NUTRITION & TRAINING

1) Do you know what you don’t know? First solution is to fix the lack of knowledge. There’s so much information out there and a lot of different views. It is overwhelming! Before looking at all the different approaches that you might want to try, we need to first understand the fundamentals of weight loss and plateaus. Then consider what works for your body, your food preferences, and fits the way you live your life. You need to create your own way to eat and ultimately “learn your body” and how it reacts to nutrition and exercise. You can manipulate those two factors to sculpt the sexy lean body you want.

2) Did you know weight loss is the wrong goal? Redefine your goal. People who want to lose weight generally still want to look good and not suffer on low maintenance calories. The issue is most have the wrong goal. Having a better body composition is about fat loss not weight loss! Quality weight loss is about losing more fat than muscle. It's the muscle that gives your body shape, keeps your metabolism higher, and allows you to eat more. Focusing on purely weight loss can leave you ending up "skinny fat."

3) Are you still thinking you can out exercise your bad diet? Exercise alone is not effective and many people fail for this reason. Diet is key. Accept this fact. First, many people underestimate the amount of calories they eat and overestimate the amount of calories they burn. Ever notice people who you always see at the gym but their bodies never seem to change? It’s not as simple as calories in vs. calories out. Nutrition is the biggest factor that determines your body composition.

4) One secret to maintaining your weight is exercise. People who are able to keep their weight off tend to be the ones who incorporate exercise into their lives. This makes sense because muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in your body. It’s what helps you burn more calories so you want to keep the muscle you have or build more lean muscle. You need to remain active to preserve your muscle and it’s even more important as you get older because metabolism slows down and you lose muscle. Which means your body will require less calories to maintain its weight and if you keep eating the way you’re eating, you will gain fat.

5) All-or-nothing VS flexible dieting approach. Research shows that a strict all-or-nothing approach is associated with overeating and gaining weight. Whereas, flexible dieting is associated with no overeating, losing weight, and no depression or anxiety.

Have you seen those articles claiming how pizza and ice cream can help you lose weight? It's nothing but a buzzworthy title because the underlying message is some indulgence while dieting helps you stick to your diet. (Flexible dieting!) On the topic of buzzworthy topics, there are no "one fix magical" foods. There are some quality foods that help with weight loss or foods that help suppress appetite.

6) Eat for your own body! You can’t just copy someone else’s diet because their body is different than yours so you may or may not see results. For those who have done their research, 40/40/20 (40% protein 40% carbs 20% fats) macro split is very popular and can get some results but there are 3 issues with why this isn't optimal.

• First, it assumes you’re eating the right amount of calories

• It doesn't consider your body composition E.g. more muscle needs more protein to maintain it

• Doesn’t factor in your body type and carb tolerance

There is no one magical diet for everyone.

7) Why are you making it harder on yourself? Take it easy. Start small. Ever get so motivated to be "really good" only to fall off your diet after a week or two? Don’t make it too hard for yourself or you’ll quit too early. Start with small gradual easy changes that can make a difference. Take the time to develop lasting habits and eat as much as you can while still seeing results. Leave plenty of room for reducing your calories further and more advanced strategies to help you bust through plateaus.

8) Working so hard and not seeing results? Have more than one way to track results! One of the most frustrating things is to do so much dieting and exercise and not see results that equal your effort. Relying solely on the scale is the problem. The scale doesn't tell your body composition. What if you were losing fat and maintaining your muscle? What about all the reasons our body holds water weight? What you recently ate and what time you step on the scale can also affect how much you weigh.

9) #1 Missing Key To Losing Weight. Create strategies to help stay motivated. It's not just having the right diet and exercise program. Mindset and an underlying motivation deeply rooted in emotion is overlooked. This is the #1 reason people fail on a weight loss plan. Pure willpower and determination will only typically last the average dieter 1 – 2 weeks before they “fall off” their diet. You MUST have strategies set in place to help motivate you on a daily basis until you develop new habits that become pretty effortless and turns into your automatic behavior. (YES, it is possible!)