Top 3 Red Flags I See From Folks Who Usually Need to Reverse Diet
More often than not, I receive dozens of inquiries for coaching from men and women who seem to be chronically under-eating, yet, they inquire about my fat loss program. These are the individuals who typically have tried every diet under the sun and come to me frustrated because they’re not seeing any progress whatsoever, no matter how hard they train and how low calories they drop.
Here are the top red flag I see in someone who typically needs to reverse diet.
1. You’ve tried everything as far as diets go, eat less than 1000 calories a day and no matter how much cardio you do, nothing changes!
Your body stays the same and if anything, you might have seen the scale creep upwards. This is due to severe metabolic adaptation and is the first red flag I notice when clients need to reverse diet.
2. You have come off of an extreme weight loss diet and never changed anything after the initial weight loss
AKA never started to eat more! If you dieted hard and lost more than 15-20 pounds and never brought your calories/food back up, there's a good chance (especially if it’s been over 6 months), that your metabolism is adapted and is slower than what it used to be. Fear not! With a proper reverse diet, we can help speed it back up.
3. You constantly feel tired, sore and no matter how much sleep you get, you just can’t seem to feel well rested
It can be both a sign of overtraining and chronically under-eating but the question is, what came first, the chicken or the egg? The reality is many people who come to me inquiring about an RD also tend to be overtraining. Are you over training because you’re under nourished or are you undernourished because you’re overtraining? Both can also co-exists at the same time and I often see them paired together in folks.
BONUS 4. Ladies, you’ve lost your period or it’s spotty month to month
Here’s the thing doctors won’t tell you about amenorrhea: it’s not normal, unless you were prescribed birth control that doesn’t give you a menses.
But if you’re a woman not on birth control and don’t know why your period stopped, it could be because your body is trying to tell you something. Stress can 100% be a contributing factor for missing your period. Our bodies are very smart (especially us ladies!!).
However, if you’re not very stressed but find yourself restricting food heavily, eating very low calories, find yourself at a very low body fat percentage or exercising more than two hours a day, your body is retaliating by literally shutting down your reproductive system. In other words it’s entering a fight or flight mode because it is under the impression you might be starving.
If you were starving or in a famine, having a kid would be the last thing on your body's priority list. Keeping you ALIVE moves to the top of that list. Our hormone regularity thrive on fat intake and fat in the body and if we are lacking it, it can cause hormonal disturbances throughout.
I know the idea of eating more food is terrifying. Seriously. I know because I’ve been there myself. It took years for me to overcome my unhealthy eating habits and disordered eating patterns. It took a toll on my body as well. If you too are living in fear, ask yourself if you want to continue living your life as a slave to the gym and constantly putting up rules and restrictions around food? How many days a week would you workout in an ideal world if you felt like you didn’t “need” to?
Now imagine you were doing that and getting the results you desired. Well, guess what? It IS possible!