Calorie Deficits and Plateau

If you walk into any newsagent and cast your eye over the female ‘weekly’ magazines, you will find at least 2 with headlines stating how you can drop a dress size in 14 days or loose a stone in 30 days. The reality is that this is a quick fix, and anything you did loose during that period, you will likely put back on just as quickly as you lost it.    In order for this type of weight loss to occur it involves a horrendous calorie deficit.

Very few people choose to take the healthy approach to weight loss, by evaluating their current diet and making small simple changes, most are after ‘quick fixes’ and to implement change over the shortest period of time possible. 

Those people who choose to go on horrific calorie deficits certainly do pay the price long term.  I have seen a number of people develop sensitivity to particular food groups, their health has suffered and worse still their results plateau leaving them confused on what to do next.  Another factor is obtaining meal plans from people who are not qualified, or perhaps follow one protocol.  At Nemesis we follow a number of different protocols because we understand that one type does not fit all.

In August a lady who had been on a very low calorie diet, which also contained ‘fasting’ for a certain amount of hours during the day, approached me.  There is no denying that at the start her weight reduced and she was seeing results, but as she continued change slowed down.   She started to notice changes in her health, she was tired all the time, crashing at certain periods of the day, lacking energy in her workouts, noticeable changes in strength and feeling miserable. 

I did not realise the extent of the issue until we had our consultation, where I realised that this was not going to be easy.  My client had potentially developed sensitivity to particular food groups due to her diet being very limited.  She was burning around 600 calories in the gym, but was only consuming between 500-600 calories per day.  She had a job, which was mentally challenging and was relatively active and her metabolism was non-existent.

The first step was to start increasing her calories.  She was already in a huge deficit of her BMR and increasing the calories to this straight away was too much of a risk.  Instead I increased them by 300 per day, and gave her a set diet plan.  We sat down and went through the diet plan and why certain food sources were chosen and why. 

I made it very clear that this client needed to concentrate on reducing her food sensitivity and speeding up her metabolism, and weight / fat loss is not on the cards for at least 3 months.  I must admit I was very sceptical if she would trust the process, especially since her goal was to loose weight.

Within 14 days my client had moved from a set meal plan to making her own food choices – something she had never done before, as the previous plan she was on was a set menu.  Within a fortnight we ended up having to increase her calories more than we originally forecasted because she was loosing weight and body measurements at every weekly check in.  Her metabolism was slowly speeding up.  She continued to introduced new or more of food sources she had been originally been denied, and the results stayed constant. 

After 12 weeks, she is still 300 calories short of her maintenance on her current statistics, and is about to embark phase 2 with Nemesis.  We will still be increasing her calories until plateau with statistics occur.

To give you some perspective of her fantastic results.

	Weight	Chest	Hips	Waist	Arms	Thighs	KCALS
Week 1	195	100	108	99	36	63	1580
Week 13	182.3	85	94	75	36	56	2235

I am bowled over with what this client has achieved during the 12 weeks.  She trusted the process and advice given, followed it 100% and it was a huge relief for both of that there was no long-term damage.

Every time I see her in the gym I notice huge changes not just in her body composition but her confidence, skin and wellbeing and she is constantly telling me how much energy she has and how she is performing better in the gym and feels happier.

In order for weight loss to occur you do have to be in a deficit, but there is a line, which you don’t cross and that is starvation.  Decrease your calories slowly and sensibly to prevent your metabolism slowing down otherwise you will head straight for the brick wall.