Stop believing the lie that you can stay at your ideal weight year-round. That’s just not how our bodies work.
How many times have you felt guilty or frustrated when you stepped on the scale and you gained a pound from the day before? I’ve been there! When you’re on a weight loss journey you only want the scale to go one way: down. But the truth is that’s not how our bodies work. In fact, our bodies aren’t meant to even stay at the same weight from day to day!
Your weight is going to fluctuate from day to day and even from month to month. It’s absolutely impossible to weigh the exact same amount for 365 days! The first step to becoming a healthier version of yourself is to let go of that expectation and learn what true health looks like for your body!
Seasons change, so does your body
Have you ever thought about how our bodies react to the different seasons? If we look back at history it’s a lot easier to see how that happens.
In the spring, our ancestors would go out and start planting seeds, they were increasing their physical activity and starting to eat fresher food.
In the summer, people worked hard. They were working out in the hot sun and were losing weight from the manual labor.
In the fall, they started eating their harvest. They switched out the fresh fruits and veggies to cooked veggies and soups, and they started to gain a little bit of weight.
In the winter, there wasn’t as much physical activity, but they were eating quite a bit so that they had enough fat to keep themselves warm.
As the seasons change so do our health habits! This process is a part of our human biology! Our bodies naturally want to lean out in the hot summer months when we don’t need extra fat to keep us warm and then it also wants us to pack on some weight to protect itself from the bitterly cold winters.
However, now that we have central heating and air conditioning and we work mostly desk jobs rather than labor-intense jobs, we have gotten out of alignment with those cycles. We expect our bodies to stay at the same weight because we don’t need the fluctuation of our weight for survival anymore.
But, just because we don’t need it for survival doesn’t mean that our bodies are ready to give it up! Our bodies still follow that same rhythm, we just have to learn how to leverage that cycle to live our healthiest lives.
The 4 phases of Macro Tracking
Through macro tracking, I’ve been able to use the body’s natural cycle to live at a healthy weight all year long while enjoying the best life has to offer!
The four phases of macro tracking are reverse, maintenance, surplus and cut. By cycling your body through each phase during the year, you’ll be able to keep your weight from plateauing and you’ll be able to adjust your goals to fit your lifestyle!
Reverse
The reverse-phase is used to take people out of a low-calorie diet back up to sustainable levels. This is where 90% of my clients start! The cool thing about a reverse is that you can lose weight while increasing the amount of food you’re eating.
We do this by revving the metabolism back up! When you eat too little for too long, then your metabolism slows down and stalls out. Most people try to cut more calories when this happens and it wreaks more havoc on the metabolism. So instead of cutting food, we add food to kickstart things again!
You can use a reverse any time of the year, but I typically use it in the fall because I want to start increasing my food for the winter months.
Maintenance
Maintenance is where we maintain our weight, crazy right? Most people want to live in maintenance forever, but as I said before, we can’t actually stay at one exact weight forever. You might fluctuate up or down a pound or two, but to be considered maintenance you should be in a two-pound rage for at least a month.
The amazing thing about the maintenance phase is that you’re going to have plenty of energy to keep up with your life and hit your gym goals! Maintenance should feel good! If you feel exhausted or hungry, then there’s a good chance you haven’t hit your real maintenance calories yet. If you’re gaining weight, then you’re overeating and need to bring your numbers down to hit maintain.
The maintenance phase is usually used after a surplus to bring you back down to a comfortable weight, I like to use it at the beginning of the year, when it’s still cold so that I want some fat on my body but not too much like I do during the holidays.
Surplus
During the surplus, you’ll be eating more calories than you burn. Everyone loves a surplus because it means you get to eat more food! However, during a surplus, you’re intentionally putting on weight. I encourage my clients to use this time to push themselves in the gym. To reach new goals so that they’re building muscle rather than just putting on fat.
I use my surplus to get me through the holiday seasons and the beginning of winter. I do this for two reasons: 1. I know I want to enjoy the holiday foods and I don’t want to feel guilty about it. So I intentionally plan to eat more for those months. 2. As I head into winter I do want a little extra fat on my body to keep me warmer.
Because I know that I’m going to be putting on some weight throughout the winter months, I am sure to be intentional about it so that it’s easier to get it off when I head into the hotter months and want to look leaner.
Cut
During a cut, the goal is to drop weight. You’re going to reduce your food intake just enough so that you have the energy to perform your daily tasks, but you will be in a calorie deficit. Not everyone needs to go through a cut, but if you’re trying to reach a specific weight goal, it’s a helpful way to get you to drop weight.
I have my clients usually cut through the summer months because they want to hit goals like looking good in a swimming suit or feeling comfortable wearing shorts. It’s also easier to cut in the summer because you’re more likely to be moving around a lot more than the other seasons. Adding cardio into your cut is a great way to increase your weight loss.
I start my cut in April and cut a little bit at a time until I hit a deficit. This keeps me from getting hangry! Then I stay at those cut numbers for 6-8 weeks. I also use things like refeeds and maintenance weeks (where I go back up to my maintenance calories for a week) to help keep my sanity and prevent any hormone disruptions that come from being in a cut.
If these four phases make sense to you, but it feels overwhelming to do on your own, then let’s chat! I can guide you through this process in my Macros Made Easy program!
Normalize living in the grey
A lot of people struggle with the idea of purposefully gaining weight throughout the year. We’ve been taught that we should be losing weight and that gaining weight is a mistake or something that happened because we were “bad.” But it’s not.
Health isn’t black and white. It’s not all or nothing. Health is about living in the space between - in the grey.
In last week’s blog, I took you through my journey from overweight to overly lean and how both extremes were equally unhealthy for my body and my mind.
The four phases of macro tracking teach us that there are times and places to overeat or under eat, but that we can’t live in that area forever. These phases give us tools to guide our bodies to healthy eating practices and teach us what healthy feels like instead of what it “looks” like.
The purpose of macro tracking is that it teaches us what a healthy amount of food looks like. But we’re meant to move past macro tracking. We want to get to a point where we can assess our health without a food scale or weight scale!
I use these statements to see if I’m in a healthy place. Then I can determine if I need to reign in my nutrition, exercise, or mindset work or if I’m on a healthy path.
I have the energy to keep up with my day-to-day activities.
I can work out without feeling exhausted.
I have a healthy menstrual cycle and sex drive.
I feel rested after a full night of sleeping (8-10 hours.)
I don’t feel restricted or obsessed with my food.
I enjoy eating, it doesn’t cause me stress.
I’m drinking enough water for my activity levels.
When we prioritize these areas instead of what the scale says we can live a well-balanced healthy life.
It’s a process to learn what your body needs and unfortunately most of us weren’t taught how to do this. That doesn’t mean you’re stuck not feeling well or being overweight or underweight forever! It just means you need a teacher to help you understand it! I would love to help you through this process! Schedule a free discovery call with me today to get started!
Save to Pinterest!