FITNESS TIPS
Weight loss is 70% diet and 30% exercise.
You can work out for 60 minutes each day, but if you have poor eating habits, you will not lose weight. To lose weight — and maintain healthiness, fitness, and confidence — you should adopt good nutrition, cardio, and strength training. Make a lifestyle change, not just a short-term commitment.
Get your mind right.
If your mind is ready to achieve a goal, your body will follow.
Set mini goals.
You're more likely to reach your weight loss goals if those goals are realistic. A healthy rate of weight loss is 1–2 pounds per week. Instead of focusing on dropping 30 pounds in four months, focus on losing 4–8 pounds in one month.
Understand calories.
One pound of fat is 3,500 calories. To lose weight, you have to create a calorie deficit. Let’s say your Recommended Daily Intake is 2,000 calories a day. If you eat 500 fewer calories per day, that adds up to 3,500 fewer calories over the course of a week, which means one pound of weight loss! You can also burn calories from exercise, too! If you burn more calories than you take in, you’ll lose weight — guaranteed!
Eat smart!
• Eat 5 to 6 meals per day. Eat every 3 hours. Eat protein with every meal.
• Women: 125 to 150 grams of protein daily / Men: 175 to 200 grams of protein daily
• Drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day (a 150-pound woman should drink
75 ounces of water per day).
• Eat complex or whole-grain carbs the first 3–4 meals of the day.
• Replace complex or whole-grain carbs with vegetables in the 5th and 6th meals of the day.
• Good Examples of Lean Protein: chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef, seafood, eggs,
whey protein powder, Greek yogurt
• Good Examples of Complex & Whole-Grain Carbs: Oatmeal, brown rice, sweet potato,
whole-grain bread
• Vegetables: spinach, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, cucumber, squash, celery, onions, peppers
• Fruits: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, oranges, melons, bananas, tomatoes
• Good Fats: Raw nuts, avocado, olive oil
Calculate your fat burning calorie zone.
Maximum Heart Rate = 220 - Age
Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) = 60-70% of maximum heart rate. This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure, and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases.
Example: If you are 40 years old, your lower level threshold would be 180 x 0.60 = 108 beats per minute, and your upper level threshold would be 180 x 0.70 = 126 beats per minute. This would make your fat burning zone 108 to 126 beats per minute.
My Fitness Pal is a great site to track calories, food, and exercise. It has every food imaginable and a lot of exercises. It’s also an app! It calculates how many calories you need to eat and how much you need to burn from exercise to reach your goal weight. It’s customized to your height, age, gender, and weight.
Include Cardio and Strength Training.
• Exercise at least 4 times a week for at least 30 minutes each time to lose weight.
• Cardio exercise is what burns fat (anything that gets your heart rate up) and burns calories.
• Effective cardio workouts are speed walking, running, biking, elliptical, dancing, swimming, kickboxing, jump-roping, jumping jacks, burpees, squat jumps, etc.
• Effective strength training exercises are lifting weights, squats, deadlifts, lunges, back-rows, push-ups, shoulder presses, biceps curls, triceps extensions, calf raises, abdominal crunches, etc.
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• Strength training exercises burn fewer calories than cardio exercises, but they do build muscle. This is important because one pound of muscle takes up less space than one pound of fat, giving the illusion of even more weight loss! Plus, muscle burns more calories than fat when you’re sitting still.
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• Those who exercise, burn more calories than those who don’t. Working out burns calories, which increases your standing metabolism and causes you to burn even more calories!
• Remember, you cannot just do an exercise to "spot" lose in one area of your body. You can tighten muscle groups in certain areas, but to lose fat you must burn fat. Fat burns gradually over your entire body.
