Sandy has been on some form of diet for what seems like her whole life. They called her “big boned” in her youth, but it was just a kinder way of saying overweight. As she entered her teen and adult years, Sandy became both a chronic dieter and a yo-yo dieter – both unsuccessfully. The more she cut her calories or carbs, the more her body refused to drop a size – or reflect the waistline she wanted.

Across four states, Danielle is working toward her dream figure, too. She wants to achieve it with exercise – always looking to improve muscle tone and stay lean. You’ll catch her at the gym 2-3 hours per day engaged in long-duration cardio sessions, high-intensity interval training, and power weight lifting. What you won’t see Danielle doing is breaking for lunch or eating a protein bar. This over-exerciser is eating all wrong and wonders why her body never seems to change.

So, why aren’t these ladies seeing results from their clearly proactive efforts? A low-calorie diet and vigorous exercise help you lose weight, right? Not necessarily. Enter metabolic adaptation.

What Happens When Metabolism Adapts?

Source: Ryan McGuire, via Gratisography

Sandy’s mantra of “eat less, weigh less” isn’t working for her because she’s in starvation mode. And the same goes for Danielle and her “eat less, exercise more” regime. Sure, they may have lost a little (or even a lot of) fat, but their bodies cannot sustain this for too long. If you have a calorie deficit and/or are over-exercising, your metabolism has adapted so well that you’re no longer able to lose fat.

When weight loss slows down, people like Sandy and Danielle eat less and/or push harder in their exercise routines, forcing metabolism to slow…exponentially. Our bodies are constantly working to maintain homeostasis, which means rapid increases and decreases in consumed calories can cause issues. When we restrict our calories, our metabolism attempts to close the gap by decreasing our metabolic rate with leptin, the metabolism-regulating hormone. When leptin is high, metabolism is high; when it’s low, our metabolism rate plummets. This explains why a diet may work well for a month or so, and then less so as our bodies work toward homeostasis.

The impact of under-eating and over-exercising:

• Metabolism-regulating hormones begin to down-regulate
• Thyroid and leptin decrease to create homeostasis in the body
• Muscle tissue starts to break down as it becomes an energy source
• Metabolism slows
• Reduction of calories burned in a day
• Can cause weight gain

Stress is a Culprit

The human body is amazing at adapting under stress, and when you’re an under-eater and/or over-exerciser, that’s bad news. In order to respond to a threatening situation, a stress response mobilizes the body’s energy stores, effectively shutting down your fat-burning ability and muscle gains. It’s been seen in the scientific study of rats, in which chronic, stress-linked weight gain occurs despite less food intake, suggesting that metabolic adaptations occur during stress, increasing caloric efficiency.

Other fascinating research comes from Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford neuroscientist, who has been trying to understand why humans and their primate cousins get more stress-related diseases than any other member of the animal kingdom. Each year, he and his team follow troops of Kenyan baboons, gathering behavioral and physiological data on individual members, including blood samples, tissue biopsies, and electrocardiograms. His research finds that stress hormones are “brilliantly adapted” to help us mobilize energy, increase blood pressure, and turn off everything that’s not essential to surviving, such as digestion, growth, and reproduction. Thus, the metabolic adaptation and the ensuing stress response have created Sandy and Danielle’s situation.

How to Fix a Slow Metabolism and Prevent Metabolic Damage

Sandy and Danielle aren’t alone in the weight-loss, muscle-gain struggle. And like them, if you don’t take a stark look at your nutrition and exercise habits, and take the appropriate action, metabolic adaptation can turn into metabolic damage. This is a much more serious hormonal disorder involving the nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system.

The good news? Metabolic damage is preventable! If you suspect you might be struggling with the effects of metabolic adaptation, there are real tests, clear answers, and concrete solutions to get you back on track. And at Twin Cities Metabolism, we can produce these for you – quickly. If you’d like to fix your metabolism with hormone and metabolism testing, contact our metabolism doctor today to learn more at 651-636-0055.

Stay tuned to learn more about Metabolic Damage in our next blog.