Brad’s Recovery from Not Exercising And Not Fasting For 7 Weeks: Part 2

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 3.

Your win for today has to be your list; workout and calorie totals. You must base it on faith.

Brad’s recovery from not exercising and not fasting for 7 weeks

For the entire experiment Brad’s overall weight did not change.  During the first half of the experiment he lost muscle and gained fat.  This was not fun for him. Well, eating and relaxing was fun of course – gaining fat and losing muscle was not fun!

Rest assured, when you have built muscle and take a break from exercise your muscle will inflate back fairly quickly once you get back into your routine.

Diet

Losing the fat is a bit harder and yet harder still for females as our leptin levels tend to decrease when we go into a calorie deficit over time.

For Brad the first one or two fasts were hard. He had to break the ritual habits of relaxing and eating snacks in the evenings. Even though he was eating at maintenance he had quickly developed fun ritual habits with relaxing and eating.

After pushing through the initial couple of weeks he got into his healthy Reverse Taper Diet.  The first two weeks were hard.  Then six weeks in Brad was in a pretty good groove.

Training

He tapered up in workout time and volume, eased his way up in volume.  Again the first two weeks were hard but then six weeks in he was in a pretty good groove.

It is a delayed reaction.

Especially with a calorie deficit it is a delayed reaction.  There is no immediate feedback. There is no immediate gratification.  You have to go on faith; that what you do right now will have an effect next week, or in two or three weeks.

While you are slimming down it’s a difficult mind set.  You are eating and training for results to be seen a few days or week later.

Your win for today has to be your list; workout and calorie totals.  You must base it on faith.

I have found this to be true for myself

As a female I’ve found what Brad describes here to be the exact same experience for me on a slightly slower scale.  Most females will find it’s just a bit slower and harder due to hormone levels.  But it is certainly not impossible.

As we get more experienced with our maintenance weight and various weight fluctuations we learn more and more to trust the process.  We learn how much food we actually need to maintain (not gain or lose fat).  We learn what a slight calorie deficit feels like and we learn what too much food feels like.

Just like Brad there are times when we feel like we want to panic because it seems like its not working.  But it will work, it is a delayed reaction.  I have found the delay to happen for me both when I’m eating up (on vacation), and also when I’m eating at a slight deficit.

The hardest part for me is the first week back from a vacation.  The next week is easier.  And then each week gets easier and the momentum builds as slow progress is made.  I just have to take a deep breath and trust the process.  I have to take short “eat up to maintenance calorie” breaks, make assessments on progress, and then decide to keep going or not depending on my goals.

Another difficult part as a female is that there are certain seasons in our lives where we might have to take a more prolonged period of maintenance eating.  Whether we like it or not eating at a calorie deficit may be nearly impossible, let alone preventing yourself from eating too much.

Sometimes it’s just the stress of life circumstances, sometimes it’s health issues, and sometimes it’s just whatever our hormones are doing for our season in life or specific hormone cycles.

We tend to push our deficits too hard and for too long and don’t fully understand what is going on with our hormones.  Venus has a deficit/maintenance protocol in the 12 week fat loss program that helps prevent crashing.

During these times we must take it as a win that we don’t over eat, and then later when it feels right to tackle the deficit try again.  Not gaining weight can be a huge win.  We have to be patient.

-Ro

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