Many people who've lost weight have experienced success in a diet in the beginning stages. My first 5 weeks of trying the Keto Diet led to ditching 20 lbs. almost instantly. But how healthy is that? Most of the time, after a few quick pounds lost or after your weight is lost too quickly, your body may plateau or go into starvation mode. This is your body's effort to protect it when weight is lost too quickly as a result of registering the loss as something wrong with it.
As a result of my immediate loss, I noticed that my body was holding onto fat. Later, I took a day to consume some healthy carbs after a two month span. I felt a little better, and it actually helped. I began to lose weight again.
Because of my success of combining my diets when I hit a plateau, I was glued to my screen this morning. I saw an episode on Today explaining a method called 2-2-2, which was recommended by Author of the Flex Met Diet Ian Smith to boost your metabolism. He states, "If you're struggling to lose weight, your metabolism may not be slow - but it could be just stuck." This concept makes a lot of sense, considering that I sometimes use IT Fasting to get back into Ketosis after eating carbs on a Keto Diet. Additionally, if I come to a stop in my weight-loss, eating a few extra carbs sometimes gives my metabolism a boost. It appears that the key is to shock your body.
Dr. Ian states that the key to the 2-2-2 method is "increasing your metabolic flexibility," which in simple terms means that your body should be able to burn carbs and fats. Hence, I recognize that my own body hasn't been the best a burning carbs itself, and with Keto, the weight came flying off because of the low carb requirements. He offered a 6 week program using the 2-2-2 method and recommended that the first two week of the plan, you should have two meals, which contain heavy carbs and protein.
"Your body needs to see carbs in order to learn how to burn them efficiently," he says.
He explained that in the last 4 weeks, he alternates Keto days with Carb loading while he shows the meals of heavy pasta and salmon on carb days as well as salmon and asparagus on Keto days. I felt that this concept makes a lot of sense. In my experience, when entering a plateau, I often have to switch up my diet in order to jump start my metabolism. This could mean increasing healthy carbs or eating heathy fats. This increases your "metabolic flexibility"
Another important point that he stated was that we were told that after a certain age, our metabolism slows down. Dr. Ian states that this doesn't happen until our 60s. So that was more proof that it is an issue with our metabolism when we cannot lose weight. He also mentioned journaling and charting as a method to assist while weight-loss. As a counselor, I believe this may infuse some positive thinking, keep us focused on specific goals, as well as hold us accountable for our weight-loss. He has a Facebook group called Met Flex Diet, which teaches how to journal in order to have better insight into weight-loss. He stated that people who journaled lost 25 % more weight. That is awesome news! Our minds are very powerful and thinking positively plays a big part of your success in your weight-loss journey.
Speaking of thinking positively, we can't remain positive about our diets if we are living on the scale. I know my weight fluctuates, and I can gain a whopping 7lbs in a day. That can be extremely discouraging. The Dr. recommends weighing yourself once a week at the same scale, same place, same time, and with the same clothes on. That will make your weight-loss more accurate. When you weigh yourself too much and don't see progress, it may end up in frustration and getting distracted.
And what's weight-loss without exercise? Although, your weight-loss is mostly what you eat, 20 % of it is exercise. The doctor gives some examples from his book on what you can do. He gives examples of a Sumo Squat, where you do 30 seconds of squats and 30 seconds of rest for 15 minutes. The other workout is High Knees, which you carry out in the same way.
Lastly, which confirms my idea of being able to switch up your diet to boost your metabolism, Dr. Ian stated that through all of this, your body still may plateau. What he suggests at this point is IT Fasting. I noticed that fasting also works for me when I break ketosis while on Keto. He stated that when you combine all these methods together, that is when you "bust your plateau."
I'm definitely going to follow him!
Good luck in your weigh-loss journey. And comment your thoughts!
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