Burn Baby Burn

I'm not sure if I already blogged regarding this issue, but it's definitely something that is very important. Some of you reading this right now have been attempting to lose weight and/or get healthier, and I applaud you on making the decision to do so. Some of you might be succeeding greatly while some others are simply struggling to achieve your goals. The latter group may be wondering, "I'm working out and I'm eating healthy foods, but why don't I see any changes?" Well, though you may be eating great foods, you still may be taking in way too many calories, which is not going to help you in the longrun because your body doesn't need so much. The basics are this: your body needs calories to burn for energy so that you can perform your daily tasks including walking around, thinking, exercising, your job, and recovering and repairing your muscles, among other bodily processes. Providing exactly the number of calories you need will vary day to day, but through various calculations (you can find online or in health-related literature), you can come pretty close. If you are trying to lose weight, the obvious would be to consume less calories than you need so that your body will use more of the fat stored, and if you are looking to gain, you should consume more calories. A great tip I got from Men's Health is to consume calories based on your goal weight, and eventually your body will match your eating habits.

I'd like to elaborate on eating habits a bit more. In one of my recent blogs, I talk about scheduling your meals. Further, eating 5-6 smaller meals as opposed to 2-3 giant ones, even if the calories are the same, is extremely better for you and your body, hands down. Think about it like an open fire. When you get a fire going, you should start with kindling and work your way easily to the medium sized logs. Adding a small or medium sized log frequently will keep your fire burning at a consistently high temperature, but it is necessary to keep this going throughout the period you need it for. However, if you start your fire with larger pieces, you will get it going eventually, and when the fire is burning full on it will be nice and hot, however, if you let the fire burn down before putting another large piece on, the temperature will drop and then take a long time to get back up again. This is precisely what happens to your metabolism when you eat in the same way. This is also why you feel so tired after a large meal, and why before the meal when you are so hungry your brain and body doesn't work so well.

The obvious complaint is that "I have no time..." or "...I still feel hungry..." Okay, well changing your routine is not easy, but there are some things you can do. First, schedule your meals (see my past blog regarding this), and if you are on the run a lot, pack nutritious snacks such as nutrition bars and/or dried fruit and nuts, granola, fresh fruit, a baggie with celery and carrots, cans of V8 juice, etc. I consume 3 meals that yield 400-500 calories and in between have snacks that yield around 200-300 calories, and I consume around 2500-3000 calories per day, depending on my workouts. I do intense workout routines, so I have found a schedule and consistency that goes with, and I can stay lean. I tend to hover in between 145 and 150 lbs and have around 5 to 6 percent body fat. I used to only eat lunch and dinner and whatever snacks I wanted, and I ate late at night, which is foolish and unnecessary, especially if you are going right to bed afterwards. It's a great method to pack on pounds of fat, trust me! Anyways, work slow when changing your habits, and if you can make some good changes, after 2 weeks or so when your stomach is an appropriate size again, you won't get the false hunger pangs you tend to feel when going from large to normal sized meals. Please feel free to contact me with specific questions or concerns, and I will do my best to help. Click on the title to link to my coach page as well. Thanks for reading and have a great Tuesday!