The fitness industry talks a lot about ‘fat loss’, ‘weight loss’, and ‘muscle building’; however, it doesn’t outline much on phases of maintenance and ‘compensation’.\r\n\r\nTherefore, in today’s article, I want to give you a basic understanding of what is happening to your body when you are dieting for prolonged periods and outline why you should always have short phases planned in to increase your calories back to a ‘perceived maintenance’ amount.\r\n\r\nThis is where our understanding of the topic can get deep! However, for the purpose of giving you a brief and clear overview, I’m going to share a business analogy that I was once given in relation to this exact topic.\r\n\r\nOk, let’s picture the scene: you’ve established a calorie deficit & you’ve been dieting for some time.\r\n\r\n1. Let’s begin with the hypothalamus – this is the control centre of your endocrine system (the system responsible with hormones – your body’s chemical messengers). For the context of this article, let’s consider the hypothalamus as the CEO of the business (our body).\r\nNow, the awesome thing about any good CEO is that they are incredibly good at delegation which means they off-set certain jobs to different systems; let’s refer to these systems as the ‘departments & department managers.’\r\n\r\n2. The hypothalamus (CEO) will send initial chemical messengers to the pituitary gland (the next in line to the CEO), and from there subsequent messengers are sent to the different systems (departments & department managers). These departments include Adrenal function, Thyroid function, Growth, Water Balance, Gonadal function etc.\r\n\r\n3. Now once messages have reached the departments, the managers will deploy their workers (which is an analogy for the hormones).\r\n\r\nNow, let’s bring in your calorie deficit and exercise regime!\r\n\r\nThe problem with this, is your hypothalamus (CEO) has a budget to work with – an energy budget. When food is high and exercise is low, there is an abundance of energy available, and this is great because the body can delegate this energy across all its departments. Because of this, the business (body) works wonders, and everything is functioning optimally. However, as soon as a calorie deficit is established, cutbacks must be made! Now, at first this isn’t a problem, the business can ride the wave and use up the budget that was previously banked (the body can use stored energy). Though in time, these funds will soon run out and this will mean that not all of the departments can be provided with an adequate budget and thus, there’s less work for the workers (our hormones).\r\n\r\nTo bring this back to a practical application for a moment, for anyone who has ever been very lean or on a prolonged diet, you’ll have experienced some associated symptoms of ‘diet fatigue’. For instance, this might have been lowered gonadal function (for females, they might have lost their period & for guys, their ability to get an erection). Another example would be lowered metabolism & with that, perhaps a lower body temperature and a greater difficulty in losing weight/body fat.\r\n\r\nYour body is clever. The moment it begins to experience stress (yes, that includes being in a calorie deficit), it will behave differently. There’s only so long a person can experience these cutbacks before reaching a point of fatigue.\r\n\r\nThe biggest problem with this, is that this can sometimes result in a person rebounding and reverting back to past behaviours, especially if their motivation stems from an extrinsic reward (this is notably present with many bodybuilders who find it difficult to establish good food relationships post-show). Simply put, a stressed body wants to repay the energy deficit in order to restore homeostasis (balance within the body): this means a physiological ‘need’ for finding more calorie dense foods to replenish this absence of energy more quickly.\r\n\r\nBecause of all this, we must always listen to our body and track any potential changes in health markers. Extreme changes, such as amenorrhea, should never be ignored & certainly marks the end of a ‘dieting phase’ for 99% of people (excluding competitors). We simply cannot ignore the fact that to spend prolonged periods dieting will have an effect on the body & in order for the body to continue to function as it should, we must take structured breaks in a transformational process to spend time at a higher calorie intake & perhaps accept a few weeks of ‘maintenance’!\r\n\r\nThere’s no doubt that your body will thank you for it in the long-term, and that you will achieve a better & more sustainable result.