You should not be eating 1400 calories 365 days a year. End of story.

In order to maintain a healthy metabolism, happy hormones, and stay mentally stable, you’ve got to be flexible when it comes to your daily intake.

Nutritional Periodization helps with that.

Nutritional Periodization is a set cycle of diet phases in which you flex calories and intake up and down based on your body’s specific needs and your unique goals at any one particular moment in time.

There are 4 nutrition periodization phases:

Caloric Deficit – (aka the Cut Phase) This phase typically starts your weight loss journey. In this phase you eat fewer calories than you burn in an attempt to lose weight. It’s normal to lose a bit more weight at the beginning, especially if you haven’t dieted for a while or if you’re making a significant change in the calories you consume. After the initial 1-2 week drop, expect to lose an average of 0.5-1lb weekly.

Caloric Surplus – (aka the Reverse Diet) This phase starts after weight loss has stalled. If you’ve been dieting for 8+ weeks, likely at some point your metabolism will adapt and you will stop losing weight. This is called a weight loss plateau. In order to get unstuck, you’ll need to eat moderately more calories to reignite the metabolism and restart the weight loss process. You may gain a few pounds during this phase, but if it’s done properly, you will not keep those pounds.

Caloric Balance – (aka Maintenance Phase) Here is where you find your ‘happy place’ the perfect amount of calories in to the perfect amount of calories out. This is where your body takes a break and balances back to normal. You aren’t losing. You aren’t gaining. Ieally you’re eating more calories than you did while in the cut phase and are feeling more satisfied without the threat of weight gain.

Caloric Surplus – (aka Bulking Phase) If you want a long, lean look, you’ve got to build muscle. And in order to build muscle, you’ve got to eat more! During this phase, you’re eating more calories than ever before, focusing on heavy lifting, and incorporating protein into most, if not all, meals and snacks. You will see some scale change, but done right, this change is pure muscle and when you cycle back to your cut phase, the fat will fall off and you’ll be left with beautiful muscles.

Each one of these phases is a necessary part of the weight loss cycle. Skip one and you’ll delay your results, possibly even damage your metabolism. So many women stay in the Cut Phase for months and months (even years!) on end. These women either ride a yo-yo because their diet is unsustainable, or they damage their hormones and health because their body is so run down.

By following the Nutrition Periodization Cycle of Cut, Reverse, Maintain, Bulk, Repeat, you’ll guarantee yourself healthy results, in less time, while avoiding the hormonal and metabolic damage so many women who diet for too long, experience.

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