I’m honored to be a guest on the ‘The Less Stressed Life Podcast’ this week!
We talk about periodized nutrition which includes the concept of reverse dieting and the psychological and physiological side of this and why it’s so important. Each one of us has a different metabolic identity, depending on past and current behaviors, without proper context and nuance to your own individual situation to apply the concepts of ‘pro-metabolic’, it’s easy to end up doing too much too fast, entering into a “reverse diet” without actually intending to. There are factors that MUST be considered before increasing calories in a reverse diet.
In short, if you have a history of restrictive eating and/or a compromised digestive system and low metabolic rate, this will cause unwanted weight gain.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: •What is periodized nutrition? •What is reverse dieting and who is it for? •Disguising food relationship issues with nutrition and fitness •Red flags that you have disordered eating •You’ve got to earn the right to diet! •The importance of a maintenance phase •Metabolic and hormonal adaptations of chronic dieting •How body appreciation and gratitude are core elements of improving body image, not weight loss.
Understanding nutrition is key to relearning how to approach food. We are eating to nourish and fuel our bodies, right? So, we’re going to start with a big picture view of macronutrients and micronutrients.
“Macronutrients” and “micronutrients.” What are they? All foods are made up of three macronutrients – carbs, proteins, and fats. They provide your body energy in the form of calories and it’s important to get a healthy balance of all three for our bodies to function properly. Micronutrients are different – they’re the vitamins and minerals we get from food. Eating nutrient dense foods like animal products, fruits, and veggies are the best way to get those micronutrients.
When you hear the phrase ‘tracking macros’, it is imputing the number of grams you’re eating of each of these per day.
As shown in the image above, some foods are made up of mostly one macronutrient, but many foods are a mix of several or all.
Each macronutrient provides a set number of calories per gram:
Protein: 4 calories per gram Carbohydrate: 4 calories per gram Fat: 9 calories per gram
We use this information to calculate the calories in food. For example, an average sized egg has 6 grams of protein, and 6 grams of fat. 1 gram of protein = 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat = 9 calories. So an average egg = 78 calories.
Some foods are primarily one macronutrient such as coconut oil which is made up of fat from coconuts. Beans, on the other hand, are made up of mostly carbohydrates and a small amount of protein. Let’s discuss these further and dive into why each of the three macronutrients plays an important role in our diet.
Amino Acids are the building blocks of protein, and your body needs them to break down food. Amino acids are broken down into two categories, “Essential Amino Acids” and “Non-essential Amino Acids.” Essential Amino acids must come from your diet. The title “Non-essential Amino Acids” sounds a little misleading. Your body definitely needs them. The difference is that your body can make Non-essential Amino Acids by modifying other excess amino acids but cannot make Essential Amino Acids. Look for variety when choosing protein sources to ensure you’re getting all of your essential amino acids. If a food source supplies all of the essential amino acids in appropriate ratios, it’s called a complete protein; alternatively, if a food source is low or lacking in one or more essential amino acids, it’s called an incomplete protein.
In addition to building and repairing muscles, protein has a significant effect on satiety (the feeling of fullness). Individuals seeking fat loss, will benefit from the satiating properties of protein; they will help you to feel full and energized throughout the day.
Eating a high protein diet as this is critical to maximize muscle retention during any calorie deficit phase. A high protein diet saves about 15% more lean mass compared to other popular dieting strategies (PMC6315740).
Carbs are necessary for optimal metabolic function. Carbohydrates, or “carbs” as they are commonly called, are the chief source of energy for all bodily functions and muscle exertion. Specific organs, like your brain, need glucose in order to function properly. Additionally, carbs help regulate hormones, digestion, and utilization of protein and fat.
Select mostly whole foods rich in carbohydrates. These include fruits, root vegetables, squashes, whole grains, and leafy greens. These foods will provide both complex and simple carbs.
Simple carbs break down quickly to provide your body with energy. They are found in foods like honey, table sugar, syrup, milk, and yogurt. These are a great energy booster before a workout or for an afternoon pick-me-up.
Simple carbs that are high infiber will break down more slowly and are also a great source of energy.
Complex carbs break down slowly, providing energy throughout the day. They are found in foods like root vegetables, tubers and whole grains.
So why do carbs get a bad rap? There are a few reasons, but mostly because of the modern food industry. Don’t blame carbs for what the highly refined grains & flours, fortified iron & seed oils did. Many processed foods are high in refined carbs and are found in foods such as pizza, fast food, soda, packaged snacks, and desserts. These foods often contain added sugar, fat, and salt. These foods are high in caloric amount yet nutritionally bankrupt.
If you are someone who has eaten keto or low carb, here is a guide on how to slowly shift gears.
Dietary fats are the most concentrated source of calories in our diet. They are essential to support cell growth, hormonal function, and nutrient absorption. Fats, like protein, provide the feeling of satiety (fullness). Fats slow the digestion of food, which assists in blood sugar stabilization.
There are three types of fat – trans-fat, saturated fat, and unsaturated fat.
Trans Fat: Most trans-fat comes from hydrogenating unsaturated fats. You’ll find Trans Fats in baked goods, doughnuts, fried foods, shortening, etc. Your body does not process Trans Fat effectively, so it should be avoided whenever possible.
Saturated Fat: Saturated fat is a building block for hormones, which are necessary for optimal metabolic function. Saturated fat is found mostly in animal foods with high fat content such as beef, lamb, pork, poultry, cream, eggs, and butter.
The recommendation to limit dietary saturated fatty acid intake has persisted despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. Most recent meta-analysis of randomized trials and observation studies found no beneficial effects of reducing SFA intake on cardiovascular disease and total mortality, and instead found protective effects against stroke. Yes, protective effects. 🙌🏻
Unsaturated Fat: There are two types, Monounsaturated Fats and Polyunsaturated Fats. Many unsaturated fats originate from plant sources such as avocados, nuts, nut butters, seeds, olives, and olive oil. They can also be found in animal sources such as fatty fish including salmon, sardines, and tuna.
Avocado oil is relatively new in the scene & the FDA has not yet adopted “standards of identity” — food standards designed to protect consumers from being cheated by inferior products or confused by misleading labels. And as a result, the vast majority of avocado oil sold in the US is of poor quality, mislabeled, or adulterated with other oils ⚠️ Read more here→ The unfortunate truth about most avocado oils!
Ideally, we avoid/reduce the amount of industry (vegetables) oils: like canola, sunflower, rapeseed, etc. as much as possible. Be sure to read food labels carefully, these can be SNEAKY!
Why do eating fats get a bad rap? There was a trend for a while of “low fat” everything because fat molecules carry the most calories per gram, so an easy approach to reduce calories is to cut your fat intake. It is VERY easy to overdo it on fat grams. Ideally, staying within 25-35% of overall calorie intake. This is one of the MAIN benefits of tracking your nutritional intake to make necessary modifications and informed meal choices!
Now that we covered the BASICS of macros…
I’m wanting to put together a series that dives deeper into the concept of tracking your food intake, the pros/cons, and how this skill is a crucial element of nutrition periodization which I’ve been recently interviewed on several podcasts about! We are also MOVING in 2 weeks, so I’m a bit distracted to work on content, so here are some of the resources/references I’m looking at preparing!
Monitoring eating and activity: Links with disordered eating, compulsive exercise, and general wellbeing among young adults
A study that looked at those who tracked their exercise and calories for weight loss or to change their shape reported disordered eating and compulsive exercise… Those who tracked for fitness/performance or health/well-being reasons showed the same level of symptoms (none really) to non-trackers. Perhaps it is the motivation for calorie/exercise tracking that is the most important determinant for ED symptom onset in this context? PMID: 30508261
PMID: 18313427 Using biomarker data to adjust estimates of the distribution of usual intakes for misreporting: application to energy intake in the US population
PMID: 12396160
Energy intake and energy expenditure: a controlled study comparing dietitians and non-dietitians
Comparing Self-Monitoring Strategies for Weight Loss in a Smartphone App: Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of a mobile app intervention on vegetable consumption in overweight adults: a randomized controlled trial
Mummah, S., Robinson, T.N., Mathur, M. et al. Effect of a mobile app intervention on vegetable consumption in overweight adults: a randomized controlled trial. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 14, 125 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0563-2
The Biggest Loser study suggests that extreme dieting comes with consequences. Reduce your calories to an extreme and your body will likely fight back. Maybe for years. The severity and duration of your fat loss program can be the main drivers of metabolic adaptation.
🔄You should not diet continuously. Nutritional periodization (diet breaks, maintenance, and reverse diet phases) is an effective mitigation strategy for some of these adaptations.
ℹ️ For more info check out the two pinned posts and my story highlight “Earn your right to diet.” 👀 On Instagram profile!
Let’s master healthy self-talk and body image, optimize your metabolism, build muscle, and live life! And if the time comes when we can enter a fat loss phase, it will be an easier & HEALTHIER process!
Additional longitudinal studies need to be done quantifying the interrelationships between various components of energy expenditure and energy intake to better understand the dynamics of human body weight regulation.
PMID: 27136388 ‘Biggest Loser’ Contestant Kai Hibbard Slams NBC Reality Show as ‘Fat-Shaming Disaster’ (thewrap.com) Case study: The Biggest Loser. Is it impossible to sustain weight loss in the long term? (precisionnutrition.com)
It can feel overwhelming trying to navigate between the popular fitness trends and what is an effective approach—am I right? 😲
@estellecfitness and I notice there seem to be massive gaps in knowledge of how the process of getting stronger (building muscle) works, how does “toning up” work, the importance of following a program etc. With a lack of understanding, it can be easier for diet culture & gimmick tactics to pull one over on you!
That’s one of the main reasons we have teamed up to host our masterclass called Mastering Fitness & Mindset for the Pro Metabolic lifestyle which teaches you to feel empowered by your body, improve your metabolic health with weightlifting, and make exercise a natural part of your life! 𝗧𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 ▪️Common things that dictate mindset ▪️How you can make long-term changes ▪️Priorities vs. Excuses ▪️General guidelines for selecting workouts ▪️Red flags in workouts ▪️How to make-over a workout ▪️How is put on muscle and tone up ▪️What a healthy nervous system can do ▪️Myths & truths about muscle growth ▪️Effective reps vs. junk volume (aka effective exercise vs. being exhausted with no results) ▪️How 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗥 strength training is pro-metabolic ▪️Fitness trends vs. effective fitness ⬆️ Start working SMARTER, not HARDER. You’ve put yourself through enough! ⚡️ Link to grab your ticket to the replay!!
❔Have you thought about WHY you are engaging in your fitness and nutrition journey? Is it to change your body? Or is it to build strength? To be less winded going up stairs? to Improve sleep? To improve insulin resistance, to release stress etc.
People may start their fitness journey to change their bodies but it’s hard to ever be mentally satisfied with the progress. There is always a little more to lose, or more muscle to gain.
When you start chasing performance goals, celebrating the small victories and personal bests in your lifts, you begin to see day by day, choice by choice, small changes create big results! Exercise, strength training, and movement are about so much more than fat loss!
Recreating the relationship that we have with exercise and why we do it is one of the most important aspects of shifting from disordered and restrictive-driven behaviors & cultivating a happy and lasting lifestyle that is pleasant to keep up.
1️⃣Being super sore after a workout is not necessary for muscle growth, muscle damage is not the process that mediates or potentiates RT-induced muscle hypertrophy.
2️⃣Lactic acid & lactate are used interchangeably but they are not the same. And most importantly, the burn you feel during & muscle soreness after exercise is not due to lactic acid accumulation because it is cleared quickly from the body.
3️⃣Volume is not a KEY driver of muscle growth & training sessions that are 60 min+ can increase total central nervous system fatigue, which isn’t as productive as you may think. We are going for the minimum effective dose here, which is less than you think.
4️⃣Never repeating a workout may sound fun and provide variety, but just because you’re generating new adaptations, this doesn’t equate to muscle growth. In order to properly apply progressive overload, you’ll want to repeat the same workouts for a period of time.
𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁… ▪️Common things that dictate mindset ▪️How you can make long-term changes ▪️Priorities vs. Excuses ▪️General guidelines for selecting workouts ▪️Red flags in workouts ▪️How to make-over a workout ▪️How is put on muscle and tone up ▪️What a healthy nervous system can do ▪️Myths & truths about muscle growth ▪️Effective reps vs. junk volume (aka effective exercise vs. being exhausted with no results) ▪️How 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗥 strength training is pro-metabolic ▪️Fitness trends vs. effective fitness ⬆️ Start working SMARTER, not HARDER. You’ve put yourself through enough! ⚡️ Link to grab your ticket!
In Summer of 2020, my health began to take a dive. Years of chronic dieting, over-exercising, negative self-talk, and hormonal birth control was taking its toll. I was eating next to no carbs, minimal sugar, low fat, no dairy, lean protein only, working out 6 days a week, hours of cardio & felt terrible physically, mentally and emotionally. I began to take a hard look at the way I was living/eating/training and how it was working against my physiology.
When I began my healing journey and found the “pro-metabolic” community, I wasn’t looking for more diet dogma, but to improve my overall metabolic function and support progesterone creation and a healthy ovulation. Gaining weight was a necessary part of the equation. and when Discussing this with @fundamental.nourishment she brought this research to my attention 🤓
We can easily fall into the traps of the diet and fitness industry. We constantly chase perfection and the desire to alter our bodies because we live with the belief that we are not good enough. We want to be a smaller size, a smaller number on the scale.
Recreating the relationship that we have with exercise and why we do it, is one of the most important aspects of shifting from restrictive-driven behaviors to cultivating a happy and lasting lifestyle that is pleasant to keep up.
Re-evaluating our approach to fitness and exercise is a crucial part of any journey. But just because something like strength training or HIIT cardio can be abused, doesn’t make it “bad”.
Each one of us has a different metabolic identity, depending on past and current behaviors, and it can be very difficult to convey context and nuance for each individual through a social media post.
As you know, my message centers on shifting away from the diet culture mentality, over exercising, and “earning” your food, and refocusing on learning to properly and intentionally nourish, appreciate & respect your body.
We can easily fall into the traps of the diet and fitness industry. We constantly chase perfection and the desire to alter our bodies because we live with the belief that we are not good enough. We want to be a smaller size, a smaller number on the scale.
I’ve learned these lessons the hard way, as I’ve shared my fitness/health journey coming from a fitness/bodybuilding competition background & the health repercussion of competing.
Recreating the relationship that we have with exercise and why we do it, is one of the most important aspects of shifting from restrictive-driven behaviors to cultivating a happy and lasting lifestyle that is pleasant to keep up.
Negative body image (or body dissatisfaction) involves feelings of shame, anxiety, and self-consciousness. People who experience high levels of body dissatisfaction feel their bodies are flawed in comparison to others, and these folks are more likely to suffer from feelings of depression, isolation, low self-esteem, and eating disorders.
•85% of women and 79% of girls skip important activities due to body dissatisfaction.
•Those who frequently look at “fitspiration” on Instagram are less likely to be satisfied with their bodies and more likely to want to be thinner.
•70% of girls with a poor view of their bodies won’t be as vocal about opinions
•54% of women say they’re their own worst critics
❔I want to hear from you, can you relate to any of this?
While we all may have our days where we feel awkward or uncomfortable in our bodies, the key to developing a more positive body image is to recognize and respect our natural shape and learn to overpower those negative thoughts and feelings with positive, affirming, and accepting ones. 💕
I spent decades dieting and exercising to change my body and make her look a certain way. To be accepted. To be seen as worthy. These last two years I’ve done some deep soul digging to rebuild my identity around nutrition and fitness to be coming from a place of nourishment, excitement and joy. ✨
2021 Body Image Facts, Figures, and Statistics | Beauty Schools Directory
[26] Fardouly, J., Willburger, B. K., & Vartanian, L. R. (2017). Instagram use and young women’s body image concerns and self-objectification: Testing mediational pathways. New Media & Society, 20(4), 1380-1395. doi:10.1177/1461444817694499
2021 Body Image Statistics: 40 Shocking Body Image Facts (breakbingeeating.com)
🚨 SPOILER ALERT 🚨 Weight loss, DOES NOT & WILL NOT improve your body image. It’s body appreciation and gratitude towards the body that are KEY 🔑 in cultivating a positive body image.
Body appreciation is finding value in our body’s functionality and uniqueness as well as appreciating the differences of others. There is a benefit of having body appreciation above and beyond just the absence of a negative body image. After accounting for body dissatisfaction, body appreciation positively influenced self-esteem and coping skills, Intuitive Eating ability, as well as decreasing the risk of eating disorders.
Body appreciation can be present even in the face of dissatisfaction. We can have things we wish we could change about our body while still respecting and appreciating it for the life vehicle it is.
While we all may have our days where we feel awkward or uncomfortable in our bodies, the key to developing a more positive body image is to recognize and respect our natural shape and learn to overpower those negative thoughts and feelings with positive, affirming, and accepting ones.
Please have compassion for yourself as you retrain your thinking. Do not beat yourself up for your insecurities, show yourself patience and gently replace any harsh thoughts you have about yourself with kindness and understanding. Changing deeply ingrained thought patterns takes time, but with consistency, you’ll get there.
Wellness Simplified with Meganmefit 