YAY! Here's to Part Two of Coaching with my amazing Coach Luke Houlihan!I know.. I'm sorry.. I've been super slack with getting this up on the blog and I promise I will be blogging heaps from now on. If you haven't seen part one check it out here. I love helping all you girls so please comment with any questions you have or anything you would love to learn. Have a great day!
YOU MAY BE HINDERING YOUR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT?
Part 2
Have you hit a plateau?
Are you frequently exercising but the scales still won’t budge?
Are you frequently exercising but the scales still won’t budge?
Continuing on from Part 1 of our 2 part series, we will carry on as to reasons your weight progression may have come to a standstill.
Again this is not uncommon, but it can be frustrating. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this and break through your relentless plateau..
There are a number of reasons your progression may stall in this part of the series we will look at the following:
There are a number of reasons your progression may stall in this part of the series we will look at the following:
Not consistent with food
Resistance training
Refeed
REST
Water consumption
Not consistent with food So you’re eating all the right food, and you are eating the right amount for your current activity level (really??), but your weight continues to fluctuate up and down, up and down... This may be due to 1 or 2 things; ONE, you are eating foods high in carbohydrates OR TWO, you are not drinking enough water. Both of which will cause your body to retain water, so when it comes time to step on the scale, you are bouncing around in weight... Don’t be alarmed, this just means you are not eating consistently each week and some days you are holding on to more water than other days. You can avoid this by deciding on the same day of the week to weigh yourself, and the day before drinking plenty of water, 3 litres minimum (which you should be drinking this amount EVERYDAY anyway), and then weighing yourself in the morning, to be most accurate, maybe relieve yourself first
Resistance training Use it to LOSE it!
You may of heard the expression use it or lose it, well how about this; use it AND lose it! Referring to USE your muscle, and LOSE your fat! This is an easy one, but maybe some of you are not willing to do. Resistance training also known as weight and/or strength training! We need to build muscle! WHY? Because the more muscle you have, the more “TONED” you look and the faster you burn fat. To sustain muscle you need to burn more calories per gram of muscle mass. So the more muscle you have, the faster and more fat you burn.
Why should I do resistance training? The best thing about resistance training, is that AFTER you complete a workout, your body will burn calories for up to 48 hours. This is called the after burn effect. This is caused by your body feeding your broken down muscles that you have exhausted during your workout. SO this is why it is VITAL to feed your body accordingly, and make sure you are getting your protein for the day!
REFEED Your body is the most advance machine known to man, and it knows how to adapt to ANY pressure and or stress you put it under. So if you have been in a caloric deficit for some time, your body, more than likely will have adapted to your caloric intake and is now conditioned to metabolise and only use what you are putting in to it, causing the reduction of weight loss. This is where a reefed meal can benefit you. Without getting too technical, a reefed day will basically shock your metabolism into thinking it is getting more food than it needs so it will start to work in overdrive to account for the added calories, basically spiking your body’s natural levels causing a metabolic shift to occur, and as long as it is a one off occurrence, I would usually suggest a reefed meal once every 10-14 days (the leaner you are the more often you can have reefed days), your body will burn through these calories (depending on how much you put in – don’t go overboard), and basically resetting your metabolism, so when you start back training, not only will you see an increase in energy, but your metabolism will of also increased causing you to start burning through those calories again and breaking a potential plateau.
TIP: When having a reefed meal/day steer clear of refined sugars and processed foods. Best to have complex carbohydrates to avoid putting your progress back...
RESTOne tip people don’t seem to get right, yet it is the easiest of them all! Your body WANTS REST, it craves REST, it NEEDS REST! But why is it so hard? Because your silly overthinking, overanalysing brain tells you that if you REST you will lose all the progress you have made.. WRONG! Having FULL REST DAYS will allow time for your muscles to recover and this is when they grow... You do not grow your muscle in the gym, it happens while you are sleeping, and at rest. It is counterproductive to abuse your body day in day out and not allow for adequate rest. Not only do REST DAYS give your muscles the well needed break they deserve, but it also gives your central nervous system (CNS) a rest too. Your CNS is constantly under pressure and if you are experiencing CNS fatigue, your training, and thus your body will suffer.
TIP: Make sure you are getting enough sleep at night, try reading a book 20-30 mins before bed instead of watching TV and get off Facebook!, unless of course your looking up me!
Water consumption Often overlooked, water is arguably the second most important compound life is dependent on; oxygen being the first. Without enough water to rely on the body will quickly become dehydrated. The symptoms of dehydration are varied but include increased thirst (your brain telling you your body needs water), dry mouth and dry nasal passages, weakness, dizziness, palpitations (due to the subsequent electrolyte imbalance dehydration causes), confusion, inability to sweat, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and if ignored long enough, death (www.webmd.com). So is water important, ummmm yes! It aids with digestion and your metabolism by synthesising food and most importantly the absorption of proteins consumed, and we all know how important our protein is, don’t we?! TIP: The recommended amount is dependent on your activity level. You should be consuming at least 2 litres a day with no activity and then add 400-600 mls a day dependent on your activity level.
So there you have it. If you are experiencing one or even all of these problems, hopefully you can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. One thing you mustn’t do is give up, it is only when we give up that we truly fail!
– Luke Houlihan
Houls www.houlsfitness.com.au
