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By Victor Tringali, B.S., C.S.C.S.
I’ve seen it hundreds of times over and over. Someone wants to shed body fat so he eats less and does more cardio. That usually works for a period of time but then BOOM! They plateau and stop making progress. So what do you do from there? Do you cut calories even more? Do you do MORE cardio? When you plateau again, will you again cut calories and add even MORE cardio?
What most people do not understand is that consistently low calories cause the body to consistently burn less calories. The body will naturally adjust to any changes you make in your nutrition. So, when you first cut back you’ll most likely see progress but eventually in an effort to adjust the body will produce less of the hormones that regulate metabolism and bring your progress to a screeching halt.
The answer to breaking through these plateaus is to cycle your calories. What I mean is to follow a lower calorie plan with a moderate amount of cardio for 3-5 days followed by a day of high calories and a break from any cardio. The benefit of adding the high calorie day is that it does not give the body a chance to adjust. Before the body is able to slow down from the lower calorie plan, you add a day of higher calories and the metabolism keeps moving full steam ahead. In fact, the higher calorie day will most likely result in an INCREASED metabolic rate for a while.
So, if you want to keep your progress steady, take a break, eat more, cardio less and reach your goals.
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