Metabolic Consistency for Weight Loss

Metabolic Shift: Consistency is King

By Patrick Mackeogh

Here we will take a look at a problem that many people will be facing without even noticing it.

We have found out that every person has a BMR (Basal metabolic Rate). Their overall daily calorie expenditure (TDEE) can be found by multiplying this amount by an activity calculator, which makes sense because the more active twin will burn more calories.

The problem lies in that many people lack consistency in the amount of calories they take in, due to having work days, weekends, holidays and events etc.  So let’s take a typical person that has a TDEE of 2000 calories. This means that their body runs optimally on 2000 calories a day with consistent work, so a drop of 500 calories a day to 1500 calories will provide 1lb of fat loss a week (3500 calories in 1lb body fat).

So calorie intake over a week may look like this:

1500 x 7 =  10,500 calories a week for 1lb loss

What people don’t realise is that you cannot simply variate calories wildly from day to day and expect to make a loss just because your total weekly calories match this amount.

This example (not same as diagram) will not have the same weight loss effect:

900 + 1000 + 2000 + 1200 + 2200 + 800 + 1500 = 10,500 calories

This is because wild variations in calorie intake mess with your hormones, and stop fat burning.

Let’s take the example below:

This is a typical dieter aiming for 1500 calories who can’t seem to get it right. Their quantities vary due to their emotions and what’s happening around them. The first calorie amount is Monday, where a big drop in calories has been caused by guilt from a high calorie weekend. A drop too severe can cause a metabolic slowdown as your body goes into starvation mode. Your body gets confused about the varying calorie intake and seeks to hold onto fat for future use. It’s a survival mechanism where your body thinks it may have to go long periods without food.

So this person had what they thought was a good day, so on the next day eats more than intended. While they think it’s not too bad they will store a lot of these nutrients as body fat due being in starvation mode. (jump to more info here http://yourfitness.ie/blog/?p=229)

The next day they get motivated again, but thinking they had a good bit of food the day before, they drop calories too much again. Again they drop metabolism. It then approaches the weekend where they really splurge. They go out to dinner, have a big meal, a big dessert and a bottle of wine. Still being in starvation mode their body stores these nutrients as body fat (the negative process of storage is coupled with the fact that these sugary carbs will also be seen as unused and definitely stored).  Sunday comes and there’s a hearty intake due to a hangover. More storage. The individual then starts the wrong process again the following Monday.

Even though their overall weekly calorie consumption was under their estimated TDEE, their wild variation in intake caused hormonal imbalances that ended in weight loss.

Consistency is the key here; you must stick to regular meals, while attempting to take in similar calories each day. This may seem like bad advice, but if you know you will be eating bad things on a day, try to stick to your overall calorie amount. So this means if you want an ice cream, skip lunch, but maybe have a protein shake and a multi-vitamin tablet so adequate nutrients for muscle growth are coming in.

This may seem like terrible advice, but fat and carbs are energy sources, and if there’s energy coming in from bad sources, why bother throwing more in that will be stored, regardless of them being healthy or not. If your calorie intake should be 1500 calories, better 1000 good calories and 500 bad, then 1500 good and 500 bad. You are trying to achieve close to your target calories every day. Get what I mean? Just don’t make a habit of this. It’s just good logic for days when you know bad food stuffs will be coming in. You’ll be more likely to burn off what you eat, just don’t expect to lose any weight!

JUST TO BE CLEAR, THIS IS NOT A GOOD APPROACH, JUST A BETTER STRATEGY FOR THAT ONE TIME A WEEK YOU CAN’T CONTROL YOURSELF!!! HEALTHY NUTRIENTS ARE EVERYTHING; THEY SUPPORT A GOOD HORMONE BALANCE!!!