Healthy Eating and Weight Loss
January is a great time to start or get back into a healthy eating plan, especially if one of your goals for 2014 is weight loss!
What to do…
* Think healthy eating rather than diet! ‘Going on a diet’ implies restriction and a short-term fix!
* Think of your goal in terms of weight loss AND a clothes size. Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are training, the scales may not always reflect the changes in your body shape.
* Make your goal realistic. Losing 1 to 2lb per week is healthy and achievable.
* Think permanent and sustainable…starting 2015 with the goal to ‘maintain fitness and weight loss from 2014’.
* Introduce changes one at a time giving yourself time to get used to each one e.g. changing breakfast cereal to porridge, sugary snacks to raw vegetables or pasta based dinners for protein (chicken and fish) with steamed vegetables.
* Review your goal! Life is busy and doesn’t always run smoothly. If you feel that your healthy eating plan is faltering, go back a step. This is a long-term change and it will take time for your new healthy eating plan to become a real habit!
What not to do…
* Crash diet…starve…skip meals…
It may be tempting to think that the best way to lose weight is to dramatically reduce your calorie or food intake. This may give initial positive results…but neither the weight loss nor the (lack of) eating plan are sustainable…and may also have future detrimental effects on your ability to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
Because…
The body is intelligent and knows that we need fuel for survival. If the body isn’t being given enough fuel it will go into ‘survival mode’. It will protect the brain by reducing its metabolic rate so that less fuel is burned by movement, preserving more for the brain!
Won’t my body just burn fat to get the extra fuel it needs?
No! It is important to remember that no matter how intense or aerobic your training, the body cannot efficiently burn fat alone. Fat can only be used efficiently for fuel alongside carbohydrates. In order to lose weight and fat effectively and long term, your body needs fuel!
Book an appointment with our nutritional expert here at Trailfinders Sports Club in Ealing to design a bespoke healthy eating plan for you.
Good luck and have a great start to 2014!
West London Fitness
Personal Training Service
Gain and sustain a healthier you