FAT 2 FIT 2 FAT
You work your ass off for many months and successfully achieve the look you want before your holiday, wedding or event! A week or 2 later you end up gaining everything back again…sound familiar?
This happens a lot more than you would think (80% of the time).
Why?
When you drop weight your hormones adapt too, hunger hormones like leptin decrease and ghrelin increases. When leptin decreases your body won’t feel satisfied with the same amount of foods as before and when ghrelin increases you will feel hungrier with the same amount of food as before.
This is completely natural and a survival tactic! It has been developed over countless years through evolution to get you to regain weight if you do lose it. Remember your body does not care if you want a 6 pack its job is to purely survive.
After restricting foods for months at a time it is very easy to go back to pre-diet habits and once you start old eating habits again, especially after losing weight your fat cells are primed to be filled out again. Depending on how quickly you regain the fat you can add fat cells. (Usually fat cells only shrink and expand).
What to do?
Have a plan after the weight loss phase! Especially if it is a quick weight loss phase! You will have to be just as disciplined as when you started your weight loss journey. Example below:
After finishing your initial weight loss phase go out for a meal and enjoy the company of family/friends and getting to eat out with them. Stop eating when they do don’t wait till you feel full.
Keep tracking foods and figure out your new maintenance calorie intake. Keep training for strength and slowly add calories back in weekly (50-100).
Keep doing one form of cardio that you enjoyed during your weight loss phase (L.I.S.S or H.I.I.T) and slowly decrease the amount of time that you do.
Keep strength training (less intense) specially to keep your body sensitive to carbohydrates (around training).