Our coaching question of the week comes from a member of the Metabolic Mastery Club, whom we will call Sierra for the purposes of this post! If you’ve been reading up on our recommended metabolic toggles, just as Sierra has, you may already understand that we often encourage toggling between “eat more exercise more” or “eat less exercise less”. This post will help you understand that there may be other toggles to add to the mix as your metabolism becomes more flexible. 

Q: “Hi everyone! I’ve been reviewing the recommendations for how to use toggling as part of Metabolic Renewal, and I’ve had a lot of success with both “eat less exercise less” (ELEL) and “eat more exercise more” (EMEM).  While I understand that I can utilize these toggles in any way that I wish – rather than following my own hormonal cycle, I’m curious if anyone has ever had success with “eat more exercise less” since “eat less exercise more” is rarely effective for long-term results. Does anyone have experience with this approach?”

Hi Sierra, and thanks so much for your question!

First, congrats on having success with the metabolic toggles already. Second, we love that you are thinking through ways to incorporate your own flexibility as part of our programming recommendations. We’d love to provide some helpful information to support you through testing out the approach of “eat more exercise less” as a way to better understand how this toggle may work for you! 

In response to your question, yes this approach can work, but we recommend being a bit careful in the way you put together your plan or implement this toggle. If you’ve been struggling to push through a weight loss plateau, now might be the ideal time to test out eating more and exercising less. 

Dr. Jade does believe that if you stay in any toggle for too long, your metabolism will inevitably adapt and results will cease, which is why changing things up is so highly encouraged. Sometimes toggles change without intention, such as when you are sick and your appetite decreases, causing you to naturally fall into the ELEL toggle. Or perhaps you decide to train for a race in honour of your preferred charity, so you customize your eating plan to incorporate more fuel, hence falling into EMEM (eat more exercise more).

We love that you are thinking about testing out the metabolic toggle of “eat more exercise less”. The more flexible you are about switching toggles, the more flexible your metabolism will be over time.  With the holiday season approaching, and possibly having some travel plans in the mix, you may want to take a little time to exercise less while enjoying some of your favourite seasonal foods (which can lead to eating more, perhaps not even from a portion control perspective, but more so from a caloric load due to higher fat or higher starch foods).

On a more regular basis, the easiest way to gauge when it is time to switch toggles is to listen to hunger, energy, and craving cues throughout the day. When these areas of SHMEC become more unstable, your body may benefit from switching up your metabolic toggle. Although the 2 metabolic toggles that help people lose fat or gain muscle are either less food (ELEL) or more movement (EMEM), you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with other toggles. 

Compared to typical yo-yo dieting methods that drastically cut calories and enforce “exercising more”, ELEL and EMEM are more sustainable, which is a big reason why so many have success with fat loss or muscle gain. Although the  “eat less, exercise more”  approach (aka the dieter toggle), might work for a period of time the metabolism often pushes back with this toggle. In a very short period of time, your metabolism can become stressed out.

So when, if ever, does it make sense to go the other way and eat MORE & exercise LESS? This approach is equally as imbalanced as the dieter toggle, and therefore, a stressor to the metabolism; however, there is nothing inherently bad about any of the toggles. Rather this approach is about learning how to use a toggle for a period of time and then adjust your approach when the metabolism starts roaring more than humming.

Cycling between the four metabolic toggles (ELEL, EMEM, ELEM, EMEL) may reduce metabolic compensation (SHMEC going out of check), and more importantly, help people break out of plateaus.

When used strategically and for specific periods of time, ELEM (eat less exercise more) & EMEL (eat more exercise less) can be thrown into the mix too. 

For 4-7 days max, the couch potato toggle can be used as a little “vacay” for your metabolism. A little R&R, if you will. But just a little goes a long way. After 4-7 days, this toggle becomes a stressor – just like “eat less, exercise more”. Returning to a more sustainable toggle like ELEL removes the metabolic stress.

By using this metabolic toggle intelligently and sparingly, you may be  able to benefit from it. 

With any toggle you choose to utilize, you have to find a way to narrow the calorie gap and convince the metabolism that it does NOT need to be stressed out. Cycling between the toggles is one way we can do this, and an “eat more exercise less” can be utilized now and then in an effective way.

If you decide to test out “eat more exercise less”, Sierra, let us know your experience! We would love nothing more than for you to learn about how your body responds to cycling all of the various toggles with seasonal changes, travel plans, or holidays so you can continue to look, feel, and perform at your highest level year-round! 

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash