How do you deal with metabolic wrecks? (q for pros)

[ShreddedPharaoh]

Hello fellow trainers and nutrition coaches,

you know those clients who tried too much fad diets or went yoyo for long time until their bodies became highly resistant and they tend to gain a lot of weight on even the smallest calorie surplus. they're usually women in their mid 40s.

If you advised them to go on a surplus for a week they'll bail out of the fear of gaining extra weight.

what strategies do you use to do a metabolic reset?!

your answers and any resources (books, logs, etc...) are highly appreciated.

[Ronin4help]

Longevity is the only cure. A constant, low sodium, low fat, mod protein and mod carb food strategy of appox 6 months should fix the body's natural tendency to absorb and retain water in excess.

[SerpentHearted]

There's no reason to take people to a surplus other than if you're coaching bodybuilders or athletes looking to go up a weight class.

Start with a conservative estimate of their requirements. In fact, start "overly conservative" so you can't second guess yourself later. The minimum you could consider appropriate for this client at their height & age and starting to build some consistency at training. Have in mind a more appropriate amount that's a little higher but still quite conservative, then an amount that's probably more reasonable and sustainable for the level of consistency and proficiency at training they'll have established by that point. Have in mind a "more adventurous" estimate of the most that they could put to use, benefit from, or otherwise expend on a daily basis.

Now, you're probably not going to come as high as that "more adventurous" estimate... but anything below that, assuming your maths is sound and they show up and train regularly, that's not in surplus. However it will quite likely be significantly more than they've attempted to "diet" on in the past.

So in short you're now giving them an amount that you know isn't excessive but is more representative of their requirements in order to benefit from training, and you're anticipating that they'll require more / be able to put more to use as they make progress in their attendance & performance goals.

You probably need to keep "body weight" outside of the main focus or they're going to screw it up by slashing calories "because i wasn't losing weight on the amount that you told me" and thinking that further into deficit is better. You want them putting more to good use, you want their body getting used to having the luxury of more energy and resources to draw upon to power & to recover from training... and then after a suitable period you can consider establishing a suitable, moderate level of deficit from that amount.

[ShreddedPharaoh]

Longevity is the only cure. A constant, low sodium, low fat, mod protein and mod carb food strategy of appox 6 months should fix the body's natural tendency to absorb and retain water in excess.

but most of those clients are already in a starvation mode and when you go back to normal calories and macros they actually start to gain weight and then panic.

There's no reason to take people to a surplus other than if you're coaching bodybuilders or athletes looking to go up a weight class.

Start with a conservative estimate of their requirements. In fact, start "overly conservative" so you can't second guess yourself later. The minimum you could consider appropriate for this client at their height & age and starting to build some consistency at training. Have in mind a more appropriate amount that's a little higher but still quite conservative, then an amount that's probably more reasonable and sustainable for the level of consistency and proficiency at training they'll have established by that point. Have in mind a "more adventurous" estimate of the most that they could put to use, benefit from, or otherwise expend on a daily basis.

Now, you're probably not going to come as high as that "more adventurous" estimate... but anything below that, assuming your maths is sound and they show up and train regularly, that's not in surplus. However it will quite likely be significantly more than they've attempted to "diet" on in the past.

So in short you're now giving them an amount that you know isn't excessive but is more representative of their requirements in order to benefit from training, and you're anticipating that they'll require more / be able to put more to use as they make progress in their attendance & performance goals.

You probably need to keep "body weight" outside of the main focus or they're going to screw it up by slashing calories "because i wasn't losing weight on the amount that you told me" and thinking that further into deficit is better. You want them putting more to good use, you want their body getting used to having the luxury of more energy and resources to draw upon to power & to recover from training... and then after a suitable period you can consider establishing a suitable, moderate level of deficit from that amount.

Thanks mate for the great answer.

[Ronin4help]

but most of those clients are already in a starvation mode and when you go back to normal calories and macros they actually start to gain weight and then panic.

If they panic it is only because they were not prepared. Meaning, you did a poor job explaining to them the process and what to expect.