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GREAT ADVICE FROM CRAIG...
WAYS TO WORK AROUND THE HOLIDAYS
Controlling one's weight over the holidays is a major concern for many. How do we manage the approaching ever-rough six weeks that begins on Thanksgiving and runs through New Year’s Day?
We never want to use exercise to offset or outrun a bad diet, but we also don’t want to become inconsistent in the gym. We want to keep that status quo. For most of you that’s getting into the gym 3-5 times each week for a combination of weight training and cardio workouts.
Your diet and nutrition is the key to managing your weight over the holidays, and there are many ways to navigate these upcoming weeks.
- Try to maintain your weekly frequency at the gym so that you continue to burn the same number of calories from exercise.
- Calories are a weekly allotment - meaning it’s a seven day average. So if you want to keep your busier weekends from affecting your weight, lower your calories during the week to keep your average lower. It still doesn’t mean go crazy on Saturday and Sunday!
- Even if you’re going to be lax on the weekends with your food intake and eating out more, keep the meals before going out to a minimum. It’ll help keep your calorie totals for the day down. Drink a protein shake or two with low calories and higher protein.
- Try to keep your protein levels higher as the body burns more calories breaking them down as you eat. For every 100 calories of protein, 25 of them are burned through this breakdown. This is called the thermic effect of food.
- Minimize what you add into your alcoholic drinks, as these extras add more calories to your daily total. Using diet sodas instead of regular sodas makes a difference. Using fewer fruit drinks will also keep calories down. Use zero-calorie club soda. Hard liquor has fewer calories than wine.
- Alcohol is not an easy choice with all the extras that come with it. All alcohol has calories. It also affects the foods we consume after alcohol comes into play. It takes 48-72 hours to rid the body of toxins (alcohol). The body will not be burning body fat until the body is rid of the alcohol.
- At the end of the day, most fad diets are extreme and do not help with weight loss unless that fad diet puts you into a deficit. A deficit in the most basic terms is where you’re burning more calories than you're consuming. Cutting fat, carbs or protein specifically doesn’t matter if you never get into a deficit. Total calories consumed is what matters - not what type of food you eliminate.
- The most important way to keep your weight under control is through food consumption or lack thereof. You can not out exercise a bad diet. This is the key to losing weight. Keep moving, and average 8-10k steps a day. Strength train to help shape the body. Use cardio as your supplement to help nutrition and strength training move the fat loss along.
Thanks, Craig, for this great information! Craig is one of our best, most in-demand Personal Trainers and has a few openings available over the holiday season. Interested in working with him? Give us a call at 908-233-7122 or reply to this email.
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