We all work out for our own reasons. Some people want to trim down and shed a few pounds, while others workout to complement a sport such as baseball or hockey. However, to get the full benefit of your workouts you need to also focus on your diet. Here are just a few tips to help improve your diet and help you reach your goals.
1.) Fruit with an excellent Thermogenic/Carbohydrate Ratio include Apples, Blueberries, Grapefruit, Peaches, Strawberries vs. Inferior Thermogenic Effect Fruits: Bananas, Dried Fruit, Raisins, etc., Watermelon.
2.) Good sources of insoluble Fiber:
Whole wheat products
What oat
Corn Bran
Flaxseed
Vegetables such as green beans, cauliflowers, and potato skins
Fruit skins and root vegetable skins.
3.) You should have planned cheat meals, and you should cycle carbs. Because if you stay on a too restrictive diet your metabolism slows. Your body is a furnace and food is the coal. More food means your metabolism goes up (i.e. furnace heats up) but too much coal, and it starts to collect. So essentially you need to eat to lose weight.
5.) Adaptation is your worst enemy when you are cutting as such you should cycle everything including conditioning, lifting, and food by varying intensity, duration, and quantity.
6.) Do not be insanely restrictive, if you are the odds are you will binge and gain the weight right back. The idea is to change your lifestyle.
7.) If you are going to use fat burners do not use them in the beginning. Use them after you have plateaued or stopped losing weight this way you got something up your sleeve for later.
8.) Stay away from sweets and sugars including soda.
9.) Fructose in high amounts can hinder fat and does not get transformed into glycogen, thus it doesn’t affect the muscles.
10.) You will want to maintain a high protein intake at a level of one gram per pound of lean body mass. Your carb intake should be reduced and come from complex sources.
11.) When cycling your carbs and calories you should be either +/ 900 from your BMR. Adult Male: BMR = 66 + (6.3 x bodyweight in lbs.) + (12.9 x height in inches) (6.8 x age in years). So M F you get 2,000cals then on sat-sun around 2,900 no more though.
12.) 1g of protein= 4 cals, 1 g of carbs= 4 cals, 1g fat= 9 cals, 1g alcohol= 7 cals.
13.) Most people can only lose 1lb 1.5 lbs a week without losing muscle.
14.) In the beginning, you should keep a diet log of what you eat, so you can see where you need to improve.
15.) Workout wise, you should have reps from 6 to 10 with about 30 to 1min rest between sets.
