Women’s bodies are so clever! When we move into dietary restriction our body will quickly start to make adaptations to protect fat stores.

Your body is designed to protect against fat loss girls. It is only in recent years we have lived in such a food abundant environment. For thousands of years food was often scarce and this protective mechanism helped our ancestors survive so you could be here today. It is not a flaw.

Some people are more adaptive than others.

How does this play out in practice?

1) Your NEAT (Non Exercise Active Thermogenesis), that’s all of the movement you’re making outside of structured exercise, will slow down. This isn’t conscious. That’s why step counts are really effective in fat loss. You’ll fidget less, whereas you’d normally get up and take that extra cup back you won’t, your body temperature alters, you’ll feel tired. Some people have very adaptive NEAT, and some not so much.

2) Your hunger hormones surge driving food seeking behavior up. You think you’re not losing on 1500 calories when in actuality you’re eating 1800. Again not conscious. Those extra licks and bites count. That extra oil you poured counts. We all do it! Eating an extra 300 calories a day is very easily done. Those hunger hormones can drive some people to binge eat.

When they put people under scrutiny in research labs and give them 1500 calories 100% of participants lose weight. Of course, real life is not a research lab and we have to navigate social engagements and life stressors in an environment where food is abundant.

Don’t slam your body with the lowest calories you can accompanied by the most vigorous training you can do in the beginning. You need somewhere to go. While seemingly small, making the effort to change your daily habits by adding more NEAT along with reducing overall caloric intake creates a foundation for long lasting weight-loss success

Get a coach who understands the science of the body.

Written by Alexandra.
Edited by Deepa