How to get in shape this winter

How to get in shape this winter

With Christmas just round the corner, you may think losing weight (Or just not gaining a ****tonne of weight) during the winter would be impossible. Fret not! there is a way to be able to eat the foods you love while still staying on track with your diet. If you have a couple minutes to read, i guarantee it will be worth your time (if you dont have the time right now then fav for later!)

If you've read my previous posts or if you're in touch with the diet & fitness world then you may have heard the term "flexible dieting" or "if it fits your macros". These terms are often misrepresented and leave people feeling more confused than anything so i'll attempt to break it all down. Flexible dieting or 'IIFYM' is a diet method that aims to allow you freedom of food choice as long as you track their macro-nutrient and calorific value. This means that depending on your own 'Macros', you may be able to fit foods that aren't deemed to be "healthy" into your diet and still lose weight, crazy right? well... not really. Let me explain.

All food is essentially made up of micro-nutrients (nutrients our body needs in small amounts that have little to no calorific value) macro-nutrients (The three nutrients that provide the bulk of energy to our bodies which are Carbohydrates, Fat and Protein) and water. These nutrients are unique to each food substance but thanks to advancements in technology we have data on almost all food that we consume and therefor all food that we consume can be tracked and quantified.

What does this mean for our diet? it means we can quantify and track everything we eat which allows us to achieve a goal body composition. So if your goal is to get lean for that beach holiday or to gain some muscle then tracking your macro-nutrient and calorie intake is a must.

Paleo, Atkins, Keto, 5-bite and other fad diets are huge powerhouses of the fitness world and almost everyone knows someone who has tried them or has tried them themselves. What is the common theme with all of them? the weight loss can be fleeting and underwhelming in most cases, and here's why. These types of diets can be useful in certain situations (especially keto) but for those looking to lose a few pounds, these diets are like trying to shoot a moving target blindfolded. In order to sustainably lose or gain weight we must know what amount of energy the food we eat is giving our bodies and that is where the beauty of IIFYM dieting lies.

Each and every one of us has differing metabolisms and we all digest and absorb nutrients from foods at different rates so we must personalize our diet to fit us and not the other way around. To be 100% accurate in calculating our energy needs there are medical tests available which calculate our BMR (basal metabolic rate) but not everyone will have access to facilities that can do these tests so for a good estimate we can use specific calculators to find our RMR (resting metabolic rate)

Tdeecalculator.net - Use this to calculate your calorie intakeMacronutrientcalculator.com - Use this to calculate your macros after you know your calorie intake.

These calculators tell us what our bodies need in order to maintain our current weight. From there we can reduce calories and macros to lose weight or increase them to gain weight. You may be thinking at this point that this all sounds too complex and that you're only looking to lose a few pounds! Well, that's where coaches like myself come in, a good coach will calculate all of this for you and come up with a diet to follow but to tell you the truth, if you have a spare couple of hours and can hold yourself accountable it can be achieved on your own very easily!

This post is already too long and i can already hear the outrage from some users at seeing this wall of text but hey, if you're interested in learning more here are two of my other posts on similar topics:
Weight loss: http://imgur.com/gallery/YJO2twY
Muscle gain: http://imgur.com/gallery/PvCIG

Also if anyone needs a hand with their calculations or is looking for some advice feel free to send me a message and ill be happy to help!