Have you ever been frustrated trying to lose weight in the past? Do all those conversions of protein, starches and fats make you get discouraged? Our philosophy is to make nutrition easy. Here are a few helpful hints:
1. Drink lots of water! Replace all that soda and coffee that you drink all day. If you find yourself tired, sometimes more caffeine isn’t the answer. You may be dehydrated and need more water. Water also helps you burn more calories. A good goal to shoot for is half your weight in ounces of water a day, not including water you need after vigorous exercise.
2. At each meal, build your plate around a lean source of protein. A good guideline for a portion is the size of your palm.
3. Get most of your carbohydrates from vegetables and fruits, not your starches, breads or pasta.
4. Limit the amount of sugar you have! For men, have less than 150 grams and less than 100 grams of sugar for women a day. This is possibly the biggest problem. Sugar increases your blood sugar, this triggers your insulin to take that out of your blood and into your body’s cells. You can only store so much carbohydrate in your body in the form of glycogen. The rest is turned into body fat you probably want to get rid of. Avoid foods that are highly processed or have high fructose corn syrup in them.
5. Eat more frequently! Don’t skip meals! When you go long periods of time without eating, you will get cravings for carbohydrates and ruin your day diet wise. Try to eat 3 meals and 2 healthy snacks per day. Eat every 2-4 hours.
6. Eat till you are only 80% full. Don’t overeat.
If you follow these guidelines 90% of the time, this should lead to weight loss. If you are looking to maintain, you should eat like this 80% of the time. If you do the math, there are 7 days in a week, 3 meals per day, 2 snacks per day so it looks like this….
To lose weight:
3 (meals) + 2 (snacks) = 5 sittings per day
5 x 7 (days/week) = 35 sittings
35 x .9 = 3.5 meals/snacks per week where you can splurge a little bit
You don’t have to be perfect with your diet, just don’t overeat.
Fitness & Nutrition Coach 