INCORPORATE RESISTANCE TRAINING INTO YOUR LIFESTYLE
First and foremost, you need to understand this: The more muscle you have on your body, the more metabolically active your body becomes. Because it has more muscle, your body will burn more calories per day—even when you're just sitting around!
Sounds awesome, right? However, the only way to build more muscle is to incorporate hard resistance training (lifting weights) into your exercise regimen. Stressing your body by lifting weights will make your muscles realize they need to be bigger and stronger. It takes a lot of energy to grow and maintain muscle mass.
Your body will use more calories as it grows more muscle, but you can also take into account the energy (calories) you're expending while you're working out and the energy your muscles use to repair themselves after you're done. When you put it all together, you can see why resistance training is number one on this list.
In reality, you don't even have to cut calories to see some crazy aesthetic benefits from resistance training.
2 INCREASE YOUR FIBER INTAKE
Fiber is a type of carbohydrate the body can't break down into glucose to use for energy. There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Both are beneficial in different ways. Soluble fiber attracts water to form a gel which slows down digestion and delays the emptying of your stomach, helping to keep you fuller longer. Additionally, it can lower blood cholesterol by interfering with the absorption of dietary cholesterol, helping to remove it from the body.
Fiber also slows the release of carbohydrates. Black beans, berries, sweet potatoes, and other high-fiber foods are digested at a much slower rate, causing a slow, steady stream of glucose into your blood stream. On the other hand, low-fiber foods like white bread will digest much faster, causing larger spikes in insulin.Insoluble fiber is said to promote regular bowel movements and can help food pass more quickly through the stomach and intestines, contributing to healthy digestive function.
If I haven't yet convinced you to eat more fiber, here's the real kicker: satiety. High-fiber foods like broccoli will fill you up and make you feel satisfied longer, even when you eat less volume. One cup of broccoli yields about 40 calories with 10 grams of carbs, 4 of which are "unabsorbable" fiber.
Compare that broccoli to one cup of pasta that yields around 150 calories with 45 grams of carbs. You'd be able to blow through that cup of pasta like it was nothing, and probably go back for seconds and thirds, but that single cup of broccoli may be filling enough that you feel great for hours.
3 KNOW THAT NOT ALL CALORIES ARE CREATED EQUAL
The foods we eat are just as important as the calories they supply. Simply put, everything you eat can be categorized as either a carbohydrate, fat, or protein. Each of these three macronutrients will metabolize differently, even though they all provide calories. One gram of protein provides 4 calories, one gram of carbs provides 4 calories, and one gram of fat provides 9 calories.
If your diet consists of cake and ice cream, for example, you'll look and feel differently than if your diet consists of lean meat and vegetables. Protein has a higher thermic effect than carbohydrates and fats. This means your body burns more calories breaking down and digesting protein than it does carbs and fats. Additionally, protein has been shown to increase satiety to a greater degree than carbohydrates.
Although protein is an important part of a healthy diet, you certainly shouldn't derive all of your calories from that one macronutrient. Carbohydrates and fats are essential for a healthy body as well. Certain fats, such as medium-chain fatty acids like coconut oil, are actually linked to increased energy expenditure and reduced hunger when included in the diet.
Carbohydrates are your body's preferred energy source and are necessary for maintaining oomph as you train. However, carbohydrates also fill up your body's glycogen stores quickly, so excess carbs in your diet can also mean excess fat.
Each person's body works a little differently. It's in your best interest to experiment with different types and amounts of calories to see what works and feels best.
4 COMBINE MACRONUTRIENTS WISELY
Remember what I said about cake and ice cream? If you're trying to get lean, it's probably not wise to consume a carb-only meal. A meal like this can cause the liver to convert excess carbohydrates into fat, which will be stored for future use as energy. Not only will this likely lead to increases in stored body fat, but you're missing out on satiating effects of protein—increasing the chances you'll be reaching for a Snickers to keep you satisfied between meals.
A good rule of thumb is to make sure you have protein in every meal and to time your meals to create specific hormonal responses. Combine carbs with protein to create an insulin spike post-workout. This is when the body is primed to use these carbs and protein for an anabolic (muscle-building) effect.
You can also combine fats with proteins to provide energy with a much smaller insulin response. Because you're not supplying your body with carbohydrates in this meal, your body will turn to fat as its main energy source. In addition, fat can slow down the digestion of protein for a more sustained release of amino acids.
5 DON'T DO EXCESSIVE CARDIO
As with resistance training, your body will adapt to cardio. If you run for hours, your body will eventually adapt by becoming very fuel-efficient. By that I mean it will learn to burn the fewest amount of calories possible in an attempt to run farther and longer using less energy. Eventually, your body will get so good at burning fuel that you'll have to do a lot more cardio to achieve the same fat-burning effect.
If you're already in the habit of running for hours multiple times per week, you're going to have to cut way back. The only way to get your metabolism back to a baseline is to feed your body more food and cut out cardio. Once your metabolism is in check, you can manipulate foods to help you lose weight and implement an effective training schedule that will add muscle to your body.
6 TRACK AND RECORD EVERYTHING!
This is probably the most important tip for getting and staying lean. You must track your progress, measure your body fat and weight, and weigh out and record all food portions you consume to know what will work for your body.
Each person is different—no cookie-cutter diet works for everyone. There are general rules of thumb to abide by, but to use someone else's meal plan to achieve results will most likely leave you disappointed.
I know it sounds too simplistic, but the only real way to figure out what will work for you is trial and error. However, there are a couple things you can do to make the process easier. Number one, figure out your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).
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