Many people think of fitness as something that has a beginning and an end, as if you just had to do the correct things for your body for a specific amount of time...
This is why you'll see things like 90-day fat loss challenges and 30-day strong core challenges, among other things.
The problem is that such patterns are not long-term and do not produce consistent results.
There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to dieting, especially if you want your results to last.
We'll break down the process of dieting and weight reduction, how it affects the body, and what you should do once you've achieved your ideal shape in this post.
What Exactly Is Dieting?
A "diet" is a type of eating plan that places your body in a "calorie deficit."
Simply put, you're eating fewer calories than your body requires to maintain its weight.
When you're in a calorie deficit, your body begins to burn fat to make up for the lost energy. (1)
While this may mean that you look better and feel better about yourself, it is actually controlled hunger for the body.
Adaptations in metabolism
Your body knows that there isn't enough energy when you consume in a calorie deficit for a length of time.
To address this issue, the body slows down all of its activities in order to save energy. (2)
The longer you go without eating, the slower your metabolism becomes, and what was once a caloric deficit becomes maintenance calories.
Taking two-week diet breaks every two to three weeks of dieting can help to reduce metabolic rate declines.
There should be no substantial weight fluctuations throughout these periods of eating at maintenance.
Your Post-Diet Strategy
Your metabolism slows down and you lose weight as a result of your diet, as you've just learnt.
You will get the required body shape at some point... What happens after that?
So, in a nutshell, keep doing what you were doing in the first place!
That is, staying active, eating properly, recuperating well, and staying hydrated are all important. Nonetheless, because your metabolism slows as you near the end of your diet, there are several things you may take to avoid rapid weight gain.
Diets that come and go are known as yo-yo dieting.
The majority of people who lose a lot of weight gain it all back and then some in TWICE AS LONG AS IT TOOK THEM TO LOSE IT.
This is because most people consider weight loss to be a process with a beginning and end date.
And the reality is that it isn't. Weight loss is the result of a change in habits that is maintained over time and integrated into your self-care regimen.
How to Maintain Your Weight Loss
Here are some of my top recommendations for keeping the weight off once you've lost it:
1. Increase your calorie intake gradually.
You may communicate to your body that it is safe, has energy, and can speed up its operations by gradually increasing your food intake.
You will accumulate a lot of fat if you feed your body too much energy (meal) all at once.
However, if you progressively increase your food intake while maintaining a high level of activity, your metabolism will surge!
2. Gradually increase the intensity of your workouts.
Due to the energy shortfall, your exercise intensity and effort output are slightly reduced during a weight reduction period.
However, once you've achieved your desired shape, you can begin to incorporate more food into your daily nutrition plan while simultaneously increasing the intensity of your workouts.
This entails raising the working weight as well as the number of sets, repetitions, and times until muscle failure is reached.
3. Keep an eye on things, make adjustments, and stay consistent.
If you want to keep the weight off following your diet, you'll need to keep track of your nutrition and workouts.
Simply put, you want to prevent weight increase spikes, just as you want to avoid weight reduction spikes during fat loss periods.
Conclusion
Weight reduction is a progressive process that causes the body's metabolic processes to slow down.
When you diet down and then come off the diet, your metabolism slows down, making you more prone to regaining all of your lost weight.
This is why you should use a reverse diet, in which you gradually increase your caloric intake and workout intensity while tracking your success and making adjustments to the plan as needed.
By doing so, you increase your chances of losing weight and keeping it off while also developing new behavioral patterns and habits.
References
1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18025815/ 2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6086582/