Whether you are eating before an athletic competition or a basic workout, I’ll give you all the tips and advice in order to simplify the role of nutrition to make a difference in both your performance and recovery.
Counting Calories
The ability to maintain healthy level of body fat mostly depends on burning as many calories as you consume. If not the body stores it as fat.
Many people follow 'Crash Diets' in an attempt to lose weight, however they are both very ineffective and harmful as they usually contain expensive food substitutes and do little to educate regarding healthy nutrition.
The burning of calories is mostly down to an individual's metabolic rate, but consuming fewer calories causes this to slow down. Regular exercise such as resistance training helps to reverse this, stimulating the metabolic rate to burn calories during and after workouts.
Although the aim is to burn more calories than you consume, it is important to be realistic when setting your weight loss goals and try not to lose it too fast. Studies show that a loss of 2-3lbs a week is healthier and easier to maintain long term.
Another very important factor to consider is whilst increasing your muscle mass and lowering body fat you will start to look leaner, but not necessarily see an obvious drop in weight when stepping on the scales. It is therefore important to have your body fat measured to gain a clearer picture of any progress.
Remember the most effective weight loss programmes involve a sensible diet, regular exercise and long-term lifestyle changes.
A weight loss programme should include:
- A calorific intake of no fewer than 1,200 kcal a day
- Not to lose more than 2lbs per week
- Lifestyle modifications to sustain benefits
- 20-30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week
Fat Facts
Obesity is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide. Excess weight can also lead to certain health issues such as coronary heart disease. This risk can be reduced significantly by reaching your optimal weight, through sensible diet and exercise. You will also look and feel great!
Remember exercise will never turn fat into muscle as they are two totally different properties making this impossible. Body fat is a collection of unused calories, so strictly speaking your goal is not to lose weight, but to lose fat by burning those excess calories.
There are two factors to consider:
- Humans are made to move - but we are moving less than any other time in our history. Many do not do enough to balance the calorific intake and expenditure, and therefore get fat. To reverse this we must increase our activity, usually in the form of exercise.
- By eating sensibly, it is possible to control our calorie intake, which has a positive effect on the calorie balance. We need to be aware of foods high in saturated fat, such as dairy products.
Fitness and nutrition go hand-in-hand, so make sure you have all the right facts.
If you would like some help adopting some subtle changes to improve your diet please give me a call to arrange a consultation.