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Repairing A Slow Metabolism

By Erik Ledin

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 13Nov2007 Word count: 973 Viewed: 410 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Do you find that no matter what diet you try or how much exercise you do, you just can't seem to lose fat anymore? Were you once pleased with your fat-loss progress, but now find yourself staring this big, ugly plateau in the face?

You've tried high carb, low carb, lots of cardio, little cardio, fat burners--the list goes on--but nothing seems to work anymore. That flab isn't going anywhere.

Frustrating, isn't it? It's like a brick wall standing in your way, isn't it?

Your problem may be a damaged metabolism--a very real phenomenon--caused by prolonged dieting. I know that may sound scary, but it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. With all the extremely low-calorie eating and hours of cardio that some people do day in and day out, it's actually very commonplace. Rest assured, you're not alone.

The good news is that it's generally repairable. Contrary to popular--albeit ill-informed--opinion, metabolic "damage" is not permanent and metabolism does not shut off. Yes, it slows down, but this is actually a normal and expected response when you're eating sub-maintenance calories.

There is a physiologically-based adaptive response that the body undergoes when eating in a caloric deficit. The regulatory hormones all adjust over time to preserve bodyfat. And the effect is magnified the leaner you get (which is often associated with the longer you're trying to lose fat). End result? Slower, if not altogether stalled, fat loss. No matter how good your nutritional program, if you're eating in a caloric deficit, your metabolism will attempt to adjust accordingly.

Ok, enough of the whys. How do we get that metabolism humming again? First off, you need to lose the short term thinking and adopt a longer term mindset. This is critical.

Even though this might go against 'common wisdom', you're going to have to eat more, at least for a little while. Yes, you read that right – eat more, not less. You might find it hard to wrap your head around this concept, but trust me, it's necessary. However, just ramping right up to an appropriate caloric intake isn't necessarily the right approach for everyone. There is more than one way to approach the repair but I'd suggest you do it in steps - systematic and regular increases. This has the benefit of one, allowing you to gradually get used to eating more food, two, potentially preventing some fat regain, and three, maybe even causing some fat loss. So one approach is to determine how much you're eating on an average day and then take your present intake and just add 10-20% to it every few days until you hit maintenance calories.

At this point, you need to stay at maintenance for a couple of weeks before even considering going back into a caloric deficit. Might you gain some weight at maintenance? Maybe, but some will surely be water, muscle glycogen, etc. Basically nothing to worry about – easy come, easy go. Again, long term versus short term thinking. You need to correct the problem before you can move past it. Two weeks at maintenance will make further fat loss much more likely when you return to your caloric deficit. Chances are you'll start feeling a lot better though, and you'll have some great workouts.

Planned periods at maintenance calories are one of the most underrated fat-loss strategies out there. Remember, the purpose of the two weeks at maintenance calories isn't to maintain; it's to make the subsequent calorie deficit more effective at fat loss. Think of it as a 'resetting of the system'. Then you hit your deficit again and presto, more fat loss.

With a slow metabolism you can generally assume somewhere in the neighbourhood of 14x bodyweight is going to approximate maintenance calories. It might even be a bit lower depending on how severe your caloric deficit has been and for how long, but keep in mind that metabolism is only going to slow so much. It doesn't shut off. These maintenance numbers are an approximation, but so are the more complicated equations that can be used to determine caloric requirements.

After the two weeks at maintenance are up, you return to your caloric deficit. However, this time take a moderate approach and shoot for approximately 12x bodyweight in calories. If you're female and a bit lighter in bodyweight to begin with, you might need to start lower in order to create a sufficient fat-burning caloric deficit. Stay there for a couple weeks, assess your progress, and make adjustments as needed. If you're getting leaner and your measurements have decreased, stay there. If you're not, try decreasing calories by another 10% and reassess again two weeks later.

Remember, these caloric recommendations are just approximations; they're starting points. Everyone is a bit different, so the key to long term success is being able to trouble shoot your program. A quick closing note on that very topic. If what you're doing isn't working, doing it longer isn't going to make it suddenly start working. Your program needs some trouble shooting What you do is based on the results of what you're doing. Getting the results you're after? Stay the course. Not getting the results you're after? Make changes.

There is no reason to continually suffer the effects poor prior fat-loss efforts have had on your metabolism. There is no reason you should have to suffer a permanent sentence of stalled fat loss. Planned periods at maintenance calories are the key. However, they aren't just for repairing a sluggish metabolism. They can and should be used periodically throughout your fat-loss phase to promote continue fat loss. A periodic resetting of the system will go a long way to maintaining healthy metabolism and and continued fat loss.

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