With obesity rates continuing to rise (now two-thirds of Americans fall into this category) (1), it's easy to point fingers and say, well, just stop eating the donuts!!! But what if you've stopped eating the donuts, you started exercising, and you still can't seem to bust through that plateau? It's an epidemic I see every day where people with good intentions bust their butts trying to lose weight but their metabolisms are dormant. Believe it or not, there is an 80/20 split, food/exercise, that defines your fat loss success. So if you haven't woken up your metabolism (or you've accidentally put it to sleep) you can exercise until you're blue in the face and never see the results you're looking for!
How to know if your metabolism is taking a nap on you:
1) You're never hungry. If you could go most of the day without eating and you wouldn't even notice, your metabolism is sleeping. When your metabolism is awake and functioning properly, you will get hunger pangs every 2-3 hours during the day. You should never feel famished, but your body should be signaling you to eat, and you should listen.
2) You are a night time eater. This is your body's last ditch effort to scream at you that you're not eating enough! If you've gotten to the end of the day and you start craving junk food, start eating more during the day and those cravings should diminish.
3) You don't "fall" off the wagon, you stumble, trip, and land flat on your face. Your body can only tolerate a crash diet for a period of time until it needs to replenish everything you have stripped from it. A better solution to this is to change the quality of food you're eating rather than attempt to drastically cut calories. You won't lose 10 lbs in one week, but the results will be more consistent over a longer period of time. Slow and steady wins the race.
In my opinion, the solution to fat loss is not how many calories a calculator says you need to eat per day, it's how many calories your body NEEDS. This may be more or less than you're currently eating and is dependent on more variables than a calculator can account for. Spend time truly listening to your body's signals and your brain and your body will work together to launch your metabolism back into action!
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