Health Care

Do you find that no matter what diet you try or how much exercise you do, you just can't seem to lose fat anymore? Were you once pleased with your fat-loss progress, but now find yourself staring this big, ugly plateau in the face?

Nothing seems to work for you anymore and you've tried it all - high carbs, low carbs, fat burners, low calories, session after session of mind-numbing cardio. That flab isn't going anywhere.

Frustrating, isn't it? It's like a brick wall standing in your way, isn't it?

Your problem may be a damaged metabolism--a very real phenomenon--caused by prolonged dieting. I know that may sound scary, but it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. With all the extremely low-calorie eating and hours of cardio that some people do day in and day out, it's actually very commonplace. Rest assured, you're not alone.

And I've got some good news for you. There's a pretty simple way to repair your sluggish metabolism. Contrary to popular--albeit ill-informed--opinion, metabolic "damage" is not permanent and metabolism does not shut off. Yes, it slows down, but this is actually a normal and expected response when you're eating sub-maintenance calories.

There is a physiologically-based adaptive response that the body undergoes when eating in a caloric deficit. The hormones that govern metabolic rate and fat loss respond in a way that serves to preserve bodyfat. And the effect is magnified the leaner you get (which is often associated with the longer you're trying to lose fat). End result? Slower, if not altogether stalled, fat loss. No matter how good your nutritional program, if you're eating in a caloric deficit, your metabolism will attempt to adjust accordingly.

Ok, enough of the whys. How do we get that metabolism humming again? First off, you need to lose the short term thinking and adopt a longer term mindset. This is critical.

Even though this might go against 'common wisdom', you're going to have to eat more, at least for a little while. Yes, you read that right – eat more, not less. You might find it hard to wrap your head around this concept, but trust me, it's necessary. However, just ramping right up to an appropriate caloric intake isn't necessarily the right approach for everyone. There is more than one way to approach the repair but I'd suggest you do it in steps - systematic and regular increases. This has the benefit of one, allowing you to gradually get used to eating more food, two, potentially preventing some fat regain, and three, maybe even causing some fat loss. So one approach is to determine how much you're eating on an average day and then take your present intake and just add 10-20% to it every few days until you hit maintenance calories.

Now that you've decided to take control of your metabolism and have adjusted your calories to maintenance levels, you want to maintain this level of calories for at least two weeks. Then once things are humming along again, you can return to a caloric deficit. Might you gain some weight at maintenance? Maybe, but some will surely be water, muscle glycogen, etc. Basically nothing to worry about – easy come, easy go. Again, long term versus short term thinking. You need to correct the problem before you can move past it. Two weeks at maintenance will make further fat loss much more likely when you return to your caloric deficit. Chances are you'll start feeling a lot better though, and you'll have some great workouts.

There are many great, yet underused fat-loss strategies out there. Planned periods at maintenance eating can be found near the top of that list. Remember, the purpose of the two weeks at maintenance calories isn't to maintain; it's to make the subsequent calorie deficit more effective at fat loss. Think of it as a 'resetting of the system'. Then you hit your deficit again and presto, more fat loss.

With a slow metabolism you can generally assume somewhere in the neighbourhood of 14x bodyweight is going to approximate maintenance calories. It might even be a bit lower depending on how severe your caloric deficit has been and for how long, but keep in mind that metabolism is only going to slow so much. It doesn't shut off. These maintenance numbers are an approximation, but so are the more complicated equations that can be used to determine caloric requirements.

After the two weeks at maintenance are up, you return to your caloric deficit. However, this time take a moderate approach and shoot for approximately 12x bodyweight in calories. If you're female and a bit lighter in bodyweight to begin with, you might need to start lower in order to create a sufficient fat-burning caloric deficit. Stay there for a couple weeks, assess your progress, and make adjustments as needed. If you're getting leaner and your measurements have decreased, stay there. If you're not, try decreasing calories by another 10% and reassess again two weeks later.

Remember, these caloric recommendations are just approximations; they're starting points. Everyone is a bit different, so the key to long term success is being able to trouble shoot your program. A quick closing note on that very topic. You need to stay on top of your program. If what you're doing is not generating the desired fat-loss results, working harder at that same ineffective plan isn't magically going to start working. If it's broken, fix it. If your program is not netting you any fat loss, you need to make some adjustments to your program. Don't keep spinning your wheels doing something that is no longer working for you. Getting the results you're after? Stay the course. Not getting the results you're after? Make changes.

There is no reason to continually suffer the effects poor prior fat-loss efforts have had on your metabolism. There is no reason you should have to suffer a permanent sentence of stalled fat loss. Planned periods at maintenance calories are the key. However, there's more to this strategy than simply repairing a slow metabolism. They can and should be used periodically throughout your fat-loss phase to promote continue fat loss. A periodic resetting of the system will go a long way to maintaining healthy metabolism and and continued fat loss.

There is a way to lose the weight after having kids – and it doesn't have to take hours out of your day or mean that you can't eat anything ever again. In fact, 15 minutes, a couple times per week may be enough to get you the results that you're looking for and make you happy with yourself and confident again.

Hard to believe, isn't it?

Imagine how hard it was for my wife to believe me when I told her. You can believe that she's always been my toughest customer. But, when she finally did give these exercise techniques a chance, she loved the results. Here's what she had to say:

My name is Tamara Kauppinen and I had my fifth child (that's right, fifth!) in October of 2005. I was 34 years old and after having Keion, I, like every other mom, wanted to lose the baby weight that I put on during pregnancy (which by the way was 43 pounds). I am a fairly small person to begin with so this was a lot of weight to put on for me.

Before I go on, let me tall you that after having my fourth child I worked hard, ate somewhat healthy and got down to a size 2 and some 4's. When I say that I worked hard, I mean I WORKED HARD. I got up 5 days a week at 4:30 am to get to the gym to get in my 1 1/2 hours at the gym. Rain or shine, and even during a February snowstorm where I ended up in the ditch I dragged myself in to work out. I did weights for about 40 minutes and the rest of the time I spent on the cardio machines. I rotated through the different cardio machines at the gym; the treadmill (which I HATE running), the elliptical, the stairclimber. I got so that I could do 60 minutes of hard intense cardio. I totally saw the results and really didn't have to curb my eating habits. (I am a very much a chips and salsa girl. Anything with salt and I am in heaven!)

So right before I got pregnant with my 5th baby, I weighed about 117 pounds and I am 5'7'. I was fit if I do say so myself. I tried sticking with my workout program once I got pregnancy, but it's hard to stick with something so intense! Especially the 4:30 am thing, I just wanted to sleep.

Anyway, I'm sure that if you have gotten this far you are wondering why I am writing this and it is NOT to brag trust me! After babe number five, I just still couldn't get motivated to eat healthy again and lose the weight, plus there was no way that I was going to get back up at 4:30 am after being up all night with an infant. I decided that I was just going to have to be 15 pounds heavier and that I would have to learn to live with it.

Then I listened to a "wise" man and tried a different type of workout. That man turned out to be my husband, Tim. Now, if you're like me, the last person you want to admit is right is your hubbie. So, I ignored his advice for a long time. Even though he had been a successful athlete and coach for years, there was no way I was going to give him the satisfaction of being able to say "I told you so".

But, eventually I got so frustrated with myself and the lack of results I was getting from "regular" cardio that I decided to give his way a shot. And (for only the second time that I'm willing to admit it to him), he was right.

What Tim suggested was to add more intensity to my workouts. To include short, intense bursts in my workouts – sprint interval training, he called it. More specifically Tim told me about his favorite type of interval training – running hill sprints.

Remember that I HATE running, but I gave it a try (without telling my dear husband, of course). But seriously, after one workout, I was hooked. All it has taken for me to lose all of my baby weight and stick to my not so great diet has been hill sprinting. I started wearing the clothes I wanted to – and was excited to shop in all my favorite stores again.

For me the best thing about these workouts is that it takes only 15 minutes of my time, a day and two per week. I saw results within one week and I could still eat what I wanted and was losing flab! Plus, it's about as close to free as you can get. All you need is yourself and some sort of hill or stairs - and it doesn't matter what kind of shape you're in now ( because you can adjust this training to any fitness level).

Are there other ways to get back in shape? Sure, I am not saying that working out hard at the gym isn't worth it. But I know that I haven't found a more efficient, more effective way to blowtorch the blubber off than by running these sprints.

If you're a busy mom like me, with limited time but the desire to get back into pre-baby weight (no matter how many kids you've had), then I strongly suggest you give uphill fitness training a chance. Believe me, you're going to love your results. Just don't tell my husband that he was right.