Can constant tinkering with your metabolism mess you up?

[SteelWeaver]

I'm wondering about people who compete a lot, or diet then bulk a lot. Don't you end up with some kind of metabolic fallout? While our bodies are always seeking to maintain homeostasis, competitive bodybuilders are always seeking to "shock" their systems. But the shocks must have to get greater and more extreme, because the body adapts, right? So, say for example, you're happily carb cycling, it's all going well, the body is guessing all the time because it doesn't know from one day to the next how many carbs or proteins or whatever it's going to get, then one day it just gives up guessing and decides to just stick at one point, because it's tired of trying to keep up. Does that happen? If the body can adapt quickly to straight macro ratios and even calories, it surely will not take that long to adapt to other types of diets, too.

Can the body become "diet-resistant"? W6 talked about "turning on" genes we might not want turned on ... I think this a very interesting topic.

Have their been any studies, or can anyone here speak from experience on the longer term effects of this? I mean, is it a good thing or a bad thing to constantly be changing stuff up? Good to a point, then bad? Sassy, I know you had some bad experiences. Is that typical?

Any ideas, anyone?

 

[SteelWeaver]

I guess I mean in a more extreme sense. I mean, we know that those on keto for extended periods tend to have problems with rebound when they re-introduce carbs. Also, getting down to extremely low body fat levels then bouncing back up again. Then there was the thing that W6 mentioned - compartment syndrome or something like that (in juicers). High blood pressure with sudden fluid retention from excess carbs. Stuff like that.

And refeeds. I wonder if one can become resistant to refeeds. Let's say you're on 150g carbs a day except for one day a week, when you jump to 500g. Which is great for leptin and metabolism in the short term, but I'm wondering more about the longer term effects of this type of yo-yo-ing. Same sort of idea for CKD, but there you also have to deal with the added effect of the body bouncing around between working off fat, then having to suddenly kick in some enzymes for carbs, then bounce back to fat. I'm not contesting the short-term efficacy of this type of dieting, just wondering if anyone's studied bodybuilder's nutrition habits and their effects longer term.

 

[SteelWeaver]

bump

 

[MS]

We are extremely adaptable organisms. If our bodies couldn't handle the stress of constant changes in food supply and environment we would have never survived. The one thing I'm certain of is that we did NOT evolve to eat the same things and do the same things 24/7/365! It is prolly more important to keep things varied as much as possible so your body doesn't get complacent.

 

[Sassy69]

Like MS said -- I think short term changes - e.g. a huge carb up once a week isnt' that big a deal -- the body is adaptable enough to "absorb" big spikes. But over a period of time, say if you are more than 10-15 lbs or a couple % bf 'off season' and then diet down for contest after contest, bouncing back up high between contests, every time it will become harder & harder to diet back down. Its better to keep the swings between extremes smaller.

 

[Arioch]

I have tinkered with mine since the first time I had to make weight. This was in 1974. I am fine. Admittedly, this would not exactly stand up to peer review, but as long as you maintain healthy nutritional practices in general, except when absolutely necessary (cutting) you should be just fine.

And if carbs are re-introduced slowly coming off a keto diet, it is generally not a problem.

And the longer I CKD, the better I do physically. Unfortunately, there is the fact that my lifts do not always go like they should.