To get to a healthy weight, focus on the metrics that matter: ✔️Average overall caloric intake ✔️Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) ✔️Macronutrients (proteins/carbs/fats) ✔️Sleep ✔️Body fat ✔️Lean mass (muscle, bone, organs) ✔️Movement outside of workouts ✔️Intensity of workouts Stop worrying about: ❌Scale weight ❌BCAA's ❌Pre-workout mixes ❌Supplements ❌Timing of food ❌Workout selfies ❌Low-carb ❌Keto ❌Intermittent fasting ❌Any other stupid diet If the needle is not moving in your health journey, it might be time for an effort check. Where are you putting the most effort forth? The top list is where it's at. These are the 100% guaranteed keys to success, no matter what your health goals are. The second list is full of fuss. Some of those elements might give you a very small percentage of help, but not without FIRST BEING CONSISTENT WITH THE FIRST LIST. Let's have a coffee and chat about your nutrition. Want to go deeper on the "metrics that matter?✔️Average overall caloric intake
The number of calories you consume determines your scale weight. And day to day doesn't matter so much. It's more about the weekly, even monthly caloric intake. If you have a couple of "good days" where you hit the caloric intake that should get you to your health goals, but you have a long three day weekend of eating well under or over, this will effect your overall progress. The body is cool, in that it stores energy, or calories. So, when I look at a nutrition clients caloric intake, I'm looking first and foremost at their weekly average. And then their monthly average. These are the numbers that matter. So if you're tracking caloric intake, pay attention to your averages over time. ✔️Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) The quality of your food is all about it's micronutrients; vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that keep you healthy. ✔️Macronutrients (proteins/carbs/fats) Macronutrients determine your body composition (overall caloric intake does play a role in this as well). Eating enough protein for your body weight and enough carbohydrates and fats, your energy makers, for your activity level will determine how much lean mass (bone, muscle, organs) you have versus body fat. ✔️Sleep If you're not sleeping, you're not recovering at night. Heard of "rest and digest"? When you sleep, your body is doing a once over to recover all of the damage that may have been put on it that day, and working hard to digest your food. Without sleep, metabolism will slow way the heck down. And I don't just mean the digestion of your food; I mean cellular regeneration, muscle recovery, immune functions, hormone production, and more. ✔️Body fat As discussed above, your body composition (lean mass versus body fat), is determined by the macronutrient split in the foods you're eating each day. If your body fat is too high or too low, your body will not be able to form its daily functions very efficiently, and similar effects as lack of sleep will show up, such as slower hormone production. Sleep and mood are directly effected as well. ✔️Lean mass (muscle, bone, organs) Muscle is such a valuable tissue. It uses up lots of calories, or energy, so the more we have, the more calories we're burning at any given time. More muscle mass also allows us to work at a greater capacity during workouts, making them all the more effective. W We do begin to lose muscle tissue from our 30's on, so working toward maintaining it at that age and beyond is so important. And it's never too late to start! The more muscle mass we hold onto, the better we age. And the longer we'll be able to take care of ourselves and avoid nursing homes or assisted living. So lift. Lift heavy. And lift often. ✔️Movement outside of workouts Also called NEAT (non - exercise activity thermogenesis), is responsible for roughly 10-20% of our caloric output (or calories burned) each day. Roughly 2x as much as our workouts! So getting up and moving your butt each day is important. NEAT is also imperative for the health of your joints, for blood flow, heart health; you name it. Don't let your 1 hour workout be the most movement you get all day. Take a short walk on your lunch break. Stand at your desk. Move and move often. Your body will thank you! ✔️Intensity of workouts You don't have to go full boar at each workout, but, don't just show up and hit autopilot either. Growth and progress happen when you push your limits. Skip the selfies and work hard. Challenge yourself on the weights you're choosing. Challenge your pace when doing metabolic conditioning, or cardio. Get a little uncomfortable.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
SarahHelping people reach optimal health by educating them in all things nutrition and fitness. Archives
July 2023
Categories |