Summary of How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain by Metabolism and Hormone Support for Women:
This content is about the dangers of taking an “more is better” approach to diet and exercise. It explains that this approach can be unsustainable long-term and can lead to burnout, stalls in progress, metabolic adaptation, and an increased risk of injury. It also suggests that women over 35 with hormone imbalances or perimenopausal symptoms may benefit from a coaching program.
*****
The Problem with Doing More: 4 Reasons Why More Is Not Always Better
When it comes to diet and exercise, it can be easy to feel like you are not doing enough to reach your goals. Or if you are like me, maybe you have had this reaction after seeing some initial results: “Oh, this is working! If I double up on my workouts, and cut my calories even more; I bet I can see even better results!”
The problem is, it never works the way we think it will. In fact, the approach of doing more can easily backfire; causing burnout and exhaustion. Not to mention, frustrating stalls in progress.
Is more really better when it comes to improving body composition, health, and fitness? In this article, I break down four problems when it comes to the more is better approach:
1. Doing more isn’t sustainable long-term
Even if you love to exercise, dedicating too much time to exercise and diet can drain your energy, productivity, your schedule, and your social life. We can end up neglecting important areas of our life including family, work, and relationships.
2. Your caloric intake and output can start to work against you
When we over-exercise; generally one of two things generally happen: we undereat or overeat. Undereating can be a problem with losing lean muscle mass; and can cause a decline in exercise performance and recovery. Overeating is a problem because we end up hitting a plateau (or even worse, gain weight/body fat) and spinning our wheels with fat loss.
3. Metabolic adaptation
Eating a very low calorie diet for long periods of time can cause the metabolism to adapt. When this metabolic adaptation takes place, metabolic rate slows. In addition, eating a low calorie diet generally causes us to unconsiously move and fidget less; causing a decline in caloric output. We end up burning less calories, leading to weight/body fat gain. The other issue here with eat less, exercise more is that it can lead to hormonal imbalances. Going too extreme with diet and exercise can reduce active thyroid hormone, decreases sex hormone production, and raises adrenal stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. All of these hormones have an impact on our body composition because our hormones control things like hunger, energy, cravings, mood, and motivation to move and exercise.
4. Increased risk of injury
Overdoing it at the gym can make us more susceptible to injuries. If you are doing high intensity training on an almost daily basis, or never take a rest day; then it is almost certain that at some point you will run into chronic muscle soreness, fatigue, and joint pains and aches. This can be a big problem because when we are in this cycle, we can sometimes tune out our body’s signals; exacerbating injuries even more.
So, what is the solution? Instead of going hard and fast with diet and exercise, it is important to focus on the basics. Make sure you are getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet, and exercising regularly. This is the foundation for any successful health and fitness program. It is also important to focus on consistency; rather than trying to do more in less time. Consistency is key to seeing results in the long-term.
If you are….
- A woman over the age of 35
- Have been diagnosed with hormone imbalances such as low thyroid
- Want to better manage perimenopausal symtoms such as weight loss resistance
- Wanting to see changes in body composition
Then my coaching programs may be a good fit for you! Send me an email at cfitnessonlinetraining@gmail.com to set up your free discovery session with me.
Let’s keep the conversation going in my closed Facebook group, Metabolism and Hormone Support for Women.
