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How To Undo Metabolic Adaptation And Fix Your Metabolism? 7 Steps. Metabolic Adaptation | Part 3.

In the blog text Metabolic adaptation part 1, I discussed what metabolic adaptation is as a phenomenon and how to recognize it. Read Metabolic adaptation part 1 here

In the blog text Metabolic adaptation part 2, I discussed what kind of physiological processes are behind the metabolic adaptation.

In the third and last post (This one), we delve into the most interesting section – what we can do to undo metabolic adaptation.

Metabolic adaptation causes in over an extended timeframe (months to years) long-term changes in hormones, the nervous system, and habits, where the most important is the significant slowing down of metabolism.

This very easily causes an increase in weight after diets and other “regimes”. The body protects itself from dying by conserving energy.

In practice, we must tell the body to stop conserving to undo these processes. Next, you will find a step-by-step program on how to undo metabolic adaptation.

The program requires an appropriate diagnosis of metabolic adaptation and that other reasons have been excluded (food diary, blood tests, and other requirements).

How To Fix Your Metabolism

1 -Start eating!

Start with protein. Most dieters do not eat enough protein, which should be 1.5-2 g/per kg/day. It causes a decrease in fat-free weight, muscle atrophy, and slowing down the metabolism of muscle cells.

In one research paper, where protein intake was increased to 48g/day on average, it was found that the test subjects increased weight only half of the amount compared to a control group, and most of this was fat-free mass. (1)

2 -Start strength training

Increasing and/or intensifying strength training is the second most important step after increasing protein intake.

Musculature and metabolism get the best kick out of intensive musculature strain.

If you have not done any strength training before, start slowly and less often, for example with a two-split program (upper and lower body) 2-3 times a week for 30 minutes at a time.

If you have done strength training before, increase the intensity, decrease repetitions, add multi-joint movements, shorten breaks, increase loads.

With this you, above all, will ensure that all weight that “comes back” is metabolically active muscle tissue. You can start here with our workout routines.

3 -Increase the amount of energy eaten.

When you have increased your amount of protein to 1.5-2g/kg/day, start increasing other macronutrients.

If you have been on a low-carbohydrate diet, start adding slow carbohydrates periodically, for example, +20g/day for every week.

There are many misconceptions and phobias about carbohydrates but one thing is clear: they work just like gas to a flame for your metabolism.

If you have been on a balanced diet, start increasing good fats and carbohydrates proportionally (depending on the final goal). The amount of energy eaten should be increased incrementally.

How fast depends on how long the low-energy period, weight loss, and metabolic have been, how much the metabolism has slowed down, and how intense your strength training has been.

Example: Mary has been doing a “3-month low-carbohydrate “Super Diet” from Weight-Loss-Guru XXX” and during the regime has lost weight from 100kg/220lbs to 85kg/176lbs, but the weight has increased back to 95kg/209lbs in the next 6 months.

The slowing down of the metabolism has lasted for 9 months in total. Before she started the ‘Super Diet”, she ate 2500 kcal/day which is approximately the amount of energy needed to maintain her weight.

During the regime, her calories decreased to 1300 kcal/day when the diet ended. Today her daily caloric intake is 1800 kcal/day and her weight is slowly increasing.

Energy goals:

week – 1900 kcal (+ 25 g of protein)
week – 2000 kcal (+ 50 g of protein)
week – 2100 kcal (+ 50 g of protein, + 15 g of slow carbohydrates, + 5 g of fat)
week – 2200 kcal (+ 50 g of protein, + 30 g of slow carbohydrates, + 10 g of fat)
week – 2300 kcal (+ 50 g of protein, + 45 g of slow carbohydrates, + 15 g of fat)
10. week – 2800 kcal, 180 g of protein, 200 g of carbohydrates, and 142 g of fat in total

You probably noticed that the final amount of energy eaten is higher than it was before “Super Diet” that maintained the weight with 2500 kcal.

This is on purpose – Mary’s muscle mass and metabolic rate increased that much, so she can eat more.

4 -Increase the intensity of strength training

If we want to get rid of metabolic adaptation it is essential that we will not rely only on old methods (nutrition) but add muscle training and increase its intensity constantly. This doesn’t mean increasing the lifting weights, but only the intensity.

Let’s use Mary as an example. Mary has never done any strength training before.

week – 2 x 20 min
week – 2 x 30 min
week 3 x 30 min
week 4 x 25 min
week 4 x 30 min
week 4 x 40 min etc.

Note! Most dieters and people with metabolic adaptation have been doing a lot of low heart rate endurance training.

This slows down metabolism because the body thinks it is important to conserve energy so it functions better over long distances.

Have you ever seen a muscular long-distance runner? Instead of long and low-intensity endurance training, you should start an intensive HIIT -program which accelerates metabolism better than anything else without giving the body a message to lose muscle mass.

5 -Prioritize the Following:

Get your 8 hours of sleep every night!
Increase your fiber intake.
Increase your activity levels (Go for walks along with your workouts)
Control your cortisol levels by decreasing stress.
Take your supplements.

6 -Monitor different variables.

Without a quick feedback system from our body, we do not learn as efficiently, and we can even do something harmful.

No one’s body works in the same way as another.

Especially at the beginning of the process, we must monitor variables that we can use to make necessary changes quickly.

For example, a food diary, exercise log, weight, body measurements, blood tests etc.

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7 -Be patient and persistent, enjoy the change.

Fixing your metabolism is a similar process to the reversal of any other lifestyle disease.

It requires time and energy. You will not get results during the first weeks. Quite the contrary – your weight will likely increase a bit when the body wants to conserve all the fluids and the contents of the bowels increase.

Do not give up! Make a 3-6-month plan and stick to it. Remind yourself daily about why you started the program and what’s the goal.

Imagine a newer and happier you in your mind that you will be after a while.

High protein intake sustains weight maintenance after body weight loss in humans.

Westerterp-Plantenga MS, Lejeune MP, Nijs I, van Ooijen M, Kovacs EM. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Jan; 28(1):57-64.

Underestimated blood test that reveals the state of your metabolism

The results of blood tests are misused in healthcare. The results are interpreted out of context. A typical example is elevated levels of cholesterol, to which unqualified doctors are rapidly prescribing medication. Laboratory results should always be evaluated in context and, considering all causes and effects.

In the cholesterol example mentioned above, only a really small proportion of people have a problem that requires cholesterol medication after the overall risk mapping (FINRISKI calculator, wink-wink).

Also, they are often staring at older benchmarks or reacting to things only (not always!) when some of the values meet the “criteria of the disease”.

A good example of this is elevated blood sugar, which is interpreted as normal for years until it is suddenly found that “Yeah, poof, now it’s diabetes”. Diabetes never develops in an instant and is always a process of many years, in addition to which the diagnosis is made 3 years late on average, where many years of important time has been lost.

I’d like to share my methods of evaluating blood tests and what they tell us about the person’s metabolism.

Everyone knows that metabolism can be assessed based on blood sugar and cholesterol, but in this text, I will talk about lesser-known but equally good and common indicators.

The most important message, of course, is that nothing should be judged alone without the bigger picture, without considering the person as a whole.

NOTE! This text is not intended to replace medical judgment or to diagnose or exclude diseases. Always consult your doctor or nurse about the results of blood tests.

ALT – Alanine transaminase or “liver marker” – one of the most sensitive experiments suggesting visceral fat. The problem is that ALT is also extremely sensitive to other stimuli – painkillers, stomach flu, alcohol. However, for most people, a slightly elevated and upward trend in ALT is a sign of an increase in liver fat. At this point, I always ask (or look at or measure) a person’s waist – most definitely it exceeds the reference range.

Smoking increases low-level inflammation.

CRP – C-reactive protein or “inflammatory value”. CRP is one of the more sensitive risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. CRP is most often measured in healthcare for infections (most often high CRP indicates bacterial and/or more severe inflammation). In this case, we are talking about the level of CRP in an otherwise completely normal physiological state (no stress, infections, injuries, etc.). In that case, it can be assessed whether there is a chronic inflammatory state in the body. All people always have some CRP in the bloodstream (resistance), but levels increase permanently in a low-grade inflammatory state. There are many causes of low-grade inflammation (rheumatic diseases, smoking, cancer), but in 99% of cases, it is a metabolic syndrome. The best test for this is hs-CRP or high-sensitivity CRP.

Interpretation: CRP, which is regularly in an otherwise neutral physiological state >1, is a sign of low-grade inflammation in the body and an increased risk of vascular diseases, cancer, memory disorder, etc. Compare to levels of fat, blood sugar, urate, the circumference of the waist and weight.

MCV – mean corpuscular volume, or the size of red blood cells. MCV is always included in CBC (complete blood count), in addition to hemoglobin, white blood cells, etc. The size of red blood cells is sensitive to specific changes in the body, which is why it is often an indicator concerning these changes.

Interpretation: MCV values below the reference range most often indicate iron deficiency, where ferritin levels should be checked at least. Beyond the reference range, it indicates the overuse of alcohol and/or the lack of vitamin B12 or folate, for example. A typical mistake is not responding to MCV if the hemoglobin levels are okay. In most cases, however, the problem has progressed extremely far when it affects the amount of hemoglobin.

Urate – or “gout marker”. Currently, urate is used mostly for the detection and/or exclusion of gout. Urate is a much more complex indicator. It correlates very well with metabolic disorders and visceral fat, but not with insulin resistance – which means that this is a very good indicator for assessing metabolic disorders and the risk of cardiovascular disease in a situation where blood sugar levels are in order.

Interpretation: Rarely early urate levels over reference values can be seen, even with cases of acute gout, but mostly the values of over 400 in men and over 300 in women indicate a low-level inflammatory state and visceral fat. A high level of urate can also surely be a sign of gout, but in reality, gout occurs almost always later with metabolic adaptation. Compare it to CRP, blood sugar and fat levels, the circumference of the waist and weight.

The more visceral fat and the higher the level of inflammation in the body, the lower the level of testosterone.

Testosterone – the male sex hormone, which also plays an essential role in women’s bodies, but we will not elaborate that more than this. In men, testosterone correlates with metabolic syndrome – the more visceral fat and the higher the inflammatory state in the body, the lower the testosterone levels. The body recognizes when a man is not able to reproduce and it is not worth investing in at that moment. However, a decrease in testosterone causes the situation to get worse – a decrease in mood, a decrease in metabolic rate, a decrease in muscle and bone mass, decreased libido and erectile dysfunction, a decrease in physical performance, etc. All of these contribute to weakening the metabolism. Most testosterone-deficient men come to the office to ask for testosterone when instead they should be treating their metabolic disorder. Watch my video on the subject. Testicular failure (which requires testosterone treatment) can be easily distinguished from this using an FSH test.

Interpretation: Low testosterone associated with being overweight, decreased muscle mass, passive lifestyle, smoking, diabetes, and other metabolic problems, is almost always a sign that metabolism is slowed down, and the body has chosen not to increase. Compare to levels of fats, CRP, urate, the circumference of the waist and weight.

Triglycerides – or “regular fats” in a package of cholesterol. Nowadays the level of triglycerides is always mentioned with the so-called lipid tests. We are accustomed to paying attention to total cholesterol only, but the best measure of metabolism and the most often missed indicator is the level of triglycerides. Triglycerides are the regular fat – light, soft, fat – the kind of fat that accumulates on the outside of the liver, pancreas, between heart cells and blood vessel walls. According to some studies, triglycerides are a better indicator of the risk of cardiovascular diseases than HDL/LDL. In practice high levels of triglycerides most often indicate that there is an “overflow of fats” in the body – there is so much fat in the cells that more can’t be taken in and the excess remains in the bloodstream.

Interpretation: Levels above 1.8 indicate an excess of fat in the blood circulation. Most often it is caused by a metabolic disorder, but also by smoking and alcohol. If the body consumes all the calories eaten, fatty foods do not increase triglyceride levels. Compare to levels of cholesterol, CRP, urate, the circumference of the waist, and weight.

Final decisions cannot be made using results from single tests, the results must be compared to prevailing conditions and other tests. There are many other tests than cholesterol and blood sugar that can be used to make conclusions about health. The results of blood tests do not need any treatment, people do – which is different from what is done in health care nowadays.