This morning I was woken up by a strange text message from my trainer. She proceeded to tell me, very forcefully “we need to immediately raise your calories and give you a refeed…I want you to eat whatever today-no joke.” My immediate thought was that the day has finally come when I need to talk her off the edge.
We have discussed this topic in depth on multiple occasions, as my progress has continued to slow over time. My body fat is substantially lower than it was when I began 6 months ago. Of course this is what I was wanting, but I am still far from where I want to be. The less fat one has to lose, the more difficult it becomes. But, this sort of thing is very normal and expected as fat loss is not a linear process as most would expect. Rather the journey to your ultimate goal can be made up of very high highs and very low lows, depending on the path you choose to get there. Think of it as a heartbeat.
You take yourself as far as you possibly can, and when your body says “I need a break”, you give it a recharge. Once your fuel tank is full again, you start over getting even farther than before.
The key to this “recharge” period, called maintenance, is staying where you are weight, measurements, aesthetically, i.e. maintenance, while upping your food intake. I always have an adverse reaction to this discussion….more food…again going back to the idea that I am different. I am that exception to the rule. This wont work on me the way it is supposed to, and I will end up gaining my 10 lbs back and ballooning into an unrecognizable person.
Not to mention, guess what, IT’S SUMMER TIME!!!! The time of year I have been working SOOOOO hard towards. I have hardly been to the pool once, and all of a sudden I am supposed to start eating my weight in carbs?? My conclusion is always this, lets just wait. Let’s not make any drastic decisions. Let’s stay the course, do the best I can and after summer revisit this idea. I am ok with my progress slowing or stalling, I am just not ok with my progress going backwards.
Now, I know this will benefit me. This is just another step in the process and it was inevitably coming. This will get me to my dream body. I will not balloon. I will get through. I may even lose more fat doing this. This will jolt my metabolism, give me more energy, get me burning more calories. And I get to eaaaaaaaaaaaaaat, my favorite thing in the world to do!! These are all things I am repeatedly telling myself as I type this. Got Leptin? No, I don’t but I soon will.
Let’s just say I am not happy, maybe even terrified. Maybe this is the perfect day to start a refeed, I am going to eat my feelings. Protein pancakes for everybody this morning! Four big ones, 2 of which were chocolate.