Diet Strategies For the Everyday Lifter
This article will cover different strategies and tips that have helped me lose extra weight while trying not to lose muscle. You will find some of these in my past tip of the weeks and a few new. Hope they help.
First, let me get this out. Don't believe everything you here. All the time I hear people say they heard that this works and that works, but here is an old saying that I love to tell people trying to lose weight "MORE ENERGY OUT, THAN MORE ENERGY IN". If you don't understand that than keep reading it until you do. It takes approximately 3500 calories to burn to lose one pound of fat, so if you want to lose ten pounds, that 35,000 calories. This doen't happen overnight. There is no magic pill, its called work, so lets get to it.
One of the most easily understood strategies for losing weight is less more frequently. This is referring to your meals you eat. If you can eat at least six meals a day, that's great, if more even better. The more meals you eat the higher your metabolism will burn. You have to think of your metabolism like an old wood stove. the more times you feed it the longer it will burn, when you stop feeding it, it slows down.
What you eat is important and how it affects your metabolism. I read a article the other day and learned something I never new. The article stated how different foods will make your metabolism work harder during digestion thus burning more calories depending on the complexity of the food. What I didn't know was broccoli will burn more calories than you can eat of it. If you eat 2 cups of broccoli that's only 40 calories. You burn more, not sure how much, but more than those 40. There are many other like it. Foods that have a lot of fiber will burn many calories during digestion. Don't forget protein, due to the BCAAs (branched-chain amino-acids), it no only digests it, but has to find pathways to where all of those amino acids must go, sounds like a lot work, that's good for you. That's why you will hear a lot of diet guru's talk less carbs and more protein with each meal. Shakes are the easiest way to add a quick 20 grams of protein, bcaas, and wood to the fire.
Now lets talk about time. You will hear a lot of people talk about when to it, so on, so forth. But the fact of the matter is try to eat 75% of your carbs by noon or 1:00 p.m., depending on what time you get up. This way you can use those for energy throughout the day, instead of eating them late and storing them through the night while asleep when you burn only half the calories.
Cardio, if you have the time and choice, morning on an empty stomach is best. I've read statistics anywhere from 30% up to 300% more calories are burned if the same exercise is done in the morning compared to the evening.
Interval training is key to the cardio. Don't get in the habit of doing the same exercise for a straight 30 to 45 minutes or an hour. You can work harder and do less time and burn more calories. For example, ten minutes on a treadmill, alternating from walking, jogging, running, every minute can burn more calories than 20+ straight minutes of fast-paced walking on the treadmill. Keep your body off-guard, don't let it get used to what your doing over and over again. Other ideas, ride the bike for a few minutes, then go to an elliptical rider, then go to the stepper, then the treadmill. Try different things. It will make it more fun, and will be more efficient. One of my favorites for this year has been jump rope, I have forgotten how hard it was. The nice thing is that you can do so many variations.
Well, I hope these have helped, I know there helping me. If you don't have any idea of what to eat, check the diets in the articles section.
