Managing Your Nutrition
We want to feel good, have our clothes fit better, and maybe even shed a few pounds. What do we tell ourselves? "I need to eat less, stop eating after 8 PM, cut out snacking!" What if we told you that you needed to eat more to lose weight?!
We aren't saying calories don't matter. If you are currently fueling yourself properly and want to cut additional body fat for performance or aesthetics, you will need to reduce your caloric intake in order to drop those pounds. But what happens when we find ourselves in a situation where we are eating healthy, tracking what we are eating, putting in the effort at the gym and still feeling stuck? The scale won't budge anymore and you're left asking yourself "Where are those muscles that I've been working so hard for in the gym?"
Simply put, our bodies are much more than just machines and it is not nearly as simple as filling the gas tank up. The statement calories in vs calories out isn't entirely true. Our bodies are a bit more complicated than this and if you have been losing weight because you have been in a caloric deficit for more than 10-12 weeks, your metabolism might be slowing down while your body goes into "survival mode".
There was a time when humans didn’t have abundant access to all these delicious foods. Our ancestors were literally fighting or hunting any chance they had because they didn’t know when their next meal would be. There was no refrigerator to store "left overs". Not knowing when they would eat next, their bodies respond by saying: "Hang on! I need to hold on to some of this extra tissue because I don’t know when our next meal is going to be!". This is why we plateau and stop losing weight when we consistently put ourselves in a deficit.
Some of us may feel like we have a lot of weight to lose or some of us may feel like our progress in the gym has completely halted; if this is you, it might be time for a caloric reset to let your metabolism recover and bring your body back to its equilibrium.
If you are interested in learning more about nutrition and how to properly fuel your body, how to gain muscle, lose fat, increase your performance or gain strength then books your No Sweat Nutrition Info to learn more about our Nutrition Coaching practice and how our team at Black Tusk can help you reach your goals!