Dec

With the upcoming pressure of looking your best for the party season as well as the post Christmas aftermath of all that rich food, drink and selections boxes, it’s that time of year when we all want to shift a few pounds. Unfortunately, maintaining that fabulous new physique longer than a couple of months can be much harder than you think and then the yo-yo dieting cycle continues….

To help break the cycle it helps to understand why this happens.

When a person wants to lose weight they will either need to cut calories consumed, exercise more or more effectively work on a combination of the two. This should leave a deficit of calories on the energy balance scale (calories in v calories out), and hey presto you have weight loss.

What most people do not understand is that when you cut calories you are also reducing your metabolic rate. It takes approx 6 weeks to change your metabolic rate, hence why many people lose the most weight / size in the first 6 weeks of dieting and then often plateau or struggle slowly. In simple terms, if you eat 1500 calories for 6 weeks your metabolic rate will drop to around 1500 calories minus calories burnt. If managed properly this metabolic drop can be minimized, and reversed. However, in most cases we are not aware it is happening and it is not managed correctly which can begin a catalyst of events leading to weight gain.

A common scenario leading to weight gain is when the weight loss begins to slow; many people will drop more calories from their diets, which in turn slows the metabolism more. The higher the calorie deficit, the higher the chance the body begins to store fat having the reverse effect of what was intended. The long-term effects of which include training the body to burn calories slowly, burning hungry dense muscle mass and clinging to calorie dense fat. Which can often lead to tiredness and lack of energy as your body is not using its reserve energy (fat). Also if the metabolic rate falls to low then further health problems may also arise.

Another associated problem is how easy it is then to overeat. If you have lowered your metabolic rate then cheating or a day off dieting becomes a whole different story. For example, if your metabolic rate drops to say 1500 or more often lower, and you decide to treat yourself with a takeaway (probably around 1500 calories), you are virtually eating twice as many calories in one day as you should. Thus overeating and counteracting most of your hard work or even gaining weight, with just one cheat meal!

A low metabolic is often a trait of yo – yo and constant dieters. It is a vicious circle making it difficult to lose weight and easier to put it on. The key points to managing your metabolic rate is to reduce calories slowly, make lifestyle changes rather than diet on and off, increase muscle mass to maintain / increase metabolism and the biggest point that is too often neglected – how you come off the diet can be key to keeping weight off!

TOP TIPS – Coming off a diet

There are lots of tips and advice out there of how to diet but very few on coming off a diet which can be just as important if not more to prevent the onset of yo – yo dieting. Whether you have achieved your goals or just had enough of dieting follow the tips below to prevent rapid weight gain and losing any results you have achieved.

Slowly does it

Take a couple of months to increase your calories, increasing your daily intake in small chunks every couple of weeks. This should help minimize any weight / fat gain.

Lifestyle changes

Shifting between a healthy reduced diet to a junk food diet is just asking for trouble. Drink plenty of water, 5+ portions of fruit, vegetables, and less starchy carbohydrates.

Calories in v calories out

Do not forget the basic principle of the energy balance scales. To maintain your current weight the calories consumed need to equal the calories out.

Carbohydrate Cycling

Whatever you do, do not go straight back into a massive bowl of pasta! Opt for more nutrient rich carbohydrates such as vegetables. A good way to manage starchy carbohydrates in your diet going forward is only eat them after exercise.

How & what we eat

So you want to eat more but not put on weight. To do this we need to increase the metabolic rate and eating smaller meals more often will maintain a higher metabolism.

The power of resistance work

Undertaking regular resistance work (weights) can have a dramatic positive effect on the metabolism by increasing lean tissue mass (muscle) as muscle burns more calories than fat, and you’ll be burning more calories for up to 48 hours after the training.

Easy as that!