A Smart Way to Diet

by Lauren Condell
Certified Personal Trainer

 

I would like to take some time and address an issue that many people tend to overlook in their training. DIET! Most people forget about it, some run from it, and others abuse it. The truth is, this is probably the biggest and most important aspect of training there is! What you put in your body determines if you grow muscle, or put on fat. The question then becomes, am I eating the right foods?

Reduce weight while still maintaining all your muscle and (even gain some in the process). With proper training, you can add muscle while dieting properly. Everything is a matter of timing, amounts, and proper ratios. Now I know that you don’t want to read a mathematical based article here so I will keep this really basic. No need to worry about too many numbers here. In fact, I'm guessing there will be around 6 numbers for you to remember.

When trying to lose weight, most people have no correct concept of how to eat properly. Some people still believe in not eating at all to lose weight. This is the WORST THING you can do! Your body needs food to function, operate, and survive. So why are you not supplying it with food?! When there is no food from which to gain energy, guess where your body goes first? Your muscles! And we want to keep our muscle now don't we? This is something we want to try and avoid completely, so let's start out by taking a look at the correct way to diet.

Remember when I said that you need to remember only 6 numbers? Well, that’s because, that’s how many meals you need to eat throughout the day. Now don't get all ahead of me and say "NO WAY!" or "IS SHE CRAZY?" Allow me to explain. Try and imagine sitting in front of a fire. It’s burning good for a few hours but then begins to die down. What do you usually do when this happens? You throw in another log right? You can keep doing this until you no longer want the fire burning and this is EXACTLY the same as how your metabolism works. Your metabolism is the fire, and the logs represent the food you eat during the day. If you have your metabolism running, but it then starts to slow down, you need to feed it some food to get it back going again. In order to accomplish this task, you need to eat roughly every 3 hours, or so. This will allow your body to have a continual helping to all the energy it needs to keep that metabolism burning strong. And we all know what happens with a good, strong burning metabolism. It BURN'S MORE FAT!

A simple time line to use as an "example" would look something like this:
Breakfast (8 a.m.)
Snack (11 a.m.)
Lunch (1 p.m.)
Snack (4 p.m.)
Dinner (8 p.m.)
Snack (10 p.m.)

All of these times represent when you should eat a "mini" meal. No big portions here, just enough to satisfy your hunger and keep going. After all, you'll be eating AGAIN in a few short hours. The object of this diet plan is not to eat a lot, but to eat more often. Even though the portions are smaller, you will not go hungry due to the constant consumption of food throughout the day. Now, not everyone can use this exact model, but I'm sure that you could make some slight adjustments to fit your individual schedules and needs. I told you it was only 6 numbers didn't I? Just arrange any 6 numbers for your eating times like the example above, and you're set!

Now that you have the timing down, it’s time to know the foods that will also aid you in your diet plan. A little tip before we get started is that you want to have a little protein in each mini meal. This will help keep your body in a positive nitrogen balance and anabolic (muscle building) state. I will start by talking about your main meal foods first and then move on to snack foods.
Your main 3 meals, which should be your ‘classic’ breakfast, lunch, and dinner should include, but not be limited to: eggs, chicken, fish, lean steaks (and other lean meats such as lean red meats), turkey, and whey protein. You can make many versions of meals using these foods. Granted, the only true breakfast type foods listed here is eggs and whey, but there are also a few snack foods that you could combine with these two foods for breakfast purposes as you'll see in a second.

For your snack foods, which should be in between each one of your 3 main meals, you can enjoy: berries, green veggies, beans and legumes, almonds (and other unsalted nuts), unsweetened and unflavored instant oatmeal (I know, I'm horrible), dairy (such as yogurts and cottage cheese), whole grain breads, all natural peanut butter, and even olive oil. Olive oil will be amazingly helpful when cooking and seasoning up your foods.

As you can see there are plenty more snack foods than major meal foods. These foods act like "additions" to already made meals, "the icing on the cake….” It’s because of these snack foods that you can create tons of variations and combinations to satisfy whatever food craving you might have. Being that you eat every few hours, these foods will help your body increase its metabolism even faster. It doesn't get much better than that!

A few things I should also bring up, is to be creative when making your food selections and combinations. You also want to stay in check, and don't get carried away with "portion" sizes. Remember, these are "mini meals," not full size ones. (Your protein source should be around the size of the palm of your hand for example.) If you stick to this and play it smart, you’ll see a difference in your weight, just by changing your diet alone! You must give it time though.

If you happen to be already physically active, I applaud you because you’re that much further ahead of the game! Keep up your cardio and weight training and watch the inches melt off!

As for training itself, I’ll keep this short. (This is a nutrition article after all.) Do resistance training 3 days a week and cardio 2-3 days a week. You want to alternate between weights and cardio each day to allow proper recovery time and also allow your body to adapt. You don't want to overload your body with too much too soon. Stay motivated and watch ALL your hard work pay off! Best of luck to all of you!