Your Metabolism: Are you messing it up?

Many of us put in our time at the gym and watch what we eat. Some of us take it to the extremes to see results (eating less & working out more). It's always important to make sure you're eating adequate calories, not overtraining, and recovering from intense workouts properly. One hot topic I have been seeing all over social media is Metabolic Damage. Oftentimes, when people see the scale stall when trying to lose weight, they assume they have metabolic damage. I've done a lot of homework after dealing with some of these symptoms myself, and I can tell you most people are very unlikely to have Metabolic Damage. I do, however, highly recommend that you listen to your body when you're feeling "off" or have symptoms that would make you think your metabolism is "off".  You may actually be dealing with Metabolic Compensation or Metabolic Resistance. Read about the symptoms of Metabolic Compensation, Metabolic Resistance, & Metabolic Damage below.  

 

Metabolic compensation:

You are eating less and burning more, and in turn your body compensates by making you more hungry and slowing down your metabolism (calories you burn at rest).

- Metabolism slows down and weight loss stalls (you hit a plateau). 

-Hunger, energy and cravings (HEC) become moderately out of balance. 

-This is very much like the early signs of athletic over-training. Also called overreaching. (Over-training is EXTREMELY difficult to do (think of your workouts compared to Le Tour de France), but you might simply need a rest day)

Metabolic resistance: 

-Weight loss halts completely, and you can no longer lose weight with an eat less, exercise more approach. -At best you maintain your weight with hunger, energy & cravings (HEC). 

-Mood changes occur. Feelings of anxiety or depression. 

- Trouble sleeping. You may have difficulty going to sleep and/or staying asleep.

Metabolic damage: 

-All of the above 

-You can't lose weight and may even be gaining weight despite no change in diet. 

-Your body is taking on a puffy/bloated look. 

-You may be dealing with hypothyroid symptoms of dry skin, itchy scalp, and slow thinking. 

-You are exhausted & or depressed. 

-Your menstrual cycle is completely gone or irregular. 

-You may be feeling light headed & sensitivity to bright lights. 

-You may have developed multiple food intolerance's. 

 

Eating For Results

Although I had fun making a little joke about this  "not eating" phenomenon we see in our society, I do want to take this opportunity to explain the importance of the ofunit we use that measure how od when it comes to your training. Food is crucial to maximize results. Today, I am simply going to cover the topic of calories.

A calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. The amount of calories your body needs to perform its basic functions would be your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Once you know your BMR, you will then be able to manipulate your calories and adjust them according to your goals.

A great site I use to calculate my BMR and my clients BMR is this one. This site will tell you how many calories you need to maintain your weight (without exercise), what you would need to do to maintain your weight with exercise, how to lose weight or gain muscle. It all starts with calories, and later you can break it down to Macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fat) if that is something you can monitor.

Remember one thing: eating fewer calories doesn't necessarily mean that you're eating better! Calories are essential to fuel your body for the day, to recover from workouts, and also to keep your metabolism healthy. If you aren't fueling your body properly, you can do some major damage that is EXTREMELY hard to reverse. More on metabolic damage in a future post!