After what seemed like an eternal winter in Minnesota, summer is finally here. With the arrival
of summer, you may feel pressured to get your body ‘ready’ for beach season. One simple google search yields thousands of beach body ready diet and workout programs. Most of these programs last about 6 weeks and have you on crash diets, shakes for meals, low carbs, juice cleanses, or very low calories. Yes, you may see results, because you aren’t eating much food…but what happens when the 6 weeks are done. Generally most people don’t see the results they want and then are stuck in a yo-yo diet cycle, and I can tell you, that’s not a very enjoyable place to be.
There is nothing wrong with the desire to lose weight or change your body composition too, I’ve
been there myself. But taking a much different approach to longer and sustainable changes is going to be much healthier, physically and mentally.
Weight loss occurs from a caloric deficit, meaning you are taking in less calories than your body
is burning. If you are currently eating under 12,00-1,500 calories, there is a good chance that dropping your calories lower will most likely not result in weight loss. At 1,500 calories or less, your body has most likely adapted to the low calorie intake and there is a good chance your metabolism, hormones, and thyroid have adapted in a not so positive way. Your body needs these three things to be functioning properly before calories can be safely cut, among many other things. Your body needs to be in a caloric maintenance before any weight loss can generally occur.
In many instances, most people need to be consuming more food first before weight loss can
happen. Eating more and finding our maintenance calories (where the body neither loses or gains
weight) is where we need to start in order to get our body functioning at healthy levels. Finding this
maintenance phase may take a couple months, but if you have been chronically dieting for years, your body needs and deserves this. I realize this goes against what society and diet culture has taught us. I am willing to bet you haven’t seen one magazine instructing to eat more in order to lose weight. But this is what we must do, you have to earn your right to cut calories.
If you are someone who has tried every diet out there and continue to not see the results you
want, I would challenge you this summer to try something different. Eat more. Choose high quality
foods and eat more of them. You should not be trying to live on a low calorie diet all year round, our
bodies our so smart and will adapt to this. Change it up, contact a nutrition coach if you are unsure of where to start, we are always happy to help you!