Did Your Diet Stop Working?

A bit about Adaptation …
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Does it seem as though no matter what you do, you cannot lose the weight and keep it off?  You change your diet and lose a few pounds, and although you continue with the same dietary intake, it stops working.
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You start exercising and see some improvement in toning, definition, some pounds melt off and although you keep doing the exercise religiously, it stops working.
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Huh?  Well, the human body is very good at adaptation.
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Physically and nutritionally we can increase our metabolism and prevent adaptation by using a combination of cardio (which, according to recommendations and studies, should include high intensity intervals), resistance training (strength or weight training) and proper nutrition (which should include small meals about every 3-4 hours).
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All three components should be incorporated into a well planned fitness program.
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On the Kimkins program, when one is in ketosis, fueling the body nutritionally can be challenging because you just don’t feel hungry and you may “forget” to eat.
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One suggestion to make sure you eat in a timely manner is to set an alarm at certain intervals to remind you to eat something.  The mini-meals should be just that, “mini”, maybe around 100 calories or so.  You could consider foods such as hard boiled eggs, bite sized pieces of cooked chicken, or even a RTD low carb low calorie shake.
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An advantage to frequent fueling is that you will reduce the chances of feeling “starved” at the end of the day, and it may help to prevent the end-of-day foraging and binging.
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To prevent nutritional adaptation in respect to weight loss on Kimkins, it would be a good idea to follow one of the various food plans for a period of time.  Then change it up, which will result confusing the body and allow further weight loss.
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A little about cardio and HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training.  Don’t let “high intensity” scare you away!  It’s really worth the time spent on the activity and it lends itself nicely to time-efficient training.  Instead of burning 200 calories over the course of an hour doing steady-state cardio, you can cut your time in half and in the long run burn more calories over the next day and a half.
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Studies show that if you perform cardio “intensely” for 30 seconds, alternating with 1-2 minutes of active recovery, for just 30 minutes, you will increase your metabolism for up to 36 hours after the workout!
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What does it mean to work “intensely”?
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On a scale of 1-10, “1” being akin to vegging out on the couch on a Sunday afternoon, snuggled under an afghan watching a good movie and “10” means you are working SO hard it’s like “OMG! I’m gonna die!” You push for a “10”, but only for 30 seconds.  Your heart rate is going to elevate, breathing will get heavy and your muscles are going to burn, but then for 1-2 minutes you take your intensity back down to a level where you could do it for an hour.  Your heart rate slows back down, breathing and muscles recover and then you do it all again — as many times as you can with a goal of completing 30 minutes of intervals.
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It’s hard work but oh, so worth the effort!
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If your weight loss is stalling … change up what you are doing!  The scale will smile upon you when you do!   Next month … more about resistance training.
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Debbie Corey, RN, Certified Personal Trainer, lost 83 pounds
aka “mdsqueen” in the Kimkins Work Out Zone Forum
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Debbie is a personal trainer at a fitness center, Anytime Fitness, Menominee, MI so if you live in the area drop by!  Also visit Deb’s personal training Facebook page!