Get lean. Stay lean all year round.
There is so much information about weight loss these days.
But let's be honest. We don't want to just lose weight, make the number on the scales go down.
No.
We want to look leaner. We want thin waist and visible abs. We want firm butts. Chiseled legs, back and arms.
We don't want to be skinny fats. We want to look like fitness models ideally, don't we?
And we can. It's a choice. And it's simple. Anyone can do it.
I'm not going to lie and say it's easy to make the right choices all the time, when there is so much distraction and temptation around. When most choices, we are faced with daily, will not bring us lean fitness-model-like physique we dream of.
But the strategies to get lean and stay lean are simple. And I want to share these simple "secret" strategies with you. Strategies that the leanest and healthiest use to get lean and stay lean almost effortlessly.
Staying lean is a habit. It's a choice. It's a routine.
1. Weight Training.
If you want to have chiseled lean physique, there is no way around it. You got to do some resistance training. You can train in the gym with weights: dumbbells, barbells, machines. You can use your own bodyweight. You can even do yoga, as long as it makes your muscles work hard against gravity.
The best results when you sculpt your body, when you design the exact body you want, creating hourglass (for a woman) or upside-down triangle (for a man) silhouette, you will get in the gym. Only weights and machines allow you to do precise body sculpting, make some parts bigger, some parts smaller, create better proportions.
Different training routines can get you leaner, but it doesn't give the same results, same control of the outcome, control of the design of exact body you want.
And without weight or resistance training, without getting some muscle work in "“ there is no way you'll get lean physique, unless you starve yourself or do immense amount of cardio like a pro-athlete.
Weight training is the most efficient and effective way to build a beautiful lean physique.
2. Calories.
It's actually really simple, and we all know it.
To shed the fat we got to consume less calories than we use.
But here it gets a bit tricky.
Amount of calories our body digests and absorbs can vary from person to person: depending on gender, metabolism, health, muscle/fat ratio in the body, lifestyle, work we do, amount of training, digestion, quality of food we eat.
As a guideline, when we are trying to shed the fat, we need around 1500/2100 calories (women/men) per day. For maintenance: 2000/2700 calories per day accordingly.
And if you eat good quality healthy foods with the right ratio of macronutrients "“ it's a lot!
If you don't want to count calories or this doesn't exactly work for you, you don't see the results you want or don't feel comfortable, just write down the amount of food you eat, kind of foods you eat for a couple of weeks, measure results (I would measure fat percentage, waist, butt, thighs, arms size with measuring tape) and make the adjustments accordingly.
Tracking your calories for a period of time helps to become aware of the amount of calories in foods we eat.
When we do the tracking and know how our body works, we can allow ourseves to eat any foods we love, as long as it fits into our calorie plan, and as long as our diet is healthy overall, our body gets everything it needs.
And forget about small meals bullshit theory. You can eat one meal, 2, 3, 5 meals per day, as long as you consume the right amount of calories.
3. Macronutrients' Ratio: Fats, Proteins, Carbohydrates.
This is an important one. To build lean physique and stay healthy, and most importantly to maintain lean physique, we need to consume the right amount of proteins, fats and carbs.
The best ratio that is proven to work for the leanest and healthiest: 40% fat, 30% protein, 30% carbs.
Forget about all the low carb, low fat crap.
We need not only proteins, building blocks of our muscles and cells, but good quality fats and carbs also. Fats are important for our hormones, absorption of vitamins, satiety, brain and immune functions. Carbs are our energy. Fiber that comes with carbs will ensure healthy digestion and healthy gut flora. Carbs are important for production of neurotransmitters like serotonin "“ our happiness factories.
Our body needs everything: fats, proteins, carbs. And 40/30/30 ratio seems to be the perfect one for a lean, chiseled physique that you can maintain all year round without going hungry and crazy.
Here you can find applications to track your calories and macronutrients.
Apps to track macros and calories from DailyBurn.com
Bonus Tip:
There is a "new" bloke in town. Intermittent fasting seems to be "the latest" trick many athletes, fitness models, bodybuilders use to easily get lean and stay lean.
Benefits:
- Once you get used to the regimen of intermittent fasting, it's easy.
- You don't have to think about food all the time and eat the whole day.
- It's convenient because you can eat your meals any time of the day.
- You can eat bigger more satisfying meals because you will only eat 2-3 meals a day.
- It promotes longevity.
- Promotes testosterone (important for training and muscle building) and growth hormone production, improves hormonal system functioning.
- Promotes health.
- Re-connects you with your natural feeling of hunger.
How-to:
Don't consume any calories for 14-16 hours.
That's all you ever need to know about nutrition and lifestyle to get lean and stay lean. Ever.
What about cardio?
You can forget about it, as long as your nutrition and weight training routine are in place.
What about frequent meals for faster metabolism?
It's been proven that the rate of our metabolism is individual and does not change significantly depending on the frequency of our meals.
What about high protein diets?
Our body does not store protein. It uses what it needs and gets rid of the rest. High protein diet does not bring any benefits. And if we don't consume enough healthy fats and carbs because of high protein diet, we compromise our health.
Now you have no excuses! Get lean! It's simple!