BEE #160: Why Dieting Is Slowing Your Metabolism (And Making Weight Loss Harder Every Time)

If you’ve been cutting calories, tracking every bite, pushing harder in the gym… and still hitting a plateau—there’s a reason.

And it’s not a lack of discipline.

In this episode, we break down why the advice to “just eat less” often backfires—especially for women and especially when emotional eating is part of the picture.

You’ll learn:

•  What metabolic compensation actually is (in plain English) 
•  Why your body starts burning fewer calories when you diet 
•  How restriction increases hunger, cravings, and food obsession 
•  Why the harder you try… the more stuck you can feel 

We also connect the science to what you’ve likely experienced firsthand:
 The cycle of being “good,” tightening the rules, losing control, and starting over again.

And we introduce a different path forward—one that’s not based on restriction:
 👉 The Breakthrough To Moderation approach

This is the foundation for a deeper conversation I’m continuing in a live Master Class, where I’ll show you how to step out of that cycle and start creating results that actually last.

👉 Sign up for the End Food Obsession Master Class here.

Connect with me online:

1. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinjonescoaching/
2. You Tube channel, Kristin Jones Coaching: https://www.youtube.com/@KristinJonesCoaching44

3. You Tube channel, Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@breakthroughpodcast-44
3 . Website: https://www.kristinjonescoaching.com

If you want to learn how to stop nighttime eating, get my 3 Day Nighttime Snacking Reset: https://go.kristinjonescoaching.com/nighttime-snacking-reset

Needing more specific and direct support for your emotional eating and overeating? Check out my online course, Stop Dieting Start Feeling, and my personalized coaching program, Breakthrough To You.

If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to leave a review on the platform you used to listen and share it with your friends on your Instagram stories. Also, be sure to follow me on Instagram @breakthroughemotionaleating, and don't hesitate to slide into my DMs to share your thoughts and fee...

Transcript

A Coach Rethinks Diet Culture

Breakthrough To Moderation Series Preview

How Calorie Cuts Slow Metabolism

Stress Hormones, Cravings, And Obsession

The Restrict, Rebound, Regain Cycle

Live Masterclass Invitation And Next Steps

Next Episode Teaser And Resources

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Do you want to lose weight but struggle to stay committed to a meal plan because you constantly feel hungry? Does food provide you comfort when you're bored, angry, lonely, or sad? If so, you are in the right place. My name is Kristen Jones, and I'm a life coach specializing in emotional eating and weight loss, and I'm also a lifelong emotional eater. I want to provide you with information, motivation, and support so you too can learn to manage your issues with food and develop a healthy relationship with yourself. Welcome to the Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast. For the eight years that I have been an emotional eating coach, I have always tried to do what is best for my clients. And the thing that I think is going to be most effective for them when it comes to managing emotional eating, managing emotions in general, living your best life. I've always really focused on the clients and what has been the best thing for them. And over the years, things have changed. I have uh changed a lot of my thoughts about things. I have changed uh based upon my experiences, what works better for clients than other things. And there are some things that I have left behind and um that I have moved away from when it comes to my philosophy and how I help women learn to manage their emotional eating, manage their emotions, feel their emotions, and maintain or lose weight in a way that's going to be workable for them. And over the course of probably the last six months, well, it's probably been more like three years, I have I have not been a supporter of diets and of dramatically reducing calories and um because I just don't feel it's sustainable. Does can you lose weight? Absolutely. Uh is it something that's gonna last? No, it's not, and it's not gonna last for a variety of reasons. And so, because of that, I have moved in a different direction when it comes to what I believe will best serve my clients. So if you are a person who is starting to notice that it's getting harder and harder to lose weight each time you try to do whatever kind of plan it is, it doesn't matter if it's keto, it doesn't matter if it's just counting calories, whatever it is, if it's getting harder and harder and you're feeling like, I don't understand, I'm doing all the things, I'm doing all the things, I'm doing everything right. Why is this not working? If that is you, then this episode is really going to help you understand why that is happening. And as a result of me moving in this direction much more dramatically in the last six months, I've sought an additional certification and really am getting more and moving more towards completely abandoning and not dieting at all to help people be able to be the size that they want to be. Now, when I say that, um, it sounds like, well, how can you do that without dieting? And you can, um, but here's the here's the catch, here's the thing that nobody wants to hear. The bottom line is if you want to actually lose weight and lose weight in a way that is sustainable, that you can maintain, that you're not dramatically reducing calories and you're not physiologically doing damage to your body and making it harder and harder the subsequent times you're gonna need to lose weight. First off, you shouldn't have to do it again. But there really is a way to do it, but it's gonna take time. And let's be honest, most of us are impatient, most of us want what we want yesterday, and we want the result tomorrow. And that's just not reality. It's just not the way it is. But you know, our society has moved so much towards instant gratification and it's getting exactly what we want immediately. And when it comes to weight loss and it comes to sustainable weight loss, it's just not how it works. And so um I'm kind of the bearer of bad news, but I'm also the beacon of hope because I hope that what we talk about in this is a series, a series of podcast episodes. And the reason I'm doing this series is I have decided after two years of not leading any group coaching programs, I had a group coaching program, I had a man uh a membership for quite a while. Um, I have decided to go back and start doing group coaching again. But I wanted to do group coaching my way and the way that I think is most responsible and that is in alignment with what I believe is best for people and what has helped me sustain my weight uh within five pounds uh over the last almost 20 years. So I want to be able to do that, and I want to be able to do that in a way that uh feels authentic to me, that also is very transparent. And so I will be launching a group coaching program towards the end of April. Uh, this is being recorded in the middle of March, and um, and I wanted to I wanted to do this series to inform you on what the changes are, what the things are and the not the change, there's really nothing different. Um, all of this is the reality of of what it means to be losing weight and to try and lose weight and do it in a responsible way. And that's the only way that I can do it and feel within my own integrity. So this uh it's called Breakthrough to Moderation, and it this is a podcast series that will go through uh four different episodes, and um I will be referencing the breakthrough to moderation um group coaching program that I will be launching at the end of April. I don't want anyone to be surprised, like, oh, now you're gonna try and sell us something. Yeah, I am because I think what I have is going to be the final answer for most of you. Um, but you have to be ready for it. You have to be ready, you have to want it, you have to um understand why going back and counting macros and counting calories, why all of that is just not going to get you where you want to be. And I don't want to lead you someplace that you're gonna have to repeat over and over and over again. I won't do that. So, this series, uh this is episode number one. And um, so I'm gonna walk you through today one of the biggest reasons why women stay stuck in that cycle of trying to lose weight, you know, depriving themselves, then overeating, then feeling shame, then doing the whole thing all over again, and why dieting is actually the cause, and that what I teach is in fact the solution to it. And we will get to we'll get to all that, but let's just take it one step at a time. So um it re there really is a huge misunderstanding because most women believe that if they want to lose weight, they just need to eat less. And on the surface, that makes sense. The calories in, calories out totally makes sense. Um, and weight loss does require a calorie deficit. But here's the thing that no one ever really explains. And that is that the your body, when you decrease the amount of calories that you take in, your body adapts. Our bodies are so amazing. Our bodies adapt to that deficit. So if I was starting out and just eating normally, and I uh burn 2,000 calories in a day, and I I'm doing that, that's great. 2,000 calories, I'm doing my thing. And my body expects that I'm gonna burn about 2,000 calories in a day. If I start, if I decide maybe I want to lose a couple pounds, so I maybe decrease my calories by 300. So I go down to 1700 calories, and and my weight's staying the same. So I'm probably eating approximately 2,000 calories and I'm burning 2,000 calories. So I'm staying the same. I decide that I want to lose weight, so I cut 300 calories and I say, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna eat 1700 calories. My body notices that immediately. Now, it might not, it I will lose some weight. I will lose that weight, but what will happen is my body's going to adapt. And now I'm only gonna need to, I can only now burn 1700 calories because that's what my body's but that's what my body's taking in. So my body now burns that. So each time, and and subsequently, if I then plateau, I can't lose any more weight at that calorie count, I can drop it lower. Will I lose weight? Sure. But given some time, my body's gonna go up. This this looks bad. We're gonna adjust now. We're gonna call downregulate. We're gonna downregulate. So, one, I don't die. So, because it wants to meet me, my body wants to meet me where I am. It doesn't want me going through a famine. So it will downregulate each time I try to reduce my calories. And it also doesn't burn fat always, it will turn and start burning the muscle as well. And so that's one thing nobody ever tells you when we start to cut those calories, is our body keeps adapting. So we have to keep cutting the calories with it. And what this is called is it's called metabolic compensation. And it's our body's natural response to us eating less. So here's what starts to happen is your basal metabolic rate, which is how I'm just what I'm what I'm burning is I'm just sitting here talking to you. That decreases. I then start burning fewer calories at rest. I then start burning fewer calories when I'm exercising. And also my body becomes much more efficient at using energy. So I now don't eat, I now burn fewer calories during exercise. I also have less of an afterburn after I exercise because my body now needs to be more efficient because it's kind of concerned that it's not going to get much more food. And so this kind of cycle keeps happening. And so naturally, when people don't know that, and then they kind of lose some weight, then they plateau, they want to start losing again, they cut their calories, and our body just responds and everything starts down regulating and continuing lower. So again, my body slows down and I start to think, oh, I should probably eat a little less. I start eating less, I start losing weight again, my body adjusts, and we do this over and over and over. So I try, I continue to eat less, I add more exercise, my rules get tighter, I start to actually make the problem worse. I am actually making it harder for me to lose weight because I continue to decrease my calories. Now, here's the bet here's the part that really no one talks about is it's not just about the calories. There is also a huge stress response that our body has when we start to reduce calories as well. And the stress response is directly a result of the calorie deficit that we've gone into. And what this does is when we are in a prolonged calorie deficit, our cortisol hormone increases, our hunger signals increase, so our hunger actually increases, our cravings actually increase, and our body feels deprived, which in fact it most likely is, because you know, you're really not, you're you, you when we're when we're cutting back on calories, we are cutting back on the things that we enjoy. And we are depriving our bodies not only of nutrients, but also enjoyment. And our bodies will not take that for very long. So this is the stage where you start to feel kind of out of control, you start to obsess, you start thinking about food all the time, and you keep feeling like you're failing because what you're doing is now no longer working. But the bottom line is you're not failing. Your body is actually responding exactly the way it was meant to, because it's always been designed to keep you alive, and that's exactly what it's doing. So it's doing its job. It's just no one has ever told you that when you continually decrease those calories, your body slows down. And then your body also has that stress response, which increases cortisol levels, that increases belly fat, that increases um your hunger hormones, that makes it harder for you to not be thinking obsessively about food, and weight loss stops. All of those things are happening all at the same time. And so, again, each time we do this, that diet that you went on six months ago becomes harder and harder and harder to get the same results that you got six months, a year, two years ago. So dieting really does impact every aspect, not only of your body, but every aspect of your life. So every time you go through the cycle of you restrict, you lose, you get excited, then you plateau, you get frustrated, you push harder, you reduce calories, and then you rebound. And that rebound usually is a binge, and usually you gain all that weight back, and then some. The statistic that I've heard is 90% of people who diet regain their weight within two years. Of those 90%, 60% gain back more weight than what they originally lost. So only 30% of those 90 at 90% just gain back what they lost. 60% gain back what they lost and more pounds. That is not that from a from a a gambling standpoint, that's not those aren't those aren't good odds. There aren't good odds for anybody. Um, and what happens is your metabolism, you the your ability to burn calories and use them efficiently in your body over time becomes less responsive. And it it just and you become frustrated because you don't know what's gonna work, you don't understand why it's not working. Um, you have to do so much more, but you get less of a result. And it feels so hard. And that's because it is, and and honestly, I mean, I know I've heard this, people say this, and I know as a coach, sometimes I'm like, really? But it's true. And I'm sure you have friends, I'm sure you've heard people say, oh my gosh, I'm only eating a thousand calories. Why am I not losing any weight? Like I'm eating, like I'm legit eating a thousand calories, and I am not losing any weight. Something must be wrong with me. Yeah, you're eating too few calories. You're just you have you have frankly jacked up your mechan your metabolism and it is not going to respond. So it's not that you aren't disciplined, it's not that you don't have willpower, it's not that you don't want it bad enough. Your body has just adapted to what you've you've done, and what you've done, unfortunately, has kind of messed it up. And so now we need to figure out how do we undo that. So it's one of the this is really one of the main reasons why I don't teach dieting. Because it basically is teaching you to work against your body and what your body naturally wants to do. And it doesn't matter how disciplined you are, it doesn't matter how much exercise you do, it doesn't matter how nice of a person you are, you are gonna continue to hit this wall every single time. And it's one of the reasons why I wanted to host a live a live masterclass in addition to launching my my program. I want to do a masterclass beforehand to give even more information and to really actually teach you how to overcome some of these things. How do we make a change? What do we do to not have our metabolism to be messed up, to not feeling hungry all the time? What how do we do those things? And how do we do it from a uh not only an intellectual level, but an emotional level as well as a physiological level? How do we actually do this and manage our bodies? And because it's it can be so frustrating for anyone who's putting out so much effort and trying so hard and doing the right things, and their body, they feel like their body's betrayed them. And your body hasn't betrayed you that hasn't betrayed you. You have been betrayed by the diet industry. That's the bottom line. You have been misled, you have been told that these things that you will do will actually create long-lasting change, and it's not ever meant to do that. It's always gonna circle back and it's always gonna come back, and you're gonna be exactly where you were when you started. So if you're sitting there thinking, okay, great, this explains why nothing is working anymore. Um, and what am I supposed to do here? Now I know now I know why it's not when it's not working. What am I supposed to do? So, what I want you to do is I want you to think about and I want you to sign up for my masterclass. And my masterclass, I'm gonna walk you through what dieting is doing to your body in real time, like as we're as we're doing all this in real time, what's it doing to your body, why your metabolism, hunger, cravings feel harder than ever to manage. And what you need to start doing immediately to start to heal your body so you can actually start moving in a positive direction again, because it and it takes both a mental, an emotional, and a physical change, and really adjusting and and allowing yourself to really feel all your feelings, feel the things, but also really uh commit to yourself that you're not gonna continue to do these things to your body that are just making everything worse. So the masterclass is gonna be uh live on Zoom. It's only gonna be available to those who register for it. Um, I'm gonna have a link in the show notes, and you're gonna sign up, you're gonna give me your email address, and I will send you all the information about the details, the Zoom link. It's going to be uh on actually, I'll I'll have the date for you in the um in the information that I send to you in uh once you click on the link. I'll have all that information in the link in the by in my show notes. And I would love to see you there because I would love to be able to educate as many people as I can because people just don't know this. And it's not it's not it's not that people are intentionally trying to mess people's bodies up or frustrate people. I just don't think a lot of people really understand what's happening. And and we all kind of fall victim to let me think about what I want right now and not think about the future. And I just want, I just want to feel, I just want to feel skinny now. I just want to fit into that dress. I just want to go on vacation and feel good. I just want to get married and fit into my wedding dress. Totally natural and totally understandable. But we have to start thinking more realistically and for our long term health and overall mental and physical well being. And that's what I'm all about. So look for the link in the show notes. And on our ne a next episode, which is going to be episode number two in this series, we're going to talk about something that I know you experienced. And that is why dieting doesn't just slow your metabolism, but why it actually makes you hungrier, increases your cravings, and makes you absolutely more out of control and obsessed with food. And once you hear about that, a lot of things are gonna start to make a whole lot of sense. So click the link in the show notes and sign up for the masterclass. And I will see you next week on the podcast, and you will get all of that information about cravings and hunger and food obsession. All right, I'll see you next week. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. If you are interested in learning more about how I can help you understand and manage your emotional eating, including the use of hypnosis to uncover the root cause of your eating, go to my website, Kristen Jones Coaching dot com.