DeVetter Fitness Nutrition Crash Course (continued)

3. Portion Sizes. When planning your meals, it is extremely important to measure out the foods you are eating. This is not a guessing game. If you have no idea how many calories you are consuming, you may never be able to achieve fat loss. You must initially be accurate in measuring your food intake in order to be successful and see results. Pay attention to what method of measurement is being used as well (ex. tbs. verses tsp.).

4. Supplement your Efforts FACT: Nothing burns fat better than healthy muscles. The surest way to maintain and even build lean muscle is to ensure all of your nutrient needs are being met. If you’re going to cut back your calories at all, you have to make sure that you are not depriving your body of vital nutrients. In fact, now that you’ll be exercising more (or more intensely), your nutrient requirements are going to increase so your body can recover from your workouts.

Add the fact that you lead a busy lifestyle. There are some days when you just don’t have the time or opportunity to eat often enough or even choose the best foods. The holes left in your nutrition plan must be filled with nutrients in some manner. IF NOT…..your body will take them from your muscles – which will ultimately lead to a slower metabolism.

The best solution to this is adding calorie-free, whole food nutrients into your nutritional plan. I recommend that you start with VGF+25 to ensure that you have the nutrients your body needs to maintain and even add lean muscle. Your body will be more prepared to fight illnesses and have the raw materials necessary to achieve a lean, fit physique.

5. Breakfast. Always eat breakfast! This is the most important meal of the day. Skipping breakfast will only send the message to your body that you're starving because you haven't had food in over 8+ hours. Plan your meals so that you eat within an hour of waking. Eating a supportive breakfast will give you a boost of energy and prevent your from craving high sugar/high fat foods later in the day.

6. Spread calories evenly throughout the day. It’s important to change your perception of what a meal consists of. It is quite common to think of breakfast as a small quick meal (or worse yet, a meal that can be skipped – see the consequences below) and dinner as a large sit-down meal. However, if food is the fuel that will accelerate results, it only makes sense that every time we fuel the body we want to give it the right types and the right amounts.

Your task now is to get into the practice of balancing each meal out by creating meals that are equal in size. For Example: If your calorie needs are 1600 for the day, and you are eating 5 meals, then each meal you consume should be around 300 to 350 calories. Use the Online Menu Planner to help you create balanced meals. When in doubt, use the following rule of thumb: On a 9 inch plate, each food group should visually be about the same size.

7. Refuel for Quick Results. Want results fast?….Recovery is the key! While you will only be in the gym engaging in intense resistance exercise for less than one hour, it is what you eat in the 60 minutes before and the 30-45 minutes after that workout that can determine how effective all your hard work will be at moving you towards your goals.

Do you exercise on an empty stomach? What is your body using for fuel? Give up? Your body is using muscle protein for fuel because it doesn't have enough carbohydrates to burn. If you start your workout well-fueled, your body will burn a combination of the carbohydrates stored in your muscles and the fat stored in your fat cells. Eat within one hour of working out, keep your metabolism burning strong and to spare your muscle.

During resistance training, your muscle is forced to work harder than usual and the muscle cells become damaged. In an attempt to prevent future damage and soreness, your body will not only repair the damage, it will also build your muscles back just a little bit stronger than they were before.

This is what causes the actual gains in muscle size, strength, and efficiency, which ultimately lead to a faster metabolism helping you get the results you’re after

The best way to speed the recovery process, as well as the results you want to see, is to follow each workout with a proper POST-WORKOUT Meal. You need to quickly and efficiently refuel the muscles and then provide them with the raw materials they need to rebuild themselves to be bigger and stronger. A liquid source, such as a Meal Replacement Shake is ideal because it can be digested and utilized faster which increases your chances for a quick recovery and faster results.

8. Eliminate Sugar. There are foods with nutrients that can interrupt the process of boosting your metabolism. The nutrients to avoid are….simple sugars and refined carbohydrates – “Processed Foods” (soda, fast food, chips, white bread, white pasta, white rice or meals in a box/bag). These foods are high in calories and have little to no nutritional value. Eating foods from this category means you are not filling your body with supportive foods. Processed carbohydrates rapidly increase and decrease your blood sugar levels, resulting in hunger and fatigue which causes your body to go into fat storage mode and will slow your metabolism

9. Drink Water. Over 70% of your bodily functions take place in water – a lack of water causes all your systems to slow down - including your metabolism. Consume at least 8-12 eight ounce glasses of water throughout the day. Water is the most important nutrient in the human body and has many benefits involving fat loss. Proper hydration will increase the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream which in return will increase your body’s fat burning ability.

Bonus: When a craving hits, down a glass of water and wait about 10 minutes. Chances are, you were just thirsty. Drinking plenty of water keeps you satisfied, energetic, young and on track!

10. Follow the 90/10 Rule. Eating supportively should not leave you feeling deprived. The 90/10 Rule is the prefect method for eating those not-so-supportive foods without blowing your ability to achieve results. The general rule on cheating is this: make sure that no more than 10% of your meals are missed or cheat meals. So if you’re eating five meals a day, seven days a week (for a total of 35 meals per week), then no more than 3 of those meals should be misses or cheats. If you can achieve 90% adherence - and anyone can - you can get the results you want.

Are you Ready?

It’s time to improve your nutrition and begin to eat supportively. I have some good news for you. Once you incorporate and live by the 10 Rules listed above, you can expect to begin losing at the very least 1 pound of fat per week….simply from the above nutritional changes. Add in your metabolism boosting exercises and you’ll experience your transformation twice as fast!

What I want you to do now is plan, prepare your meal plans and follow them as closely as possible for the next week. There are several reasons why this is important….

~This is the first step in developing a new habit (consistency is key)
~You must get used to eating 5-6 meals a day
~You must become comfortable with measuring foods
~You must take note of how you feel. By eating the right combinations of foods you will experience a boost in your energy levels and a decrease in your cravings and hunger.

So, the only way to measure your progress by eating supportively, is to DO IT!

And You can do it!
All you really have to do is think about the foods you are about to eat. Are they going to bring you closer to your goal? Or will they make you feel like crap and take you farther away from the body that you want? Yes it's going to take effort and at times it will be tedious. You want to get your body back and look great, right? Well nothing tastes as good as lean and fit feels. Eating supportively is simply a matter of making health and fitness a priority in your life and taking daily action to achieve your best body.

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