-by Mindy Irish
I’ve been blessed to work with people all over the country for the past few years to talk fitness, diet ideas, and activity. One of the most common issues I come across is chronic under eating for one’s daily needs.
Here is my summary of what happens in this oh-so-common scenario:
The body likes and needs to be fed. Our society has promoted eat less, do more for years, decades. However, when that happens, the scale WILL move down…initially.
Then after a few weeks, it will stop and a stress response will occur. Then it becomes a hormonal battlefield and when hormones shift, there is little that can be done until more food enters in and less activity ensues. Stressful situations like this release cortisol and may commonly lock on belly fat. Even exercise is stressful in that sense, especially lots of long-duration cardio.
Ever wonder why you see long distance, routine runners who may look like they are carrying extra weight? Never makes sense because they’re active and running, but this is why. Over exercising and under eating is a stress to the system long term. We were NOT meant to always be in a caloric deficit, to be dieting.
So, to heal the body, we have to make sure to be active, not even necessarily “exercising”, rest, get good sleep, hydrate, and eat, but eat well. There is also a gut microbiome factor, meaning you can do all the right things and if your gut is out of whack, weight loss may not happen and a body composition will not shift.
So, to help that and this whole scenario we: 1) eat enough 2) eat whole foods with lower sugar and good fiber 3) hydrate 4) rest and de-stress and let time repair the body and 5) stay active without necessarily “exercising” (walks, hikes, cleaning, gardening).
If one is chronically eating (years at a time) at 1000 or 1200 or 1400, yet their body needs 1500 or 1800 or 2000+ daily, this will cause stress and potentially a slow of the metabolism. We can’t just go right from the low intake to those higher intake numbers. We have to “reverse diet” up off your current baseline and try to get up to that higher intake where the body wants and needs to be.
However, most people don’t want to wait on this repair process and they fall back into the “less is more ” food mindset and “more is more” activity mindset and in turn repeat the vicious cycle. And then when their weight loss has stalled, what happens?
They eat LESS and do MORE. Then more damage occurs. They gain weight. Get frustrated. Repeat the process.
This is my message, to reverse this! It’s a slow process, but it does work and time and consistency and patience are the best medicine.
This thinking is how we have been mistaught for years…..yet it’s not what we still have to do. 2016 is a great year to make these changes!
-Mindy
For more questions or 1:1 Coaching, let’s be in touch: [email protected]