Overweight but Under-Eating?
I used to think anyone who had weight to lose was simply just over-eating and not being active enough. I assume most of the population believes this. And the large majority of those who are overweight (especially those who are obese) likely fit into this category. Many overweight individuals could benefit from simply cutting back their eating and exercising more.
However, there is this entire sub-category of people who have weight they want to lose but have simply driven their metabolism into the ground. They make up this little-known group of people who are eating very little yet still have 10, 20, 30, or even more weight to lose.
For most of my life, I believed that if someone wanted to lose weight, they simply needed to follow the traditional advice of “eat less and move more”. I go into my own story in more detail in my “How to Increase Your Metabolism” and “Metabolic Health” videos. But this advice really backfired on me in my early 20s. I decided at age 16 (weighing 120lbs at 5’2”) that I needed to lose weight (yes, crazy, but 16 year olds don’t always make the best decisions). So I started tracking my calories (in my head – remember, this was before cell phones and apps!) and running. I aimed for 1500-1600 calories per day. I lost weight VERY quickly by doing this. However, after getting down to 100lbs, what I should have done is increase my calories again. What I did instead (because I didn’t know any better) was keep them super low. This is when my body began to fight back. I stayed around 100lbs for about a year and then, despite not changing anything about my workout routine or nutrition, my body slowly started to gain weight. Over the course of about 5 years, I gained about 30lbs back (so I weighed10lbs MORE than where I started). However, I was now eating far LESS than I was 5 years prior. I was very frustrated that my “hard work” was not resulting in the body I thought I should have. I didn’t understand why others who worked out less than me and likely ate more were able to so easily weigh less. I thought I had a slow metabolism or a thyroid problem. That had to be it, right? I was doing all of the “right” things but my body was just not responding the way it did 5 years ago when I originally set out to lose weight.
Metabolism, Hormones, and Weight Loss
My frustration led me to research everything I could about metabolism, hormones, thyroid, and weight loss and how they are all tied together. I read everything I could get my hands on. (I was especially motivated because my excessive exercise/dieting also led me to lose my period for years and I desperately wanted to get pregnant – so I was on a more important mission than simply wanting to lose weight). What I found was that there was this entire sub-group of people who were under-eating (not drastically enough to be considered anorexic, but enough to have a very negative metabolic impact) and often doing too much cardio as well. I was not really able to find any actual scientific research on this. But what I found were entire forums dedicated to people who were in the same situation I was in – people who were trying to get pregnant and their doctors couldn’t find anything “wrong” with them except for the fact that they were not ovulating. I believe my problem – hypothalamic amenorrhea – is much more well-known now. But at the time (2009), it was not something most doctors were even aware of. Fast forward a few months later and I managed to get pregnant with the help of ovulation-inducing injections. After having my first child, I told myself I would never let myself get to that point again. I vowed to never go back to under-eating and over-cardio-ing again! I eventually got my first natural period in years about 9 months after giving birth. I was able to easily get pregnant with my second after that.
On the left - under-eating but still not happy with my body; On the right - a healthy metabolism, eating more than in my 20s
That was a very long description of why I began noticing and researching this sub-group of people who were chronically dieting but still not at a weight they were happy with. But it explains why I am so passionate about helping this group of women (and men! - believe it or not, many men are afraid to eating too). After my second child was one year old, I decided to dip my toe back into the world of bodybuilding. I said if I noticed anything about my hormones starting to get out of whack, I would just quit training immediately. However, I noticed that, because I had spent so many years eating ENOUGH, I was able to diet for my bodybuilding competitions on MUCH more food and get leaner than I ever was able to in the past. I competed every year between 2004 and 2008 and never had any hormonal issues during this time because I was very conscious about only dieting for about 12 weeks at a time and keeping my calories high the rest of the year. While I was competing, I would often get women asking me how I got as lean as I did. I would also get a lot of comments from people assuming they knew what I did to get lean (“Oh, I guess you just ate chicken and broccoli for 12 weeks”, “How many miles a week did you run to look like that?”, or “I guess you can’t eat INSERT WHATEVER FOOD THEY THINK IS “BAD” HERE.”) Not only did those comments drive me crazy, but they showed me what most people believe you have to do in order to get lean – eat very little and run a lot. Neither of those are actually true.
Me, leaner than ever and eating SO much more than I did in my 20s
What I also learned during this time was that these women who were asking me about my training and nutrition were often eating far less than I was eating. They were doing what I had done years ago – dieting for months or even years on end. Thinking carbs were bad. Thinking they just needed to be a little more strict. Thinking they needed to run a few more miles or take a few more OrangeTheory classes. Thinking they just needed to do MORE and eat LESS and they would achieve a body they could finally love. Or believing that the next trendy diet (keto, intermittent fasting, Whole30, etc.) would finally get them the results they were constantly chasing. This is actually what led me to start my own online coaching business (a very small business that I ran solo before partnering with Jo to create Couture Fitness & Lifestyle Coaching).
Jo’s reverse dieting transformation
When we started CFLC, we knew we wanted to not only help women who needed a flexible yet intentional plan to help them eat less and move more (the classic over-eaters/under-exercisers), but that we also wanted to help all of the women we knew who were under-eating (like both us did for so many years). What we didn’t realize was just how common this actually was until we started taking on more and more clients. We found that nearly half of the women who came to us actually fell into this category. Many had been dieting for years – some most of their adult life. Many had a similar story – they lost weight on some diet, gained it back, and were never able to lose weight easily again – despite being very strict with their diet. What they didn’t realize was that they the dieting they had been doing for so long was what was actually CAUSING them to gain weight now. Their metabolism had adapted long ago to such low calories that their bodies were now operating on less food than a healthy 30lb toddler should be eating.
Now none of these women that we have worked with would be considered “obese”. They are probably “healthy” but still have 10-40 pounds they want to lose. And the sad thing is, I think most people, including these individuals, think that if they just “try harder” and “eat less and move more” they will be able to lose those last 10-40lbs. This is very often NOT the case. What these women (and men) often need is a gradual reversal of what they had been doing for months or years – bringing their food back up to a healthy level, backing off of cardio, and ensuring they are doing adequate strength training. This is often much more difficult mentally than simply cutting calories and working out more is. Retraining your brain to believe you can actually eat much more than you had been can be really mentally difficult. But building up your metabolism is truly the solution to maintaining a weight you are happy with and staying there long-term.
At Couture Coaching, we get so much joy out of helping these women realize there is a way out of the continual dieting cycle. You can see some of our reverse dieting transformations here . Many women are blown away by the fact that they can actually maintain their same weight while adding in hundreds of calories per day. Some women even LOSE weight while we bring their calories back up. Some gain a small amount, but no one ever gains as much as they feared they would. And at the end of this “reverse and maintain” phase, they are all FINALLY in a good place metabolically. Once we get their metabolism back to a healthy spot, they find they are FINALLY able to lose weight from dieting again.
Check out some of our real-life transformations!
So this was a really long way to say that just because someone has some weight to lose, does NOT mean that we should simply tell them to “eat less and move more”. In fact, the very opposite is often exactly what someone needs to kick-start their metabolism and get weight loss moving again.
Let us help you boost your metabolism! Book a free, 15-minute strategy call where we’ll discuss your goals and dieting history and discuss how Couture Coaching can help develop a customized plan for boosting your metabolism that allows you to eat more (really!). We’ll also talk about how you can exercise to build calorie-burning muscle. The Couture Coaching Team wants to help you create a body you love—for life!
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