Why most people stay in the 2 extremes of eating and weight loss and how to break free from those traps
How many times have you been told that to lose weight you needed to eat less and exercise more? If you’re anything like me, you’ve heard it A LOT. Exercise more, eat less. Exercise more, eat less. Exercise more, eat less. It’s the old-school formula for weight loss. The problem with formulas and one-size-fits-all solutions is that we aren’t all one size! Instead of helping us be healthy, they get us stuck in the two extremes of weight loss: overeating and undereating.
Weight loss is never a one-size-fits-all situation. If you try to do exactly what your sister, friend, or neighbor is doing, you aren’t going to get the same results! Why? Because your nutrition and exercise needs are different than theirs. Instead of trying to do what everyone else is doing, what if you learned what YOU need?
I want to walk you through the common misconceptions that have kept you stuck in the overeat, undereat cycle and I want to show you how to get out of it! I don’t want you walking away feeling more lost and stuck! Mama, I’m going to help you get on track once and for all!
How exercise more, eat less leads to weight loss extremes
Research has told us that when you’re in a calorie deficit (aka when you burn more calories than you eat) you’ll lose weight. That’s where the exercise more, eat less idea comes from.
However, and this is a big, however, that only works if your body isn’t already deprived. Let me explain!
When most mamas want to lose weight, they try to cut food out and/or increase their exercise to create a calorie deficit. They lose weight for a little while, but then it stops working.
So they do what they did before, decrease how much they eat and increase exercise. But it doesn’t work like it did the first time.
So they cut even more food and try to workout even harder. But it still doesn’t work.
Now, they’re stuck in the first extreme of weight loss: undereating. They’re practically starving themselves, they don’t have the energy they need to keep up with their lives and they don’t have the results to at least make it somewhat worth it! Undereating isn’t healthy and it doesn’t help you lose weight when you do it long-term.
The second extreme of weight loss usually comes after cutting your calories for too long. It’s the overeating stage. You were starving and couldn’t do it anymore so you went back to how you used to eat and you gain weight.
It’s much easier to understand why overeating leads to weight gain, but most mamas don’t realize that it’s a result of unhealthy dieting.
Diets that encourage restriction - cutting out entire food groups or only allowing you to eat from pre-approved food lists - lead to overeating or even binging.
If you’re stuck in either of these extremes you’re not going to live a healthy life. In fact, it creates a yo-yo diet effect! That binge and restrict, binge and restrict pattern messes with your metabolism and makes weight loss even harder!
The good news is that when you learn how to fuel your body with a balanced diet that allows for seasons of overeating and undereating, you can lose weight while still enjoying all of your favorite foods!
How to use undereating and overeating to actually lose weight
As you’ve probably learned from experience, the body can adjust to living off of however many calories you give it. If you’re under eating your body will go into survival mode and will hold on to as much food as it can. If you’re overeating, your body simply can’t burn off the amount of food you’re eating. Either way, it leads to weight gain.
To lose weight, you need to feed your body enough calories to avoid starvation but limit yourself so you don’t put on excess fat. My Macros Made Easy program uses four phases to keep your body processing calories efficiently so that you can lose weight and then maintain it.
In these four phases, you’ll adjust how much you eat and how often or how hard you workout so that you can lose weight, maintain weight, and occasionally gain weight (I’ll explain why you’d ever want to gain weight later because I know it sounds crazy!)
Reverse
The reverse diet is used to help women who are under eating increase their food so that they have the energy to not only crush workouts but just keep up with their lives!
I talk to women all the time who are eating a child’s amount of food a day and are ready to cut more food out to lose weight.
You can’t cut nothing, from nothing! If you’re already undereating, then cutting your calories is only going to cause your body to hold onto the little bit of food you give it even more!
Instead, I help mamas slowly increase the amount of food they’re eating. The best part of the reverse diet phase is that most of my mamas lose weight while they reverse! It’s amazing to see them break through the misconception that less food = less weight!
Maintenance
The maintenance phase is, obviously, to help you maintain your weight. Mamas usually love the maintenance phase because they don’t gain or lose a lot of weight, but they get to enjoy food!
In maintenance, you will feel full and satisfied. You’ll have energy for your workouts. It will be easy to vacation or eat out without a whole lot of stress.
But, you shouldn’t aim to stay in maintenance all year long! Our bodies aren’t meant to stay at one weight forever. I explain why over in my post: Stop believing the lie that you can stay at your ideal weight year-round.
Cut
The cut phase is what most people think of when they think of dieting. You’re going to consume fewer calories to speed up your weight loss.
There are a few caveats that I use with my clients when it comes to the cut phase.
First, you can’t cut unless you have excess calories to cut from! I rarely start my client off with a cut unless they’re already overeating.
Second, you shouldn’t cut quickly! I slowly work my clients down in calories for multiple reasons, but one of the biggest is that if you rush into a cut you’re going to get hangry and end up overeating. I do not want you to binge and restrict, so I gradually cut your calories so you can be happy during your cut.
Finally, remember that in a cut you’re going to be hungry. You aren’t going to be hitting PRs in the gym because you won’t have the fuel to be pushing yourself! You have to be kind and forgiving in a cut so that you can lose weight in a healthy way.
Surplus
Oh, the surplus, who doesn’t love to eat in surplus? Bahaha! This is a phase that confuses people. I get asked, why would I want to overeat? Isn’t that a bad thing?
Overeating without a plan isn’t smart. If all you did was eat Oreos, brownies, and ice cream and say, “I’m in a surplus so I can” then you might be missing the point!
In a surplus, you’re eating more than you need to, to maintain weight, but you’re doing it in a balanced way! You’re not just eating whatever you want. You’re still focusing on eating the right balance of protein, fat and carbs, you’re just eating slightly more than you need to sustain your body.
I use the surplus to help people enjoy their lives! Traditionally, I move myself and my clients into a surplus during the holiday season so that we can enjoy the season without being overly focused on our food and so we can have some fun!
Again, you don’t want to go from a cut to a surplus in one week! We slowly move into a surplus so that we don’t put on excess weight.
The four phases help you control your weight instead of it controlling you. When you put on a few extra pounds in the surplus phase, you have the tools and knowledge to shed that weight in a smart, healthy way.
You don’t have to beat yourself up for enjoying a piece of pumpkin pie! You can enjoy your food knowing that you know how to make good decisions and get back on track when you’re ready to.
If you feel like you’re stuck in the overeating, undereating cycle, then let’s change that, mama! Schedule a free discovery call with me and I’ll help you find the balance in your life so that you can get out of those weight loss extremes and feel comfortable not only in your body but in your food choices too!
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