Metabolic damage (metabolic damage) has become the dread word in the sports scene. It refers to phenomena when the body reacts differently than the energy supply and intensity of the training suggest. Imagine an athlete who trains hard and, despite hours of cardio training and limited calorie intake, can barely lose weight and lose fat. Whether this is already metabolic damage, what metabolic damage may look like, and what you can do to keep your metabolism from getting derailed is explained here.
Objective criteria for a reduced metabolism
A healthy metabolism depends heavily on a well-functioning thyroid. The one whose body releases enough thyroid hormone will have a normal metabolism. Hyperthyroidism always causes someone with fat loss to be seriously injured. Such sub-functions can be objectively determined by blood tests and treated with suitable drugs. But very few athletes actually have any physiological deficiency. For many, the so-called metabolic damage is caused by a wrong training.
The training-related metabolic damage
It often affects athletes who want to make a good figure in a bikini competition. The calorie intake is reduced before the competition. At the same time, all registers are pulled to reduce fat as effectively as possible. The girls pull long cardio units through, although they are almost starving. At a certain point, fat loss stops working, the athlete trains harder, eats less and feels worse and worse. The performance in training drops, the competition is more bad than drawn right. After the competition, the weight increases beyond measure, as in the classic yo-yo effect after a starvation cure. What happens here in the body and how can you counteract such effects?
When the metabolism is adjusted to hibernation
Consider what happens in the body over an extended period of time during an extreme diet. Reduced energy intake from the reduced diet lowers leptin levels in the blood and provides a lasting feeling of hunger. The result is an increased amount of cortisol, which brings the body into a catabolic metabolism. This leads to muscle loss and poorer regeneration. As the body eats itself, it loses its muscle mass with an essential basis for fat loss. This effect is reinforced by the fact that important thyroid hormones are no longer formed in sufficient numbers. It also decreases the body temperature, another reaction of the body to shut down the metabolism. In other words, the body takes a hibernation-like metabolic state. Those who continue to drive hard cardio units with low carbohydrate intake at such a stage are in a vicious circle. Because the metabolism spiraling down. It becomes really diabolical, if missing thyroid hormones are supplied by pill from the outside. Anyone who works in this way completely ruins their metabolism and risks becoming dependent on thyroid preparations for a lifetime. It does not have to come that far.
Get the metabolism back on track
Once the thyroid gland is destroyed, only going to the doctor helps. This is the extreme case, but you can avoid it by not getting it this far. Decisive here is that you never give up on carbohydrates even before the competition. But once the metabolism is in the basement, only a careful reconstruction helps. One of these is to stop bleeding the body through cardio units. If you train in such a situation, then short and intense with long regeneration pauses. Concentrate while training on the main muscle groups. Whole-body training is the right way in such a case. It is important here to train with high weights and at the same time to try to boost the lactate production by intensity. Try limiting exercise time to 40 seconds per exercise. That's about 10 reps per exercise. The lactate released by training stimulates the metabolism. At the same time, a high-protein diet is recommended to boost muscle growth again. Accompanying this, you will gain sufficient nutrients through a healthy diet. As for the supplements, take the amino acid L-Tyrosine to you. It is responsible for your body being able to produce more thyroid hormones again. With this strategy you bring your metabolism back on track.
Who is particularly vulnerable?
All athletes who have only just begun to compete in bodybuilding for a short time are at particular risk for the metabolic damage described here. After all, they do not have the basal metabolic rate that a well-trained athlete has. Keep in mind that certain organs need a certain amount of energy even during the resting phase. Heart, brain and liver alone need about 1200 calories daily. Overall, the need is around 1700 calories. A novice whose basal metabolic rate is in this range is torn faster into the metabolic abyss by a brutal diet as described above, as a trained person with a basal metabolic rate of 2500 calories. If the retired person reduces his diet by 800 calories a day before the competition, he is still in the green zone, while in the beginner the body switches to emergency power and hibernation.
Conclusion - avoid damage to the metabolism
Therefore, build up your training systematically and for the long term. Do not risk radical diets, especially not for a long time. Also do not forget to consume enough carbohydrates before starting the competition. Once you are in the metabolic hole, let yourself be advised by an experienced coach and good sports physician and do not immediately take medication.
