Real talk about health and fitness
My attempt to uncomplicate your fitness journey
A common statement I hear from people trying to get in shape is “I don’t know where to start”, and that’s valid but not for the reasons you think. You see, it’s not because of a lack of information, but an abundance of it.
If you went to Google and searched for the best way to lose weight and started reading, I assure you that you could spend years and still only have a faint idea of what could work for you. There are many styles of fitness, methods of nutrition, and even more schools of thought regarding the synchrony of exercise and nutrition. so much information is out there that trying to find the best one for you is like looking for a needle in a haystack when you have no idea what the needle looks like.
About 6 years ago, I successfully made the transition from being morbidly obese to overweight, and over time I became what I’d like to consider fit. During my first year on this journey, maybe even years before, the information overload frustrated me so much, I mean, I was just a teenager trying to lose some weight and I read so many articles and watched videos by so-called “fitness experts” who I now know only cared about their bottom line which was selling their products.
Being a science-inclined individual at heart, I gave up on the internet articles and started to read about the physiology behind the whole process. I won’t lie it took some time to unlearn the nonsense I read but eventually it all made sense and here’s a quick summary that I hope will simplify the concept.
FAT LOSS
This one stumps people a lot but it’s as simple as calories in vs calories out. Every human has a basic metabolic rate, that is, the number of calories burned/energy exerted per day at rest. Exercise would add to the calories burned but it’s very easy to overestimate the calories you’ve burned.
Food acts as the calories put in. Reducing calories consumed daily will help you reduce the calories you put in and drive you towards better fat loss. It is also important to work towards a slow and steady reduction rather than a drastic one, which I’m guilty of having tried in the past.
In summary, an increase in activity coupled with a reduction in food intake will ALWAYS lead to fat loss, unless there are additional medical factors like Cushing’s syndrome or Hypothyroidism to name a few. It’s the rule, simple human physiology.
WEIGHT GAIN
Now this is a tad interesting. Of course, if losing weight means eating less, moving more then gaining should mean eating more, moving less. However, I can’t advise that because it can lead to a lot of health problems, obesity being the first.
For healthy weight gain, what’s best is a progressive overload in resistance training coupled with an increase in food intake. That intake needs to be strategic. You can’t just eat everything and anything while working out and hoping to gain the right kind of weight. A balanced diet with protein, Carbohydrates, and healthy fats is the best way to achieve this. Of course, all this will only work in the absence of pre-existing medical conditions like hyperthyroidism, cancers e.t.c
CONCLUSION …..and a gift for my readers
Focusing on the points I’ve outlined here will help you achieve whatever fitness goals you hope to accomplish. But as someone who was on that journey, I know that it’s daunting and sometimes you may feel like you aren’t going anywhere.
The best way to combat this is by tracking your progress. Get a tape measure to track your body measurements, track your body weight, your lifts at the gym, and even your runs. The constant tracking may seem stressful but can help you see how far you’ve come and progressed over time and act as fuel to get you to where you need to be. The most important part is NOT GIVING UP and with time the results will be evident to you.
My Gift to you
The whole nutrition and exercise stuff comes easier to some people than others and the internet might not necessarily have programs available for everyone so I’m making myself available to all my readers.
Send me a message stating what you need to jumpstart your fitness journey, whether it’s a workout program or an eating plan, we’ll discuss it and I’ll make a program for you based on the available facilities and the food choices you have access to. You can write a message in the comments or an email to emmasomto@gmail.com if you’re interested
And this is absolutely and completely FREE… you know, like how gifts usually are.
