The Secret to Staying in a Caloric Deficit
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Hey sis, do you try to always be in calorie deficit? If yes, do you get mad at yourself for struggling to stay there long-term? To be honest, I get countless messages a day from you ladies asking how the heck to do it because no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to stay there. Trust me, I know how frustrating this feels! But here's the thing: It doesn’t haven’t to be frustrating and in this episode of Embrace Your Real I explain why.
Be sure to check out episode 46 ASAP:
Why You Should Consider a Reverse Diet (The Only Diet I Support!)
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it. Let's go.
Hello, hello and welcome back to another bonus episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. So grateful that you are here spending some time with me today. I have so many ladies reach out to me telling me that they're struggling to stay in a caloric deficit. No matter how hard they're trying, they just can't seem to stay there. I know how frustrating this feels, but guess what? I also know that it doesn't have to be frustrating. In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I'm going to explain why, but before I do, I had to share this review of the day. It comes from Soccer Fanatic. She says just what I needed, the last podcast episode was extremely helpful for me to find ways to get energy without sleeping more. I'm going to try these out. Thank you, Julie.
I am so excited. If you guys haven't listened to that episode, I will go ahead and link it in the show notes, but in episode 146, I am sharing seven ways to gain more energy without needing more sleep, which many of you guys resonated with. Be sure to tune in to that episode. I appreciate you so much. If you haven't already rated and reviewed the podcast, you know the drill. It would mean the absolute world to me. Be sure to go to any podcast app. They're free on every single device. Type in Embrace Your Real. Be sure to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode and if you are on an Apple device, you can type in Embrace Your Real to the Apple podcast app and click that rate and review. It helps us out so much.
Back to the episode, how the heck do you stay in a caloric deficit? Are you ready? What is the secret? Drum roll, please. Okay, here it is. You are actually not meant to live in a caloric deficit. I know that is going to blow so many people's minds, but that is the exact reason why you may be struggling to stay in the caloric deficit is because you're not supposed to be living there for the rest of your life. Being in a severe caloric deficit is typically something that you should cycle in and out of, not something that you should be in permanently.
Number one, living in a caloric deficit can actually cause your metabolism to slow down. Your body will adapt to the low amount of calories that it's getting daily, and so your body will not continue to burn more calories than it's getting daily. If you give your body less calories, eventually your body will burn less calories as well. This is why we typically recommend that you cycle in and out of a caloric deficit. If you haven't heard any of my other podcasts, I talk extensively about caloric deficit, caloric surplus, and maintenance mode. Those are the three phases that I always encourage people to be in at some point. I know for me personally, I've gone through four full reverse diets. I live the majority of my life currently at maintenance mode and then there's some times, typically around challenges, where I will dip into a caloric deficit for about four to six, sometimes eight weeks. Then I will reverse diet back to maintenance mode. Sometimes I will go into caloric surplus, but you are not meant to live in a caloric deficit for the rest of your life.
Number two, living in a severe caloric deficit can actually cause nutrient deficiencies. When you're not giving your body enough food, your body isn't going to get enough nutrients either. Over time, this can actually develop into a nutrient deficiency, which can lead to serious health issues in the future. Number three, living in a severe caloric deficit can actually reduce fertility. When you're seriously under eating for a long period of time, it can cause you to lose your period. I've heard this story more times than I wish to admit, but this is not something to celebrate. Losing your menstrual cycle is not something to celebrate. Typically, when that happens, when you lose your period, you're reducing your chances of fertility. I know so many of you who are following me are young and you likely want to have a family someday, or you want to have more kids. Please do not mess with this. It is so, so important that you are fueling your body for what it needs because reducing fertility is not something to mess with and it can take you years to recover from.
Number four, it messes with your hormones. Seriously, our hormones are sensitive and when we under eat for too long, it can very, very, very much screw up our hormones. Whether you know it or not, hormones actually control us and we don't want them out of whack or else, we will feel out of whack. There are so many other things that living in a severe caloric deficit can do. It can lower immunity. It can cause acne. It can leave you without feeling energetic or really make you lethargic. It can cause you to have your hair fall out, which I personally struggled with this all throughout college because I was under eating so much. My hair was just falling out in clumps. It can make you moody or irritable. It can give you poor mental concentration. It can prevent you ultimately from being your best self.
All of those things, you might be like, oh my gosh, I'm so scared to be in a caloric deficit. I did not want to do this podcast to make you scared of a caloric deficit because a caloric deficit in it of itself is not a bad thing. It's something that so many people can go into. They can see results. It can not negatively impact their health. In fact, if you are needing to lose weight or you're wanting to feel your best, sometimes being in a caloric deficit can really help you out with that. It's when you live in this severe caloric deficit for a long period of time, that is not its main purpose. Its main purpose is meant to cycle in and out of.
Like I said before, typically people will come to us and if they've been eating a decent amount of food and they've just not paid attention to that, and they're eating more than what their body needs, we recommend that they go into a clerk deficit for... It depends on how slow or fast you go through the sets of macros that we give you, but anywhere from 8 to 16, sometimes even 20 weeks being in a caloric deficit, slowly getting to that 25% caloric deficit. In some cases, people can go up to 30, 32% caloric deficit, but once you hit there, likely your body is going to need to reverse diet, which is why we always recommend a reverse diet after a caloric deficit phase because then you are able to slowly and incrementally increase your food intake while minimizing body fat gain. You're able to increase your caloric intake and slowly work your way back to maintenance mode, which is another phase that we encourage people to stay in for a bit or even go into the caloric surplus, which is your muscle building phase.
There is the caloric surplus phase. There's the maintenance phase. There is the caloric deficit phase and the way that you get from a caloric deficit to maintenance into surplus is through a reverse dieting. I hope that wasn't confusing. I promise you it's not as hard as it might sound, but please just remember that it is so important that you just educate yourself more on these phases, especially through reverse dieting, which is an episode that so many people have found helpful. It's episode 46, why you should consider a reverse diet. The only diet I support. In this episode, I really break down what the reverse diet is, who it's for and how it can help you. I will go ahead and link that in the show notes. Be sure to tune in there. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that you found this episode helpful. I love you guys so much. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the Gram, be sure to do so, Julie A. Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart and check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface, so go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.