There’s nothing worse than training hard and failing to see results in the mirror and / or scale.

It’s even worse when lethargy kicks in, energy disappears, we lose focus, food cut from the ‘diet’ starts to become very, very appealing, we reach breaking point, the process falls apart and we binge eat.

I get it – I’ve been there and done it over, and over again.

Only takes a heavy dose of obsession and doing it so many times to eventually figure it out.

If this resonates – a combination of the following probably makes up your routine:

> Training 5 -7 times per week (treadmill, classes and /or weight sessions)

> Trying to eat really clean food all the time

> Staying as far away as possible from foods you love (… as they’re bad…)

> Getting decent results for the first few weeks and stalling, completely.

It all goes hand in hand.

The body is an energy system which loses, maintains or gains weight based on a rolling average of energy in (food) vs energy out (energy burned to stay alive + added physical activity).

High training volume INCREASES weight maintenance level (through burning a load of energy) so more needs to be consumed to maintain weight.

Under – eating REDUCES weight maintenance level (this happens slowly, and over time through metabolic adaptation to restriction), so less needs to be eaten to maintain weight (normal survival mechanism).

The problem you’re having?

Combining extremes of the two and putting the body through hell. This is exactly what happens when people start training all the time and eat nothing but salads and chicken (nothing inherently wrong with these foods, I actually mean chronically under – fuelling relative to individual needs).

This is the cause of lasting tiredness, cravings, fogginess, de-motivation and general poor well-being.

The gap between energy in and energy out is HUGE and un-manageable.

The key to sustainable weight loss and feeling energised is to nail this balance just right, so the training volume isn’t too high, and the food intake isn’t too low.

Instead of creating a HUGE negative energy balance, create a small one by eating moderately less than the body burns. This ensures the body will shred body weight AND most importantly stay functioning properly.

So what about the training volume?

Drop the volume way, way down.

Cut it in half, even.

For two reasons:

> Use training purely to promote an end result – which is to burn more energy, which allows more food to be eaten whilst staying in that small negative energy balance.

> Recovery is hindered when restricting energy intake, the body can’t handle being grinded into the ground… so don’t.

This is how sustainable weight loss is done. Is it really as simple as energy in vs energy out? In terms of weight loss, yes… it is.

Fuelling the body properly through Protein, Fats and Carbohydrates is the next level which is also hugely important (often overlooked, which is why people mess up diets even though they’re calories are set properly). I’ll cover this another time.

Hope this helps if you’re training all the time and wondering why you feel crappy.

Solution – try dropping the workout volume and increasing the amount eaten – stay fuelled.

 

 

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