'Losing weight'.. Zzzzzzz I use to feel exhausted just thinking about it.
Where do I start? What do I eat? How far do I run? Should I starve myself? Am I not doing enough? Should I eat no carbs? Will eating fat make me fat?!
These are many questions I once had and am now asked by many girls around the world. Let me tell you now, there is no miracle diet, weigh loss pill or an easy shortcut that got me to where I am today.
When I began my journey to a healthier lifestyle I was eating a super low calorie diet and did hours and hours of cardio every week assuming I'd get results I wanted. Unfortunately this wasn't what was happening and I caused damage to my body. I was under eating, not losing weight, over exercising, running myself down and NOT getting the results I wanted. I'm sure some of you are in or have been in this situation?
There is so much to learn when it comes to health and fitness. It makes me so upset when girls email me for help and tell me they starve themselves. Eating not enough food will only destroy your metabolism. Your body needs food to run correctly. Believe me when I say what you eat is the most important thing when losing weight and/or gaining muscle. You need a correct diet for your body to perform correctly.
Today is your lucky day! I am no health or fitness professional but I do have a strong passion to help women reach their goals the right way and the healthy way! I have teamed up with my incredibly knowledgeable coach - LUKE HOULIHAN.
Luke has worked hard to put together information that we both believe women need to know and have a better understanding about.
The following information is only PART ONE!
Next I will share with you Part Two.
In part two Luke will teach you about the reasons your progression may stall.
- Not consistent with food
- Resistance Training
- Refeed
- REST
- Water Consumption
Part 1 by Luke Houlihan
YOU MAY BE HINDERING YOUR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT?
Have you hit a plateau?
Are you frequently exercising but the scales still won’t budge?
Whether you are looking to gain muscle, tone up or lose fat the following are problems that may be hindering your progression. This is a problem that is not uncommon. But what can you do to break through that plateau and continue to make progress?
There are a number of reasons your progression may stall in this part of the series we will look at the following:
- You are not eating the appropriate amount of food for your activity level
- You are not consuming enough protein
- You are not consuming enough carbohydrates
- Cardio
Let’s break them down and get to the root of the problem...
You are not eating the appropriate amount of food for your activity level
This is the BIG one. In order to know how much food you need you will first need to your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) & Active Metabolic Rate which you can find out HERE. Once you know what your daily caloric consumption should be you can then adjust your food accordingly. If you are wanting to gain muscle you will need to eat in a caloric surplus of about 20% of your AMR. If you are wanting to lose weight, you will need to eat in a caloric deficit of likewise of 20% of your AMR.
You are not consuming enough protein
Whether you are wanting to build muscle or lose fat your body needs protein! If you do not have a sufficient amount of protein coming in, your body will expend that of which you have already and this is done by breaking down your current muscle you have worked so hard to achieve. Rule of thumb is about 1.2 – 1.7 grams per kilo of body weight depending on your activity level.
TIP: The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn...
You are not consuming enough carbohydrates
Don’t be scared of carbohydrates, these are what are used as your ready source of energy that your body can use to sustain your activity levels, and if you aren’t getting enough to match your activity output, your body will become catabolic, meaning it will break down muscle for energy, and you DO NOT WANT THAT!
TIP: Experiment with your carbohydrate intake, and don’t be scared of consuming them...
Cardio
Are you doing too much?
Often when we start a new training program, or decide we want to lose weight, we will straight away jump on the treadmill and do an hour a day 5, 6, 7, times a week! And once we plateau, we have nowhere to go! This is one of the biggest mistakes we can make. If this sounds like you, then you need to drop back your cardio so your body has time to re-adapt to the load. You may experience a slight increase in weight, but do not worry, it is only because your body has realised that it doesn’t need to expend as much energy thus NOT burning as much food so it will want to hold on to it till it adapts to the drop in energy expenditure. After this period of time you can then increase your cardio, but do it gradually, maybe increase the time you are currently doing by 5 mins. If you are just starting out, I would suggest only doing cardio 2-3 times a week INITIALLY, and doing a steady state type of cardio, like walking for 30 mins, elevate your heart rate, a slight sweat, but still able to hold a conversation.
Are you not doing enough?
I hate cardio, and I know most of you do too, so you are reluctant to do any! This will definitely hinder you from dropping those extra kgs. Also if you are wanting to build muscle but may be experiencing weight gain in the form of fat and not so much muscle, adding cardio to your regime will curb this. I would suggest starting out slowly, like I suggested above. 3 times week with a simple walk on the treadmill for 20-30mins. After the weight stops either increasing or decreasing, then ramp it up a little, but remember to do it gradually, perhaps just increasing the time on the given days, once you hit 45 mins for the 2 – 3 days you are doing already, maybe then add an extra day of cardio.
Perhaps you need to mix it up... So perhaps you have hit a plateau and you did the cardio the correct way by gradually increasing it over time but now you are doing 5 days a week and thinking of increasing it again, well DON’T! Instead mix up the type of cardio you are doing. Maybe you should include a day of high intensity interval training (HIIT). BUT again start of gradually, perhaps just one day of 10 mins on the treadmill where you walk for 1-2mins and then SPRINT for 30 seconds. Do this for a period of 10 minutes. You can add to it gradually as you begin to plateau again.
TIP: Change up machines to activate different muscles, try the rowing machine or maybe the bicycle...
Luke Houlihan
www.houlsfitness.com.au
