If you're trying to lose body fat, you may not be eating enough. When you do eat clean, you may not be eating enough to satiate yourself or supply your nutritional needs. Clean food is much less calorically dense than crappy food, even though it is more nutrient dense. It is nearly impossible to eat clean 90% of the time if you are not eating enough clean food - under eating leads to cravings, loss of will-power, and hunger. Not that you should over eat either.
What I mean about will-power is that if you pit your brain against your body in a battle over food, your body will kick the crap out of your will-power every single time. It's like holding your breath - you can do it for a little while, and if you are really diligent you can do it for even longer, but eventually only one of two things will happen:
#1. Your body will take over, black you out and start making you breath because it thinks you're an idiot, depriving it of it's much needed air (just like your body really needs it's nutrients).
#2. With long enough deprivation, you will cave into the cravings of your body, and take huge breaths of air involuntarily (this is just like the cravings that ultimately break everyone's diet). People used to eating small quantities of crappy food that is loaded with calories, switch to healthy food and end up starving their asses off and get really hungry and find that they can never eat "right." Little do they know that if they ate enough of the right stuff at the right time, then they would have a much easier time with self-discipline - when you a well sated you don't really crave the junk.
Clean food would be fruits, veggies, lean meats, eggs, reduced fat dairy products, healthy fats/nuts/seeds, and a limited amount of whole grains. With an emphasis on WHOLE: "Whole wheat flour" is an oxymoron, if I was whole it would still be a whole wheat berry, not brown powder. Crappy foods would be Danishes, bagels, muffins, French-fries, cookies, regular soda...
CASE STUDY
My fat-loss clients come to me having no idea how much clean food they should actually be eating. Case in-point: There is a 160lb active woman that I work with for fat-loss and all she eats in a day is this:
#1. 2/3 cup FAGE yogurt + berries (1 cup - strawberries) + 1/3 cup granola [225]
#2. Turkey wrap same as below - [408]
#3. Lean Cuisine - [250]
#4. 2/3 cup FAGE yogurt + 1 cup berries [135]
Total kcal - 1,018
Her problem with compliance is just that she doesn't eat enough.
Here's what she should be eating in a given day for rapid fat-loss (10 x body-weight is a pretty aggressive diet). Less than this would probably result in an inability to stick to a meal plan 90% of the time (which was a problem with the ridiculously low 1,000 kcal/day), and a slowing of her metabolic rate. Both of which add up very slow progress.
1,600 kcal Clean Food:
1. 1 piece of fruit + 2 hard-boiled egg whites + 1 slice cheese [230 kcal]
2. 1 cup strawberries (50) + 1 cup 1% cottage cheese (163) [213 kcal] 3. 1 south beach meal [260 to 300]
4. Wrap: turkey lunch meat 4oz. + 1 wrap + veggies + mustard + 1/4 cup cranberry sauce - jellied (it's nutritional crap, but she really likes it) [408]
Let me remind you that this is what a 160lb woman should eat on a DIET, not maintenance. You'd be damn full and would have a hard time thinking about even eating the other stuff. Yes it will still take some will power to keep your eating at 90% or better, but now it's actually possible because you are working with your body, not against it - cravings are a powerful force.
People are confused about the best way to go about achieving the body they want. Simply put, they're confused more than ever about how to burn fat. And they are confused about what works and what doesn't, and the reasons why. There are countless individuals slaving away in gyms and fitness centers around the country. They are working tirelessly, almost every day, on the treadmill, stair-climber, elliptical, etc. to burn those calories and fat. They might even join a few aerobics or spinning classes as well. And they're probably also lifting weights several times a week for hours at a time to build some strength and muscle.
They are also probably experimenting with one of the latest fad diets that is all the rage, and promises a miracle fat burning and weight loss cure. They might also be shelling out a lot of their own cash on the latest dietary supplements and magic bullets that are supposed to be the miracle cure that will solve their weight loss problems. They are also carefully watching the scale as their main judge of fat loss progress. If it goes up a pound or two, they may behave rashly and maybe even change up their entire workout or diet program! And of course there are others are doing variations on that same theme.
After all, this is the kind of stuff that many of the popular fitness and diet gurus typically recommend to burn fat. But with so many different strategies and plans being pushed as the be all and end all, what happens is we tend to overboard. And when that happens, we lose sight of what really matters in achieving lifelong fat burning, fitness and health?the principles than many people don't know about, most people have forgotten, and only a select few put to use to achieve lifelong health and fitness. These are the exact same concepts that I personally used to shed over 40 pounds of unwanted body fat, keep it off, and totally revitalize my life in the process!
Let's get real. With any exercise or nutrition routine, you can lose some fat initially, but that's not the point. Far too often this progress can't be sustained for very long, and doesn't come nearly as fast enough as the person would like because they're focused in a temporary mindset. They're only focused on the short term and one specific goal. So they end up switching to something else, and the cycle continues until they've become consumed by this cycle of confusion. I believe that this is one of the biggest, if not the #1 reason for the lack of fat loss and fitness progress that is being experienced by the masses of exercisers and dieters in the world. They are jumping from one fad diet or exercise routine to another, while losing sight of what's really important, and what really works. The bottom line is, people are exercising way too much, without sufficient intensity, and attempting to stick to ridiculous dietary schemes.
If instead they focused on a long term plan, a lifestyle as it's often called, and didn't worry about "losing 10 pounds by summer", they would find it far easier to do the right things most of the time. And those right things include brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest. The students of my Fat Burning Furnace method understand this and are reaping the life long health and fitness rewards because of it. Are you?
Both Josef Brandenburg & Rob Poulos are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Josef Brandenburg has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Fat Loss and Fat Loss. Josef is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. He specializes in helping normal, busy people create the bodies they want in the time the. Josef Brandenburg's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.
Rob Poulos has sinced written about articles on various topics from fast weight loss, Lose Weight and Fat Loss. Unlock the forbidden secrets that can unleash your own fat burning furnace without the cardio or fad dieting and grab your own copy of Rob's fat loss and fitness gifts here:. Rob Poulos's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.