If You Want to “Get Toned” for the Summer, It's Time to STOP Fearing Food
If your company were to give you a $30 daily stipend for food that you can’t pocket or put towards anything else, I would bet my bottom dollar that you would use it TO THE PENNY.
Would you even dream of saying, “I’m only going to spend $16 of this $30 free money I have”????? No way! You’d spend it all! Still have $8 to go?? Add some snacks!! Still have $2 to go?! Add on a pack of gum!!!
Unfortunately, a lot of women are throwing away their “free” calorie budget every day and wondering why they aren’t seeing results. Let’s break down what this looks like and what it means:
Your body has a number of calories it needs to maintain its weight, and this number is calculated with the following information: Your age, sex, height, weight, and level of activity. To lose weight, you would eat a little less than this maintenance number for a temporary period of time. However, many people simply go with one-size-fits-all guidelines of subtracting 500 from 2,000, or worse, download an app that tells them to eat as little as 1,200 calories a day.
But weight loss requires you to move more and eat less, so what’s the problem with eating way less?
Well, your body is smart and it tries to be very good at its job: to keep you alive. A huge part of keeping you alive is managing your metabolism. Your metabolism functions most optimally when it is getting the right amount of calories. When you begin to eat less than the right amount of calories, you will likely lose weight, but your metabolism will strive to adapt by slowing down. This adaptation is negatively described in the diet industry as a “plateau”, and you are often to blame for it. But it’s not your fault! It’s just your body’s way of ensuring that you don’t wither away and starve to death.
So, to protect your from starvation, when you begin to eat WAY less than the right amount of calories, your metabolism will slow down *a lot*. When your metabolism has slowed, weight loss will slow, and putting on muscle will definitely be last on your body’s list of priorities.
When clients come to me saying, “I’ve been trying everything but nothing is working!!!” not eating enough for a long period of time is normally a piece of the puzzle.
So what do you do instead?
Use your entire calorie budget!!! Learn how much your body needs to maintain your weight, and eat your way there!! If you’re in a place where you feel like you’re lacking muscle in general, start at maintenance and focus on growing that muscle with high-protein, nourishing foods. If you’re in a place where you know the muscle is in there somewhere but you need to shed some fat, eat less than maintenance but not too much less! Start small and embrace the slower, gradual results. They will be so much more rewarding and they will be more likely to LAST!
No matter what your goals are, it’s time to STOP fearing food. Food is your friend. Food helps your body to function optimally and keep you alive. Food also fuels your workouts… and your workouts are where you build the muscle you want to build so badly!!! So let’s eat!!
Interested in learning more about how you can most optimally eat enough and see more muscle tone on your frame? Custom Holistic Programming is a great fit for you.
When you join, you’ll get:
A one month custom workout program written for your goals, your ability level, your schedule, and the equipment available to you
A 50 minute wellness coaching session to discuss how to best align your food intake and other healthy habits with your exercise goals
Weekly check-ins to see how progress is going and to troubleshoot what’s not working
An end-of-month call to reflect on the previous month and set new goals for the upcoming month
A coach who values communication and collaboration and wrote a whole program around that!
Click here to schedule your complimentary, no-strings-attached consultation!
