How to exercise and what to eat to lose weight and maintain the results?
Many in the United States have been waiting a long time for the new diet book by Jordan Sayate and Michael Vacanti - two fitness and nutrition coaches who are known for their success in weight loss processes and maintaining the new weight gained over time. To date, the two have accompanied thousands of people in this process, most of them rich and famous, only privately. Although they are known for their many successes, their method has not been fully revealed until now but only partially in TV shows, magazines, and newspapers in which they were regularly interviewed. Not least due to the fact that the two are resolute and tell the whole truth in the most direct way possible.
If you do brisk walking to lose weight, you are wasting your time. If you chose running? Waste of energy. And the same goes for HIIT or Tabata workouts which are very popular now. If you enjoy this physical activity, continue with it, they say, but if you want to lose weight - change direction, because you are at full throttle on neutral. "After training tens of thousands of people, including people who didn't believe they would be able to lose weight, we believe our formula is a winner," they write in a book published last June in the United States called “Eat It! The Most Sustainable Diet and Workout Ever Made: Burn Fat, Get Strong, and Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Guilt Free” The book became a hysterical bestseller as soon as it was published, and is placed at the top of the prestigious bestseller lists of The New York Times and Amazon.
The method of the two coaches is not complicated and is based on the latest research in the field of nutrition and fitness. Here are the main points of the method from the book.
The most common question addressed to the two fitness trainers is which sport should you invest in to lose weight - high-intensity interval training (HIIT), running, walking? "Any sport is healthy for us, but if your goal is to lose weight or maintain the weight you have gained - the only effective activity is strength training against weights. From a scientific point of view, there is no doubt that strength training is the most important and effective training to lose weight and maintain the result," the two insist. According to them, if you like to run or walk, you should continue to do so, because any sport is healthy for you, but these exercises will not make you lose weight significantly. They do burn calories, but the amount is not large and usually, after them, you will feel the desire to eat more than usual.
On the other hand, strength training builds muscle and therefore increases the burning of calories even at rest. "We didn't include cardio in our program, because you don't need aerobic training to burn fat and build muscle," they explain. "But it is important for us to emphasize that working on cardiopulmonary endurance is important for our general health."
If it's important to you to get in shape and for your body to be tighter, you should know that neither yoga nor Pilates will help you reach your goal, the two claim. If you want a body with proper muscle mass, the only way to achieve it is strength training against weights, and if you are worried about having the muscular body of a weightlifter - remove the worry from your heart. To get a body builder's body you must train a lot for a long time and eat in a measured way, and it just won't happen to you.
Prefer training for all body muscles
The goal of strength training is to work on all muscle groups in the body and not to focus on one area, even if you want to flatten your stomach. The only training that "covers" all muscle groups will strengthen the bones and all the muscles of the body.
Rest between exercises and sets
Many people mistakenly think that for the training to be faster and more efficient, you should skip the rest times between exercises and between sets, depending on the structure of the training, but these rest times are necessary to achieve the effectiveness of the training. The accepted recommendation is a 2–4-minute rest between sets.
Don't exercise every day
To get effective results in resistance training you don't need to train every day for an hour. On the contrary - a 45–60-minute workout, 3-4 times a week, is the most recommended because the body needs to recover between workouts to build muscle effectively. This program will give you the best results. If you can only train twice a week, that's fine too, but not optimal.
How long should training last? 45-75 minutes is the duration of an effective workout, depending on how long your breaks are. If you finish the workout in less than 45 minutes, you probably didn't lift enough weight. If the workout lasted more than 75 minutes, you probably weren't focused or took too long breaks.
The warm-up is important to raise the body temperature and prepare the joints for the activity, and it should last 10-15 minutes
The rule is that it is always better to start with less weight than with too much weight to avoid injuries. This means that at first, you can start with only body weight, and then add weights gradually. For men, starting with weights of 10 kg is reasonable.
How do you know when to increase the weight? The golden rule is simple: if the last lifts are a challenge for you but you manage to finish the set, it means you are working with the right weight. If, on the other hand, you find it very difficult to finish and cannot complete the set - reduce the weights. In general, the last 2-4 repetitions of the set should be very difficult to perform. If, for example, you do a set of 10 exercises with a weight of 10 kg and it is easy for you to complete it, you should increase the weight by 2.5-5 kg. If you have difficulty finishing the workout, reduce the weight by 2.5-5 kg.
Increase the burning of calories: the more muscle tissue our body has, the more calories it burns even at rest, and the easier it is for us to lose weight and maintain the weight we have gained.
Effective for "skinny fat": "skinny fat" is a term that describes people who are thin in terms of weight, but whose body functions like a fat person's body because they are not physically active.
Increases energy and overall body strength: People who focus on strength training report that they feel stronger in general, that they are less tired, and that they have more energy.
Increase bone density: strengthening bones is one of the essential benefits of physical activity, because breaking bones in old age is one of the most common causes of death, especially in women. Activities such as walking and running do not affect the bones at all. The only physical activity that strengthens the bones of the body is strength training.
Extends life expectancy: Many studies have proven that people who engage in sports live longer than those who do not and that those who focus on strength training enjoy an especially long life expectancy.
What to eat to lose weight and keep the results?
A diet for weight loss should last for a limited time ranging from 7 to 21 days. It is not recommended to make a mistake and continue the process beyond 21 consecutive days. The reason for this is the phenomenon of stopping weight loss. If you want to lose 10 kg, for example, do it in breaks. After 21 days of dieting, go back to eating normally, and only after another 21 days do you go back to the weight loss process.
The most effective diet is flexibility in the menu - that is, allowing yourself to eat the foods you like, and the most effective way to do this is to eat more on some days and less on other days. Consult a nutritionist about the daily amount of calories you should consume. If, for example, your daily calorie intake is about 1,800, you can divide this into days of 2,000 calories (weekends) and days of 1,650 calories (weekdays). In this way, you enjoy the food you love in the amount that is suitable for maintaining weight
Proteins help build muscle, and it is very important to eat enough protein in the process of losing weight and caloric deficit because if you do not consume enough protein, your body will lose muscle mass during weight loss, which is an undesirable process. Since muscle is the most active tissue in our body because it burns more calories than fat tissue, losing muscle will cause obesity in the long run.
The amount of protein you consume per day should be half of your target weight. If you want to weigh 80 kg - eat at least 40 grams of protein a day.
Carbs don't make you fat.
Anyone who claims this should answer the following question: Why are the Japanese who eat mostly carbohydrates considered the thinnest nation in the world? All the studies conducted to date have not shown that carbohydrates cause obesity. Carbohydrates have many benefits, they are our body's fuel, and let's be honest - they taste amazing. Anyone who wants to lose weight should indeed eat more protein than carbohydrates, but it is still very important to include carbohydrates on your menu.
How to eat what you like without gaining weight? Observe the 20:80 rule, which means that you eat healthy food 80% of the time, and in the remaining 20% you allow yourself to eat food that you like and that is considered less healthy. The idea is to maintain the weight for a long time, and, likely, you will not be able to resist the temptations for years. Therefore it is perfectly fine to eat unhealthy food as long as you keep the principle that it does not exceed 20%.
Why can't I lose weight?
This is the most common question that is addressed to the two trainers, and their answer: the only reason for this is that you eat more than you estimate. Surveys conducted found that people's estimate of the number of calories they consumed per day was 50% lower than reality, meaning that people who estimated they consumed 1,500 calories per day consumed 3,000 calories. This is why people don't know how they gain weight or don't lose it. Pay special attention to healthy foods that contain a lot of calories and fat that people tend not to count "because they are healthy" such as tahini, avocados, and nuts, and eat them in moderation.
Hungry between meals? Adopt the following steps
Hunger between meals is one of the main reasons for breaking the diet and its failure. If you feel hungry between meals, try the following steps:
Increase the amount of protein in meals. In any case, protein should always be the main component of the meal, because it causes a longer feeling of satiety.
Increase water consumption. Drinking enough water helps to lose weight and prevents confusion between thirst and hunger.
Include more legumes in the menu. They contain both protein and dietary fiber that contribute to a prolonged feeling of satiety.
Eat in the following order: first low-calorie vegetables (cooked or fresh), then protein, and only at the end eat the carbohydrates
What do you do when you feel hungry after dinner?
Firstly, no one went into an emergency if they felt a little hungry. A little hunger is not a bad thing. Still, try drinking a fizzy drink without calories in the summer or a hot drink in the winter. Also, try brushing your teeth or chewing gum. You'd be surprised, but it might help. And don't forget to focus mainly: if you limit yourself to a few meals a day and one plate - you will lose weight and keep it off without giving up any of the foods you love.
