Tips to Getting Lean Series #2 | Beauty Empowered Wellness

Focus on Creating a Weekly Calorie Deficit, Not Daily

I love the holidays, parties, picnics, social gatherings, wedding receptions, etc. The thing in common with all of these major life events is that they have good food (usually a ton of good food). You can still enjoy these events and eat all of that good food and lose weight. The way to do this is have days in the week where you go quite a bit below maintenance. By the end of the week you can still create a calorie deficit, even if you enjoyed plates of great food. Life is too short to miss out on pies, cakes, and homemade food made by loved ones.

When Eating Alone, Go Strict and Low Calorie

My rule of thumb is to eat lower calorie meals when I am eating alone. When I am not around friends and family, I treat eating as purely functional and eat pretty bland. This gives me much more wiggle room when I do meet up with friends or family. It works really, really well in keeping the calories down while still enjoying good food and couple of drinks in a social situation.

Go Into Your Workouts in a Fasted State

?Your body is in either a ?fed? or ?fasted? state. When your body is in a fed state it primarily uses carb-energy for fuel. It is the body?s preferred method of energy. When your body is in a fasted state it releases HGH. This hormone helps release body fat from stored fat cells into the bloodstream so you can use that for energy instead of stored ?food energy?. Intense exercise also raises HGH levels. When you combine exercise with this fasted state, you create a great synergistic condition for fat loss. It works extremely well. Obviously you can overdue this and fast for way too long or exercise too hard, but done strategically this works wonders.

Avoid Insulin Spikes

?When insulin levels are high, HGH levels are low. Insulin is a ?storage? hormone. It helps store the nutrients from the foods you eat. A high level of insulin means a high level of storage (not what you are after if weight loss is your goal). You can avoid insulin spikes by eating foods with a low GI rating. Another method is to never eat carbs by themselves. If you eat a bit of fat and protein with your carbs there is less of a chance of a large spike in insulin. That is why I would recommend a bit of cream cheese or butter on a bagel than eating a bagel alone. I make it a point to never eat carbs without some fat or protein.

The Amount of Meals Per Day Doesn?t Matter

I think people should stick to what feels natural as far as how often they eat. Some people do better with 6 small meals and some do better with 3 meals. It really is the total calories that matter as far as weight loss goes. The idea that you metabolism will drop if you skip meals is slightly ?old school??research has proven that idea to be out dated. I am not saying that 6 meals per day is bad either, but it certainly isn?t necessary. If you do eat 6 times per day they have to be much smaller portions than the person who likes to eat 3 times per day.

Again, if you would like more info or more individualized assistance with this, please contact me HERE.

Stay tuned for tip #3!!

Source: http://www.beautyempoweredwellness.com/2012/09/lean2/

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