Have you been enjoying this glorious weather!? I hope so! As we get closer to summer, and the weather starts to get hotter, and our clothes start to get less concealing, a lot of people start to think about shedding a few of those pesky extra winter pounds.
There is so much to say on this topic, but if you are one of those people please let me share a few words of caution before you start willy nilly cutting calories or upping your workouts.
Training is only the stimulus. Your nutrition is part of what determines how much of that stimulus your body can actually cash in on.
What do I mean by that? Well, think about it like this. Say you live in a house and you aren’t happy with it. You haven’t done your best at maintaining it and so it’s starting to show it’s age; the floors creak, the roof sags and you’re ready to upgrade to something newer and sturdier.
You have a vision for this dream home and so you hire a world class architect who draws up a plan, and then you hire an elite builder to take those plans and build something beautiful. You now have the best plan and the best builder. You’re getting excited about this stronger, more stable dream home becoming a reality!
But now imagine you’re in charge of materials and you deliver toothpicks and wet cardboard instead of two by fours and nails. Your elite builder will build you at best a beautiful house that will fall apart the second it is tested, or at worst will fall apart before it is even close to completion. Either way, this best laid plan, will soon become a sloppy pile of junk.
Take that analogy and compare it to what a lot of people do with their bodies. They have neglected their health, they’re starting to feel it and so decide once and for all to lose weight and get in shape.
So they hire a Personal Trainer. The Trainer designs an amazing plan.
They show up to each to each and every appointment. They do their best but man, those workouts are hard.
So they go home and treat themselves to pizza and a glass of wine to make themselves feel better. Because they don’t want to deny themselves this simple pleasure right?
They rally and show up again and again and again but are having a hard time getting progress. So they decide to try intermittent fasting.
Nothing. No progress on the scale or with the weights. So they decide to cut all the carbs.
Ok, that worked, they lose 5 pounds in one week but the workouts are now impossible. They aren’t making any progress there.
No weight loss in the following week and they still aren’t getting stronger.
They get frustrated.
Then they quit because it isn’t working.
It’s possible it’s the plan, but it’s also very possible that the Personal Trainer is being given wet cardboard to work with. In other words, the client is showing up having not eaten enough to sustain the progress. They aren’t eating enough protein to support the growing muscles and to support the strengthening tendons.. They don’t lose weight because their calories are too low to support the extra activity and so the body holds on to as much body fat as it can for fear that there isn’t enough food coming later.
In a nutshell, your nutrition matters. Cutting your calories too low can actually do the opposite of what you are hoping to achieve. And not being conscious of eating enough protein can limit your progress in the gym and on the scale. As can cutting your carbs too low, your body needs to get energy from somewhere!
Instead here is what I suggest you do….
1) Change your goal. Never make ‘lose weight’ your primary directive. Instead, focus on building muscle and losing fat. In other words, the goal is to change body composition. The magic is, the more muscle you have the better you feel physically AND you are actually boosting your metabolism in the only modifiable way possible and so you are able to lose fat easily and steadily.
2) Eat in a SLIGHT calorie deficit. That means about 300 – 500 calories less than your maintenance. This ensures you have enough energy for your workouts but a little less than you need to maintain yourself so your body starts to go to your fat source for the extra fuel.
3) Eat at minimum 1.6 grams of protein for every kilogram of ideal body weight you want to weigh. For faster results, eat 2.2 grams of protein for every kilogram of ideal body weight, make the rest of your calories from fat or carbs. This ensures that your body has enough building blocks to build that hard earned muscle after workout. Remember, the training is only the stimulus, without the protein building block your muscles can’t get stronger.
4) Lift heavy weights at least twice a week and walk every day. If your body and time allows, add in a few sessions of high intensity cardio.
In Summary:
When you eat the right amount of food, with the right amount of protein, carbs and fats the downstream effects compound rather rapidly: Better recovery between sessions. Less systemic inflammation. Improved focus and motivation. Better performance overall. Improved body composition.
As always, if you have questions or need some guidance please ask! We’re sure you’ve got this, but know that we are here to help you when you don’t!
xo Christine
