Metabolic Adaptation

Have you ever heard someone tell you that if you don't eat enough your body will go into starvation mode? What is starvation mode? Does it really exist?

Well, starvation mode doesn't exist, but metabolic adaptation does, and in this week's episode Bree is explaining what metabolic adaptation is, how to prevent it, and how to fix it if you're already there. This is definitely an episode that you don't want to miss! 

Learn more about Bree and her programs at www.bodybybree.com or follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodybybreefitness/

Want more? Find and follow Bree on
www.bodybybree.com
Instagram
Pinterest
YouTube
Blog

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Are you looking for a space where you will learn to improve your mental strength, emotional health, and heal your insecurities from the inside out? Take the first step to living a more meaningful life with the Better Meet with Body Fiber Podcast. I'm your host, Bree. I'm a certified personal trainer, entrepreneur, and mother of three. I've helped empower thousands of women to take action through fitness, nutrition, meditation, personal development, and aligning thoughts with action. This podcast is for those who are ready to feel inspired and motivated to live a more purposeful life. Let's grow together. Does starvation mode really exist? Have you heard the common phrase if you are too low on your calories, you'll go into starvation mode? Well, technically there is no such thing as starvation mode, but there is metabolic adaptation. And a lot of women get stuck in chronic diets and then their metabolism slows down to save energy, which makes it very hard to lose weight. So stick around for this podcast and we'll chat all about how to prevent metabolic adaptation and ways to help you get out if you're already there. Let's get started. So, first off, what is metabolic adaptation? Um, it's basically when you are in a deficit for so long that your body adjusts to those lower calories to try to save energy, and then your it's basically what it sounds like, your body adapts to those low calories and then your metabolism slows down. Now, a lot of people will call this starvation mode. Technically, if you are in enough of a deficit for a long period of time and someone is starving, they will still lose weight. They're starving. But what happens is it becomes harder and harder to lose weight as you have this metabolic adaptation. So, a more appropriate way to say it would be your metabol your metabolism is actually adapting to those lower calories. And the problem is most women will get stuck in these chronic diets and they don't really know why they aren't losing weight again. And it's this awful cycle to be in. I feel really bad for all of these women and young girls who are living in the society of perfectionism, and we just see so many unhealthy habits on Instagram or YouTube or even just TV, and these girls and women feel the need to just be smaller and skinnier, and they start cutting out major food groups because it's trendy, and it actually just leads to low self-worth and low energy levels, and then frustration because you're starving, but you're not seeing the results that you want. So let's talk about what happens when you go on too many diets back to back, or you decide to do like a cut back to back to back, and you feel like you're constantly in a diet. Let's talk about what's happening in your body. So, first, your metabolism is really smart, it's going to slow down to try to save energy. So, um, what happens is the lower you go, your metabolism adapts to that low number. Then you go lower again, it'll adapt to that low number. It'll also adapt to cardio levels. So if you're doing tons of cardio, your body will then adapt to that so that your body needs the cardio to stay lean. So you have to be strategic about this, and that's where it's really nice to have the help of a coach that can walk you through this process. Another thing that happens is if you're in a deficit for too long, your hormones will start to suffer. And if it's bad enough, you might even need to get on a hormone supplement, which is not ideal. You do not want to have to do that. Um, you will lose muscle mass if you're in a deficit for too long. You can look skinny fat because you can't sustain your muscle mass. Your mental clarity will suffer and you can feel like you're in a brain fog all the time. Your energy levels will plummet, your cortisol levels are gonna spike, which in turn makes you actually store fat. Um, and you can do damage to your adrenal glands, which can make it harder to lose fat. Another downside is that you might start relying on caffeine or stimulants for your energy, which again will ruin your adrenals and put your body in a constant fight or flight state, which you do not want. So it's safe to say you do not want to be in this position. Um, now, how do you avoid being in this position and having metabolic adaptation? The first thing is you do not want to be in a cut for too long. So you have to reverse out after you have set your end date for your cut. Um, and I've talked about this before. Why do you want to set an end date? A lot of women will be like, well, my goal is to lose 20 pounds. I'm gonna cut until I lose 20 pounds. The problem is sometimes your weight loss is not linear, it might take a lot longer than you think. Um, maybe you have a coach that just cut you all the way down to the bottom and you're at 1200 calories and then you hit a plateau. There's nowhere else for you to go. Once you're down at 1200 calories, you can't go lower than that. And I never set my clients that low. I won't put my clients lower than 1400 calories because it's not healthy for you. And so what happens is they try to stay there for as long as they can, but it's brutal. You're starving, you have low energy, you really can't sustain that for very long. So then they start cheating, and then they feel bad because they're cheating, so then they start binging because they feel bad that they can't stick to their goal, but then they're not actually seeing results because they're binging on the weekends or cheating, but then they always feel like they have to hit this like magical 1200 calorie number in order to see results, and so they're in a chronic um state of dieting for years. Like I have seen women be stuck in this cycle for years, and it is torture. You do not want to be stuck in this cycle. So instead of setting like a goal of how much weight you want to lose, what would be more ideal is if you actually said, okay, I have these 12 weeks. I am going to give it my all. I'm going to slowly what I like to do with my clients is I actually don't start them at the very bottom. I'll actually start them in a deficit, not a huge deficit, but in a deficit, and we see how their body responds. A lot of women will see results still at 1600 calories. They'll still see results. So why would I put them all the way down to 1200, right? So we see how far we can get with 1600 calories, then and they're still seeing results. Well, then when the results stop or slow down, then we can cut a little bit more. And then they go until they hit another plateau and we can cut a little bit more. So we're slowly tapering down to fight those plateaus, to keep our hormones in check and to make sure that we stay healthy and happy. Um, if you go straight to the bottom, right at right out of the gate, um, like I said, there's nowhere to go once you do hit a plateau, and it's really not sustainable for that long. So let's set a goal. Maybe it's 12 weeks, maybe it's 15 weeks. I wouldn't do more than 16 weeks in a in a big deficit. Um, that's why you want an end date. So you want to maintain. Oh, so after you have set your end date, then you want to reverse out. And then you'll maintain for a couple months because you need to keep your hormones healthy and your energy up, and even just take a break for your mentality. And then when your body is healthy and you've adapted to higher calories again, you can go into a little deficit again. But now you're at a higher calorie point to start from. You're not starting from 1200 calories, if that makes sense. Um, so let's talk about the benefits of reversing out. The benefits are that you can give yourself a break from the diet mentality. Like I've talked to women and they've literally felt like they've been on a diet for five years. And honestly, if I'm being honest with you, I have felt like I've been on a diet since I had my baby, my third baby, Mila. Like two years, I just really have been trying to lean out and feel like myself again. I mean, I really don't have a lot to complain about. Like I'm I'm healthy, I'm athletic, it's fine. But I, you know, in the back of my head, I'm like, oh, I want to be just a little bit leaner to where I was before I had the baby. And so I kept doing these little cuts over and over and over, but my body wasn't really responding. So we'll get back to my story um in a little bit. But um, if you give yourself a break from the diet mentality, then you're refreshed and you're ready for when you're actually ready to hit it hard instead of like half-assing it this whole time and you're just half in and half out. Um, you also will have higher energy levels, you'll have increased muscle mass, which will make you look tighter and leaner and more toned. Um, your body can tolerate more food so you're happier. You're not constantly trying to restrict, restrict, restrict. You will have healthy and happy hormones. Um, you'll also help your leptin levels so that you don't have that like hunger hormone all the time telling you like you're hungry, you're hungry, you're hungry. Um, you will speed up your metabolism, which is amazing. And then if you do like cheat a little bit here or there, if your metabolism is revving and you're just like this fat-burning machine, it won't make such a difference to you. Like it's not gonna really hurt you that much. Um, and I've been at this place in my life where I never tracked food, um, I worked out, you know, one hour every day, I ate healthy, I didn't track, I'd have a burger and fries on the weekends, I'd have a milkshake, and I would never gain weight because I had this really healthy fast metabolism, and that's the goal. So, how do you know if you are in metabolic metabolic adaptation? So the number one sign is if you are constantly cutting and you're staying consistent, because that's the problem with most people, is they will feel like they're dieting, but they're not consistent enough to actually be in that caloric deficit. Like they'll diet throughout the whole week, but then the weekends they're not tracking, and that puts them over their actual um deficit, so they're not in cut numbers. That's the biggest problem with most people. But if you are being consistent and you know you've been consistent for let's say eight weeks and your body is not changing, you're not seeing any change, and you're already as low as you can go, that's your sign that it's time to reverse out. You're probably in metabolic adaptation. So my story is like I said, after I had Mila, I went into like a healthy deficit. I wasn't cutting crazy by any means, but nothing was really happening. It was way slower than I had anticipated. So then I was like, well, okay, I'm gonna get really strict for about six weeks. I'm just gonna see what I can accomplish. So I did intermittent fasting, I went down to 1400 calories, um, tracking my macros religiously, eating only whole clean foods. Like, you guys, I got so strict. Nothing happened. Like, nothing happened. So I'm like, okay, uh, this is weird. Um, so I gave myself a break and I just was like, I'm gonna take a break for a little bit. My body just needs to recover from having a baby, and I'm just gonna relax. So I did that for a couple months, and then I went to try to cut again, and it just wasn't happening. My body, I I stayed in this deficit for so long. I did it for a few months, and those few months then turned into a year where I feel like I've really been under-eating for almost a year. Um, that my poor body is just fighting me at this point. I'm just producing more cortisol. Um, and it's just it's it's adapted to these lower calories because I keep restricting myself because I'm trying to feel like myself again. And, you know, it's always hard to admit that, but like it happens. And so I just want you to know that it happens all the time, even to trainers, it happens because people get stuck in this, like, oh, I need to be leaner, I need to be leaner, I need to be leaner, and your body isn't always going to agree with you. So I'm actually in the middle of my reverse dieting right now because my body had adapted to those lower calories. And um it's I'm not gonna lie to you, it part of it is a little bit, it's like a mind game because you have been trained for so long to restrict, restrict, restrict that when you start adding food back in, you're like, well, wait, what if I like re I don't want to ruin all of my progress that I've made? So it's this mind game. But if you do it right, you shouldn't gain weight. You'll your body will adapt to the new calories and you'll just slowly keep reversing higher and higher and higher until your body says, okay, that's enough food, and you find your new maintenance, and then you hold there for a while. So I actually, well, actually, let's talk about how do you reverse out if you're already in metabolic adaptation. Um, because I know I'm gonna get lots of questions. I've already gotten tons of questions from um clients and followers. So start slow. You do not want to gain weight, and if you do it right, you shouldn't gain weight. You might gain like maybe one or two pounds as your body adjusts, but most of it will likely be water because if you're losing if you're used to really low, low carbs, then your body might retain a little bit of water just at the very beginning while you're trying to adjust to all of this. So give your body grace. It's okay. You're not gaining fat overnight. Um, slowly add five grams of fat and 15 to 20 grams of carbs. This is not like a um, this is just an estimate for you, okay? This is like kind of like a rule of thumb to start with. Everyone's gonna be different, but you're gonna start with that and you're gonna add each week to see how your body reacts. So remember, everyone is different. So some people will stay there for two weeks before they add more. Some people will feel great and they'll add the next week. If you haven't gained weight and you feel good, then you can add another five grams of fat and then 15 to 20 grams of carbs. Keep it there, see how your body feels after one or two weeks. If you haven't gained any weight, you feel good, your body looks good, then up it again and slowly keep upping until you stop when your body starts gaining weight or you feel like you're starting to hold on to the calories, and then just stay there. And that's your maintenance. Okay, so it's kind of like a science experiment, but this will not work for you unless you are diligent in tracking. Because if you're like tracking for a few days and then you're not, and then you're like, oh, I'll track this week, then the weekends you go crazy, you're not gonna know where you're at. It's gonna be too hard to find your maintenance. Um, if you do it right, like I said, and you do it slow, you will be able to increase your body's ability to handle a lot more calories. Like right now, I'm up to 170 grams of carbs a day. And when I started in my reverse, I was all the way down to 80 grams of carbs a day, which I hate to admit because I never go that low, ever. But my body just wasn't responding. So I was like going lower and lower and lower, which isn't good, and my body still didn't respond four weeks at 80 grams of carbs, nothing. So I'm like, all right, time to reverse. I've reversed up to now 170 grams of carbs. I have not gained one pound. My body is loving it. I feel so much more strong, I feel tons of energy. Um, I feel good. So I'm gonna slowly keep upping it until I feel like it's enough for my body, stay there for a little bit, and then I'll try again later and we'll see how my body um how my body does after a few months of just maintenance and just letting it get back healthy with my metabolism. So if you're in a cut, there is nothing wrong with that. I don't want this to become like I'm shaming anyone in a deficit. No, like being in a deficit is how you see results. It's okay. But you'd be surprised how many clients when I up their calories. I have one client, she was eating 1200 calories, she wasn't seeing results. We reversed her up to 1700 calories, her body started dropping pounds like crazy. Like that's not always what happens. Like, that didn't happen to me. I stayed the same, but I was just glad I didn't gain. But some people that will happen where they've been starving for so long, their body just needed nutrients. So, um, hopefully, this is helpful. If you do need help, remember that's what I do. I'm a coach. Um, me and my team can help you reverse out if you feel like you need it, or if you just need um guidance, like to know, you know, hey, here's what I've been doing. Have I adjusted? I always give macro counts too if you need. Um, the reason why you want to be careful not to just follow a random influencer or fitness person that you see and and like, you know how people will post like, here's what my macros are and here's what I eat. Um, you don't want to just nothing against that. That's fine. And it's so good to get ideas from people, which I actually love those posts. But you don't want to follow those macros for your body if they haven't been calculated for your body because you don't know how much they're working out, you don't know what their diet history is. You know, someone might look at that and that person's like a 5'3, 120, and then someone else is 5'6, 140, and they're trying to do the same numbers, it's just not gonna work. That's why it's so, so important to have a knowledgeable coach who knows your body, who is able to kind of walk you through that process because a lot of times people too, what they'll do is they'll see it goes both ways. Like they can see um an influencer posting, like, hey, I eat 2,000 calories a day and look at all this healthy food I eat. Well, maybe your metabolism isn't there yet. So you've been eating 1200 calories a day, and you're like, well, they look like that and they eat 2,000. I'm gonna eat 2,000, and then all of a sudden you pack on like 10 pounds. So you have to do it the right way. That's why I'm trying to educate you and show you how to reverse out. So hopefully this was helpful for you guys. I know I kind of like opened this huge can of, you know, not a can of worms, but I opened this, you know, platform to have questions. So make sure to comment. If you have questions, you can always go to my Instagram too. You can email me, Brie at BodyBy Brie.com. I'm here to help in any way possible. And hopefully this was helpful for you. I'll talk to you guys later. Thank you. Thank you for joining us in today's episode. If you liked the content and want to hear more, remember to hit that subscribe button and write a review. As a small business owner, I appreciate it more than you know. If you are looking for a program to help with self-confidence, to lose weight, get in shape, and work on your mental, physical, and emotional health. Check out my training programs on www.bodyby.com. My team and I help to hold you accountable through the Body Bibree app, where you log in to see all your workouts, custom meal plan made specifically for you and your needs, and communication through the messenger. You are never alone when you're on the Body by Bree training program. Click the link in the show notes to get more information on how to transform your life from the inside out.