The metabolic effect.

What is metabolism?

Metabolism is the chemical reactions in the body that change food into energy.

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Metabolism laws.

These are compensation, multitasking, efficiency rate & individuality.

To break it down… Dieting can slow down metabolic output by compensation with a loss of muscle mass & can change the leptin thyroid output as well as decreasing the fat burning ability at rest. These are all long term negative impacts.

The body functions in anabolic & catabolic cycles. (Anabolic) Building muscle (catabolic) breaking it down.

To achieve an anabolic state, carbs are a major stimulator of the hormone insulin (as is protein). Without these in your diet, you cannot build muscle and your body will enter the catabolic phase of breaking down any lean muscle that you already have.

Therefore, by doing these diets you may weigh less on the scales but at a detrimental cost.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some diets that have great effects, wether they be keto, intermittent fasting or carb cycling, and do work well for some but terrible for others.

It’s all about the goldie locks effect (finding what is right specifically to you.)

The metabolism is like a see-saw and its primary function is to bring the body back to homeostasis. If you tip it in one direction of deprivation it will counter-act and work against you in the other.

The key to a having an effective metabolism is by achieving balance.

Its no secret, we are all completely different and this is why we need to assess hormones, genetics, thyroid function & gut health to determine the best plan of action.

The most important part is also understanding, for your body to have optimal function, your emotional & mental wellbeing needs to be in balance, which is why when training we treat the body as an integrated system and address all functions and possible inhibiting pathways.

Fun fact: The limbic system (the emotional part of the central nervous system) has the ability to manipulate hormones & override the entire system of the body.

Which is why rest, recovery, nature walks, meditation, massage therapy (activities that reduce stress & make you feel good) are all part of a very important checklist to achieve balance & optimal function.

DIET PROS & CONS

KETO

Ketogenic diets take carbohydrate levels extremely low, so that the body is forced to make ketones from your amino acids to burn fat as fuel as this diet is high in fats.

Pro: Fats are very important for proper brain function.

Con: Its difficult to sustain & you don’t get all the nutrients, vitamins & fibres that your body essentially needs, so this will eventually lead to a disfunction somewhere else in the body.

In addition, when you do revert back to having some carbohydrates it will spike your blood sugar resulting in weight gain.

Personal opionion: Not a fan.

FASTING

Intermittent fasting means to not eat for 12 or more hours. There are a few approaches, the 16:8 & 12:12.

16:8 Eat dinner around 6pm and then have breakfast at 10 am. This is done on a rest day where you are not likely to be using much energy between wake up and 10 am.

12:12 Eat dinner at 6pm and then nothing until breakfast at 6am. This is more ideal if you are training from 7am onwards as your body will need the calorie intake for fuel towards your workout.

Pros: It aids to a natural fasting rhythm that occurs when we sleep & gives your body time to process nutrients. It cuts out the unnecessary snacking to help sustain a calorie deficit which results in weight loss. In addition it helps with inflammation, heart health, insulin sensitivity, brain function & cholesterol levels.

Cons: For some it can increase hunger and cravings, so you end up gaining weight.

Personal opionion: I like this, it’s a more natural approach to the body, as long as you use the right time frame of fasting so it doesn’t inhibit your training.

CARB CYCLING

Carb cycling alternates the amounts of carbs you consume each day based on your level of activity. The days you have a large amount of carbs are the days you are training in the gym. The lazy sundays or rest based days in the week are the days you consume less carbs.

Pros: If you have been on a low carb diet, your metabolism will have been effected by this, so carb cycling is good way to reintroduce a higher amount of carbs on training days to help get your body functioning properly again. Fact: Some people do better with less carbs than others.

Con: Deprivation of any amount of food source deprives you of vital vitamins & nutrients.

Personal opinion: It can be a usual transitional tool but is still a restricted diet none the less and you need to plan out your training specifically to match your carb days.

The best long term plan of action for weight management & metabolism function is to eat a balanced diet of fats, proteins & carbs in quantities that suit YOUR particular body type & training stimulus.

WHAT STRESS DOES TO YOUR BODY.

Ever wondered, why on earth, no matter what you do, you cannot shift that mid-section belly fat? Or you experience mood, anxiety, depression, sleep or libido issues?

Welcome to the adrenal glands, the cause and effect of so much more than we realise.

Here is a simple explanation to help you understand what exactly is going on and if this is the root cause of your issues?

To break it down…

Stress puts the body into a fight or flight mode, this is known as the epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine reaction. Now firstly, you need to understand that stress comes in many forms, not just mental, these include dieting, exercise, temperature, illness, sleep deprivation & toxicity!

It all starts in the hypothalamus & pituitary gland, (this is the commanding control centre for your hormones and metabolism.) These hormones get released and are filtered through the blood to the organs.

In these organs, conversion happens, (some of the proteins become free and some are binded) The free are active & are good for metabolism and the binded are not good as they suppress fat burning & metabolism.

The amount of good ones to bad ones depends on …you guessed it, stress levels.

The metabolism is like a thermostat and the release of these hormones defines how effectively it functions.

Under stress the body requires cortisol to balance it out, (this is the primary stress hormone that increases sugar into the blood stream & breaks tissue down.)

Cortisol triggers the sympathetic nervous system to release catecholamines, this is a substance that gets released into the blood in response to physical & emotional stress putting the body into a fight or flight mode.

Then lets say, on top of that, you have a sleepless night or an intense workout on a empty stomach, now in conjunction with more cortisol DHEA gets released, this is a hormone that raises oestrogen & testosterone fairly & builds tissue up.

So to recap, we currently have a lot of cortisol released, the body is running off adrenaline in a fight or flight response and is trying to balance out oestrogen and testosterone levels…

Now imagine you’ve had a rough day and you’ve got some emotional stress on top of that. Now as chronic stress requires even more cortisol, DHEA can’t keep up and you end up with low oestrogen & testosterone levels, which in return can leave you with an adrenal disfunction leaving you feeling wired & tired and thyroid issues making it difficult to lose weight. This can also effect Immune regulation, metabolism, detox capacity, bone density, muscular skeletal heath and overall endocrine function.

As you can see, what happens to the body through stress can be the cause and effect of so much more which is why managing stress contributors is crucial to getting the best performance from your body.

This is why we need to understand that the body is a integrated system working from a cellular level out. So, now lets look at the possibility that your adrenals are effected & what to do…

Could your adrenals be effected?

To help you see if you may be suffering from either of these imbalances which could be inhibiting your weight loss goals or be a key component to any depression, anxiety, fatigue, mood or libido you may be experiencing,

Check out these symptoms…

If you find that you relate to these symptoms, then I encourage you to get your bloods tested at the link below so you can get a detailed indication of what exactly is going on internally and how to best rectify it towards obtaining a metabolism that will work for you rather than against.

Some tests in particular I would look into are; Aldosterone, cortisol, DHEA, catecholamines, testosterone, oestrogen, thyroglobulin, TSH (this is a thyroid stimulating hormone that measures the amount of T4 that the thyroid is signalled to make.)

ACTH stimulation test (for adrenal insufficiency.)