Becoming, and most importantly staying, fit, lean, and healthy requires an understanding of good nutritional principles and dietary habits, belief in those principles, and ultimately the adoption of a holistic approach to nutrition that promotes health and the reduction of body fat. Our bodies weren't created to survive on fad diets that ban carbs or fat, require you to live off of grapefruit, or simply only drink liquids. What did carbs or fat ever do to you? Stop dieting and start enhancing your lifestyle. Here are a few nutritional tactics that I live by to keep myself lean, healthy, and happy. I swear, I eat delicious, healthy, food all day long, I'm never hungry, and I still find that I lose weight even when I'm not trying to. Eating like this is a lifestyle, NOT a diet. Act on a few of these principles and you'll be well on your way towards a life of leanness. I promise you, once you get going this might be the easiest journey you've ever gone on.
The List
1. Know your own body. Everyone has different calorie needs. Height, weight, sex, and body fat % are all factors that determine an individual's caloric needs to gain, lose, or maintain weight. Although calories in vs. calories out isn't the only factor that effects weight fluctuations, it's absolutely vital that you understand your own body's energy (calorie) requirements if you want to be in control of your weight. Go to my post at http://bryanfitlife.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-calculate-individualized-calorie.html for a detailed step-by-step explanation of how to determine your own personal calorie needs.
2. Count your calories. This might seem like a pain in the ass, and I'm not going to lie...it totally is. Carry a journal, use an excel spreadsheet, or download an app on your iPhone of Blackberry...whatever works for you and start recording all of the calories you consume throughout each day. At first counting calories can be really difficult and inconvenient. The good news is that it gets exponentially easier as you continue to do it more and more often. You'll begin learn and remember how many calories are in specific foods and ultimately your mind will become an encyclopedia of nutritional knowledge. Mine definitely has, and at this point I can just keep a running tally in my head throughout the day. You'll also start to learn to make healthier food choices that are lower in calories. Act on it. Start doing it. After a month counting calories will be like second nature and you won't even have to think about it. Use http://www.calorieking.com or http://nutritiondata.self.com to look up the calories in specific foods. I use a nutrition scale from http://www.eatsmartproducts.com/products.php.
3. Eat more meals that have less calories. This is probably the single most important and effective dietary tactic anyone can implement. Instead of the traditional 3 huge meals per day with snacks in between, try eating 5, 6, or even 7 smaller meals every 2-3 hours. By doing this you're benefiting your body in a few ways. a) You eliminate all snacking on junk foods b) You'll speed up your metabolism and keep it running, which burns extra calories all day long c) You'll stay full, but not bloated or sluggish d) Eating huge meals promotes fat storage because your body is unable to use all of the energy (calories) that you're feeding it at once. The excess calories that the body can't use circulate through the bloodstream and are eventually stored as fat. By eating smaller meals you feed your body enough calories to fulfill energy needs, but no excess = no body fat storage.
5. Eat high levels of protein. Protein helps suppress hunger, slows digestion, and also elicits a thermogenic effect - an effect that boosts metabolism and burns excess calories. Up to 27% of calories derived from protein sources can be burned during digestion. For instance, If you consumed 500 calories of protein 135 of them would be burned during digestion alone. Protein also helps build muscle which creates a toned and lean appearance.
6. Limit as much sugar as possible. In the grand scheme of things sugar should have been named fat. Sugar is the most important nutrient to watch if you care at all about regulating your body fat. When you consume sugar it enters the bloodstream and spikes insulin levels, which signals the body to store body fat. Secondly, that insulin spike is responsible for increasing hunger levels. Repeatedly spiking insulin levels is also responsible for the development of diabetes. Plain and simple eating sugar will make you fat and will cause you to eat more. It has no nutritional value, cut it all out.
7. Swap refined carbs for complex carbs. One of the easiest switches you can make is to swap out all simple carbs (i.e. products made with white flour, products high in sugar) for complex carbs (i.e. whole grains, whole wheat, and oat products). Refined carbs have the same negative influence on body fat storage and hunger as in #6. Switch from white bread to wheat bread and you'll see major changes. Complex carbs are also high in fiber which promotes digestive health and plays a major roll in controlling hunger.
8. Add cinnamon. Cinnamon helps control blood sugar levels.
9. Drink a glass of water before meals. You'll eat less.
10. Eat fruit, don't drink it. Swap out orange juice for a whole orange. Whole fruit has more fiber and pulp which will keep you fuller.
11. Cut out all liquid calories (except skim milk, protein shakes). Whole food keep you fuller than liquids. Sugary drinks are empty calories that stimulate hunger.
12. Limit alcohol to one drink. Drinking too much alcohol is a surefire way to derail any diet and pack on belly fat. Having a drink or two every once in a while is perfectly healthy, but don't get in the habit of drinking more than that.
13. Don't eat while you drink. When you drink alcohol your body preferentially burns it over any other calories. What you eat will sit in your body until the alcohol has been digested, which will most likely be stored directly as body fat. Binge drinking and ordering pizza, ice cream, and other fatty snacks is the primary reason for the "freshman fifteen."
14. Eat spicy foods, chili peppers, pepper, etc. Thermogenics, thermogenics, thermogenics. 15. Eat healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats only. Fat is a huge misnomer, it doesn't directly cause body fat gain. Fats are vital to our body's functioning and should never be cut out of a diet. In fact, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in nuts and nut butters, seeds, olive oil, avocados, salmon and other fish, hummus, etc. are extremely heart healthy and are critical to controlling hunger. They also help slow down the digestion of carbs/sugar, which helps avoid body fat storage. Fats get their bad rep because they're higher in calories per gram than both carbs or protein (7 calories per gram in fat, 4 calories per gram in protein and carbs). Be conscious of how much healthy fat you're eating so that you stay within your own caloric goals. Also, avoid all saturated and trans fat...they raise the bad LDL cholesterol and lower the good HDL cholesterol. Eating these types of fat will result in heart disease, atherosclerosis, and heart attack.
16. No eating, other than protein, at least 2.5 hours before bed. When you sleep your metabolism drops significantly, and anything that's still in your stomach will most likely be turned into fat. The one exception is protein, which helps keep your metabolism boosted due to its thermogenic effect. If you consume a protein shake or some other form of protein before you go to sleep you can actually burn more calories than normal and keep yourself out of a catabolic state.
17. Flavor with spices not sauces. Spices and rubs pack a ton of flavor without the calories of sauces like mayo or BBQ sauce.
18. Don't drink diet soda or overuse artifical sweeteners. From my own experience, I lost 15 pounds when I stopped drinking diet soda alone. Artificial sweeteners stimulate hunger and can create a sweet tooth, which can cause people to overindulge in other foods. They're also linked to numerous health conditions, including diabetes. If you're curious check out http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20040630/artificial-sweeteners-damage-diet-efforts. Although the majority of evidence against artificial sweeteners is anecdotal and shown in animals, I would stay away from the stuff as much as possible. Ingesting chemicals is never a good thing. If you need to use a sweetener choose Stevia, a natural artificial sweetener.
