Get Your Metabolism Back On Track!

Earlier this week, I discussed the symptoms you should look out for if you feel like you have done some damage to your Metabolism. Today, I want to share how to get your metabolism back on track.

1. Reverse Dieting: What is it? Reverse dieting is used as a technique to restore your metabolic rate. It's a progressive way for you to start adding calories back in to your diet. When reverse dieting, you should start by adding in about 5% more calories weekly, which equates to about 50-100 calories more per day. If you feel good after a week of adding in calories, you can add 50-100 more the following week. How long you need to reverse diet totally depends on how little you were eating & how long you were dieting for. The point is to get your body out of depletion and restore your body with nutrients. You gain energy, strength, speed up your metabolism, and see great results! Once you reverse diet for a few weeks and are at a place where you are maintaining your weight, then you can start tweaking your diet again - either continue slowly adding or decreasing calories.

2. Build More Muscle:

Strength train - you will speed up your metabolism. Switch up your routine every 4-6 weeks (change the sets, reps, weight and rest time).  Building lean muscle doesn't mean you will get bulky (men have 10 times the testosterone we do, so it's nearly impossible for us to bulk up unless we are eating crazy amounts). You can speed up your metabolism by 5 times if you build lean muscle. Muscle burns 5 and a half times more calories than fat, so the more muscle you have the more your metabolism allows you to eat. Girls often say, "well I eat less than her, why is she smaller than me?" Truthfully, she has a faster metabolism than you because she eats enough!

3. Recover fully from workouts:

Do I have to explain this? Stop wrecking yourself in the gym without stretching, recovering, or treating your injuries. Hydrate before and after, and fuel yourself properly! Think about your caloric intake both in terms of your resting metabolic rate and expended energy from workouts.  For example: if your resting metabolic rate is 1,500 calories and you burn 500 calories in your workout, then you need to eat 2,000 that day to simply maintain your weight. Make sure you SLEEP, because this will allow your body to recover and repair.  If you don't sleep enough, you won't recover properly.

4. Supplement:

I love Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs). They can help speed up muscle recovery and growth.  If you drink BCAAs in the morning and at night, studies have shown less hunger, higher calorie expenditure, and direct the energy being used to fat stores rather than eating up muscle.

5. Get blood work done:

If you have more of the severe symptoms listed in last weeks' newsletter, then definitely go to the doctor and have blood work done. Your doctor can check on your thyroid to see if it's too fast (hyper) or too slow (hypo), your testosterone levels (help build muscle & speed metabolism), and Leptin (satiety hormone). You might need a medication for a little while to regulate hormone function.

If you feel like you have done metabolic damage, you need to take yourself out of the routine you are in. Is it truly balanced and getting you to your goals? If not, let's switch things up!