Eat More / Eat Less Question
Q: My weight loss has stalled and the "helpful" advice I'm getting is pretty equally divided between people telling me to eat less in order to start losing again and people telling me to eat more because I'm in starvation mode. So which is it? And how could eating more possibly cause me to lose weight?
A: The "eat more / eat less" thing seems contradictory at first glance, but either way your weight loss stalls because you're NOT creating a calorie deficit. In one case it's because you're eating too many calories, and in the other case it's because you're not burning enough - as in, your metabolism has rolled over and died.
Either way, you have to get the deficit happening again in order to burn body fat. You can make your metabolism faster with more fuel and more activity, or you can make your calorie intake smaller with less food, but you have to widen and maintain the deficit in order to see changes.
The more weight you have to lose and the higher your calorie intake, the more likely you're still consuming too many calories. The leaner and more athletic you are, and the harder you train, the more likely you've cut your calories too low for your activity level and put the brakes on your metabolism. It's a mind-bender for sure, but if the goal is fat loss, "focus on the deficit" is the correct advice in either situation.
People have been duped into thinking that eating less and exercising more is the only way to create a calorie deficit, but the other option is to ramp up your metabolism. If you have a fast metabolism, your body burns more calories both at rest and during training, and that metabolic boost is what makes the deficit bigger. It doesn't necessarily involve increasing your activity or reducing your calories, it involves convincing your body to burn more.
There are plenty of people training 2 hours a day and living on lettuce whose body only burns 1000 calories per day. They can either cut their calories to 800 and add a couple more hours of exercise, or they can ease up on the calorie restriction and allow their metabolism to recover to the point that it's burning the 1,500, 1,900 or 2,400 calories that it should have been burning in the first place. Once your metabolism is back in action, you're able to start losing again at a higher calorie level than where you were previously stalled.
Metabolism Killers:
- diets that are consistently low in calories without any cheats, refeeds, or high days
- diets that are low in protein and fat and high in processed carbs
- going hungry most of the day and eating a 1-2 big meals
- hours of moderate aerobic exercise followed by hours of sitting at a desk or in front of a television
- light weights and high-reps, you know, for toning...
Metabolism Boosters:
- diets that zig-zag calories so that some days there's actually a surplus
- diets that are high in lean protein, healthy fat, and fresh fruits and vegetables
- eating every 2-3 hours for a total of 6-8 small protein and carb balanced meals per day
- brief very intense cardio intervals combined with a high general daily activity level
- heavy total body strength workouts
Posted by skwigg
at 12:18 PM CST
