Dieting Too Long? Effects on Muscle, Bones and Metabolism

Nikkiey: What's up, WarriorBabe? Hey, everybody. Nikkiey here, and welcome to our Sunday WarriorBabe Revolution Rally Call. I am super stoked to be here with you right now. I've got a great topic coming to you, so we'll get started in just a few minutes. Go inside the Facebook community and let the other WarriorBabes know that this call is getting started. We are live. Just leave a comment saying the rally call is live, so the group knows they can hop on to this call right now.

I want to hop on because I think this is definitely going to speak to a lot of you. I shared this conversation inside my VIP group on Wednesday, where I do a little educational tidbit with that group, and it definitely sparked some interest, so I wanted to share it with you too. It's not in the mindset realm. We're taking a little break from mindset after the past couple of weeks, and I'm bringing you more of a nutritional tip today, and a way to break through any plateaus you're experiencing.

That's not the name of the topic today, and it's going to go a little deeper than just that, but I'm stoked to talk to you about it. Before I dive into the topic: if you're new to WarriorBabe, we do these calls every single Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. If you're new especially, surround yourself with, submerse yourself in, everything WarriorBabe. My language, how I talk, the community, these calls, these Q&As, these rally calls. Make sure you're here, you're alert, you're aware, and you're tuning in to everything that has to do with WarriorBabe. That's going to benefit you and your progress inside this community and inside this program. So mark your calendars and set your alarms for whatever time zone that equates to for you.

You want to be here because these topics fire you up. I choose one topic per week that fires you up and gets your week started off on a strong foot. Before we dive in, I want to welcome all of you new WarriorBabes to the community. I'm super stoked that you're here. You're part of thousands of women, literally thousands, which is so cool to see, who are all on the same journey as you, all working towards the same goal of getting toned and becoming a stronger, more confident version of themselves. And it all starts within you. You have the tools and resources here to follow through to the goals you want to accomplish, but it starts within you to take that action.

So I highly recommend you dive in, go through the material, listen to the content, show up on these Q&As, and listen to the previous rally calls inside your application, because there are golden nuggets in every single one of them, and they date back over a year. What the babes like to do in the VIP, they tell me, is go back to the previous rally calls and listen to them while they're doing their cardio. It's an easy way to make 20, 30, 40, 45 minutes go by. Some of these are just 15 or 20 minutes, but it's an easy way to make your cardio go by super fast. So there are no excuses. I don't want to hear that you don't like cardio.

One more thing before we dive in. Please, please, please. I see it too often and it breaks my heart: a lot of the questions you're seeking when you first chime into the community, when you're new and asking what can I do, where is this, where is that, can be found inside your application the majority of the time. So take the time to go inside the application, search there, and listen to everything I'm sharing with you. Tons of golden nuggets. If the question you're seeking can't be answered inside the app or you can't find it, go to the home screen and click on frequently asked questions or need help. That brings you to our FAQ resource page, an entire platform I've built that my team updates every single month with the most frequently asked questions we get each month. It dates back to when we started WarriorBabe, so there are tons of questions answered there as well. If you've looked in the app and in our frequently asked questions, then head to the Facebook group and tag Kate, our community manager. She's in there supporting you on a daily basis and clarifying any questions you have to start off your journey. You can ask the Facebook group and Kate, and I guarantee somebody will be there within a minute of you dropping your question inside the community.

So now let's dive into today's topic. I'm super stoked to be talking about this, because I know it's going to resonate with a lot of you and a lot of light bulbs are going to go off. And I'm going to give you one of my little secret tips for kicking yourself out of it if you're experiencing any of the things I talk about today. It's something I do with a lot of women inside my Blueprint program, and I'm going to share some of those tips and strategies with you.

Today's topic is the effects of long-term deficits. If you're following the same plan or strategy for eight to ten months, one year, two years, you follow the same thing, or you're not even consistently following it but it's still considered not eating enough, eating 800 calories, 1,000 calories, 1,200 calories, whatever it may be, if that's a program you've followed before, or even the macros here inside WarriorBabe, you cannot follow them for too long. And this is why. These are the effects of long-term deficits. If they apply to you, you're going to want to listen to the strategy I would personally recommend so you can kick yourself out of whatever you may be experiencing right now. It's something I do with my Blueprint babes and my VIP babes, so it's a tool that will really serve you if you listen all the way to the end of this call.

So, the effects of long-term deficits. Number one: it lowers your metabolism. The body becomes adapted to the lower intake you're at. Whether you're at 400 calories or 1,200 calories or whatever it may be, if you're sitting at it for way too long, the body adapts, and that causes your metabolism to slow down. Plus, in some cases, this lower metabolism can persist long after the deficit has stopped, which can explain why the majority of people regain weight once they go off their calorie-restricted diet.

For example, if you've been on keto, or at 1,100 calories for way too long, or 1,200 calories, or even 1,400 or 1,500 calories for way too long, your body has adapted to that point. Your lower metabolism can persist long after you've tried to incorporate more food. That can explain why people instead start gaining more weight, or gain back an excessive amount of weight, after they finish these calorie-restricted diets.

If you're far, far too deep and this is happening to you, there's a trick. I'm going to give you the tools and strategies, but how to employ them more is something you'd want to seek out with my Blueprint program, because it's more hands-on. I'm able to talk to you about the situation you're going through and help you use the tools I'm about to give you, so you make the right moves down the road.

Anyway, if you're in too deep for too long, it can slow your metabolism and cause more weight gain when you try to correct things. And if you're following restricted diets for too long and you don't understand what a metabolism is or does: one of the reasons your metabolism slows down and adapts is that your body is now going to muscle loss. Your body will tap into your muscles as a reserve for much-needed energy. I've talked about this before in many different ways, but hopefully what I'm saying resonates with you.

If you're too far into a deficit, yes, anybody can lose weight. You can go into a weight loss deficit for sure, 100%. But if you're sitting there for too long, your metabolism slows down and your body starts tapping into your muscle stores, because that's where energy is. Muscle is active tissue, and it stores glycogen. So to give you the energy your body is looking for, it will tap into those stores, which is completely fucking counterproductive to the goals you're seeking here inside WarriorBabe.

I've talked before about how there's a total difference between weight loss strategies and fat loss strategies. What I'm trying to teach you and employ here inside WarriorBabe is decreasing fat while preserving lean muscle, which is what's going to get you toned and decrease your body fat. If you're in a deficit for way too long, you can say bye-bye to your muscle, which is completely counterproductive when you're looking to build muscle and get toned. This is why people lose weight but just look more like a skinny fat person. They're losing weight, but they're also tapping into their muscle stores because they're not giving their body enough food. They're in too deep, their metabolism is slowing, their body is adapting, so it goes to your muscle stores for energy.

That's one of the major things that can happen: the effect of a long-term deficit is that it lowers your metabolism. This is where you could be experiencing plateaus. You think you're doing everything right, but you're banging your head into walls. You're not seeing the results you expect from eating that little.

This next one is a key thing, guys: it causes fatigue and it causes nutrient deficiencies. This is the number one thing. Once this occurs, it's your body giving you a sign that you need to change things up. Not many people know this. They think low energy, irritability, fatigue, being tired all the time and being hungry all the time are normal. Yes, hunger is definitely something you'll experience in fat loss, but irritability, low energy and missing your periods are all signals your body is trying to send you: dude, you are not fucking feeding me enough food.

Long story short, I shared this on my Instagram the other day. I lost my period for eight months. I thought it was okay. I thought it was normal. My body was not getting enough nutrition to sustain some of its basic functions, like reproduction. I was preparing for my first bodybuilding competition, and one month into it, I didn't realize how deep a deficit I was in, and it caused my period to stop. That happened because I wasn't giving my body enough nutrition to sustain some of its basic functions, and because my body fat was extremely fucking low. So it stopped focusing on things like reproduction to give my body more energy in other areas, like survival.

My point here, my point in everything I fucking teach and preach, is that food is extremely important for everything, but most importantly for overall bodily functions and the reproductive system. There's a little thing inside your brain, the hypothalamus. It's the control center of your brain and it regulates many hormonal functions within the body, but undernourishment can suppress the hypothalamus, which causes normal hormonal fluctuations and regulation of the menstrual cycle to be altered or stopped.

My point in sharing that story is: can you imagine what happens in other areas when you're not eating enough food? Your body is very resilient. It's very smart. It's a fucking machine, and you've got to think of it like that from here on out, if you don't already from what I've taught you inside WarriorBabe. Even if you're new, I'm hoping this is hitting home. Your body is a machine. If you're not giving it enough food, it's going to start shutting down in specific areas so it can thrive in others. It's going to keep your cellular functions and everything else alive. You're not going to feel that happening. It's not like you're going to experience death in one area of your body. But your body sends you signals: I'm tired. I have no energy. You're missing your period. You're irritable. You're freaking out at people. Those are symptoms that you're not giving your body enough fuel, meaning food, to function properly.

And when it comes to wanting to build muscle and get toned, you better fucking imagine that you need to be eating tons of food to facilitate that goal and those processes inside your body. It's a building process. Think back to when you were a kid. You were constantly eating, always eating, always eating, because you were a kid and you were growing. Think of that same concept here. When you're building your body, you are growing, and you need food for those processes to happen, for the cellular processes behind the growth of muscle. Building muscle is what makes you look toned.

So that's the second thing that happens if you're in a deficit for way, way too long: it causes fatigue and nutrient deficiencies. That's your body saying, dude, fucking change things up and give me more food, please. I'm going to share exactly what I would do if I were you in this situation in a couple of minutes. It's a strategy I use in the Blueprint and in VIP because it's more hands-on. Whenever I hear this shit from people, I'm like, oh man, here we go, get ready for some more food. And people always freak the fuck out. They're like, really, Nikkiey? And they listen to me. I always say, trust me now, believe me later. A week or two later, they're dropping weight, they're breaking through plateaus, they're getting more results because they're eating more fucking food. It's amazing what you can do just by giving your body enough food.

I can't wait to be able to get it through to more women that food is not scarce. You don't need to create scarcity around food. These three years of coaching have been amazing. The things I've learned from talking to and coaching women, and I appreciate you sharing your stories, are things I'm going to be able to use further down the road in breaking and shattering your belief systems around food. Women need to hear this louder and louder and louder: if you want to become toned, build muscle and change your body composition, you've got to eat food. You've got to eliminate the belief system you have around food, especially around carbohydrates or fats, whatever it is. That belief inside your brain just needs to be fucking shattered. You need to be open and willing to eat more food and not be afraid of it.

Another thing that happens, and these are more of the severe things, is that it can weaken your bones. Especially my women listening who are in menopause or past it: estrogen and testosterone levels reduce when you're going through menopause. With those hormones reducing, bone formation reduces and breakdown increases, which causes weaker bones. I can't tell you how many hip fractures and broken bones I saw in the emergency room as a nurse, in older ages, when people are 60, 70, 80 years old. That's why this matters right now, you guys. It really matters right fucking now.

No matter what age you are, whether you're 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60, if you can get a grip on eating proper nutrition for you, you can literally slow down the processes of the phase of life you're experiencing. You can slow these symptoms down just by eating enough food and implementing strength training. It's literally as fucking simple as that.

On top of estrogen and testosterone lowering, a long-term deficit plus increasing your exercise raises stress hormones, which can lead to bone loss. Like I said, this is a severe aspect of being in a deficit for too long, but I've seen it. I've taken care of women who've had hip fractures and bone fractures because of malnutrition in their early years. And once you reach that point, bone loss is often irreversible. That's why it's really fucking important to eat enough food. I can't stress it enough. You may not have seen hip fractures, bone fractures and malnutrition in later years. I have. And I'm telling you, this is a friendly reminder to eat enough and be on top of your nutrition now, because it matters right now. Once you're there later in life, it's going to be really hard to fix if you can't get it down right now. It's like teaching an old dog new tricks.

And then the last, smaller things: it lowers your immune system. It lowers your libido. It causes other things people think are just normal, like hypothyroidism. It can cause a lot of shit to go out of whack. If you're in a deficit for way too long and you're not eating enough food, like I said, other cellular processes in your body are going to shut down to give you energy in other areas to keep you alive. So it's going to lower your immune system and do all of this kind of shit that shuts down other areas.

I hope this is all making sense, and it's kind of fucking blowing your mind, because I'm not going to lie, talking out loud right now, it's really blowing my fucking mind that it comes down to the simplicity of eating enough food. Not only will you be healthy and create a lifestyle that gives you lasting results, but you'll actually get that more superficial goal of being toned, building muscle and changing your body composition.

So those are some effects of long-term deficits. It lowers your metabolism. It causes fatigue and nutrient deficiencies. It shuts down bodily processes that aren't as important to give you energy in the areas that keep you alive. It weakens your bones, especially if you're past menopause. It lowers your immune system, lowers libido and causes more irritability.

A lot of people like to think, oh, it's my thyroid, oh, it's this, oh, it's that. No. I'm sorry, I need to say it: it is you. They think it's this, they think it's that, they think it's the diet's fault. It's you, and you need to eat more food. That's all it is. It's really as fucking simple as that.

So here's a strategy I can share with you right now that I share with my WarriorBabes in the Blueprint. It's a more hands-on approach, which is why I share it in the Blueprint and VIP, because it's individualized to each person, and whoever implements it is going to get a particular kind of result, and it can veer either way. You can check out the WarriorBabe Blueprint program if you're interested, but broadly speaking, to break yourself out of this if you've been in a deficit for way too long, you can bring yourself up to maintenance macros. Go into the calculator, find your maintenance macros and start eating at them. I would eat at that for one or two weeks and see how your body adjusts. See how you feel. See how your measurements look. See if your weight decreases.

If that's what happens, you're feeling great, you're feeling amazing, your progress photos are showing changes, you're eating more food and you're actually decreasing weight, that's your body telling you it needs more food and that you shouldn't go back into a cut. You should probably sit at those maintenance macros for about a month to see how your body responds.

Now, if you increase and you sit there for a week or two and your weight is maintaining, your measurements are maintaining and your pictures are maintaining, this is where, if you want to go back into a cut, you don't go into full cut mode. You probably want to sit about midway between a cut and your maintenance macros, decreasing from maintenance by only about 200 to 250 calories to bring you back down into a cut.

The third option, and you can see how individual this is, and these are the factors I take into account on my Q&As and when I'm handling Blueprint babes or VIP babes, is that you gain weight. Then your metabolism is kind of fucked up, and you need a better approach. You need to heal that metabolism and reverse your way up to those maintenance macros. I'm not going to go into that third concept because it's pretty in-depth and I don't want to feed you too much. This is all broadly speaking. If you feel like you can do it, go do it. There are tons of you in my Revolution program who know exactly how to do this shit and know macros. But if you're somebody who's like, fuck, I'm experiencing all of this but I'm afraid to do it on my own, I feel like I need more help, that would be a reason to check out the Blueprint program for sure. VIP is currently on hold. We don't have any more spots. But that's the strategy I would take. You can obviously tell from me sharing this: if you're experiencing any one of these things, your body needs more food, and that's exactly the strategy I would take.

I hope you enjoyed this topic, the effects of long-term deficits. I really enjoyed speaking about it because it's my passion. I want to breathe into you and instill in you that food is fuel and you need it. So listen to me and employ this if you have to. Give me your feedback inside the Facebook community as well. I would love to see what you thought about this rally call. I'll catch you on the Q&A Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Remember, the Q&A time has changed to 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, so mark your calendars and set your alarms. I'll see you there.

Remember to start this week strong. It's a new week and a new month. You've got the same focal points with your goals, so ask yourself: what can you do differently that you didn't do that well last month? Bring it into this month. Show up for yourself and take action. Crush it, and I'll see you guys on Sunday. Bye, everyone.