Let's Play! Do You Have Metabolic Damage: The Quiz Part 2

Today we are going to continue walking through the Mini-Metabolic Quiz that we started last week. 

Who went out and figured out their numbers last week?

Good! Very good!

Remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg of metabolic assessment. This quiz is not the end-all assessment. And no matter what your score at the end, you have the chance to change everything about your current status.  You can absolutely repair all this damage. Heal all these problems.  

And it’s not more medications or supplements, it’s just smarter eating.  Pretty amazing if you ask me!

So let’s dive into the second part of the quiz.  Remember, this is not the ultimate assessment, you do that with me on your Metabolic Breakthrough Call. But it’s a good starting place. And you don’t have to have every one of the issues. 

Ok, the second half of the quiz is more subjective. We are out of the clinical assessment and into the lifestyle questions.

Metabolic damage happens over time due to many factors: our genes, aging, our eating habits, our environment, our medications, our past diets, all sorts of things.

But most of the beginnings of metabolic damage happen due to lifestyle choices.

Hear me clearly though: no one sets out to damage their metabolism on purpose. Most of us have damaged our metabolisms completely unknowingly when we thought we were doing the right thing for ourselves.

Question 7:

7. Do you have strong food cravings or a “sweet tooth?”

1. No, I don’t have food cravings or a sweet tooth.
2. Yes, at least 1-3 times per week.
3. Yes, more than 3 times per week.

Ok, now this is going to take a little reflection.

Don’t make this too difficult.  Think of just this last week.  Did you crave chocolate or sugar after dinner? Do you crave caffeine in the afternoon or alcohol in the evenings?  Did you crave French fries for lunch?  Were you thinking about tortilla chips or ice cream during the day?

Do you think about, daydream about, give a lot of mind space to food and how you want to eat it.

Women who eat well with healthy metabolisms have very well balanced appetites. We don’t think about or crave much food.  If you’ve been craving or obsessing about food for so long you can’t remember, you are not alone, but you also wouldn’t know that that is not normal.

You wouldn’t know that that is your brain and liver screaming for energy in the form of sugar or oil to help with the energy crisis that is happening on the cellular level of your body.

Which leads to question eight.

8. Do you get irritable, unfocused, or weak when you haven't eaten in the last 3 hours?

1. No
2. Yes, at least once per day
3. Yes, multiple times a day

Think about this. If you have breakfast at 7:00 am, are you hungry, unfocused, or stale by 10:00 am? 

If you don’t have snacks around, are you kind of a mess?

Do you feel like your blood sugar drops too much if you don't snack? That is actually a symptom of metabolic damage.  Your blood sugar is fine, clinically, but you don’t feel good without a blood stream full of sugar from food.  You like to “run hot” as we used to say.

This was a huge issue for me. I had to eat every two hours or I was a mess. Totally obsessed with food and when I would eat, what I would eat, etc.  Which was not obviously a bad thing since I was in nutrition, it seemed normal to be obsessed with food. But of course I look back now, and realize it wasn’t healthy at all.

On the other side of the spectrum is never being hungry. Going 6 or more hours without being aware of when you last ate but still being overweight is not a good sign. 

The two extremes of unhealthy appetite and metabolic hormonal signals are thinking about food all the time and needing to eat all the time. And then never thinking about food and not eating consistently or having healthy hunger cues.  

Healthy metabolisms give the right amount of attention to eating. Not too little and not too much.

Not feeling hungry then not eating, but not losing weight is not a good place to be.

9. Have you participated in any commercial weight loss programs such as: Ideal Protein, HCG diet, Weight Watchers, Noom, or any diet books?

1. No, I've never been on a commercial diet nor diet book
2. Yes, I've tried 1-3 commercial diets or diet books in my lifetime
3. Yes, I've tried more than 3 commercial diet books in my lifetime

Diets wreck your metabolism big time.  Low-calorie diets wreck your long term basal metabolic rate and can drop it so low, we spend weeks trying to tease it back up to normal levels. 

Extreme diets like HCG, MediFast, and others will take hits not only to your metabolic rate, but your whole metabolic hormonal system as well.  

Diets lead to metabolic damage.

10. Have you lost and regained weight in your lifetime?

1. No, I have not regained my lost weight
2. Yes, I have lost weight and then regained it once
3. Yes, I have lost weight and then regained it multiple times

Teasing up metabolic rates that have been damaged by diet cycles and weight loss, weight regain cycles is a skill that takes patience, expertise, and commitment.  It’s a big deal and is not always easy to do. 

Weight fluctuations are a negative cycle. The more your weight fluctuates, the more damage you incur, the more damage you incur, the more your weight fluctuates.

I see this most often with a low-calorie diet like weight watchers or noom.  You do the diet, you lose a bit of weight, say 10 lbs but then you stall out. Then you regain the weight plus some. Then you try again, maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.  But the point is, that weight watchers or noom were never going to work for you long term.  They just made things worse.  You were destined to regain the weight because of the way your body reacts to low-calorie diets and because those diets did not heal the metabolic damage that was the problem in the first place.  In fact, now it’s just a layer worse.

This is the curse of our generation who is just trying to follow the eating rules to control their weight. It was always flawed advice.  It was always going to lead you to this point of frustration.

11. Do you snack between meals?

1. No, I do not eat between meals
2. Yes, I snack 1-2 times per day
3. Yes, I snack more than 2 times per day

There is no such thing as a healthy snack. If you are snacking you are overstimulating your metabolic fat-accumulation hormones and not burning fat.

If you snack you are causing metabolic damage. If you need to snack, that’s a sign of metabolic damage. As I’ve said before, this was so me.

Snacking, grazing, multiple small meals per day is not good for you.

You may have been told that it will help keep your metabolism burning at a slow burn, but that’s not how it works. All you're doing is telling your body all day to never burn your body fat!  That advice totally misunderstood basic physiology. 

And lastly, question number twelve.

12. How many alcoholic drinks do you have on average per week?
13. 0-2 drinks per week
14. 3-4 drinks per week
15. 5 or more drinks per week

This matters because your liver is the quarterback of your metabolism. If you are filling your liver with toxins you will not have a healthy metabolism. We can’t have fatty deposits in our liver. We can’t be forcing our liver into poor health over time with too much alcohol.  Too much alcohol is 5 or more drinks per week for me.

If you have an unhealthy liver, you have an unhealthy metabolism.

Ok!

So that is the quiz.

Now, let’s talk about the results.

Let’s add up your responses from the last two sessions.

A is worth 1 point.

B is worth 3 points.

C is worth 5 points.

If your total was 1-15 you may have Mild Metabolic Damage:

Your body may be accumulating excess body fat and unable to burn your stored

body fat due to a few factors. This score is associated with stubborn belly fat

that does not respond to increased exercise or low-calorie diets.

If your total was 16-32 you may have Moderate Metabolic Damage.

Your body may be accumulating excess body fat and unable to burn your stored

body fat due to numerous factors. This score is associated with very stubborn

body fat that doesn’t respond to increased exercise or low-calorie diets and the

steady accumulation of more weight over time, especially in the abdomen area.

If your total was 32 or more, you may have Severe Metabolic Damage.

Your body may be accumulating excess body fat and unable to burn your stored

body fat due to many factors. This score is associated with very stubborn body

fat, inflammation, and chronic health conditions. It will need to be repaired as

soon as possible to change the trajectory of your health.

Now remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s just a mini-test, not a comprehensive test.

If you would like a full assessment, you can book your free Metabolic Breakthrough Call with me.

But for now, this should help you see a bit more clearly if your weight problem is really a broken metabolism problem.

And I want you to know that no matter what your age or your stage or your health conditions, you can repair all of this damage.

You can learn to eat smarter and lose weight. You can burn belly fat. You can lower your blood sugars, balance your appetite, take control of your cravings, and have a wonderful relationship with food.

Next week I’ll be hosting a free Masterclass at noon mountain time that will go deeper into what to do next.  

How do you fix a broken metabolism?  

We’ll even dive a bit deeper into what a broken metabolism is.

And at the end, you’ll come out with a free 5-Day meal plan to help you get started on the right track.

My mission in my tiny corner of the internet is to help women understand that they are not destined to hate their bodies and be anxious about food.

I want to help you understand that you are a woman who can lose weight, but you do need to repair your over 40 metabolism first.

And that is doable no matter how over 40 you are!

Which is amazing and wonderful!

Alright, great job everyone.

Remember, you absolutely have what it takes to lose weight, you just need to repair your metabolism first!