How to Fix a Slow Metabolism After Years of Dieting

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For those of you that yo-yo diet or keep your body in a restrictive state for long periods of time, and you're under-eating and then you're overworking with your workouts, this podcast is for you.

Do you ever wonder why your metabolism seems so slow? Are you tired of yo-yo dieting, losing the same 5 to 10 pounds, and just not getting the results that you want? This one might sound super familiar to you all, but I'm bringing it back because it was a hot request. So inside this episode today, we're going to talk about retraining your metabolism, what that's all about, how to do it and why you need to do it. And we're diving into effective strategies that will help make your metabolism work for you and not against you anymore.

And then migrating those concepts into optimizing your workouts. So one thing you'll be able to gain from listening to this entire podcast is most likely the reason why you probably aren't getting the results that you want, and narrowing it down to this specific concept that you actually need to be implementing into your fitness journey when it comes to eating right and getting your metabolism, like I said earlier, to work with you instead of against you.

Because your metabolism is a big driving factor in you getting results. And if you guys are anything like the women that I've coached inside the WarriorBabe program, there's one in particular. Her name is Cheryl Beaver. You've probably heard me talk about her many, many times. She came into the program after doing a bunch of different things like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, and just not getting the results she wanted with being more toned, building more muscle, and losing some body fat. So the one thing I did with her is put her through the process of retraining her metabolism, which is what I'm going to go through in depth in this podcast.

And about two years later, she was eating like 3,500 calories, close to 4,000 calories, building more muscle, and at the same time becoming a lean machine with her body composition. So all in all, if you are struggling with your metabolism, if you are struggling with getting the results that you want, and you feel like you can't eat any less, and you want to understand how to eat more to get you to where you want to be with being more toned, building more muscle, and being more lean and defined, then listen to this episode.

Retraining someone's metabolism is so uniquely individualized. So when I get into talking about what I like to call ART, awareness, retraining, and transformation, which is what encompasses a retrain process, when it gets down to those tactics, I'm not going to be able to speak 100% to them, because I don't want to be dishing out numbers and you guys go and apply them and it's actually not the right thing for your own individual body, lifestyle, all of these things.

Okay, but mainly, if you yo-yo diet, if you're a restrictive person, you've been in a restrictive state, you're under-eating, even if you don't know how much you're eating, and I'm going to talk about that when I get to the A of the retraining process. If you're overworking and you're not getting the results that you want, listen up. I'm going to explain the process of a retrain. I'm going to say why we do this, what you can expect, and all the normal things that you could see or experience during a retraining of your metabolism.

Because if you're somebody that is in that state I just talked about, and you want results of building muscle and decreasing body fat, this is something you need to do first, getting your metabolism back up to speed, because your metabolism has probably stopped. If your hunger cues are not there, and I'm going to talk about all that stuff, because if you're not hungry, that's a sign of an unhealthy metabolism. And so if you want to cut weight, or if you want to build muscle, you have to fix this first before you go into any type of cut, before putting your workouts where they need to be, all that stuff.

So this is what you need to do first. And to make it a little more individualized, I want to say that we do this inside of our WarriorBabe programs. We coach women through this entire process. So if this is you and you need that, the links to our programs are beneath this podcast in the description.

But anyway, let's get to it. As I said, a lot of times, if you are a yo-yo dieter, or you keep your body in a restrictive state for long periods of time, or you're under-eating and then you're overworking, right? You're under-eating, but then you're going and crushing it in the gym five, six, seven days a week, you're doing a shit ton of cardio.

So your hormones can have a huge impact. And those are the hormones that keep your body performing and giving you the results you want. This is the thing, you guys: so many people just follow a diet and do a workout program. But it's like, dude, if your hormones are not right, you need to get them right so they work with you instead of against you. It's not just the outside parts, you guys.

There are so many things going on inside that, in order to achieve the ultimate goal of having more muscle and seeing a lean, aesthetically pleasing body that you love and feel confident in, you have to work on getting the inside right. The inside of your body, okay? It's not just, I'm going to follow this diet and do this workout program. If you've been in this restrictive state for so long and you're not getting the results you want, this is what's happening. Your hormones are likely off track.

And it's not that you have to go do something, maybe if you're older you need some hormone replacement therapy. But it's like, dude, if you just fix this one thing of getting your nutrition right and retraining your metabolism and putting in the time and the work, because this is a process. Some of you guys have been in this restrictive state for too long. I'll tell you right now, it could take nine weeks to do this. It could take less than that. But you can do this so naturally rather than having to go and take medicine to fix your hormones.

Okay, so let's continue. I'm very passionate about this topic, you guys, because I want everyone to know there's a natural way of doing all of this. And also, you have to get your internal cellular processes and hormonal processes in alignment with what you want to go do and achieve. All right. So I want to touch on some of the major hormones that have a major impact if you are in that state of restrictive yo-yo dieting, under-eating, overworking, all this stuff.

The main two are your hunger hormones, leptin and ghrelin. Leptin, think of it as the master control switch. When you're in that state, and I'm always going to go back to that state until I can make it super clear why it needs to be fixed, leptin declines. And when it declines, fat cells shrink, your hypothalamus freaks out, and it demands more food.

And at this point, the body is signaled to lower, aka slow down, your metabolism. You guys have probably heard that before in the fitness space or from other people you follow. This is what's happening scientifically with your body. Your body is signaled to lower your metabolic rate, meaning you're burning fewer calories throughout the day. Just doing your normal sitting, your normal breathing, your normal laying, your heart beating, your BMR gets lowered.

And then the opposite is ghrelin. Ghrelin wants you to eat. Ghrelin wants you to just keep going. You never feel full and it increases your hunger. So these two things are completely out of whack. And if you think about it a little more, as I just explained, leptin turns things down and ghrelin turns things up. So when you're burning fewer calories yet eating more food, what do you think is going to get packed on that you don't want packed on?

Unwanted body fat and weight. Right. Okay. So now you're in this state I talked about. I already said that if you're in this state, you most likely have an unhealthy metabolism. And why you have an unhealthy metabolism is because you're no longer getting hunger cues. It is so important for your body to still get hunger cues.

That is a sign of a healthy metabolism. And this is also where I want to bash people over the head with a book who say, I don't want to feel hungry when I'm going into a cut or decreasing my calories. Dude, feeling hungry is a sign of a healthy, strong metabolism. And when you don't get those hunger cues, it means something is off. So you're in this state, you're experiencing all of this under-eating and overworking.

You're not getting these hunger cues. Something is off. For example, if you're eating 1,200 calories, you're 5'7", you're 150 pounds, and you're not hungry, something is off. 1,200 calories is way too freaking low.

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Let me also plug this in here. In order to achieve all of the things you want with a cut, cutting your calories down, if you don't have this fixed, you're not going to get the results.

I'll use examples from WarriorBabe. Some people come in and they want to go right into losing fat. But their metabolism is wonky. Their metabolism is whacked out because of all the things they've done and tried before. So we're like, you have to go through a retrain. You have to get your metabolism to work with you, not against you, so you can do a cut properly. A lot of people don't like to hear that. A lot of people hate that, because we're in this instant gratification world of putting our body into a microwave and 30 seconds later out pop the results you want.

But listen, I really want to drill this one home: if you can fix this, and you can, all of your future cuts, reverses, maintenance, building muscle, dude, that's going to be such an easy trajectory, such an easy result to get once this is fixed, once your metabolism is working, okay?

Here's another example. I just used the 1,200 calorie one, but let's say you go through this process and you get back up to your maintenance level, which is something I'll talk about when I talk about ART, A-R-T, of retraining your metabolism. You get up to maintenance calories, and then you want to go into a cut. Let's say you were at 2,000 calories, which is maintenance, you sat there for a little bit, and then you bring it down to 1,500 calories.

We should expect at this point to see your hunger cues ramp up. But sometimes you didn't allow the process of healing your metabolism to go long enough, like I mentioned, possibly nine weeks or even longer, depending on how damaged your metabolism is. If you don't allow that time to be done right, then you'll cut the calories down and you won't experience hunger cues. And if that's the case, you need to bring that food back up.

And this is something people don't like or want to hear either. But you need to have those hunger cues happening, and experience them, before you can go and slash your calories down to do a cut, okay? So those are some of the things that happen here. You've got leptin and ghrelin all whacked out. There are also other areas of your body that get affected in this process. Your thyroid, your testosterone, your progesterone, your estrogen, your cortisol, all of those things get impacted when you're under-eating for an extended period of time.

Your thyroid, which stimulates your BMR, is slowed down. Its output is slowed down in order to save energy. We don't want thyroid levels to drop to an unhealthy amount. And this is where people experience thyroid problems, because they under-ate for way too long. So these are things that are so important to get fixed. And you can naturally fix it by eating the right amount of food. Usually it's a little more food than what you've been eating to date as an under-eater or someone who's been in a yo-yo restrictive diet state for too long.

Your testosterone decreases. This is crucial for us women in terms of building muscle and going through a maintenance. Progesterone levels fluctuate. Increase in hunger. Decrease in strength. Muscle maintenance. All of these things get impacted. Your estrogen levels drop. Cortisol increases. So these things, on top of your ghrelin and leptin being impacted, are the reasons why you're not getting the results you want, even though you're eating 1,200 calories a day.

Okay. I just want that to be a holy shit, light bulb moment. I'm eating 1,200 calories a day. Or if you don't know what you're eating, you're going to know in a couple of minutes, because I'm going to share tactics with you on how to find that. But if you're eating 1,200 calories and you're overworking, all of this stuff inside is off kilter.

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So you have to get it working with you. And how you do that is by eating the right amount of food to support all of these hormonal things going on inside of you. We have to reestablish these things to a healthy level by increasing your food amounts, if you want everything to function properly.

And you do that by increasing the amount of food you're eating on a daily basis. If you want to expect everything to function properly, if you want to build muscle and decrease body fat efficiently, you have to reestablish these things to a healthy level. And when you start eating the right amount, I'm going to show you how we do it inside of WarriorBabe. We do ART. It's an art to retraining your metabolism. And by the sound of everything I'm sharing with you guys, it truly is an art. It's an individual art for everybody.

But just so you know, if you try to do this, the signs that you're progressing aren't just measured via the scale. You could gain a little body fat or weight while you're doing this, or you may even drop more. It doesn't fucking matter. And I curse because I have so much passion behind what I'm sharing with you. All that matters is that everything internally is right. Okay?

So some of the positive things outside of the scale that will tell you it's happening are things like this. Spending more time asleep throughout the night. If you're somebody who tosses and turns, something is off internally, and step one of figuring that out could be doing all the things I'm talking about today. So you'd be spending more time asleep throughout the night. Your mood improves. Your strength increases. Your food thoughts decrease. Your daily activity increases.

Your hunger cues come back. And all of these other things are restored. Your estrogen levels are restored. Inflammation is reduced. There are so many things you'll experience outside of just the scale. And these positive things are so much more important to pay attention to, because everything inside is starting to work with you and not against you anymore. You're going to see it in your mood, in your strength, in your sleep, in your thought processes.

So much removed from just a number on the scale, you guys. So those are some reasons why retraining your metabolism is really important, some of the things you may be experiencing right now, and what you can expect if you do this retraining process the right way.

Now I want to get into more tactical things you can apply for yourself if you're in this state and you need it fixed. The first step in ART that we use inside of our WarriorBabe programs is awareness.

A for awareness. Some of you may have no idea how much food you're eating or whether you really are in this restrictive state, or with the diet plans you've been doing, yo-yoing back and forth. I'm bringing conscious awareness to you that this is probably where you're at. And especially if you're experiencing all of these things and you're not getting the results you want, you need to do this first step, becoming aware of how much you are actually eating. So what we recommend our babes do is download MyFitnessPal and for one whole week, track the foods you are eating.

It can even be rough. Just so you're bringing awareness to how much you are truly consuming on a daily basis. And by the end of the week, after seven days, it will be so eye-opening for you, especially if you don't know exactly how much you're eating. By the end of the week, you can look at your total average calories consumed, and it could be anywhere from 1,100 calories, maybe 1,300 calories, maybe 2,200 calories.

So do this for seven days, you guys. Hold yourself accountable to track your foods for seven days. This is the first step you need to take, becoming aware of how much you're eating, so you know how to transition into retraining your metabolism.

Okay, the next step is retraining. As I mentioned earlier, it's really hard to get into individual tactics here because I'm speaking one to many right now, and all of you are so different. So if you need help with this, the links to our programs are below this podcast. I would highly recommend it. This could be something that sets you up for future success in so many ways. And why not get it down right? Fix everything internally so you can get the results you want.

The second step is retraining. After you've completed seven days of tracking in MyFitnessPal, you can start this next step, the retraining plan. Wherever you're at at the end of those seven days, let's say you're at 1,200 calories, we're going to slowly bring your calories and macros up to your maintenance level. And there's a step-by-step process we follow with our WarriorBabes inside the program. There's literally step one, step two, calculator, calculator, calculator.

But broadly speaking, say someone's at 1,200 calories. We bring them up 150 to 200 calories more than that, so around 1,350 or 1,400 calories. And they stay there for a week or two. We allow the body to adjust. They have to be consistent with it, because it's really important that we're assessing everything going on. Are you experiencing hunger cues yet? Are you feeling hungry? How are your measurements? Are we doing it too fast? Do we need to slow down?

There are so many individual things to hone in on in this part. And as I said earlier, this could be nine weeks that you're doing this. But it's so important to put that time in to retrain your metabolism the right way. The ultimate goal is to get your metabolism up to maintenance calories and macros. And then what we recommend our babes do is at least maintain that, because we want to say, okay, you're here eating a higher caloric intake and macros.

We want to maintain that for four weeks and assess how your body is feeling. Are we getting those hunger cues back? How are you sleeping? How are all the other things being impacted? And you're free from the signals you may have experienced being at a low, restrictive caloric intake for that long period of time. As I mentioned, this timeframe can take one or two months of doing it the right way. But it will repair the years of damage you've done to your metabolism. And it is time so well spent, and time saved, as you aim for your goals.

Like I said, if you get this down right, you can do future fat loss phases, future maintenance phases, future muscle building. You can do all of this right and get the results you want without bashing your head against the wall asking, why am I doing all the work but not seeing the results? It's probably because some things are internally off. They need to be realigned, and this is the way you realign them. So I talked about that process very broadly. Again, it's just so individualized. Then the third step is transformation.

So you've worked your way up to maintenance calories. You've worked your way up to the macro intake of your maintenance calories, and you're consistently retraining your metabolism on a daily and weekly basis. You're experiencing those hunger cues. Everything is working in alignment. Your mood is up. Your strength is there. Your thoughts of food are decreasing. And this is where you maintain those numbers. This is the third step, transformation. You maintain those maintenance numbers for at least four weeks.

And everyone's different. You don't have to be there for four weeks. It could be three weeks. It could be two weeks. As long as we're getting some signals back, that's the most important thing. The goal of the transformation phase is that once you reach this step and you've successfully retrained your metabolism, it's time to determine next steps, like going into a cut. And like I mentioned earlier, that means reducing your calories back down while maintaining those hunger cues and keeping your metabolism healthy, revving, and on fire so you're burning body fat at the same time.

So that's a very broad explanation of ART: awareness, retraining, and transformation. These are the things we do inside of WarriorBabe. But if you understood that, and you know you're in that restrictive state, you've been yo-yo dieting, under-eating and overworking, you can totally apply it and try to do it yourself. But I would highly encourage you to have a professional or coach helping you through this process, so you're not getting in your own way.

You're not getting stuck. You're not wondering what if, because I'll tell you the things I've seen women experience. What we recommend in step two, retraining, is that you sit at these numbers for a week, and then you increase again. Then you sit there for a week and increase again. You sit there for a week and increase again. You have to do it consistently. So having a coach hold you accountable to this is so freaking important. Because women will go a week, hit three out of seven days, and then want to increase their macros.

And we're like, what? Hold up. No. Because then everything may happen too fast. Weight gain may happen, other things may start occurring. So you want to pump the brakes and just do this right. Or some people say, I'm gaining two pounds, three pounds. Those are things you can expect, but it's not all necessarily body fat. It's not all pounds being packed onto your body. It's other things that are just getting right internally.

And the scale isn't just body fat, or just weight being packed on. People can get in their head if they see the scale going the opposite direction of what they wanted. So I highly recommend having a professional walk you through this process, someone who understands it, has done it with tons of clients, and knows what to expect. They know how to coach you through it and let you know what to expect, and they're there to say, dude, it's okay, these are the things you're going to experience going through this process.

But overall, I loved sharing this information with you guys. I love talking about this because it's so important to fix. Again, it's not just the diet and the workouts that people want to do. The majority of women are in a restrictive state for a long period of time, and they're wondering why they're not getting the results they want. It's because internally, all of these things are off. Internally, they need to be turned back on and worked with, instead of you slamming your body into these overworked, stressful states. Instead of doing that, you need to do this.

I hope you found this super valuable and super helpful. This encompasses everything about retraining your metabolism. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you in the next one.

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