The focal points for your fitness journey.
Maximize your efforts here and reap the most results without worrying about less important parts that don’t provide much return.
Whether you believe in them or not, calories matter. It doesn’t matter which diet protocol you are using; which trendy system you started; they all require a caloric deficit to work. A calorie deficit is simply eating less calories than your body needs to maintain its current weight. I’ll s tart by saying that not everybody needs to count their calories to be successful at fat loss, however, the science of fat loss requires a deficit regardless.
A calorie is a unit of energy. More precisely, it is the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water to 1 °C. When talking about food, there are three major macronutrients that make up the calories you eat. They are protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Let’s keep the focus on the mechanisms for fat loss.
If you’re not aware of how many calories you’re eating, it’s going to be really difficult to maintain fat loss plus training performance. You could do all the exercise and cardio in the world, and it wouldn’t make a difference. Not to mention your mood, energy, and sleep will suffer over time. Your calories are the fuel your body needs for all of these things which is why there is such a heavy focus on it.
The most important macronutrient is protein. Protein will help minimize muscle loss and maximize your metabolism (to a small degree). Protein provides the body with essential amino acids. These amino acids help enzymes, neurotransmitters, and antibodies in our system. All of which we need to function. Having an adequate amount of protein in our diets is not just about building muscle.
It’s also important for:
For fat loss and increasing the amount of lean tissue, an easy recommendation is to have 0.8-1g of protein per lb of bodyweight in our diet. This will ensure constant muscle protein synthesis, as well as the body being able to repair itself after those workouts!
The best foods you can eat for protein intake are:
This isn’t an end-all be-all list of protein sources, as there are more vegetarian options I haven’t touched on. Keep these in mind and try to incorporate at least 2/4 on a daily basis for your best health! Last but not least: there is no limit to how much protein you can digest in one sitting.
When it comes to getting more protein in your diet, you have to be proactive. Something like this will not happen overnight or without planning ahead. If you haven’t yet, I strongly suggest supplementing with a whey protein isolate (the brand does not matter too much), and if you find yourself on the go or having a sweet tooth, a protein bar can help as well.
When you are planning your meals, aim for a minimum of 30g of protein at each meal. If your goal is 150g of protein for the day, you might have to bump that number up depending on how many meals you’re having.
Water can help with weight loss in a variety of ways. It may suppress your appetite, increase your metabolism, and make exercise easier and more efficient, all of which could contribute to results on the scale.
When you drink enough water (more on this later), your body functions more effectively which can translate into better performance and better digestion. When your body gets enough water, it is less inclined to hold onto water – and nobody likes water retention.
Adequate water intake will also:
Aim to get at least half of your body weight in ounces each day. When your urine is clear, you’ve had enough water.
The reason movement is so important is because it can control 20-25% of your metabolism (the body’s furnace for fat loss). As a quick reminder, the metabolism is made up of:
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) (60%)
The number of calories your body needs to maintain normal body functions (breathing, heart pumping, basically living). Age, caloric intake and body mass are factors that affect RMR.
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) (5-10%)
The amount of energy it takes for your body to burn the food you eat.
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) (15-25%)
This accounts for any activity you do that is not purposeful exercise. This includes walking, cutting the grass, fidgeting,vstanding for work. The leanest individuals generally have an increase in NEAT because they are always moving.
Exercise (EAT) (5-10%)
Purposeful exercise to increase your body’s ability to burn calories. The amount of energy needed is determined by the intensity, duration & frequency of the exercise.
Your NEAT is arguably more important than your EAT in terms of pure fat loss. The more you can move on a daily basis (stairs, park further away, take transit, standing desk, walk breaks), the higher your metabolism. For the body composition you want, strength training is also going to be an important part of it. Building lean muscle tissue gives you the shape and tone you want while also increasing your metabolism over time. Who doesn’t love to eat more as they lose fat?
Something that is not often talked about in fitness is the role of stress and how it impacts your fat loss.
There are 5 major ways that stress can make fat loss harder:
Knowing this, it’s vital to give yourself some leeway but also find ways to de-stress so you can handle everything thrown at you every day.
Reducing the stress load could mean:
It might not be easy to handle stress on a given day, but there are ways to reduce it.
Also remember, while working out can be a great stress reliever, it is also a stressor on the body and nervous system. This is another reason why we don’t like to do a bunch of cardio or go all out to failure every session.
Stress can be another reason why the scale is not showing your true progress. When you’re stressed, your cortisol levels are elevated, making your body retain water. Cortisol can also mess with your blood sugar and insulin, making it more challenging to stick to your calories and digest and utilize nutrients optimally
Everybody knows a good night’s sleep is beneficial for the body. Did you know it directly affects your body composition, performance, and fitness progress?
Here are 3 easy fixes:
A lack of recovery and poor sleep can lead to:
Learning to adopt a nighttime routine can be a difference-maker for long term health and performance
Be sure to take 1-2 days per week to rest. Meditate, walk, stretch, but don’t strength train. Your body needs to recover in order to create the changes you want to see. As for sleep supplements, melatonin and magnesium are two proven supplements* to help with sleep quality.
*check with your doctor before taking any supplements
Now that you’ve gone through them all, it’s time to reflect and determine which ones you are struggling with most. Once you can nail that down, it will be much easier to focus on those aspects to move further along in your journey and keep making the progress you want.
If you’ve read through and found it overwhelming and you don’t know what to do next, click here and apply for coaching – let me do the work for you.
2 thoughts on “The Big 6 – Weight Loss Basics”
Love the straight-forward and succinct information here.
Thank you Kim!