Which one resonates best with you? Let's dive into each one.
FAT LOSS IS NOT WORKING OUT 7 DAYS A WEEK: I get it, I used to be this person who thought that 7 hard and intense workouts every single week is what I needed to lose body fat and get "shredded". As working out is important for a variety of reasons including: developing muscle mass, burns some additional calories, reducing stress, and increasing your metabolism, it isn't sustainable to say you'll have 7 workouts each week. In order for fat loss to stick you need to find a routine that you can stick with for a long period of time. When trying something, see how the first 12 weeks go! If it's sustainable and you enjoy it, you're on the right track! Around 3-5 workouts per week on average is a good rule of thumb as you walk through your chapters of life trying to make fitness a priority. There might be a season of life where you are absolutely crushing it in the gym with 5-6 hard workouts a week while you feel GOOD, and that's okay!! But don't think that's what necessary for fat loss, either.
FAT LOSS IS NOT EATING 1,200 CALORIES A DAY: Your daily calorie targets can be calculated by your weight, height, activity level, and goals. Did you know that 1,200 calories is actually a good amount of calories for a toddler? That's not a 30 year old female my friends ;) Eating too few calories everyday will decrease your metabolism, leave you feeling hungry, and result in a crash and burn effect. Your goal, instead, is to eat in a slight calorie deficit (-400 calories from maintenance), and do do that consistently for a 12 week period to see where you're at! You shouldn't always be in a calorie deficit, either. After being in a deficit for even 16 weeks is enough time to lose body fat. It's important to have periods where you aren't tracking food or you aren't focused on calorie numbers. You can do this by practicing intuitive eating! Your metabolism has skin in this game, and we can keep it going by eating enough food everyday!! For most females a calorie deficit can range between 1,650 and 2,420!
FAT LOSS IS NOT RELYING ON A 1.5 HOUR WORKOUT TO BURN YOUR DAILY CALORIES: You workout alone might burn around 200-400 calories, and that's great!! We don't need to focus on our workouts burning 1,000+ calories in order to feel like we accomplished something :) Same thing goes for the amount of time we spend in the gym! Your goal is to create a sustainable routine that you can follow.
Examples of a sustainable routine:
- 1 weekly 40-minute walk with a friend and 2 or 3 gym sessions weekly
- 1 night playing volleyball with some friends, 1 night going on a run, and 2 nights doing HIIT with some girlfriends
- 4 times a week in the gym at 40 minutes each
- 1 time swimming each week and 4 workouts in the gym
FAT LOSS IS NOT AN UNREALISTIC DIET APPROACH: What does the word "diet" mean to you? Google actually provides two definitions: 1) the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.
2) a special course of food to which one restrict oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.
I encourage you to vibe with the first definition when thinking about your mental approach towards food. We don't eat the apple to just potentially lose the weight, but we eat the apple to support a healthy heart! Let your diet be simply the way you choose to eat and feed your family. This will be WAY more fulfilling than jumping from one fad diet to the next, trying to find one that helps you lose the pounds because, really, when you focus on eating healthy foods long enough, you'll lose the weight anyway ;)
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