How many people do you know that go on low calorie diets, burn out the treadmill and still gain weight?
Ok this is technically my Sutton baby bump, but let’s just pretend like it’s belly fat 😉
Seems impossible to restrict calories and constantly workout without LOSING weight, but here’s why…
1. Low calorie diets end up suppressing hormones that regulate insulin sensitivity (New England Journal of Medicine). And these hormones end up remaining suppressed for up to 18 months after returning to a normal calorie intake. SOURCE If you begin to lose insulin sensitivity, it means MUCH insulin needs to be secreted in order for you to deposit normal levels of glycogen. What does this mean? Well, insulin is also a fat-storing hormone, so the more of it that circulates in the body, the harder it becomes to burn body fat. Secrete more of it, burn less body fat.
2. Low calorie diets disrupt your gut flora AKA good gut bacteria. Don’t think your gut is important? Check out this study:
Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis and his colleagues conducted an elegant series of experiments with so-called humanized mice, published last September in Science. First, they raised genetically identical baby rodents in a germ-free environment so that their bodies would be free of any bacteria. Then they populated their guts with intestinal microbes collected from obese women and their lean twin sisters. The mice ate the same diet in equal amounts, yet the animals that received bacteria from an obese twin grew heavier and had more body fat than mice with microbes from a thin twin. As expected, the fat mice also had a less diverse community of microbes in the gut. SOURCE
3. Overexercising and under-eating causes adrenal fatigue.
According to Webmd (because who doesn’t get their medical info from here),
Your adrenal glands make hormones. One of these is cortisol, which helps your body deal with stress. According to the adrenal fatigue theory, if your life is too stressful, your adrenal glands may not pump out enough hormones, leading to a wide variety of symptoms.
They call this a theory because it isn’t entirely proven. But, who wants to cause themselves adrenal stress and then go through all sorts of various experiments for science?
Not even this crazy guy.
This added stress DOES alter your gut bacteria, and from what I mentioned above, gut bacteria is HUGE in determining your weight and well-being!
Many other factors can contribute to this lingering weight, but these are a few
So how can you fix this and KEEP belly fat at bay?
It’s simple. Eat more REAL colors.
I am going to be hosting a “Healthy Gut Group” in the month of May. If you are interested in joining, you will learn about ways around this weight loss plateau, foods and small lifestyle changes that feed that good bacteria and ways to fit it into your lifestyle. There will be an initial and final informational “meeting”, suggested meal plans, frequent check-ins, recipe sharing and a support group, including unlimited access to me. A small fee will be associated with this group. I have decided to open this up to non-local participants after many requests. So, if you are interested in being part of it, please fill out the information below.
**Share on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook tagging @bemomstrong and be entered to win a free spot**
Ever hit a plateau?
Be Mom Strong 
Totally agree! Low cal diets do not work at all. A few years back my trainer made me eat more and it changed everything. My energy levels went up and so did my fitness. It’s hard to convince people of this though.
So glad you’ve found what works! And yes, people find it hard to believe!
Thanks for sharing this useful post with us, I think I’ve been a bit wrong lately…!
Interesting. Talking about gut health, what do you think about probiotics? 🙂 I think that it might have useful benefits. I need to learn more about it first, though.