More On Metabolic Damage

I get a lot of emails from girls suffering through the obviously anguishing consequences of ill-advised ‘dieting’, whether that be for competition or not.

So what used to work no longer works, but they continue to try to make it work instead of stopping and realizing that well, this isn’t working; there must be a reason. And I get it, it’s frustrating and upsetting and discouraging beyond measure I am sure. I obviously don’t know this from the experience of having gone through it myself, but I do know this from the experience of having walked alongside during the recovery of many, many who have.

You used to be in great shape and you worked hard for it, but now? You’re still working just as hard and arguably even harder and yet … not only is it not working, you’re regressing and gaining and there is seemingly nothing you can do about it. Or maybe you’re not in great shape yet, but you’ve made tremendous progress and now, nothing; and you’re regressing.

And you know what? You’re right, there really isn’t, at least in the short term.

So the emails come daily (yes, daily) and the common experiences are shared but the hope is – “Ok, please help me lose this weight, I am trying everything and nothing works. You must have the formula for immediate success here right? An LBC diet that will get this weight off and me back in shape? Like NOW?”

And I totally understand the desperation behind those words.

But then? Well, many are not happy with what I have to say in reply, but really, there is no time for sugarcoating here and there are some harsh realities to face. You need to be told what you NEED to hear, whether it’s peachy or not. There’s no place for coddling here.

Heck, I’ve recently heard of a team that has told their clients that metabolic damage doesn’t even exist; it’s just people being irresponsible and eating too much. Well, those of you who’ve experienced it first hand know how careless and insensitive such a statement is. And you can be sure that if someone doesn’t believe it even exists, that nothing regarding their programming is going to be mindful of PREVENTING something that can’t even happen right?

I think to start, it’s clear that most are not really aware of what they’re up against or how much worse it can quickly get. There IS in my opinion a point of no return with metabolic issues.

If you have metabolic issues and are DIETING right now, you are making it worse. If you are doing cardio to try to lose fat, eating in a caloric deficit, etc., prevent weight gain, you are making it worse. This is NOT what your body is wanting – obviously – and thus you are trying to force it to do something against its current nature, and trust me, you will lose this battle. Your body will have the final say.

If you’re trying to COUNTER the weight gain in ANY capacity, you are making it worse and making further weight gain inevitable. Any attempts to force it in the opposite direction are simply going to result in higher metabolic countermeasures.

You can’t do anything positive to metabolic issues with cardio, a caloric deficit, etc. That’s ultimately what caused the issues. The problem cannot also be the solution.

And unfortunately, many are just not willing to accept these harsh realities (which is why I wrote the Metabolic MindGames article – //leanbodiesconsulting.com/articles/Metabolic+Mindgames+) and thus are not even in a mental or emotional position to be helped sadly. On the one hand this is very understandable given the emotions associated, but on the other MUST be accepted if you ever have a chance of ‘getting better’.

And I am speaking not from a position of theory, but from a position of loads of experience.

The first step is accepting what’s going on, what you’re up against and the fact that what you think the solution is, is not going to be the solution. The first step is getting your mind … set! Committing to the process of recovery, understanding that it’ll probably get worse before better, but it can. Think of it like a one step back before you can take two steps forward kind of thing. It requires long-term, BIG picture thinking.

You have to allow your body to do what it needs to do, and stop forcing it to do what it clearly doesn’t want to do.

A lot of people need to read this, so feel free to share it if you feel the same.