How to know when to change up your diet
I hate the term diet, because for whatever reason that word seems to instill a sense of fear in people. They panic and think that they will be eating kale and drinking lemon water for the rest of their life. Now in the beginning will there need to be some restriction to get your body moving in the right direction? Well yes, yes there will be because lets face it you got yourself out of shape in the first place and it will take some DISCIPLINE to get moving ahead. Following a structured meal plan will be necessary, no ifs or buts about it. No matter if you decide to do keto (which is absolutely stupid), Mediterranean (still stupid), or a balanced carb cycle approach you will likely see results pretty quick and think oh this is easy I lost 30 pounds in a month.
You think to yourself, I am not hungry and have no cravings, this is great! Well somewhere around 4-6 weeks things halt, you gain back 10 lbs despite sticking to your planned out diet that you found online lol, and think how can this be. Another week goes by and you gain another 3 lbs. By this time you’re scratching your head thinking that maybe if you do intermittent fasting surely that will break the trend. You lose 2 lbs and then gain it back within 2 weeks. You then blame genetics and think that this just doesn’t work for me and quit. Then you try again next year repeating the same trend.
Every single person will reach plateaus at some point in time and the question that is always asked is how do you know when to change things? 2 weeks or 4 weeks or 6 weeks? Well my friends the answer to that is it depends. It depends on 1 factor and 1 factor only and that is………. HUNGER!!!!! Yes hunger, that is the marker that needs to be monitored if you want to be in this long term. Hunger is essentially a signal to your brain that you need food, because your body is burning through everything at an accelerated rate. Your bodies metabolism is firing on all cylinders and that my friends means you will continue moving ahead.
It's when hunger is not there that things are going south. Your body is not burning through what you feed it, is likely storing the food as fat and your weight will begin to climb if you do not change things. And I am here to tell you eating less is not the answer. Your body will store even more fat because now it is receiving even less so it now must store even more to keep itself alive lol. Well coach what should I do? The guru online said that if I eat once a week I will lose weight. Well the guru is also some self proclaimed nutrition expert lol who has only read studies in a text book and has no real world application working with 1000s of clients over a decade plus!!!!! Everything in the fitness realm is individual. Let me repeat that again, EVERYTHING IN THE FITNESS REALM IS INDIVIDUAL!!!!! There is no one size fits all. Adjustments need to be made according to your bodies needs. Maybe its more carbs, maybe its more high glycemic carbs, maybe it higher fats and lower carbs or maybe its a cheat meal 2 days in a row to reset your body. But again its individual based on your bodies needs!
So as we roll into 2025 stop finding the easy way out. Stop trying to copy stuff you read online and thinking it will work. IT DOESN’T because if it did it would not be FREE!!!!!! So there you have it, hunger and hunger only will tell you if you are moving in the right direction and when you need it re-evaluate. Hunger should be a 8/9 minimum first thing in the morning upon waking in the morning. When it dips below that is when your body is starting to slow. You should be hungry!!! Suck it up and do the work. Over and out.
BEYOND JUST BODYBUILDING