can handle at once, you may start by adjusting your macros before changing and increasing your calories.

First track what you’re currently doing no matter what. This allows you to make accurate adjustments based on your needs.

One way to approach first making changes is to adjust macros at your current calories, increasing protein, and then, as you dial in that ratio, start to slowly increase calories, 100 calories at a time.

A lucky few actually see weight loss during this, especially with the ratio change. But most, will see weight steadily creep on, even multiple pounds in the first few days, with the calorie bumps.

This will slow. 

Most of the time you should seek to increase by at least 500 calories from your starting point, maintain that for a week or two before considering re-creating a deficit. 

Adjusting your macros, and using specific higher protien ratios as you increase calories, helps use this extra fuel to build muscle and balance out your hormones. With the higher protein ratios, you will benefit from the thermic effect of that macro as much as possible to avoid you gaining any more fat than necessary.

Once you’ve gone through this process to train your body to use more calories, you will start to do small deficit adjustments, often only 100 calories lower than where you’ve built to. You will also adjust macros to more weight loss focused ratios to help kickstart those results.

Now occasionally if you’re super ready to just embrace the gain and risk more coming on quickly to help be able to jump back into losing faster, you can do a fast bump up right away. This also works out better if you’ve tracked in the past and are willing to potentially go higher protein or make a more dramatic macro change as well.

The downside, is your body doesn’t like change and this can lead to bloating or energy shifts and such. These can go away quickly BUT it’s something to be aware of.

This will often also lead to massive jumps on the scale to start but also a quicker leveling off. 

Neither one is really wrong, part of it is mentally what makes us feel best with the process, how far we have to go to really re-train our body and also appetite and activity level. 

The more active and hungrier we feel, the easier it is often to increase calories quickly.

If you have less of an appetite and are less active, it can be harder to increase calories dramatically all at once, making the slower increases more beneficial.

You need to be aware that it WILL feel like taking a step back at first and that often you feel like you’re losing ground, even having to start over so that you can ultimately progress forward.

Now Don’t Say You’re Too Old…

Often this whole process actually becomes more important to do the older we get, and especially during menopause.

As much as re-training our bodies is hard and uncomfortable and will especially lead to weight gain to start during menopause, we need to do it NOW to set ourselves up for long term success.

During menopause our apettite may also already increase as our metabolic rate slows. Throw in under fueling and overtraining in our attempt to reverse the menopausal weight gain and we have a recipe for disaster.

So as hard as it can be when you already see the scale increasing, it’s increasingly important you embrace learning to eat more!

Eating more and dialing in those macros will preserve your lean muscle mass and even help you build muscle. This is essential as we get older as it becomes harder to build and retain lean muscle, which is part of why our metabolism slows with age.

If you under fuel, you put yourself at great risk for muscle mass loss which can not only impact your quality of life and lead to a whole host of other issues including great risk for fracture, but it can make the weight loss process more and more of a struggle as you get older.

So do what you can as soon as you can. And realize that with getting older, learning to fuel correctly and eat more is even more key!

If you want help with this process to create a sustainable plan, click the link below to learn more about my 3-Step Recipe For Results!

–> The Simple Recipe For Results (note I didn’t say “easy”)

Why You’re Not Losing Weight (3 Mistakes You Might Be Making)

Why You’re Not Losing Weight (3 Mistakes You Might Be Making)

by | Mar 4, 2021 | Blog, Diet

“I’m eating so clean and training hard every day. Why am I not losing weight?”

There is nothing more frustrating than feeling like you’re working super hard and doing all of the “right” things but not getting the results you deserve.

It can make you feel like something is wrong with you.

But often it is very SIMPLE habit changes, those boring basics, that make the difference.

Too often we overcomplicate things in our search for a quick fix, instead of dialing in the fundamentals first.

We get focused on doing more and working HARDER over simply working smarter.

That’s why I want to share the 3 most common reasons people don’t see the weight loss results they want and how to correct them.

But first, I also want to discuss why you don’t want to let the scale dictate how you view your results.

The scale doesn’t tell us the full story.

It tells us how much we weigh on any given day at any given time.

But our weight isn’t just muscle and fat.

It’s glycogen and water storage.

It’s impacted by inflammation and food still left to be processed and disposed of.

The scale will fluctuate daily, not to mention even hourly.

While I know we can often want to see a specific number on the scale, we have to remember that the scale doesn’t really show us the full picture.

And often striving for faster weight loss on the scale will backfire.

The scale is a very poor indicator of body recomposition.

Your weight could stay the same while amazing body recomposition results are happening.

If you lose a pound of fat, but even gain 2lbs of muscle?

Guess what?

You could end up looking leaner BUT actually even see your weight increase.

Because as much as we say “I want to lose weight” what we really want is to lose fat.

And the scale as a data source for fat loss is very limited

So even if you are trying to lose weight, consider another form of measurement to help you truly track your body recomposition – whether it is a form of body fat testing, progress picture or even body measurements.

Now…What Are The 3 Most Common Reasons We Aren’t Seeing Results?

Often we need to focus on those BASICS and dial in those fundamentals first.

While they aren’t sexy or fun, they are often the reasons we succeed or fail!

Supplements, fancy moves may be the things we want to focus on, but we have to remember that what we measure, can be MANAGED!

If you don’t have a clear picture of what you’re doing, a clear plan in place? You can’t make accurate changes to your routine.

Reason #1: You’re Not Tracking And Measuring

I know I know…tracking sucks.

It’s boring and tedious and no one likes doing it.

But it gives us an unbiased picture of what we are truly doing so that we can adjust.

It’s a great learning tool to truly understand how to best fuel your body so your calories and macros are dialed in specifically to YOUR needs.

Because….

1. We are often very bad at estimating our own portion sizes, no matter how good we think we are at it.

And 2. You can still overeat healthy foods. It’s why you may be eating clean and NOT seeing results.

It’s easy when you’re hungry or simply even WANT the food to end up letting that portion size get a bit bigger.

I don’t know about you, but a tbsp of peanut butter gets exponentially bigger depending on how much I want it that day or even what I’m putting it on.

And with calorically dense foods like that, it’s easy for those calories to add up each day, not to mention over the week and throw us out of the deficit we need to see for results.

Not to mention, those calories can distort the macros we are actually hitting that day, which can dramatically impact our results.

And if you’re a snacker?

It’s easy to end up letting a snack or two here or there become 3 or 4 and add up to more calories throughout the day than we realize.

It’s why tracking not only holds us accountable, but measuring gives us an accurate picture of what is going on so we know what to change.

You may not do it long term. But why not set yourself up to truly understand your diet by having a clear picture of what you’re consuming so you CAN get better results without having to do more?

Reason #2: You’re Focused On Doing More

When we do more, we feel more in control of our progress.

We feel like we can speed up our results.

But doing more can often backfire.

It can lead to burn out.

Extra frustration because we are pushing so hard yet NOT seeing the results we want.

The simple fact is we simply can’t out exercise or out diet time.

And the more we try to? The more we often create habits that aren’t sustainable that we can’t be consistent with.

Too often we overestimate how much we can accomplish short term while underestimating what we can accomplish long term.

Not to mention, those fast fad results we sometimes do see happening?

Well those seemingly amazing results are often why we get caught in the same annoying weight loss cycle…losing and regaining the same weight over and over again.

We slash our calories ridiculously low as we add in extra cardio and spend hours in the gym.

We may then see a huge initial drop of 5lbs in those first few days or even the first week.

But guess what? That isn’t all fat that we lost.

It’s water weight. Glycogen depletion. Maybe a pound of fat.

BUT also a pound of muscle.

So while it may feel satisfying, it won’t keep up. Or we have to keep doing more and more in an attempt to keep the results rolling in as quickly.

And in our attempt to see those faster drops on the scale, we end up sacrificing muscle not to mention create metabolic adaptations and hormonal imbalances that hold us back.

We create issues that end up backfiring and we’ve built habits that are unsustainable.

So what happens?

All that doing more leads to us regaining the weight we worked so hard to lose. And often, we end up worse off because, when we regain the weight?

We aren’t regaining muscle.

So the next time we attempt to lose weight? The process may feel even more hopeless.

This is why we need to stop doing more and instead create a plan that is truly realistic for our lifestyle.

There is no perfect workout schedule. No one perfect diet.

The key is making small changes and doing something that truly fits the time we have.

If you only have 3 days a week to workout? Start with that schedule and design workouts that fit that routine.

If you’ve never tracked your food before? Just start by logging without other changes.

These small swaps allow you to build momentum and truly make lasting changes.

Reason #3: You’re Not Focusing On Strength Training

Yes, for weight loss diet is key.

I don’t think there is anyone at this time who hasn’t heard the phrase “Abs are made in the kitchen.”

But so often we don’t dial in our workouts in a way that truly complements our nutritional plan and works toward lasting results.

Most of the time when someone says they want to lose weight, they also say they plan to add in more cardio.

And this association between cardio and weight loss arose because often cardio workouts do burn more calories per session than strength workouts.

But thinking of our workouts only as a chance to burn more calories is really not utilizing them to maximize our results.

We also have to remember our body adapts.

It’s why we get stronger. Why we can run faster and ride further.

But because of these adaptions, we don’t continue to burn as many calories from our steady state cardio training sessions as we did to start.

It’s why we can feel like we just need to keep doing more.

It can also lead to us trying to out exercise our diet to create a great calorie deficit.

Instead we need to see our workouts as not only a chance to burn more calories but as an opportunity to keep our overall body healthy and avoid metabolic adaptations.

If you want to look leaner? You want to build muscle.

That’s why strength workouts are so key.

If you want to avoid more metabolic adaptations and burn more calories at rest?

You want to include strength workouts to build muscle.

So while you can and should include cardio training if you enjoy it, and for your overall wellness, we need to stop turning to cardio for weight loss.

Focus on lifting heavy and challenging your body through heavier loads and more advanced movements! Make more out of less time so you can even create a routine that is sustainable long term!

SUMMARY:

If we want to see amazing weight loss results, you can’t ignore the basics.

Stop spinning your wheels just trying to do more.

Instead think of how you can do less and get better results.

Start tracking and logging as you focus on creating a sustainable routine that includes strength training.

The BEST results happen when our diet and our workouts WORK TOGETHER!

Learn to eat and train according to YOUR needs and goals:

–> Macro Hacks