Top 5 Reasons Why You’re Not Losing Weight

July 31, 2013 | Marie Spano

Have you ever been frustrated by your weight? You cut your calories, log your food intake and diligently work out, sweating through spin classes and hammering it the weight room. But your fat isn’t budging, and the mirror doesn’t lie. Maybe it’s your thyroid or one of those obesity hormones? Nah. Chances are you can’t blame your hormones or even a sluggish metabolism (sorry).

The majority of people who are frustrated with their progress are making one or more of the following five nutrition mistakes.

1. You Take Cheat Days

If you are slashing calories and eating “clean” (healthy, less processed foods) five or six days per week, shouldn’t you be allowed one cheat day? No! Aside from the fact that I hate the term “cheat day” (because it implies an allowed eating binge after days of dietary deprivation), cheat days (and even cheat meals) can literally cheat you out of achieving results. While diligently watching your food and beverage intake and eating enough to fuel your body but also lose weight, a cheat day can tip you over your calorie budget for the week so your fat doesn’t budge one bit.

Here’s an example. I had a client years ago who ate about 1,500 calories every single day during the week, but he wasn’t losing weight. So I asked him to bring in his food log for the weekend. Beer, hot dogs, sausage, chips and more beer later. I calculated Saturday’s tally at over 4,500 calories. He really only needed about 1,800 calories daily to lose one to two pounds each week. That means his Saturday added up to an additional 385 calories per day for the week (and this doesn’t even include his diet disasters on Sundays).

If you want to eat something “off your diet,” go right ahead, but do so in a smart, portion-controlled manner instead of blowing it out. (Don’t cut calories or deprive yourself of everything you enjoy to avoid the need to blow it out!)

2. You Skip Breakfast

I’ve heard every reason in the book for why people skip breakfast. However, a wealth of research data supports breakfast and weight management. And it makes sense. If you feed your body first thing in the morning, you will have the energy you need to train hard; and the harder you train, the more calories you burn. Plus, you won’t search for snacks after dinner because you’re still hungry. Keep your stomach full and hunger pangs at bay by eating your morning meal.

3. You Don’t Feed Your Muscle

When you lose weight, you lose fat, muscle and a little bit of bone. So, your diet should be designed to maximize fat loss while minimizing muscle losses (a small amount of bone loss is normal with major weight loss).

As my colleague Sarah Snyder, MS, RD, CSSD, CSSD, USAW, says, “you have to feed the muscle to keep the muscle.” How do you feed it? With protein. Eat at least 30 grams of protein at breakfast, lunch and dinner (and post-workout) to maintain your muscle as you lose weight.

Ramping up your protein intake is especially important if you are cutting calories. The fewer calories you consume, the more protein to keep your muscle while losing fat. If you track your food intake, aim for at least 0.68 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. (Note: this is a minimum—you still need 30 grams of protein per meal.)

4. You Aren’t Eating Enough

You actually have to eat a decent amount of food at each meal so you can subsist on fewer calories per day without obsessively thinking about food. A 220-calorie frozen dinner won’t cut it, because it won’t keep you full for an extended period of time. Make sure you get at least a quarter of your total daily calories at each meal. And fill up on high volume foods like non-starchy vegetables.

5. You Are Compensating for Calories Burned

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard this: “but I burn 800 calories on the elliptical machine every night.” No you don’t. Disregard the calorie reads on machines or what your spin coach or group exercise instructor tells you that you are burning during class. Most people burn significantly fewer calories than they think they burn. They overestimate their calorie burn and underestimate how much they eat. If you think you are burning 800 calories a class (if you are a 300-pound, muscle-packed linebacker working your tail off, you actually might be), you are more likely to allow yourself that extra treat at night or a few more calories every day.

So, the next time you start to question your metabolism, take a Dr. Phil (honest) look at everything you are doing, track your calories every single day and, if you still can’t lose weight, have a registered dietitian (RD or RDN) look over everything you are doing, and if need be, talk to your medical doctor.

Source: http://www.stack.com/2013/07/31/why-cant-i-lose-weight/

How to Eat What You Want and Still Lose Weight

August 21, 2013 | Katie Davis

Are you frustrated by weight loss? Do you feel like you are doing everything right but still struggling to reach your goal?

If so, you are not alone. Every day, people give up on their weight loss goals because they are not seeing results.

Even if your nutrition is mostly sound, a few easily fixable issues may be preventing you from losing weight. Implement the following four strategies in your nutrition routine to alleviate your weight loss woes.

Be Aware

Many people are completely ignorant about their poor dietary habits or patterns. They simply don’t realize they are making critical mistakes.

To find out if you fall into this group, track your intake for three or four days (including two weekend days) with MyFitnessPal and Livestrong MyPlate. Don’t change your habits during this time. The goal is to see where you currently stand.

When you are finished, print out each day’s calorie total and look for patterns and weaknesses. Do you eat most of your calories at night? Are 25 percent of your calories coming from juice, soda or coffee drinks? Are condiments or dressings unnecessarily adding fat to your diet? These are just a few examples of what to look for.

Make Your Meals a Priority

Meals and snacks are often an afterthought when you are busy with a sport, work or life in general. You eat because you have to, often stuffing your face as fast you can so you can move on to the next thing.

However, eating large portions of food too quickly is an easy way to sabotage your weight loss efforts. You will be more likely to eat more than you need,  because your stomach doesn’t have enough time to signal your brain that you are full.

Take at least 20 minutes and fully immerse yourself in the eating experience. Set everything else aside—including television, homework, Facebook, etc. Try to focus on the appearance, smell and taste of your food. Assess how hungry you are before you eat and how much you really need to eat before you feel full.

Your stomach will then have the opportunity to tell your brain that it’s still hungry or pleasantly satisfied.

Change Your Mindset

If you have the mindset that you can’t eat certain foods, those foods are exactly what you will crave. Change your thinking to, “I choose not to have an unhealthy meal right now and will instead opt for a healthier option.”

Keep in mind how food helps or hurts your performance and health. Eating well will improve all aspects of your life and make you a better athlete. And eating right can help prevent injury and illness.

Plan to “Cheat”

Plan to have one meal per week when you eat whatever you want. This is your “cheat” meal. Treat yourself to a food or meal that you’ve been craving. It may be tempting to eat this meal quickly, but remember to slow down, taste the food and enjoy eating food that you love.

 

Source: http://www.stack.com/2013/08/21/eat-what-you-want-lose-weight/

5 Ways to Burn Fat Faster

April 8, 2013 | Anthony Yeung

Everyone who wants to burn fat wants to do it fast. Everyone. But, with so much advice and information floating around, it can be difficult to find an effective way to accomplish this goal.

The key to fat loss is calories. You have to expend more than you consume. There are two ways to do this: burn more calories with exercise and eat fewer calories. (Calculate how many calories you should eat.)

This article focuses on strength and nutrition factors that increase your ability to burn fat faster.

Gain Muscle

Over 60% of the calories you burn are from your body’s resting metabolic rate (RMR), which is the amount of energy it takes to maintain vital functions. Even if you lie in bed all day, you’ll still burn calories.

Your RMR depends on how much muscle you have. The more lean muscle, the more calories your body burns. So, it’s important that you work out to build muscle. You will simultaneously increase your RMR and burn more calories through exercise.

What to do: To build the most muscle and burn the most calories during workouts, perform complex multi-joint exercises like Squats, Deadlifts, Pull-Ups, Rows, Push-Ups and Bench Presses. Do three to four sets of eight to 12 reps, and make sure your last few reps are difficult.

Get the “Afterburn” Effect

How you work out alters the amount of calories you burn after you finish exercising. Oxygen levels remain elevated to bring your body back to its resting state. The phenomenon is called excess post-oxygen consumption (EPOC). Your metabolism is elevated as your body restores oxygen and energy levels and clears waste through circulation.

Intense and intermittent exercise creates a larger EPOC effect than traditional cardio. You can actually burn more calories after your workout if you focus on high-intensity exercise, such as interval training.

What to do: Finish your weight-training workouts with an intense conditioner that targets your anaerobic system. Beginners should start with a 1:2 (or even 1:3) work-to-rest ratio, and eventually progress to a 1:1 ratio. (Try this interval workout.)

Eat More Protein

Protein aids in muscle growth, which helps increase your RMR. It keeps you full longer, which can come in handy when eating a calorie-restricted diet. Protein also has a high thermal effect, meaning that it takes more calories to digest. (Add muscle with the two-hour rule.)

What to do: Eat lean protein with every meal. Shoot for at least one gram of protein for each pound of body weight.

Take Fish Oil

A 2010 study published the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that fish oil supplementation increases lean mass and reduces fat mass. Also, fish oil reduces rates of heart disease, cancer symptoms and joint inflammation.

The exact amount of fish oil is debatable. The highlighted study called for four grams of fish oil per day (400mg EPA and 200mg DHA). However, I’ve seen it as high as one gram of fish oil for each percent of body fat. So, if you have 15 percent body fat, consume 15 grams of fish oil.

What to do: Take at least four grams of fish oil per day.

Consume a Pre-Workout Drink

Most athletes understand the benefits of post-workout nutrition; however, many ignore the importance of pre-workout nutrition. It may seem counterintuitive, because it calls for consuming calories to burn calories, but research supports it.

A study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise concluded that “timing protein supplementation before heavy resistance training (HRT) may be a simple and effective strategy to increase energy expenditure by elevating resting energy expenditure (REE) the day after HRT. Increasing REE could facilitate reductions in body fat mass and improve body composition if nutritional intake is stable.” In other words, having some protein before your workout can raise your metabolism after your workout, which helps you burn fat.

What to do: Shortly before your weight-training session, drink (or eat) some whey protein orBCAAs. Or, drink a little of your post-workout shake.

Source: http://www.stack.com/2013/04/08/burn-fat-faster/