Most of my clients are female. Often times, the first mental hurdle we have to get them past to get the results they are really seeking is making sense of the counter intuitive idea that they need to eat more in order to loose weight.
But how does this make any sense?
Why would someone need to consume more calories in order to decrease weight and body fat?
Why would someone need to consume more calories in order to decrease weight and body fat? Wouldn’t you actually just gain more weight?
This type of thinking is understandable given what seems to be the common sense nature of the thinking. By understanding a little bit about the way your body works you can quickly overcome this belief system without too much struggle. The body adapts to the caloric intake that it receives consistently.
When I competed in the 2006 Mr. Natural Ohio I maintained an extremely low caloric intake, around 1400 calories per day, and did this for 12 weeks straight. On top of this low caloric intake I was training up to 4 hours every day in the gym. After placing second, I was worn down and exhausted.
I started to increase my calories rather carelessly at first. I was so happy to be able to eat whatever I wanted after going so long without it. My body was now used to this 1400 calorie mark and training 4 hours per day, and I started to consume around 3000 calories per day and only training around an hour a day.
...my body started to retain all of the excess calories and store them as fat...
When this happened my body started to retain all of the excess calories and store them as fat, as my body was not used to consuming this amount. This in turn began to affect me psychologically, and I went into a tailspin of depression. In two years I gained a whopping 130 pounds, nearly breaking the 300 lb. mark at my peak!!!
This is not a rare story, especially prior to recent times when we now have access to more scientific data available to help us understand this process that we did not have back then. This is what tends to happen to people when they do not eat enough. They restrict their eating to a very low calorie amount, and then binge out on some unhealthy foods like I did and store it as fat. They then start the cycle over by going back to a very low calorie consumption and the whole process starts over again.
...in the beginning we need to raise your metabolism back up to a normal level by eating more and getting in enough macro nutrients...
When this happened my body started to retain all of the excess calories and store them as fat, as my body was not used to consuming this amount. This in turn began to affect me psychologically, and I went into a tailspin of depression. In two years I gained a whopping 130 pounds, nearly breaking the 300 lb. mark at my peak!!!
This is not a rare story, especially prior to recent times when we now have access to more scientific data available to help us understand this process that we did not have back then. This is what tends to happen to people when they do not eat enough. They restrict their eating to a very low calorie amount, and then binge out on some unhealthy foods like I did and store it as fat. They then start the cycle over by going back to a very low calorie consumption and the whole process starts over again.
Fitness + Nutrition + Wellness Coach
Andrew is a graduate of Wright State University and has over 10 years of behavior change experience working with a diverse base of clientele. He takes a holistic approach to weight loss and behavior change with an emphasis on Neuro Linguistic Programming.
Andrew is a graduate of Wright State University and has over 10 years of behavior change experience working with a diverse base of clientele. He takes a holistic approach to weight loss and behavior change with an emphasis on Neuro Linguistic Programming.
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