Nutrition and Fitness Basics - Here's What You Need to Know
Updated: Jun 1, 2022
The Basics:
1. Nutrition—you need to eat fewer calories than you burn each day.
You can calculate how many calories you need to consume for fast weight loss by multiplying your current body weight by 10 or 11.
Be sure to include protein in each meal every day. It is important for every meal you have to be balanced with a protein, complex carbohydrate and healthy fat.
Focus on low energy dense foods—this allows you to eat more volume which will keep your hunger and cravings at bay.
§ Examples of low energy dense foods are broccoli, celery, raspberries, rice cakes, carrots, chicken, turkey, tuna, beans and eggs.
Increase your fiber to increase fullness, improve digestion, and get your proper allotment of low energy dense foods.
§ Examples of high fiber foods include beans/legumes, most vegetables, berries, whole grains, nuts, seeds and fiber supplements.
2. Get your exercise in—specifically metabolic resistance training.
Metabolic resistance training increases muscle protein synthesis which leads to muscle growth as well as burning 200-300% more fat and increasing your metabolism for up to 48 hours.
Essentially metabolic resistance training is circuit training with high intensity heavy weight training mixed in. You will perform supersets, drop sets and other training methods to increase your workout intensity and torch body fat. A few things you will want to do to mix it up:
Progressive overload is a theory in which you continually change up your routine by adding new or greater stimulus to what you are doing. This can be as easy as adding additional sets or weight to your workouts.
Along the same lines is volume. You will want to track your sets weights and reps for each workout and continually increase the volume of those as you go.
Finally variation is an important key as well. This includes types of exercise, reps done, weight used and any combination of those things to change up your workout and keep your body guessing.
HIIT or high intensity interval training is another method of exercise you should use. This method utilizes quick bouts of intense cardio training (6-90 seconds) and followed by longer periods of rest (2-3 minutes).
3. Supplements are a good tool to use to help you accomplish your goals, however, you will want to be discerning in which supplements you choose to use. For starts miracle diet pills don’t work, however, there are some all natural options that could help you get the most bang for your buck—just make sure you consult a doctor before adding anything to your diet and exercise regime.
Caffeine is a good option not only for energy, but it also has the ability to help you burn more fat. Pre-workout caffeine helps to spare your muscle carb stores which in turn increases fat oxidation during exercise. Just make sure you look for a clean product that uses safe amounts of caffeine when shopping for this supplement.
Use whey protein to help with your muscle growth and recovery during your 90-day fat challenge. This a good option as a single meal replacement (not every meal) or when you are busy and need a quick boost until you can get something more substantial. Whey protein can also help you to lower your cholesterol, reduce elevated blood sugar levels as well as other metabolic diseases.
If you are vegetarian or vegan, have no fear. There are good whey-like protein options that are plant based that you can use instead. Soy in particular is a great option that can come in powder forms and give you the boost you need without using animal products.
Green tea is another supplement found in nature that can help increase your fat burn as well as aiding you with other health benefits. There are three different spheres in which green tea helps to burn fat. First, it increases your metabolism which increases the amount of calories you burn daily. Second, green tea increases the proportion of fat you burn as fuel and lastly, green tea has the ability to subside your appetite.
Probiotics help to balance the good bacteria you have in your gut versus the bad bacteria, this in turn helps you to digest your food better which can then lead to weight loss. Make sure you look for a high-strength probiotic supplement (something that provides at least 15 million live bacteria per day).
Fish oil/omega 3 is important to your fat burning journey because it helps eliminate inflammation, increase fat loss, and decrease blood sugar. Try to get in 3-5 grams per day for the ultimate boost to your regime.
4. Water is a very important component to burn fat. For starts it works as a natural appetite suppressant and doesn’t add calories. It’s also common for people to believe they are hungry when in fact they are just thirsty and consuming enough water goes a long way to solving that. Water can also increase your calorie burning and waste removal which can all aid in weight loss. There is no exact amount of water you should be drinking per day as it can vary a little by height, weight, physical activity, and climate. However, this equation is a good starting point to figuring out how much H2O you need every day: you weight in lbs. divided by 2.2, that number multiplied by your age and then that number divided by 28.3 will give you how many ounces you should aim for every day.
5. The last factor you will want to track is how much sleep you are getting. Research has indicated that proper rest (sleep) is every bit as important to weight and fat loss as activity and diet. Not getting enough sleep can affect your appetite and metabolism which can then start to affect your weight. There are a few things you can do to assure you get the amount of sleep you need.
Keep a regular schedule when it comes to your sleep. Big swings in the amount of sleep you get every night can throw your body off its rhythm which then can elevate your blood sugar levels.
Keep your room dark and avoid artificial light from a TV or phone while you try to catch some ZZZ’s.
Avoid eating before bed as it can thwart any weight loss attempts you make.
Find ways to reduce stress before you sleep. It can a) keep you up late and b) cause you to eat when you don’t need to.
