Keep Your Metabolism Primed While Dieting
First, let’s get one thing out of the way. Your metabolism will decline while dieting. It’s just a fact of being in a calorie deficit for any amount of time and having lower body fat levels. I just met with a client fresh off of his first contest win with me where I had to lower his food intake, manipulate nutritional variables, and pull about 7-8 more pounds from his frame than he wanted, but he won a big contest. Now deep in his offseason he is consuming 4,000 calories a day just to not lose weight. His metabolism is in overdrive! It would be nice to think he could eat 3,500 calories a day right up to his next contest, but guess what. He may lose five pounds at 3,500 calories and then the pace will slow. 3,200 calories, 3,000 calories, inevitably he’ll be at even 2,000 calories for short spurts of time. Now, let’s compare the results, though, to what could be a disaster. If he spares muscle and comes in bigger than ever and he hits the mark with sub-four percent body fat and hits peak week in full metabolic stride – it’s obviously worth the effort. What if, however, he went down as low as 2,000 calories, even 1,600 but never could get the last couple of pounds off? What if he did twice the cardio and even quit chewing sugar-free gum and counted the carbs he breathed in from the twinkies on the breath of his training partner and still couldn’t get as tight as he knows he can? That’s the difference between managing normal metabolic decreases and being a victim to a stalled metabolism. Then, of course, on the other extreme are guys who absolutely obsess about not losing muscle, continue eating the 4,000 calories a day, and stand at the far end of the stage looking like they needed 6 more weeks of dieting. Their metabolic rates are still at a virtual offseason high, but so is their body fat.
There are several things that can stop you in your tracks. I’ll first dismiss the obvious. Many people blame their body for their own lack of discipline or their lack of objectivity. Now, I of all people know dieting is tough, so I’m not picking on you when I say “lack of discipline,” but for every dieter who sneaks that bite of ice cream when no one’s looking, there’s someone being perfect. For everyone who eats a bowl of oatmeal or has an extra sweet potato when they’re hungry, there’s someone measuring everything with a digital scale.
I’m talking about biochemistry. There are three common mistakes that if you avoid, you can be confident that you’ll be losing consistently. The first is not beginning with the right macronutritional profile. The second is not knowing how to adjust for normal metabolic slow down, sometimes with nutrient cycling. The last is not planning appropriately, but just reacting. An honorable mention is just starting too fast or eating too little, but that’s more of an excuse than a problem. How many people really eat too little to stop losing weight? Have you ever seen a 300-pound anorexic? Have you ever seen concentration camp pictures with a fat guy among skeletons because his metabolism slowed down? If you don’t understand those two examples, mull them over for a few days. You will lose weight on a reduced-calorie diet no matter what – eventually. My goal is to get you there by your time goal and without major stops or trauma.
On to the first: starting with the right nutritional profile. How much protein, carbs, and fat do you need? Many of you know your body very well but some of us meander from one diet to another, always looking for a magical formula. The way your body metabolizes protein, carbs, and fat vary just like your overall metabolic rate. Your body type should dictate how you diet. Slow metabolic people will lose body fat slower, but they also retain muscle better and vice versa. I’ve written extensively in NB&F on all three macronutrients, so I’ll spare you too much detail (the articles are archived on www.joesrevolution.com.) But in a nutshell, my recommendations for protein are anywhere from 1 – 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass (sometimes 2 grams for extreme ectomorphs.) The faster your metabolic rate, the more risk you carry for muscle loss, therefore more protein is one buffer. The biggest anti-catabolic food source, though, is carbohydrate. I’ve often said that my goal here is to eat as much as you can and still progress as needed. For two women at 115 lbs of lean body mass, that may mean one eats 50 grams a day and another 150 grams per day, depending once again, on body type. I typically recommend 20 – 25% of calories from fat and move closer to 10% as the contest approaches, but the entire make up of the diet is so individual that I urge you to read all my articles on each nutrient. The downside of getting this first step wrong ranges from faster muscle loss and slowing your metabolism more than necessary to not being ready on time.
The second pitfall is not knowing how to adjust when you do slow a bit. Simply dropping calories or increasing cardio may not be your best bet. I look for ways to drop overages that are hindering further fat loss, like carbohydrates, but long-term suppression of carbs will pull your metabolism further down. This is a problem with complete ketogenic dieting. Increasing carbs every third of fourth day or even intermediately adding even more protein on an extended lower-carb cycle can help with hunger and energy but facilitate fat loss. Sorry to be redundant, but this also depends on your body individually. A cycling format at some point, though, is a pretty important part of keeping your metabolic rate high, retaining muscle, and being able to stick to it. But you have to be careful; in a dieting state, your body is sensitive to change as evidenced by my next point.
The importance of small changes is shown clearly in “yo-yo” dieting. Going on and off of diets repeatedly makes it more difficult to lose weight. Now, remember, the negative effects are short-term and your metabolism can be corrected, but the damage (weight regain) can be done so fast that you actually regain more weight than you lost. One study took subjects through two cycles of weight loss and weight regain. The rate of loss was only half during the second cycle compared to the first and the rate of regain was increased by 300%! That means when you diet and then binge and then diet again, you are only 50% as effective metabolically than the first round and when your metabolism is suppressed from the dieting, you regain weight back 3 times faster than if you hadn’t dieted at all. That’s how sensitive your metabolism is and why you need to use skill and objectivity to get to your best condition.
Plan ahead, do your homework, and work with your body, not against it. The judges will pick you out of the line-up every time!