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6 weeks out! Yes just little over one and half month the competition is here. Okay this week’s struggle……
Hitting the Plateau.
Yes, the fitness plateau. Everyone has gone through it. When you are at the point when you are not hitting your PR’s in the gym or not leaning down. Perhaps just few weeks ago everything is coming along and you were very happy that everything is just going as planned and then BAM! you hit the freaking wall.
My current weight is 55.7 kg I am about 160cm, my goal is to lean down to 52.5 kg around that and see how I feel, if I am feeling alright I may want to drop down to 50Kg. Currently body fat percent is about 20%, the goal is 16-17% by Nov.
But since I have been hitting the plateau for last two weeks the frustration was definitely building up.
Solution: Re-feed day and play with leptin level.
What is leptin?
Leptin is a type of hormone made by the adipose cells ( fat cells), they interact with the receptors on the hypothalmus to regular your energy balance. In simple terms: it is the type of hormone that inhibits hunger. In obesity, the sensitivity of leptin will be decreased which will cause the obese person not able to detect when to stop eating.
So how does leptin effect you when you are on diet?
The lower the leptin level more craving you will feel. So it is not that your mind is playing tricks on you or your friends are trying to torture you with their lunch or dinner. It is your hormone. Leptin also regulates your metabolism. When a person is eating at a caloric deficit, the human body becomes very efficient in utilising the limited amount of energy it has. So the leptin will lower the metabolic rate so the human body can survive during the dieting process. Your body doesn’t know that you are preparing for a competition. All it knows is that the amount of energy it usually takes from food is at much lower amount and it is trying to do whatever it can to carry out its daily functions without shutting down the main organs.
As the chart shows below, the leptin and ghrelin work in opposed. Higher leptin levels will result in decreased in food intake which means you may feel more full. But do keep in mind that how this hormone works within the physiology of the human body is not as simple as it may seem. As with any health related recommendation, always consult the appropriate health care provider first such as an endocrinologist.
So how does Re-feed day(s) and leptin help with plateau ?
If a person is constantly in a caloric deficit, the immune system will be weakened which leads to frequent illnesses. For women, constantly eating at low calories will affect the menstruation cycle, if this does happen you will need to re-adjust the calories intake. Psychologically, re-feed days will give you a break from dieting and you will be able to eat at higher calories than usual. Leptin does respond very fast towards glucose as on your refeed day a higher carbohydrate intake will spike up the leptin level. Do keep in mind there will be increase of body fat and even weight after this, but you need to look at long run. After the re-feed day the metabolism will be stimulated and then with proper training, it will help you to power through the plateau.
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