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The Dreaded Spiral of "Yo-Yo Dieting"
By Eugene Thong C.S.C.S
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 How come
every time I go on a diet, it gets tougher to lose weight each time?
Because
dieting
- if done improperly - will stomp your metabolism into the ground!
How?
Simply
stated, your body has learned to become “thrifty” and adapted to its
situation.
Let me
use a real-life illustration to make this perfectly clear: Right
now, you’ve got a job and living expenses. You’re accustomed to a
certain standard of living, and the rent and bills get paid.
Well, what would happen if you suddenly lost your job?
Hopefully, if you’re an intelligent and resourceful person, you’d find
another way of obtaining income. In the meantime, you’d cut back
on some or all of your spending (or find ways to hack away the
“non-essentials”) to make sure that the rent and bills still get paid,
so that you don’t end up with the electricity cut off or out on the
street.
In
short, you’d adapt to your newfound situation. It wouldn’t be
pleasant or comfortable, but you’d survive until you found that next
job.
Your
body’s survival mechanism is no different. In fact, the process it
undergoes when you go on and off diets is remarkably similar:
Your
body has a “household budget” as well – a minimum number of calories
that are required to run all of your daily functions, so you don’t die
(little things, like digestion, respiration, heartbeats, thinking,
elimination, etc.).
 Thinking
you can bully your body into losing that stubborn fat, you
dramatically reduce calorie intake. You start skipping meals.
You start to call your morning cup of coffee “breakfast.”
Panic
alarms sound loudly throughout your system. Instantly, your liver
begins mobilizing and breaking down muscle tissue to create some fast
energy (by converting that hard-earned, metabolically active muscle
tissue to sugar).
Your
body also undergoes other metabolic and hormonal shifts that conserve
energy, so it doesn’t have to “spend” as much to keep things running
(keeps the costs down).
Your
body then stays in this downgraded metabolic state, mostly due to the
lost muscle tissue. When you break the diet and return to your
“normal” eating habits (95% of people do!), your body is primed to soak
up all those calories like a sponge.
Even
worse, you accumulate fat faster because your
metabolism is lowered
(causing you to burn fewer calories daily) and your intake is the same
as it was before (not down-adjusted to account for the drop in
metabolism).
End result: A fatter, more frustrated you!
Definitely not the outcome we’re looking for.
So what
can I do to avoid this scenario?
The
best advice I can give you is to forget everything you think you know
about dieting, fat loss, and weight management, and go read our
foundations article, immediately.
Hey,
you don’t have to follow our diet plan, our exercise recommendations, or
any of our strategies, but at the very least, you owe it to yourself to
find out what happens on a physiological level, so you don’t make the
same mistakes 95% of people do.
Turn yourself into an informed consumer!
We’re
here to offer you help in reaching your fat loss goals. Avoid tapping
into your muscle as mere fuel for your body – download our free
Calorie
Counter sheet and
start writing stuff down (it’s included FREE when you
sign up for our free weekly newsletter).
Of
course, there are no shortcuts to the body of your dreams.
Although we haven’t discovered a magic “leaning” pill, we’ve got the
next best thing: A compilation of 61 of the best tips, tricks, and
strategies for channeling your inner ideal body that we call “The Black
Book of Secrets.”
P.S.
If you haven't yet, sign up for our newsletter below... or
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more about it here.
About the Author:
Eugene Thong, CSCS, was born a weak, skinny,
bespectacled child. Now, thanks to a steady diet of martial arts,
scientific inquiry, and heavy compound movements, he's no longer weak.
His scientific bent, Zen-like demeanor, and efficient but intense
methods have made him one of New York's most sought-after personal
trainers.
 When
not helping clients cultivate their own inner 6-packs, Eugene can be found
arm barring opponents at Renzo Gracie's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy or
sailing through the air on his snowboard. Read Eugene's semi-weekly musings
on exercise, fitness, and fat loss
at his blog
Eugene is Mike's co-author of The Black Book of Secrets. You can purchase
it by clicking
here.
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