Latest / The Body Recomposition Revolution | Fat Loss and Strength for Women 35+ / How to Fix Your Metabolism After Undereating (Step-by-Step Plan for Women 35+) LEA pt 2
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back to the Body Recomposition Revolution.
- 0:03This is Robin, your host, and today we are going to talk a
- 0:08little bit more about low energy availability, which is called
- 0:13Lea. Last week I did an episode on
- 0:17Lea and talked about if you are a woman who is working out five
- 0:21to six days per week, if you're eating clean, if you're doing
- 0:25all the things correctly and your body still isn't changing,
- 0:29you are struggling most likely from Lea.
- 0:33And I thought it was really interesting because there's a
- 0:35lot of research on Lea and I feel like it is also not covered
- 0:40and talked about in social media much because our message to
- 0:43women, to society in general is basically just grind it out
- 0:47until you're dead. That's honestly the best
- 0:49description of how we are told women should change their bodies
- 0:52and to get stronger. And it's exactly the opposite
- 0:55message that we should be relaying to women, especially
- 0:58women over the age of 35 when our hormones are fluctuating and
- 1:01they are so much more sensitive to the input that we are
- 1:04inflicting upon ourselves. But research states that among
- 1:08women who identify as being active, whatever that means to a
- 1:12woman. So if you're a woman and you
- 1:14identify as being active, it doesn't mean that you're not
- 1:17active because you're less active than me.
- 1:19That definition is very open-ended.
- 1:22But if you're a woman who identifies as being active, 50%
- 1:25of those women could be medically diagnosed with Lea.
- 1:3150%. And just to recap, what is Lea?
- 1:35According to the National Institute of Health on the.gov
- 1:38website, they have This occurs when calorie intake is
- 1:42insufficient to cover both daily living and exercise expenditure,
- 1:48triggering hormonal shifts that prevent fat loss and cause
- 1:52weight gain. This state forces the body into
- 1:56survival mode, leading to metabolic adaptation, high
- 2:00cortisol, stubborn fat storage, and menstrual dysfunction.
- 2:05To put it simply, L EA happens when you are not eating enough
- 2:10calories to cover what you're asking your body to do.
- 2:15And when you do that, it triggers these hormonal shifts
- 2:20in your body. For example, you are going to
- 2:22have very high levels of cortisol, your ghrelin, which is
- 2:26your hunger, your hunger hormone.
- 2:28That's going to be an OverDrive at night, hormonal shifts.
- 2:32OK, So when you're not eating enough to cover the activity
- 2:36that you're requesting your body to perform, it lashes out by
- 2:40throwing all your hormones out of whack.
- 2:43And when it does that, you will gain weight.
- 2:46You will gain weight. And if you don't gain weight,
- 2:48your body is going to hold on to excess body fat for dear life
- 2:53and it's going to be in the midsection.
- 2:55The reason your body does that is because it is forced into
- 2:58survival mode. So you're saying, hey, we're
- 3:01going to start running 5 miles a day.
- 3:03We're also going to eat 1200 calories.
- 3:05None of that's going to be carbs.
- 3:07We're going to try keto. We're also going to weight lift
- 3:102 nights a week. We're going to do all these
- 3:12things and I know I'm going to drop weight immediately if I do
- 3:16that. Well, your body says no because
- 3:19I still want to survive. So now I'm going to hoard this
- 3:22belly fat in your midsection because that's the safest place
- 3:25to store it. And I'm actually going to drop
- 3:28your metabolism. So now maybe your BMR, which is
- 3:33your basal metabolic rate, I call it your couch calories,
- 3:36what your body would burn if you just sat on the couch all day.
- 3:39Maybe your BMR was 1500 prior to starving yourself.
- 3:44Well, now your metabolism has adapted and it has adapted
- 3:47downward. It has adapted to being at a
- 3:50constant state of starvation and need.
- 3:52And now your BMR is maybe 1100. So you can eat even less food
- 3:57just to maintain at your current state.
- 4:01To reiterate, when you starve yourself, your metabolism drops,
- 4:05it adapts. You can eat less and less food
- 4:08to stay the same size and that is not sustainable.
- 4:12And if you were eating anything less than 1500 calories, no
- 4:16matter what height you are, you are in starvation mode.
- 4:19I promise you that. So here's the question.
- 4:22How do you fix your metabolism? How do you bump your metabolism
- 4:27back up to where it should be or even higher than it ever was?
- 4:31Maybe you run a GOP1 and you're kind of feeling this sense of
- 4:34panic like, Oh my gosh, what did I do?
- 4:37Or maybe you've just come to the realization that, wow, I have
- 4:40been starving myself. I know that, and I need to do
- 4:43what I need to do to get my metabolism functioning again.
- 4:46Whatever your realization is, however you got to where you are
- 4:49right now, the positive, the great thing about your body is
- 4:53it adapts. It adapts to the bad things you
- 4:55do and it adapts to the good things you do.
- 4:57So we can fix it. We can.
- 4:59Because your body, whatever state it is in right now, it is
- 5:03not broken. It is not.
- 5:05Your metabolism is not damaged beyond repair and your body is
- 5:10just like I said, it's adapted to what you've given it.
- 5:14It's adapted to the lack by hoarding the belly fat.
- 5:17It's adapted to the lack by by eliminating all of your lean
- 5:20muscle that you had built over your life.
- 5:22If you ever intentionally built it or not.
- 5:24You had muscle there, but not anymore because you've starved
- 5:26yourself for so long. So if your goal is to lose fat
- 5:32and you don't want to look skinny fat, you just want to
- 5:35lose fat while maintaining or even building your lean muscle,
- 5:39that is not about forcing. Fat loss is not about forcing.
- 5:44Believe me, I tell myself this every day.
- 5:46Thanks. Chill.
- 5:47It's about creating an environment in your body where
- 5:50your body feels safe to just let go of the fat.
- 5:54We don't need it. She's not going to starve us.
- 5:56She's giving us more than we need.
- 5:58We we can get rid of this body fat.
- 6:00We can eliminate it. We don't need to hoard this
- 6:03because we feel safely fueled to complete the tasks she's asking
- 6:09us to do. Now.
- 6:11This phase is not a fat loss phase.
- 6:14This is a primer phase. You might have heard people talk
- 6:17about this phase as a reverse diet, but I like to call it a
- 6:22primer phase. I know a lot of trainers, I know
- 6:25a lot of people in the industry who also call it a primer phase
- 6:28because we are priming your body to lose fat.
- 6:32After this phase, we are priming your metabolism to feel again
- 6:38safe, that it can utilize the nutrients you're giving it in
- 6:42the way that it's supposed to. And therefore, when we start
- 6:45taking away the calories during a deficit phase, during the fat
- 6:49loss phase, those two things are the same.
- 6:50When you start taking those calories away with the goal of
- 6:54fat loss, we're not going to plateau.
- 6:56We're not going to store the fat in our belly.
- 6:59Your body is going to release the fat during the fat loss
- 7:02phase, whereas before it was not able to because it was in in
- 7:06survival mode. Honestly, when when you think
- 7:08about a car, if you have this car that's a little older, it's,
- 7:12you know, past its prime and it's not running well.
- 7:16The oil is just dirty. You, I don't really know how to
- 7:19explain how a car doesn't run well, but you know how it's just
- 7:21running rough. You have not taken care of it.
- 7:24You have not given it what it needs.
- 7:25It's supposed to take Primo gasoline.
- 7:28You're giving it whatever the baseline stuff.
- 7:30I'm sorry, I don't know cars. You have not been taking care of
- 7:33the car. You have been starving the car.
- 7:36You need to now fix the car up. We're going to start giving it
- 7:39premium gasoline. We're never leaving the tank on
- 7:42empty. We're not running it to eat.
- 7:44We are going to be replacing the oil before our oil appointments
- 7:49every three months. I we just, we have to take care
- 7:52of the car so that the car can run efficiently.
- 7:56Now I just want to go through the Physiology really quickly of
- 7:59what's actually happening in your body if you have not been
- 8:03giving your body enough food because I think it's really
- 8:06interesting. It's unseen, but it's so
- 8:09impactful. So if you have been under
- 8:11fueling and asking your body to lift weights, to run, to do all
- 8:15the things, number one, your cortisol will stay high.
- 8:19That just means your body's in stress mode.
- 8:20And when your body is in stress mode, it holds on to fat.
- 8:24Physiologically, it will hold on to fat in the midsection.
- 8:27That's a fact. And when your cortisol is high,
- 8:30you feel wired. You feel wired, amped up, but
- 8:33also tired. You can't fall asleep at night.
- 8:35You are you were just ready to run, but you can't because it's
- 8:40exhausting just to exist at this point.
- 8:42This is I'm describing my life. I know this personally.
- 8:44You have really big cravings. You have really big cravings
- 8:47because things like your ghrelin, which is a hormone,
- 8:50those increase in that ghrelin is saying you're hungry, you
- 8:53need more food. Your thyroid slows down and you
- 8:57might have heard the term T3, that's your thyroid that drops
- 9:01and that just means your metabolism has down shifted.
- 9:04You are burning less calories. You are not going to have fat
- 9:08loss. When your metabolism is down
- 9:10shifting and you have elevated cortisol and your T3 is
- 9:14dropping, your leptin drops, which again is tied in with
- 9:17ghrelin. It makes your hunger grow up, go
- 9:19up. You have no satiety.
- 9:21You just kind of always feel hungry.
- 9:23And the sad thing about this is this is how I have existed the
- 9:28last two years. So I'm not above you here.
- 9:30I am not. I am not preaching at you from a
- 9:32pulpit, if that's the phrase. I am telling you that I am
- 9:35delusional when it comes to how much food my body needs to
- 9:40complete the tasks that I'm asking.
- 9:41That I am a trademark L EA case. I am 15,000 steps a day working
- 9:47out five to six to seven days a week.
- 9:50I'm high output, I'm high output, I'm high energy.
- 9:53I go, go, go. And that's the way I was born.
- 9:55It came out of the womb that way.
- 9:57And I came out of the womb delusional because I have been
- 10:00eating 18119 hundred thinking that's a good maintenance
- 10:04number. Not for me, I'm 57.
- 10:07So just to let you know, I have been putting this into practice
- 10:11the last three weeks, and I want you to understand, and I'm
- 10:17saying this to myself in the mirror as well, that weight gain
- 10:21will happen if you have been struggling with Lea.
- 10:25But don't worry, it is just glycogen being replenished in
- 10:28your body. It's a lot of fluid retention.
- 10:32Your body's holding on to it. It's not used to all that fuel
- 10:35and it will settle down South. If you are choosing to fix your
- 10:40metabolism, I need you to understand that there is going
- 10:44to be some fluctuations on the scale and those fluctuations
- 10:48predominantly will go upward. There's a small percentage of
- 10:52women who do kind of maintain their weight because their body
- 10:56is like, whoa, now we're going to function really well.
- 10:58Maybe you haven't been chronically underfed for however
- 11:01many years. Maybe it was just a period of
- 11:03starvation, a shorter period and you might be one of the few who
- 11:07just maintain weight. But for most of you, please
- 11:10expect a scale increase. And please tell me it's OK
- 11:15because I have, I'm not kidding you.
- 11:17I maybe I'm like 7 lbs heavier, could even be 8.
- 11:20I'd have to really look at my numbers, which I encourage
- 11:23everybody to do, but it has been mentally taxing for me.
- 11:26So I, I haven't looked at the data points.
- 11:28I just enter my number in on my app every day and then close my
- 11:32eyes and close it out. So just know this, that if you
- 11:36are on board with fixing your metabolism, with fixing all the
- 11:39physiological things that are happening inside your body, that
- 11:42I just named off the things that are stopping you from having fat
- 11:46loss, you need to understand that you are going to put on
- 11:50some weight. And I'm right here with your
- 11:52girlfriend. I've got dimples in my legs
- 11:54where I haven't had dimples in quite some time.
- 11:56But you know what? That's OK, right?
- 11:59That's OK. That's OK, positive note I my
- 12:02butt look it's budding like it looks it looks better than it
- 12:06usually does because it's full of glycogen like I'm I'm
- 12:10nourished finally. I thought I was nourished
- 12:11before, but you know the hair loss, the not sleep everything
- 12:14else on the list should have keyed me in.
- 12:16I'm also lifting heavier. I have more energy and I'm way
- 12:21nicer. I am to my kids.
- 12:23I usually I'm pretty patient because I was a kindergarten
- 12:26teacher for so many years. But you know, I guess I didn't
- 12:30notice how impatient I had become now that my patience has
- 12:33gone up. So just know that there are also
- 12:37positives to having this new fuel reintroduced to your body
- 12:42and embrace it because you're a woman.
- 12:44You need, you need, you need to have nutrients flowing through
- 12:47your body. You create life with that thing,
- 12:49whether you have in the past or haven't.
- 12:51Your body is equipped to create life like you need to nourish
- 12:56it, not starve it. So just remember the expectation
- 13:01so that I can prevent some panic you might have.
- 13:03If you do choose to proceed is Emma gain 1 to 5 lbs, but that's
- 13:09intentionally doing it. You're not going to sit down and
- 13:12start eating cake at night. You're going to have some sweet
- 13:15potatoes, some rice and it's going to be great because we're
- 13:17going to fill our plate with high quality food.
- 13:20You're going to feel fuller. This part I like.
- 13:22I like going to bed feeling satisfied because for so many
- 13:27years I just went to bed feeling like, can I have some popcorn?
- 13:31Like anything to just dull that feeling of I need more food and
- 13:36I just, I don't know. I brainwashed myself into
- 13:39thinking it was OK when it isn't.
- 13:40It is OK when you're in a deficit because you it has to be
- 13:43OK if you want to drop fat, but it's not OK to have that year
- 13:46round. There are phases and seasons for
- 13:48everything and being in a chronic deficit, the entirety of
- 13:53your existence is a phase of delusion and pain that you need
- 13:57to step out of with me. So again, expect to have a
- 14:01little bit of scale fluctuation. Do not abort plan.
- 14:07We are going to proceed intentionally now for the plan.
- 14:11This is this is the step by step approach you're going to take to
- 14:15heal your metabolism so that you can finally drop fat when you've
- 14:20probably plateaued. If you are suffering from Lea,
- 14:23if, if you are maybe even gaining fat in your midsection
- 14:27and you're still eating basically nothing.
- 14:29If you're doing all the things to textbook and you are just not
- 14:33seeing any shift, if anything you are not liking the
- 14:36trajectory of your physique at this point.
- 14:38Here's the plan. You are going to increase your
- 14:43calories slowly. Remember, gradually is key here.
- 14:49You're not going to start adding 500 calories a day to what
- 14:55you're eating. You are going to add 100 to 200
- 14:59calories per day for the week, and we'll just do this every
- 15:05single week. We're nudging your metabolism.
- 15:08We're not shocking it. It's not aggressive at all.
- 15:10It's a strategic move. So right now you're going to add
- 15:16100 to 200 calories. I would even advise just to do
- 15:19100 to 150 calories so that you're not overwhelmed with the
- 15:23scale fluctuations. I want what's best for your
- 15:25mental health and physical health.
- 15:27And you're going to add this 100 to 200 calories a day every
- 15:31single week for about 8 to 10 weeks.
- 15:33So let's say that you're eating 1400 calories, but you have
- 15:39worked with somebody like me or an online tool or somebody else,
- 15:43and you've determined that your maintenance phase should be
- 15:46about 2200 calories. That's where your body needs to
- 15:50be to feel safe enough to drop fat come fat loss phase.
- 15:54So if you've determined what you're eating, which will take
- 15:57some tracking, if you have determined how much you should
- 16:00be eating at a maintenance phase, do that.
- 16:03If you need help, e-mail me now. We're going to do this long
- 16:07stretch of repairing your diet. It's it's 8 to 10 weeks and you
- 16:12need to be OK with that. And it's going to be great.
- 16:14You feel full. I feel fantastic.
- 16:16Feel a little fluffy, but that's OK.
- 16:18So week one to two, you're going to increase from 1400 to 1500
- 16:23calories a day. Week 3 to 4 you're going to go
- 16:26from 15150 to 1700 calories. Week 5 to 6 you're going to go
- 16:30from 1700 to 1850, and so on and so forth all the way to 10 weeks
- 16:35until we get you to 2200 calories.
- 16:38Now remember, we are restoring your metabolism.
- 16:43We are healing it. You have to eat more to do that.
- 16:47You have to eat more to heal your metabolism, to perform at
- 16:51the gym, to perform all the tasks your body is being asked
- 16:55to perform by you. And ironically, the faster you
- 16:59restore your metabolism, and this more strategically you do
- 17:02it, the faster fat loss actually happens.
- 17:04When you've enter your fat loss phase, it's so much easier.
- 17:09I should have known because I've actually done it with a
- 17:11nutrition coach when I was doing a figure competition.
- 17:14When I entered a second fat loss phase after reverse dieting, Oh
- 17:17my gosh, it just came right off. OK, so step one of the plan was
- 17:22to do this gradual calorie increase, adding 100 to 200
- 17:26calories a day for a week and doing that for 8 to 10 weeks,
- 17:30bumping you up from 14 to 2200 calories as your maintenance.
- 17:34That's just an example. You'll need to find out your own
- 17:36numbers through an online tool or me or whoever.
- 17:39OK, Step 2, you are going to do what's called anchoring your
- 17:44protein. Anchoring your protein means you
- 17:47are going to put a protein anchor at every single meal.
- 17:51So first determine how many meals you're going to eat
- 17:54throughout the day. I do three meals and then I do
- 17:56one snack on a, you know, in an ideal world where I'm behaving
- 18:00appropriately with my nutrition. So determine how many meals you
- 18:04are going to set for yourself throughout the day.
- 18:06I would do 4. Then you are going to anchor
- 18:09around 30 grams of protein in each of those meals.
- 18:14This morning I had a one-on-one with one of my clients who lives
- 18:18abroad and she does a shockingly amazing job keeping up with her
- 18:22things while she is traveling all over the world.
- 18:25Anchoring your protein, I was telling her, is when you whip
- 18:29out your app, whatever app you're using, I like to use
- 18:31macros first. A lot of my clients use my
- 18:34personal app because that has a tracking feature in it.
- 18:36A lot of people use My Fitness Pal or you can just use a pen
- 18:40and paper and you're going to write down 1234.
- 18:44Next to each of those numbers, you are going to pick something
- 18:47that is 30, around 30 grams of protein.
- 18:51Now this is just a general rule of thumb because ideally every
- 18:55woman who is trying to most efficiently drop fat and
- 18:59maintain or build muscle at the same time would be eating about
- 19:021g of protein per pound of ideal body weight.
- 19:06So let's say this client I'm talking about maybe her ideal
- 19:09goal weight or ideal weight is 140 lbs.
- 19:12OK. To her eating one 40 grams of
- 19:14protein every day is like, whoa, that's unrealistic.
- 19:18I told her I eat roughly 170 or 100 sometimes above that.
- 19:23And she was like, wow, how? By anchoring my protein.
- 19:26It's actually super easy 1234, put on a piece of paper, put it
- 19:30in your app and you're just going to put around a 30 to 40
- 19:34amount of protein at each meal. So chicken breast cooked, 4 to 5
- 19:38ounces of that is 30 grams of protein.
- 19:41Turkey breast, 5 ounces of that is 30 grams of protein.
- 19:44Lean ground beef, 5 ounces of that is 30 grams of protein.
- 19:47Salmon, 5 ounces of that is 30 grams of protein.
- 19:49Shrimp, 5 oz 6 ounces of that is 30 grams of protein.
- 19:53Tilapia, pork tenderloin steak, Basically it's some type of
- 19:57meat, around 5 oz, and you've got yourself a roughly 30 to 35
- 20:02grams of protein. If you're not into all the meat,
- 20:04which I would say my own diet consists of protein sources
- 20:08being half from meat sources and the other half from eggs and
- 20:11dairy. So egg whites, 1 cup of those is
- 20:14about 30 grams of protein. Whole eggs, Four to five large
- 20:18whole eggs. That's about 30 grams of
- 20:19protein. A cup, a cup and a half of
- 20:22cottage cheese. That's about 30 grams of
- 20:24protein. Greek yogurt.
- 20:25I eat that every single day of my life.
- 20:26There's not a day that's gone by in years that I haven't had
- 20:28Greek yogurt, except for when I had the flu.
- 20:31That's about 30 grams of protein for about a cup of that.
- 20:35I don't so much do protein powders, but when I need to, I
- 20:39will. If I'm in a pinch, I'll grab a
- 20:41protein bar. That's roughly 2020 grams, 25
- 20:44grams of protein. You just pick your foods, you
- 20:46anchor them throughout the day, put that in your app or write it
- 20:50down and know that the rest of it is negotiable as long as you
- 20:54have your protein target hit for the day.
- 20:57Because out of all three macro nutrients, protein, carbs and
- 21:00fats, protein is the only macro nutrient that is also an amino
- 21:06acid and it builds your muscle. It is your metabolic gold.
- 21:09It's a signal to your body to burn and build.
- 21:12It's it's really just the foundation of body recomposition
- 21:15is getting enough protein to do so.
- 21:18Step #4 in our metabolism repair phase is lifting.
- 21:24This is a non negotiable. I do not mean orange theory.
- 21:28I do not mean any sort of class no Pilates.
- 21:32I mean do your Pilates, but that's not a non negotiable.
- 21:35Lifting is a non negotiable If you want more muscle, which
- 21:39means you want to look toned. That's usually how I hear it
- 21:42articulated to me. I want to look toned.
- 21:45OK, but then you want more muscle.
- 21:46If you want more muscle, you have to signal to your body to
- 21:50keep and build muscle. How do you do that?
- 21:54By telling your body to keep the muscle, which means you're going
- 21:58to signal to the muscle. I need to use you by lifting
- 22:01when you're lifting weights, that signals to your body, oh,
- 22:05we need this. We need this more so than we
- 22:07have now. So we're actually going to build
- 22:09this. OK, well she's asking me to do
- 22:12these really happy heavy hip thrusts and your glute muscles
- 22:15are not really capable of performing this task as
- 22:17efficiently as we'd like. So we're going to repair these
- 22:21torn muscles with all the protein she's giving us and
- 22:23we're going to build them up. We have been signaled to do that
- 22:26with the input as being a heavy lifting stimulus.
- 22:30It's a non negotiable you have to lift weights to build muscle.
- 22:34If you're not lifting weights, again, your body has no reason
- 22:37to keep or build muscle. Step #4 of this metabolic repair
- 22:43phase. And four or five, don't worry,
- 22:44there's an insight. Step #4 is maintain your current
- 22:49step count. So you should have a ballpark
- 22:51idea of what your steps are. If you don't try to get a Fitbit
- 22:55or an Apple Watch or a Garmin or however you want to do that,
- 22:58look that up, figure that out, and you want to maintain that.
- 23:01You can go into your health settings on your phone and see
- 23:04what your step count averages. If you're not used to looking at
- 23:07that, but you do have a fitness tracker, look that up, find that
- 23:10out and you want to maintain your steps.
- 23:13If you're not maintaining your steps, which is just kind of an
- 23:16easy way to burn fat throughout the day, then you're going to
- 23:20put on more body weight than you're probably wanting to do.
- 23:25Another way of describing keeping your steps at
- 23:28maintenance level is NEAT control.
- 23:30So non exercise activity thermogenesis.
- 23:33It's basically your body's movements throughout the day, so
- 23:36you're walking around a lot. My step, don't judge me, but my
- 23:40steps are about 15,000 a day. Yes, I like to move.
- 23:46I'm always walking and running and cleaning and whatever.
- 23:50I'm just a mover. And if I let my steps dwindle
- 23:53down, which last winter, I remember thinking, why is the
- 23:56scale creeping up so much? And I went into my health
- 23:59settings and I saw this big downward trajectory in my step
- 24:03count because I guess cardio had fallen out of my routine.
- 24:06And you just be surprised how how quickly that fat kind of
- 24:10creeps on when you drop your daily movement not working out,
- 24:15but just your daily movement. So keep active, keep your steps
- 24:18going. Make sure you're moving after
- 24:20meals. You know, we're not trying to
- 24:21pack on the pounds. We are just trying to repair our
- 24:25metabolism. Step 5, hold, just stay here.
- 24:31I know it stinks. It stinks.
- 24:33Force feeding yourself and I will be the first to say that
- 24:38going into a reverse diet or a repair phase is much harder for
- 24:44me than going into a deficit or a fat loss phase.
- 24:48Same thing using those terms interchangeably for the two
- 24:50different phases. Repairing my metabolism IE
- 24:55reverse dieting is much harder for me than a deficit because
- 24:59because of 1,000,000 reasons. Most of them are just mental.
- 25:02You know, we a lot of our worth and how we think others perceive
- 25:06us sometimes as is subconsciously connected to how
- 25:10small we are. And even me who coaches women
- 25:13constantly to fill their plate, to take up space, to eat more,
- 25:17to fuel for the task you're asking your body to do so that
- 25:20we can make your body stronger and resilient and have it look
- 25:23the way you want it to look to reflect all of your hard work.
- 25:27I am very, very guilty of not fueling my body enough because
- 25:32it's very taxing on me mentally to have my clothes be tight or
- 25:39see my body looking differently in when I get up and shower.
- 25:44You know, it is, it's, it's, that's just being real with you.
- 25:48It is, it is taxing for me, for someone like myself who is
- 25:52always talking about having a healthy body image.
- 25:55I it is something I struggle with when I go into a
- 25:58maintenance phase. But this time around, I do feel
- 26:02like I've got a good grip on it and I'm going to hold as I'm
- 26:06asking you to do. I'm going to hold on and just
- 26:09try to see it through for the whole 8 to 10 weeks now as I am
- 26:15in this phase, this metabolic repair phase, spring is here,
- 26:19summer's here. I'm not exactly sure that I'm
- 26:22going to do the whole 8 to 10 weeks, but I did talk to a coach
- 26:26this morning and was just letting him know like, oh, well,
- 26:30I don't know how I feel. And he said, you know, you
- 26:31should start this again, like actually really do the full 8 to
- 26:3510 weeks, maybe four or five months come fall.
- 26:39So right now I'm going to hold on and do this for a few more
- 26:42weeks, even though it's it's been quite a while already,
- 26:46because I want to give my body, my metabolism just a little bump
- 26:49before the spring and summer. So you can do a little mini
- 26:53repair phase, but you're going to get the most bang for your
- 26:55buck if you hold steady and enter this building, this
- 27:00maintenance, this repair, this surplus stage for a longer
- 27:04period of time. So don't sell yourself short,
- 27:07short. Don't cut your results down by
- 27:09skimping out and not being able to handle the mental load of it
- 27:12because I know it's truly a mental load.
- 27:15And there are positive facets that come with this phase as
- 27:19well. Like I enjoy feeling fueled and
- 27:21energetic and honestly just overall happier.
- 27:25I I needed to do this. So I will be doing this for a
- 27:30few weeks longer and I hope you join me if you have yourself
- 27:33have identified with struggling on the Lea front, which means
- 27:38low energy availability. And if you want more information
- 27:43about low energy availability and why that may be the culprit
- 27:47as to why you're doing all the things correctly, but your body
- 27:50is holding on to that fat. Look at my episode that was
- 27:54posted just last week right before that.
- 27:56And it talks about women who are doing all the right things but
- 27:58still not able to drop fat. And within that episode, in the
- 28:01notes, there is a quiz that I obtained from a database.
- 28:06I was a research database when I was researching that episode.
- 28:09And the quiz is free. It's just, I think a Google Doc.
- 28:12I don't need your e-mail address.
- 28:14If it asks you for it, I'm not going to e-mail you.
- 28:16But I have gotten quite a few emails from that quiz with women
- 28:19just having this eye opening experience as to how much they
- 28:23have inadvertently deprived themselves of actually having
- 28:28the physique they work so hard for because they're not fueling
- 28:33their body to build that physique.
- 28:36That was my problem as well. And you wouldn't believe it.
- 28:39Like there's so many common traits among the amongst women
- 28:43who struggle with L EA. We just tend to be very driven
- 28:47kind of perfectionist. We have to dot all our IS and
- 28:51cross our T's. We are ambitious, all wonderful
- 28:55things, but a lot of times we have an all or nothing mindset.
- 28:58So we do it all. And there's, there's just a lot
- 29:01of common personality traits that I mentioned in the episode
- 29:04before that that just seemingly spoke to a lot of women.
- 29:08So if you have any questions for me, would you do me a favor and
- 29:12please put them in the Spotify comments section.
- 29:16That tends to be super helpful for women.
- 29:19I get so many, I think I've started requesting this
- 29:22recently. I get so many emails still put
- 29:24them in the Spotify comments. Make a fake screen name or
- 29:26something if you're embarrassed about it.
- 29:28Because as I always say, there is no bad question except for
- 29:31the one unasked. Do us all a favor, ask the
- 29:34question. I'll answer it publicly.
- 29:36Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in.
- 29:37If you need help figuring out your custom macro formulation
- 29:41needs, you can e-mail me racracrecomposition@gmail.com.
- 29:48You can shoot me Adm on my Instagram, which is RAC RAC
- 29:53Fitness under score. I just recently opened my
- 29:56messages back up, so I will be taking messages or DMS, whatever
- 30:00requests for macro help or custom workout programs.
- 30:04Or if you would like to apply for a coaching position on my
- 30:08squad, the Rack Elite ladies, as we gear up for summer, coming
- 30:12around the corner, about about 10 weeks away.
- 30:14So again, ladies, thank you so much for listening.
- 30:17Thank you for doing your body of service and fueling it
- 30:19appropriately. If you want to check out that
- 30:22quiz to see if you might be struggling with Lea, it's in the
- 30:25show notes. It's also on my Instagram.
- 30:28Just check out the pictures and you'll see exactly what I'm
- 30:30talking about. It's AQR code.
- 30:32OK, talk to you next week.