3 Key Factors for Fat Loss – Part 2

Key #2:
Nutrition

When you look at your nutrition you should think "diet", as defined by a diet plan that can only be sustained for short periods of time (i.e. low calorie or low carbohydrate diets). When you think "diet", you should think lifestyle eating (i.e. your diet should be something that you can easily maintain all year round, with the only thing you change about it being the amount of calories consumed, based upon your body goal).

Your diet plan should incorporate 6 principles:

Adequacy: Your diet provides enough energy and nutrients to meet your needs.

Balance: Not over consuming any single type of food.

Energy Control: You need to know what your energy needs are (i.e. maintenance), and allow for that; to ensure that you get the nutrients that you require without going in excess of your required calories, use foods that have a high nutrient density.

Nutrient Density: Select foods that deliver the most nutrients for the least energy.

Moderation: Moderating portion sizes; and consuming foods that contain high fat and sugar in moderation.

Variety: Eating a variety of foods day-to-day.

Here are some tips on diet for fat loss:

Eat every 2-3 hours after waking. This helps keep the metabolism going throughout the day, as well as keeping insulin levels stable (you can see that 3 meals is simply not enough, even if they are in small portions).

Every meal should include quality lean protein (i.e. chicken breast, fish, tuna, salmon, lean beef, egg whites, etc.), and fibrous carbs (i.e. vegetables, green ones in particular). Complex carbohydrates (i.e. rice, oats, etc.), should be consumed mainly around your workouts.

Do not avoid fat (except saturated fat and trans fats). You need fat in your diet, as fat plays major roles in energy metabolism and other parts of your body. It is important to ensure that you consume your required amount of good fats (i.e. flaxseeds or flaxseed oil, fish oils, peanut butter, nuts - especially almonds and walnuts, hempseed oil, olive oil, etc.) each day.

Do not avoid carbs completely. You need a small amount of carbs each day for your body to burn fat effectively and to provide the energy requirements of your brain and central nervous system.

The only sugar needed on a regular basis is the natural sugar found in food; these are mostly found in fruit. Too much sugar plays havoc with insulin levels; you want these as stable as possible throughout the day. The best time to be having sugar is straight after a resistance workout, when the body is trying to replenish muscle glycogen stores. Therefore, make sure that you have a protein shake with some simple sugar (i.e. fruit smoothie with ice and protein powder is great here) as soon as possible after your resistance training, and then a proper meal (i.e. complex carbs, protein, fibrous carbs) about 60 minutes after your post-workout shake.

Consume adequate protein, to prevent muscle loss and maintain a relatively high thermic effect.

It has been proven that one or two servings of dairy per day help you lose more fat than if you avoid it altogether.

At a minimum your body requires 2 litres of water per day to cover its water needs. For those with higher energy outputs, good recommendation is to drink 4 litres of water per day. This will help keep your system clean.

Do not drink black tea or coffee. Try drinking green tea instead; it helps with thermogenesis, and is especially good if you take it one hour before doing cardio first thing in the morning.

Do not drink alcohol. Alcohol has no nutritional value and is full of calories.

Minimize salt addition to food. Instead, flavour meals with herbs and spices (i.e. ginger, cumin, cayenne pepper, curry powder, chilli powder, and garlic all help thermogenesis).

Eat most food as 'natural' as possible. This means fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, grains, etc. Try not to eat too much packaged food, as it is full of extra calories and sugar.


Most importantly, remember that it is OK to cheat every now and then. Actually the body needs cheat meals. By throwing all the guidelines just mentioned out of the way and having a day where you eat what you want it helps not only your mind, but also in preventing your body from going into starvation mode (i.e. where the body battles you to hold onto the fat as much as it can). If you prefer not to 'cheat', then add in 1-2 higher calorie days (i.e. go up to just above maintenance, or bulking, or even slightly higher), with the extra calories coming from quality complex carbs.

Supplements should not be a big deal, as most fat loss can be done through simply eating the right food at the right time; and unless everything that you are doing is already done to ensure the maximum results in the timeframe that you want to achieve it in, and then supplementation should not be the focus. However, there are a few supplements that I think are important to any regime.

Multivitamin: Although you should be eating as much of a variety of food as possible, in order to meet the RDI/AI of most nutrients from actual food.

Creatine Monohydrate: Creatine helps the body to recover faster, as well as indirectly aiding in increasing strength levels and lean body mass.

Flaxseed/Fish Oil: This is the good fats. Flaxseed or Hempseed oil is great with breakfast or in protein shakes.

Protein Powder: This just helps when you are struggling to fit a meal in, or after the gym, and to make sure that you get enough protein in.
Apart from these four 'staple' supplements, you do not need much else. You especially do not need fat-burners or thermogenics; they are a waste of time unless you are already lean and are looking for that 'extra edge' to lose the extra % BF (i.e. like a fitness competitor, etc.)

The 1-2-1 Fitness Diet is available at a very competitive rate. We will calculate your daily nutrient requirements for you, help you with meal plans and assist you all the way until you reach your goal.

Please contact me if you would like more information regarding the 1-2-1 Fitness Diet.


Part 3 of this article will be coming soon....