Fix Your Metabolism Without Starvation — A Guide for Women

You've probably heard before, if you want to lose weight, just eat less and move more. But for most women, that advice leads to exact opposite of what they want. Slower results, lower energy, and more cravings. Hello everyone and welcome back. Today, we're breaking down the top three metabolism mistakes I see all the time and what you can start doing instead to get your metabolism working for you. Number one, under eating consistently. This is what most women tend to do. Skip breakfast or eat something tiny like a coffee and toast. Then snack throughout the day instead of having real meals. Most of these snacks tend to be something healthy like a granola bar. Let me give you a little tip. It's not healthy. And they undereat during the week and then overeat on the weekends. And guess what? All the undereating leads to binging later on. And here's what actually happens. Your metabolism slows down to conserve energy. your thyroid and reproductive hormones take a hit and your body starts holding on to fat because it doesn't feel safe. When your calories are too low for too long, your body your body lowers levels of T3, which is your active thyroid hormone. It's basically your internal metabolic thermostat. At the same time, cortisol rises to keep you going. And that combo makes fat loss harder, not easier. So, a lot of us women tend to start the day with a black coffee, then snack throughout the day. They will have low calorie snacks which usually tend to be high in carbs and that will then lead to our blood sugar being on a constant roller coaster. So we'll have energy dips, energy highs, energy dips and it's just all over the place. And then our calories are really low. And to add to that, we might even bingch later on in the evening and that's not a healthy cycle to be in. And here's some signs you might be undereating. Even if you aren't binging, undereating is still a major red flag. And here's some signs you might be undereating. You wake up exhausted even after sleep. Constant caring for sugar or caffeine. Cold hands and feet, hair thinning and regular cycles. Feeling anxious or wired or tired. And if you're new here, I've been through this. I have a whole video on my journey on undereing, binging, and all the things that I don't want to say right now, but there's a whole video on this. So, I know what I'm talking about, and I know what it feels like to be there. So, trust me, I've been in your shoes. And therefore, I can give you some advice that will hopefully hopefully help you to fix this. So, eat real balanced meals. Protein, fat, and carbs, everyone. I know if we're trying to balance our blood sugar, depending on what your body thrives on, you may want to lower your carbs, but to begin with, start with all three and see how you feel and have proper meals. I know we tend to be scared of calories, but trust me, you just got to eat a whole proper meal and see how good you feel. See how long you stay satiated and just feel that amazing feeling on how good it feels to actually be nourished. Stop skipping breakfast. It sets your blood sugar rhythm for the day. So again, for breakfast, I would recommend not having too many carbs. Just focusing on protein and fat first thing in the morning and then having those carbs later on. Unless your workout is after your breakfast, then of course we need those carbs for energy. If not, try to time your carbs around your workout. But skipping breakfast stresses your body out, sends you on a blood sugar roller coaster, and we don't want that. So start eating your breakfast. And also don't fear cups. They help your thyroid and nervous system function properly. You just got to know when to eat them. So eating enough isn't letting yourself go. It's teaching your body it's safe to burn energy again. Some of us who are watching this right now who are undereating, we might be underweight as well. So maybe it's time to gain some weight. I for myself had to gain some weight to be at a healthy state and that was necessary. I lost my period. I lost a lot of different different things in my life. So sometimes we have to stop going after that certain body and actually start focusing on health because being skinny and being healthy is not the same. Two, over exercising without refueling. What most women do add more workouts when progress stops. Combine intense training with low calorie or low carb eating. really rest thinking rest will slow them down. What actually happens? The body sees exercise as stress and if there's no recovery or fuel, it stays in survival mode. Cortisol stays high, thyroid hormones drop, and you stop building muscle. You end up feeling inflamed, hungry, and drained, not leaner. So, when cortisol is constantly elevated, your body prioritizes survival, not fat burning. Glucose stays in your bloodstream longer. muscle repair slows down and your recovery hormones like growth hormone and progesterone take a hit. Here's some things you can watch out for. You feel exhausted after workouts instead of energized. You're sore for days. Hunger skyrockets or your appetite disappears completely and sleep gets worse the more you train. So, we don't want to overtrain. I know, I know. We're thinking we got to train hard. We got to hustle, hustle, hustle. But our body training and wrist are just as important as each other. You can't train without being rested. And honestly, rest is probably more important than training. We got to rest our body properly. And how do we fix this? Fuel before and after training. Even light movement days. We a lot of us tend to be scared of carbs, but carbs before and after workout is totally fine. They're good. We need that energy. And also focus on protein and carbs post-workout. So focus on proteins and carbs post-workout. Think steak, potato, not just a salad. We need those carbs to refuel our glycogen stores. And we need that protein for our muscles. Limit long cardio sessions. Prior to our strength, walking and recovery. A lot of us tend to do hits, which can be great for some people. And because we are female, our body tends to run on different hormonal cycles. So, we need to structure our workouts around that. So, we're not going to train in every single of our four phases the same. So, for example, when we're on our menstrual phase, we may not train at all. We'll do some light stretches. But when we are on our ficular phase, we may, for example, do a different workout. So it just depends on what phase we're actually in. And so I would recommend to limit long cardio sessions and focus on strength training, walking, and recovery because long cardio sessions don't tend to be the great the greatest I believe. I they stress your body out. So I would rather have you focus on strength and walking as that is the golden combo. Built in rest days as well because recovery is progress. Again, more isn't better. Better is better. I know that sounds cheesy, but your metabolism thrives when your body feels fed, rested, and strong. Three, ignore strength training. What most women tend to do is stick to cardio because it feels safe or familiar. Avoid weights out of avoid weights out of fear of getting bulky. Focus on calorie burn instead of muscle building. And guess what actually happens? You lose muscle over time. And muscle is what keeps your metabolism active. The less muscle you have, the less energy your body burns, even at risk. Your body composition suffers. You get smaller but softer, not leaner. So after the age of about 30, women lose up to 3 to 8% of muscle per decade if they don't strength train. That's a huge reason metabolism slows down with age. Not aging itself, but muscle loss. I have talked to a lot of women and many don't want to lift weights because they think they're getting bulky. But what happens with that is how heavy you go, how many reps you do, and how often you train. And I don't you don't have the same hormones as a man to look like a man that easily. A lot of women who do want to look that way, which is totally fine. Everybody can look the way they want. But those who don't want to get too bulky, that's not going to happen. It depends on how often you train, how many reps you do, how many sets you do, all those things matter. And if you're interested in any of that, I do cover that in week three of my mentorship, which we go into depth on everything that focuses on training. But just if you keep a light weight, but still strength training, you're not going to get bulky. You can trust me on that. So, here's what to focus on. Lift heavy enough to challenge yourself with good form. We always want to have good form. We don't want to injure ourel. I see a lot of people who, for example, when they do RDL's go really, really heavy and then their form is really bad and it goes onto their lower back. We don't want that. We want to focus on good form first and then slowly add in weight. Focus on big compound moves, squats, lunges, push-ups, rows, deadlifts. If you don't have a lot of time, focus on those compound lifts as they work multiple muscle groups instead of just doing isolation movements. Train three to four times a week consistently. Consistently, not perfectly. If we just get those three to four sessions in a week, we're going to see such we're going to see so many changes. You could do if you would do if you do four times a week, you could do two times upper body, two times lower body. If you do three times, you could do one upper body, one lower body, and one full body. Super simple. Doesn't have to be complicated. Just find what works for you. And the simpler it is, the more likely you're actually going to stick with it. And eat enough protein to support muscle growth and repair. And again, I know protein has had a lot of hype over the last couple of years, which is amazing. We need protein, but the quality protein matters. The amino acid profile matters. So, I would always recommend to go for whole food protein sources, preferably animal based, because they have a better amino acid profile rather than, for example, going for a plant-based protein bar. And here's a little mindset shift. Lifting weights doesn't make you bulky. It makes you metabolically flexible. It's how you shape your body, protect your hormones, and age strong. Now, number four, constant dieting and restriction. What most women do jump from one diet to the next. Keto, low carb, intermittent fasting, juice cleanses, 30-day, 30-day diet, 10 days, blah blah blah. They also cut food groups in the name of clean eating and see food as something to control instead of something to nourish. And here's what actually happens. Your body never feels safe. It's always guessing what's coming next. Hunger hormones like ghrelin and leptin stop working properly and you lose muscle instead of fat and your metabolism slows down. When you restrict calories of food groups over and over again, your body adapts by becoming more efficient because it doesn't want to it wants to survive and it just burns less energy to survive. the hormone that tells your brain that you're full and safe drops. And grein, your your hunger hormone rises, meaning you're less satiated and more hungry. So even when you eat enough, your body doesn't feel satisfied and cravings spike. This is why after restrictive phases, most people regain the weight straight away and often more than before. And sort of like a willpower, it's biology doing its job. When you restrict your body, yes, you will become smaller, but you will become smaller overall. So, your percentage from fat to muscle will usually stick say stay around the same. So, you'll just become a smaller version, but not necessarily a leaner version. And what can you do instead? Focus on nourishment, not restriction. Build consistency with real balanced meals, not phases of on track and off track. We're making a lifestyle and we're not doing another diet. Because if we diet, it's only certain phases of our life. Unless we're like a bodybuilder and we do bulking and cutting and that sort of thing, that's a whole different thing. But if we're just trying to become a healthier version of ourselves, we're not going to do that. We're going to make a lifestyle shift, not just a diet. And instead of removing foods, focus on adding things like protein, healthy fats, and nutrient-dense carbs. If you've done it for years, take a true metabolic resace, eating enough to rebuild trust with your body. You can't heal your metabolism in the same environment that broke it. When you stop trying to earn food, your body starts trusting you again. Last one, number five, not prioritizing stress and sleep. What most women tend to do, focus on food and workouts, but overlook how much stress impacts everything. We always think that one workout and those meals is everything we need to do for a healthy lifestyle. It's not. We have 24 hours in a day and those two things don't make up those 24 hours. Most women also tend to run on caffeine and go to bed late and wake up feeling anxious and the first thing they drink in the morning, black coffee. And they also tend to think, I'll rest when things come down. But they never really do. We all live in this hustle state. We have to be go go go. Which yes, I mean we all got to earn our money. We all got to live. We all got to do certain things. But because we are so in a hustle culture, sometimes we tend to do too much and we stress our body out. So maybe just taking 5 minutes and breathing in. I tend to talk really fast. So maybe I need to take a sit back as well. But we'd all tend to be on a go go go state. And guess what actually happens? Cortisol, your main stress hormone, stays high all day. High cortisol increases blood sugar, blocks fat loss, and makes you crave quick cups. So, when you're constantly stressed, and you think, "Oh, what do I want to have?" A lot of us tend to crave things like pastries, cookies, something sweet. And that's because our body is it wants quick carbs. So, that's not a lack of willpower. It's not you being lazy or not strong enough. It's just biology. It also suppresses thyroid function and progesterone leading to PMS, irregular cycles or fatigue. This is why I always say don't stress. For example, this is little side joke, but if you have a meal, for example, one is just a regular cookie and the other one would be something like steak. Um, this you would have to prep and take somewhere and this would be like at a party and you're stressing about eating this cookie. And this like moral of the story before I confuse you, eat that food even if it's not the most ancestrally aligned food without the stress because that's going to be better for you than eating something that's healthy or better for you that will make you stress because stress is ultimately the health killer. Your metabolism isn't just about calories. It's about safety. If your body feels constantly stressed, it won't prioritize fat burning. Instead of instead, it holds on to energy fat as protection. Even a one bad night of sleep can raise cortisol and insulin levels the next day, making you hungrier and less insulin sensitive. That's how sleep and stress directly affect blood sugar balance, cravings, and fat loss. So, what should you focus on? Prioritize 7 to 9 hours of real consistent sleep. Build slow mornings. Avoid checking your phone first thing. Use walking sunlight and proper meals to regulate cortisol naturally. And support your nervous system with minerals, salt, and deep breathing, especially before bed. You don't have to eliminate stress, but you do have to create safety signals for your body. That's when your metabolism shifts out of survival mode. So, when we talk about metabolism, it's not just calories in, calories out. It's a reflection of how safe and supported your body feels. If you've been undereating, overtraining, dieting for years, or running on stress, your body isn't broken. It's just doing best. It's just doing its best to protect you. When you start feeling properly, building strength, and creating calm, your metabolism can finally work for you, not against you. And that's what I teach inside my mentorship. We go deeper into real food meals, blood sugar balance, and rebuilding metabolism the ancestral way. If you're ready to get started and have fun and ascend your body, come and join us. I'll have a link below. That's it. I'll see you in the next video.