Hey Guys!
The topic for this month is nutrition. The summer is coming up, hopefully you have been working out hard, and now it is time to start burning that excess fat to showcase the body that you have worked hard towards.
I will not be offering any specific diets or meal plans. My goal is to help you understand nutrition so that you can make educated choices when designing your own meal plan.
With that said, here is my first tip: avoid processed foods. Processed foods are often stripped of their vitamins and minerals that are essential for proper digestion and metabolism. Vitamins and minerals are used to synthesize the various enzymes used in digestion, and are also needed to synthesize stomach acids. In fact, obesity is linked with inadequate nutrition.
If your body cannot properly digest and metabolize the food you consume, that food will be stored as fat. It's that simple. If the food cannot be absorbed it cannot be used. So you will store more fat, but will not have the necessary catalysts to break it down. The result is lack of energy and increased weight.
There are also over 6000 different artificial ingredients used in processed foods to create flavor, texture, color, act as preservatives, etc. These chemicals are toxic to the body. They can harm the skin, internal organs, and digestive tract. Your body then needs vitamins and minerals to flush these toxins out, which are lacking in processed foods.
So if you eat whole, unrefined foods such as whole wheat bread, brown rice, or fresh fruits and vegetables, you will get the vitamins and minerals you need without an abundance of sugar and toxins that are not healthy at all.
Whole foods are also not stripped of fiber, which is necessary for the health of the digestive tract. Also, because of the fiber, you will feel full longer and therefore eat less.
Next tip -- drink only water. Your body is comprised mostly of water. Water is used in virtually every bodily function, including digestion and metabolism. The best way to hydrate yourself is through drinking water. Sodas, juices, coffee, alcohol, etc, are not as effective in hydrating the body. In fact, sodas, coffee, and alcohol are all diuretics, meaning they flush water out of your system.
When you lose water from diuretics you also lose many of the vitamins and minerals in your body that are water soluble (carried in water). Coffee and alcohol consumption also increase the need for various vitamins and minerals because they affect the body in unnatural ways.
It is also not a good idea to drink your calories either. Sodas and juices are often high in sugar, but they do not satisfy your hunger even slightly. If you cut out sodas and juices you will eat the same amount, but consume fewer calories.
My final tip is to eat a little less every day. Reduce your carbohydrates little by little. It is not a good idea to drastically reduce the amount of calories you consume. Your body will simply respond by storing everything as fat (exaggeration, but you get the point). It is sort of a survival mode. The human body has evolved to survive periods of famine by storing fat and using less energy when food sources are limited.
Low-calorie diets like that also put the body in a state of ketosis where the body burns about 60% fat and 40% muscle for energy. So you may lose weight, but a lot of that weight is muscle mass, so you won't actually look leaner.
The most effective method for losing weight is to reduce your caloric intake little by little to keep your body out of starvation mode and ketosis.
I'll stop there. If you make these 3 changes you will be well on your way to a much healthier you regardless of genetics or metabolic rate. Hope that helps.
Get Stronger!
-Nas
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