Lose 2lbs, Gain 2lbs... Lose 3lbs, Gain 3lbs... Lose 5lbs, Gain 5lbs... Learn How to Get Unstuck!

If you've found yourself in a yo-yo cycle of lose 2lbs, gain 2lbs, lose 3lbs, gain 3lbs, lose 5lbs, gain 5lbs... then this is the episode for you!  We take a look at how you can optimize tapping into body fat stores through the concept of Metabolic Positioning with the founder of The Diet Doc, Dr. Joe Klemczewski, PhD. The first thing your body will use for energy is carbs in the following order: 1- Blood sugar (sugar in your blood from the food you consume) 2- Carbohydrate stored (glycogen) in your liver 3- Carbohydrate stored (glycogen) in your muscle (used primarily when you exercise) 4- Body fat As that blood sugar declines, your body will then tap into any stored carbs from your liver (or muscles when exercising).  When you are in a fat loss phase, you're not storing much when you do eat, so #2 and #3 are virtually depleted.  In that case, your body will then tap into body fat to be used for energy.  When you eat again, you go back to #1.   The longer you go between meals, the more fat you can burn.  However, go too long and you risk overeating!  When you consume a higher amount of food, you may see your bodyweight increase a couple of pounds. That is because you stored carbs (glycogen) in your liver, and with every gram of carbohydrate you store, you store 3x that in water weight. This is not a bad thing!  Your body is just doing what bodies do!  During a fat loss phase, your bodyweight will likely take a few days to come back down to where it was before the meal which then positions you to continue to burn through body fat. If you are in the process of reverse dieting towards maintenance, you will likely find the scale jumping in the beginning as we are gradually, and purposefully, refilling glycogen stores... which again, yields water retention (not body fat).  When eating at a maintenance level of calories, refilling storages is a good thing and it's why you will experience more energy than when it a calorie deficit.