very good art:)
Understanding Fat Loss Plateaus (From the introduction of Ninja Nutrition Tactics)
So, what REALLY causes fat loss plateaus to happen and why is getting exceptionally lean incredibly difficult?
Well, that’s two questions, so let’s address them one at a time :)
A general fat loss plateau or stall in weight loss can happen for many reasons, but they all basically come down to metabolism and hormones.
If you’ve read some of my previous writing, then you’re probably pretty familiar with leptin, so while I’ll save you the long science, I do believe a brief explanation is in order.
Leptin, AKA the anti-starvation hormone, is basic the “control” hormone when it comes to weight loss, particularly fat loss. Other important hormones with regards to metabolism and weight loss, such as the appetite regulating hormones neuropeptide-Y and ghrelin, and the metabolic thyroid hormones are all more or less dependent on leptin.
As an analogy, Leptin is the “Sergeant” hormone from which all other hormones take commands. Either that or leptin is just REALLY cool and the other guys simply base everything they do around what leptin’s doing.
Bunch of lame-ass follower hormones.
I digress.
The point is, if you hope to have any success when it comes to weight loss, then you need to understand and learn to manipulate leptin.
To make things extremely simplistic:
High leptin levels = Heightened fat burning and metabolism
Low leptin levels = Decreased fat burning and metabolism
Unless of course you suffer from leptin resistance, which we’ll talk about momentarily.
So how is leptin mediated? Two ways:
1. Leptin is mediated by body fat levels.
Because leptin is secreted by fat cells, it makes sense that there is a direct, linear relationship between the amount of body fat you are carrying and the amount of leptin you have floating around. That is to say, the more fat you have, the more leptin you have, and vice versa.
This is THE major reason why losing those last few pounds is exceptionally difficult.
Oops, looks like we are answering the second question before we fully answer the first. I tend to do that.
But yes, low body fat levels unquestionably mean low baseline levels of leptin. Essentially, with every pound of fat you lose, the lower baseline leptin levels fall, making it even more difficult to lose the next pound.
Fun stuff, I know.
To recap:
Low body fat levels = low leptin
High body fat levels = high leptin
Uh oh. Now I have to explain why “fat” people, if they indeed have the highest leptin levels because of their large amount of body fat, aren’t the leanest people in the world if leptin is so metabolic.
Good question, my smart fellow, but there is indeed an explanation, and that explanation is called “leptin resistance”.
Similar to insulin resistance, if leptin receptors are constantly being bombarded by high levels of leptin, they start to become less sensitive to the hormone.
This is what happens with insulin in Type II diabetics. People eat crap food and loads of highly processed carbohydrates for years, flood their bloodstream with insulin every hour of the day, and gradually over time insulin receptors become so desensitized to the hormone to the point that insulin no longer “works”.
The same occurs with leptin. Overweight people, who have been overweight for years, become resistant to the hormone due to massive amounts of leptin (caused by high body fat levels and high calorie intakes, which we’ll talk about in a minute) slamming receptors for extended periods of time.
I won’t go into too much further detail about leptin resistance and sensitivity here, but for the sake of the conversation, we’ll just say that leptin is “broke” in these individuals.
Can it be fixed? Yes. And I actually cover exactly how to do this in the Ninja Nutrition Tactics manual.
2. Leptin is mediated by calorie intake.
In addition to leptin’s relationship with body fat, leptin is also pretty chummy with the amount of food you’re taking in on a daily basis. That is, your calorie intake.
High calorie intakes = high leptin levels
Low calorie intakes = low leptin levels
That said, that darned “common sense” does come into play here as well (i.e. you can’t eat 5,000 calories a day and expect your high leptin levels to cancel out the rules of mathematics).
The important thing to recognize is that typical dieting, in which you are restricting calories on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, derails leptin “fo’ sheezy” (as the kids say), and there’s no getting around that.
This means that with chronic dieting, you WILL screw with leptin and you WILL hit a fat loss plateau, period. It WILL happen-so whatcha gonna do about it?
That’s where Ninja Nutrition Tactics come in, and in the NNT manual, I reveal not one, not two, but ELEVEN of my absolute BEST methods for dealing with and overcoming any fat loss plateau.
Oh yeah, and I also talk quite a bit about the whole “getting really lean” thing, too, so let’s go back to that real quick.
As mentioned, the number one reason losing those last few pounds of fat is such a curse word is low leptin and the fact that your body does not WANT you to be single digit body fat-at all.
It’s all like “Noooooooooo, stay fat and keep me warmmmmm. I’m colddddd. And what are we going to do if we end up like Tom Hanks in that one movie-you know, the one with the volley ball. That could happen.”
And theoretically, your body is correct. But, being lean is way cooler than Tom Hanks (sorry, it’s true, I took a poll), so if you’re going to ever get exceptionally lean, you’re going to have to learn the ways of the Ninja.
And in addition to hormonal and leptin manipulation, there are quite a few other things that come into play which I openly share in the NNT manual.
Bottom line, it AINT easy to figure out, but the good news is that you don’t have to since I already did it for you.
Are you ready to embrace the Ninja code? Are you ready for Ninja Nutrition Tactics?
Next week, I’ll be releasing the entire 63 page manual, detailing ALL 11 ninja strategies, for a few short days. BUT, as I promised yesterday, I’ll be back tomorrow with a sample tactic straight from the manual just to give you a little “taste” of what you can expect.
Stay tuned! In the meantime, want to learn 5 specific foods that have been shown to FIGHT abdominal fat? Check out the below link:
==> These 5 foods actually FIGHT abdominal fat
*Ninja vanish*
Shogun Marion
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45 comments - add yours
I agree with John, all we have to do is thnk Joel for the great free information he gives us, because it is very useful and trusteful so it doesn´t matter if he is repeating anything or not. Just thank him for being such a cool guy ;)
@ Bill Pairaktaridis:
NOT so. You WILL hit a plateau and typically everyone will say you are cheating (not adhering to “diet “or exercise regime). The thing to do is NOT to stick to low cals or increase bulky veg etc once you have established you have plateaued, but to FREE RANGE (eat that lasagne or ice cream) but NOT an excuse to pig out…just to eat a good calorific range of foods for a few days to a week, then back to diet…this tricks the Hypothalmus and resets leptin and the “ideal weight ” your body wants to hang onto.
The Plateau is essentially your body (hypothalmus and it’s messenger hormones) believing it is in starvation mode so it wants to hang on to all it’s nutrients. cheating or free ranging resets it’s starvation meter. then resume more low calorific diet and plateau will pass.
This has been proved in obese individuals AS WELL AS SUPER FIT ARMY TROUPS. Lweptin levels as well as other blood path was done and weight loss tracked. Interestingly enough, the superfit guys in the forces reset their Starvation metres within 24-48 hrs, more weighty individuals can take a few days to a week.
MOST IMPORTANT is to get back on board with good habits!!
very very thanks about this valuable informations because fat loos topics become high recommended
Joel,
It seems that the biggest gripe out there is that everyone wants to lose fat and be trim, taut and terrific! We all know that the hardest part to lose, is the last few pounds. My question to you is, why do you have so many “different” programs all confessing to do the same thing – lose fat!
Joel just want to say you do an excellent job teaching this! Leptin, hormones, and metabolism is what I teach more than anything, and the importance of “shocking” the body from its homeostatic set points to further progress. Just wanted to say you do a great job!
Kevin
Joel, your research regarding leptin makes perfect sense to me. I grew up fat and tried many times to lose weight. The fastest I ever lost weight was in my 3rd year of college. I fell into a pattern of going home and eating “Mom’s Cookin'” every weekend (and mom LOVES to cook as much as I LOVE to eat). Then, during the week at school, I ate a calorie-restricted diet with lots of healthy vegetables. So…2 days of eating EVERYTHING…followed by 5 days of eating salads. The weight came off so quick my friends were concerned, and some told me I was getting too thin! Now I’m more concerned with packing on muscle than I was then, so I pay more attention to a balanced diet, but I do incorporate those leptin-raising meals whenever I’m in a fat-shedding phase and I’ve hit a plateau. It definitely helps.
Do you have any research that validate Leptin as the master regulator of hormones? In my limited knowledge, there has been some research that does show that injected leptin lead to decreased body fat levels, but this was in mice. Rodent metabolism is not the same as human metabolism. In subsequent human studies, inject leptin directly, the subjects did not exhibit the same body fat decrease like the rats.
Leptin levels naturally fluctuate in humans. Leptin levels also change quickly in humans. If you fast, leptin levels quickly drop, when you are done fasting and eat, leptin rises. If you overeat, certainly leptin levels subsequently rise, but after a few hours, leptin levels return to normal levels…. Working out has been shown to reduce leptin levels as well…
What causes fat loss plateaus? IMHO, people getting lax on their measurements of food intake and their caloric requirements. This has been scientifically proven, people significantly underestimate the calories they ingest. As people lose weight, they also need to decrease their caloric intake. There has yet to be proven anything magical about leptin… keep it simple: calories in vs. calories out. If you aren’t losing weight, cut some more calories, or add some fasting. The BMR formulas are still a best-estimate…. Experiment, measure, make small changes, iterate…
OK, this is a little off on a tangent, but your part about our bodies wanting fat to keep us warm reminded me of this question/observation…i’ve done 2 fast days (just the 24 hour variety) and I’ve been freezing both days! (I live in so. Cal., so it’s “just me”). I like to imagine that this means I’m really burning some fat, but what’s the real deal? Is this common?
@ Joel Marion:
@ Joel, thanks I’ll check into the research from the link you posted. I noticed that there were many not relevant like omega3 as well as a few rat-based research, which are worthless. As far as 30,000+ people experiencing results, I am not disputing that your clients have received results, but the causal factor may not be Leptin-related effects but rather caloric deficits, or some other factor. Is Leptin part of the picture on body-fat levels, sure, its definitely involved. But is it the uber-hormone, the be-all end all master hormone, causal factor that determines whether you will be ripped, I don’t think so.
Hey Joel, I was curious how you follow a Cheat Day? Do you follow it with a low carb day like in your CYWT program or do you follow it with a Fast?
Your insights would be great!
First and foremost THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!! I’m a 36 yr old mom who used to be in great shape and never had a problem losing 5 or 10 pounds when need be. Well, age and parenthood have taken their tolls on my bod and for the past year I’ve been fighting like crazy to get it back – no I’m actually trying to make it better than it has ever been before! I’ve done ok on my own (slow steady results… snails pace!), but when I started your XFL, everything began to change. The inches are coming off and my scale is finally acknowledging my hard work!
My question is if doing an additional 2 cycles of XFL would be beneficial or detrimental to my overall goal of loosing fat? The reason I would like to do an extra 2 cycles is bc I got the flu during one cycle knocking me down for 3 days and I had another cycle that didn’t allow me to workout on 2 days. Basically, I’m addicted to XFL! (:
Hi Joel thanks so much for your explanation of all your different programs and the way they all work – which I must say makes alot of sense. I am currently doing the XFLD and have been really happy with the results – lost 7 lbs so far having just finished the 4 th cycle. I am about halfway to my goal of 13 lbs loss but in no great hurry and as I haven’t been following it exactly to the letter I am more than happy with the results. Keep up with the great work you are doing and the great info.
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...