Hey Angels and Alphas,

When it comes to weight loss and hormones, it’s a bit like the egg and chicken dilemma. Okay – was weight gain caused by hormonal imbalance? Or the lifestyle and diet choices cause weight gain, which then triggered a hormonal imbalance?

Even though most experts agree it tends to be the latter, hormones are still a crucial part of the equation when it comes to trying to lose weight and keep it off…

Not only do they play a role in countless functions throughout the body, but they also regulate your appetite and the way your body stores fat.

By understanding your hormones, you can make better, much more informed decisions regarding the patterns and behaviors that lead you to achieving your goal.

But you’re in luck – the recommendations for hormonal balance and sustainable weight loss are pretty much the same. If you want to lose weight, you need to know which foods will help you maintain a healthy weight and which foods will wreak havoc on your hormones (especially those associated with appetite, fat storage, and weight gain.)

Here are 3 of the most crucial hormones you need to pay attention to when you’re trying to regulate your weight… and how you can get them to work with you (and not against you.)

INSULIN

Insulin’s job is to bring glucose into the cells of our body. Dietary habits are the most common cause of insulin problems. When we habitually start eating foods that are high in sugar, our bodies start pumping insulin so the glucose can be used by our cells.

But at the same time, elevated insulin levels send the signal to the body that they need to start converting excess sugar to fat. This excess fatty tissue is horrible for your waistline, but also makes your cells lose their sensitivity to insulin, therefore signaling to the body to produce more and more, causing you to gain even more weight.

This leads to a vicious cycle called insulin resistance, in which the body stops responding adequately to insulin.

Here’s your hack: some people believe that they need to ditch carbs to lose weight if they have any sort of insulin problem. But the most important thing is to choose the right types of carbs and get them in the right portions. Sweet potatoes, brown rice, and whole grains can instantly help you balance blood sugar levels caused by unrefined carbs.

And regardless of whether or not you have insulin resistance, it’s always a good idea to eat a holistic, balanced, healthy diet that manages blood sugar and insulin responses. When you pair carbs with protein and fat, you help your body blunt the response to blood sugar.

CORTISOL

Cortisol, more commonly known as the stress hormone, helps us decide whether we want to fight or flight… and it also promotes insulin secretion.

Cortisol makes us store more fat in our bodies, particularly around our waistline, the most dangerous area when it comes to overall health. It also skyrockets our appetite, leading to cycles of overeating and cravings.

Here’s your hack: The key to losing weight is managing stress and how you are coping with it. You have to find what works for you – there’s no way around it. Make a cup of tea. Go for a walk. Meditate. Soak in a hot bath. Whatever it is, do it when you feel like you’re about to eat because you’re stressed or bored.

GHRELIN

Ghrelin is a hormone that’s produced by the stomach, and as such, has everything to do with controlling hunger in our bodies. It’s at its peak when your stomach is empty and then decreases when you consume food.

Ghrelin does countless useful things for the body, and it even helps get your stomach ready to process food… and we also know that when it increases, people are spurred out to seek out more food, creating a cycle of stress, cortisol production, ghrelin production, and weight gain.

The horrible combination of increased ghrelin and added stress can be very difficult to deal with later on in the day. The evening is the high-risk period when it comes to overeating, particularly if you’re stressed and prone to binge eating.

Here’s your hack: Manage stress and keep your stomach full with healthy, slow-digesting foods. Make sleep a priority (since not getting enough sleep is a surefire way to take your ghrelin levels off balance.) When you stick to a high-protein, high-fiber diet full of foods you actually enjoy, you’ll have no problem dealing with any of these hormonal issues – ghrelin included.

Hey Angels and Alphas,

Whether you’re a complete beginner or an expert meal prepper, you know better than anyone that putting up some time upfront can save you a lot more time (and headaches) during the week… with the added benefit of making losing weight so much easier.

If you’re just beginning your meal prepping journey, you are probably doing it exactly because you think it will make your life easier. And it will!

But don’t overcomplicate it. It’s so easy to customize depending on your budget, lifestyle, and food choices. You can easily learn to create healthy and delicious meals that are easy to make, satiating, and in tune with your body goals.

To help you do exactly that, here are 8 tips by top dietitians on how to better meal prep.

#1 MAKE USE OF FROZEN FOOD

Never overlook fruits or veggies just because they’re frozen. If you’re trying to eat healthy on a budget, frozen food will cost less than fresh produce, and not to mention, they last much longer. The trick here is to look for products with no additives like extra sodium or sugar.

#2 STACK UP ON BEANS AND LENTILS

You can use beans as one of the most budget-friendly ways to increase portions with healthy food… all while giving yourself a plant-based protein and a boost of fiber! If you’re looking to reduce your intake of animal protein, you know where to look now. And if you believe you don’t like beans or lentils, you just haven’t discovered how many amazing recipes they’re already in.

#3 PLAN A WEEKLY MENU

Always plan a menu before you head off shopping. For some people, this might feel a little cumbersome right off the bat, so I suggest starting out with planning at least two dinner meals. Once you start planning your dinners, you’ll be able to purchase the ingredients necessary for the week – and always have leftovers.

#4 UNDERCOOKING YOUR VEGGIES

Do you want to know an easy way to avoid soggy vegetables when meal prepping? Just slightly undercook them, regardless of whether you use saute, steam, blanch, or stir-fy. If you do this, they’ll retain more of their vital nutrients, and they’ll be even better when you reheat them for a fast meal later on. This works amazing with all kinds of foods, not just fruits and veggies, including grain bowls, soups, side dishes, and more.

#5 PUT LABELS ON EVERYTHING!

Masking tape and a Sharpie pen should become one of your kitchen essentials. When you label everything with what the product is or what the contents are, you’ll be able to save much more time which is what you’re trying to do in the first place. And don’t limit yourself to just writing out the names of what’s inside the container. Use reminders, lists, labels, and do it all accordingly so you can maximize time-saving.

#6 MARINATE YOUR PROTEINS

Some dietitians suggest that you buy a couple of marinades or dressings (Tikka, Teriyaki, Red Enchilada Sauce, etc) and then combine them each with a protein (salmon, beef, chicken breast, etc.) in a reusable bag. Then just freeze or put them in a refrigerator until you’re ready to use them. This helps add more flavor to your meal at little expense to quality, and makes dry proteins much more enjoyable.

#7 ALWAYS MAKE EXTRA SERVINGS!

Meal prep can surely be a struggle if you’re always cooking for one, but you should never let this become an obstacle. What you should do is bookmark your favorite recipes and every new-to-you cuisine and always make extra servings when you cook them. It doesn’t to be on cooking-day Sunday, but just sometimes when you’re already cooking and decide there’s no reason why you shouldn’t make some extra servings.

#8 STOCK YOUR PANTRY WITH STAPLES

Always make sure your pantries are stacked with the essential dietary ingredients you need such as whole foods, canned foods, fruits and veggies, oats, grains, and meat. Keep canned foods like beans, tuna, and tomato, or stack your fridge with frozen veggies and proteins. From just a few staple ingredients, you can instantly make a quick dinner out of the first few things you grab.

In conclusion…

Always remember your first and only goal with meal prep is to save time. Don’t get all lost in the complex tactics used by professional athletes (unless you are one,) and stick to the basics that will help you manage your time better and leave some of your week’s stressors behind.

With an arsenal of dietitian-recommended tips, you can be sure you’ll know how to deal with the challenges that come with trying to organize your relationship with food… and even though it’s a tough battle, it’s one worth fighting.

Hey Angels and Alphas,

Have you ever heard the saying, “we must learn to crawl before we can walk?”

Well, it’s the same with walking and running. The famous phrase highlights the fact that mastering a more basic fundamental skill before going to the next level is an essential part of growth.

And while you will find that this sentiment is often correct, some coaches take issue with it when it comes to walking and running. It’s not always important to avoid light jogging when you’re starting your new workout program; but a combination of running and walking programs can be your one-way ticket to better health and fitness for the rest of your life.

A walk/run program is the perfect addition to any weight-loss program.

Recent research proves that to be the case. It also supports the act of combining walking with running. One study showed that a combination of walking and running reduced muscle pain and fatigue that always accompanies newbie runners. This is yet another factor that will help you adhere to your training regimen.

Because it’s so low-intensity, any walk/run program will be (and feel) doable from day 1, skyrocketing your confidence and getting the trail going. You’ll start to feel good after each workout, and that’s the key to returning for the next one.

So how do we create a successful walk/run program?

The number one key you have to remember is that you have to exercise restraint when implementing your run/walk program. Sometimes, we are highly motivated as we start a new training regimen, but doing too much can be a recipe for disaster, burnout, and trauma.

Some people will start off their first week alternating between 30 seconds of walking and 1 minute of running for 1 mile… and this can feel like too much. If it does for you, try the reverse! Your running bursts should still be at a conversational pace, meaning you shouldn’t be gasping for air so hard that you can’t chat with someone running right next to you.

If you’re a complete beginner in the weight loss world, you can start with walk/run intervals three days of the week and never on back-to-back days.

On other days you should just walk, like experienced runners, because their bodies and muscles need to rest and recover.

If you can sustainably increase the length of your running segments by 20-25 percent every week, and therefore gradually increase the distance by a bit… you win! If you start with 1-minute intervals, the second week, you should then try for 1 minute and 10 or 15 seconds.

Throughout your journey, you will have no problem increasing the distance or speed at which you’re running, as well as adding even more intervals whenever you feel like it. This will eventually turn into a daily habit, and you’ll start to walk/run more than 3 days a week. You’ll see a progression in your body that’s not just physical, but also mental as you break down the barriers of limiting beliefs and see yourself gaining strength and endurance every day.

If at any time you feel like you’re doing too much, just go back to what you were doing the week before.

Which brings us to our final point…

If you want to lose weight with a run/walk program, always listen (and pay attention) to your body.

You always have to pay attention to things such as your perceived energy and energy exertion during your workouts, that’s pretty much obvious to everybody. But what isn’t obvious is that the “no pain, no gain” mentality could be pushing us to do more than what is needed, potentially leaving us into dangerous territories of no results, burnout, and trauma.

This means that if your knee is aching you, or your knee is starting to hurt after a long run, maybe it’s time to take some time off or seek help from a specialist. You should never stop exercising completely, but calling for a few days off from running can go a long way to preventing a lot of trouble in the future.

If you have a gym membership, spending a couple of days there or inside the yoga studio are also great options. Don’t think that running is the only thing that can help you lose weight because it’s far from it.

When you learn to balance not just your walking/running bursts but also your rest days, you will see the incremental results you’re looking for and see major changes in the way you look and feel… not only will this turn you into a bona fide runner, but it will also keep you as healthy and as fit as you let it.

Hey Angels and Alphas,

In a world overcrowded with fad diets promising miracle results, it almost feels like there’s always a new exercise, eating style, or diet that’s promoted as the next big thing in the world of weight loss.

But when it comes to these weight-loss trends, we as gym-goers and athletes have to be critical instead of blindly following the consumer mindset and falling for unscientific approaches to fitness and nutrition.

It’s always smart to do some digging on your own and find what you’re signing up for before you buy into the hype of any weight-loss trend…

And that’s exactly why we’ve done that for you. Today, we’re exploring 5 weight-loss trends of 2021 that are gaining hype (and actually deserve that hype,) so you can see for yourself what’s worth sticking to and what trends should be completely ignored.

#1 THE WEIGHT LOSS – SELF-CARE CONNECTION…

During the past year, we’ve all been struggling – and we continue to struggle – with a worldwide pandemic. For this reason, lots of people have adopted a holistic lifestyle that doesn’t only support their weight loss goals but also supports their overall physical and mental well-being.

For example, meditation, gratitude journaling, and self-compassion have gained popularity in the past 12 months, and these things tie directly into weight loss if you look close enough.

When a person actively works to reduce the stress they experience in their life through self-care, weight loss almost always appears as a byproduct. When stress is left unchecked, it naturally leads to overeating, cravings, and poor sleep, all of which promote weight gain in the body. Not to mention, stress also spikes cortisol, raising blood glucose levels and making it exceedingly difficult to metabolize carbs.

However, when you pay attention to your mental health and work toward reducing stress in your day-to-day life, you’ll have a much easier time losing and maintaining weight… it’s safe to say, this trend is here to say.

#2 MINDFUL EATING FOR WEIGHT LOSS

Mindful eating is another trend that you can’t go wrong with. It’s all about developing a positive and productive relationship with food by turning your focus toward your hunger cues and overall emotional experience with consuming food.

There’s a sense of freedom that comes with being fully aware of what makes you satisfied, and this new awareness is just what some people need to push them over the edge into massive weight-loss results.

By getting to know yourself better, understanding your food habits, and avoiding cravings and feelings of deprivation, you’ll be able to actually enjoy the foods you love without any shame or guilt attached. The key to mindful eating is chewing slowly and tuning in with your body as you’re eating so you know when you’re going overboard… and this is a skill that will be useful to all of you who want to achieve your long-term weight-loss goals.

#3 PLANT-POWERED DIETS

By incorporating more plant-based meals in your diet, you’re unknowingly taking advantage of a trend that’s been growing in popularity for the last decade or so.

The benefits of plant-powered diets include better weight loss results, feeling fuller (because of all the fiber you’re consuming,) improving digestion, managing your cravings better, and so much more.

However, plant-powered diets are not all about limiting meats or depriving yourself of other forms of protein. It’s about adding more plant-based proteins from nuts, legumes, seeds, as well as swapping out *some* of your meat for tempeh and tofu… all of which can be incredibly satisfying and beneficial to you and your weight loss journey.

#4 LIMITING ALCOHOL

We’ve seen the prevalence of limiting alcohol in the weight loss community for the past year due to the pandemic-related spikes in alcohol usage across the board.

But needless to say, limiting alcohol is a trend more people should get on board with. Cutting back on alcohol is one of the best things you can do to aid your weight loss efforts due to the fact that alcohol provides little to no nutritional value while being packed with calories from sugar.

Replacing alcoholic beverages with any of the new zero-proof variations or a fun mocktail will result in you seeing your energy levels rise… not to mention, you’ll sleep much better, too.

#5 THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET FOR WEIGHT LOSS

Nutrition experts have been big fans of the Mediterranean diet for quite a while now, and it continues to get ranked in the top dietary patterns for weight loss and health year after year.

That being said, it’s only recently gathering speed as a trend in the weight loss world due to the fact that it’s been shown in research to be an effective style of eating for people who want to reduce fat, risk of cardiovascular disease, and even overall mortality.

Because this eating style includes a variety of foods such as olive oil, fruits, whole grains, nuts, fruits and veggies, herbs and spices, beans, legumes, and more… it’s not really a restrictive diet as much as it is an eating style.

When looking beyond the science, we see that this is a diet you can live with for the rest of your life since it’s balanced and fits most ethnic and geographical patterns.

In other words, the Mediterranean diet is extremely sustainable, making it a super effective and super trendy diet you can hop on and see actual results with.

Hey Angels and Alphas,

If you’re on a weight loss journey right now, you’ve probably heard that full-body workouts that focus on compound exercises to burn calories are an effective way to skyrocket calorie burn.

But did you know why that happens? Did you know compound exercises are so good at engaging your body that they literally kick-start your body’s metabolism and help you burn more calories than you thought possible?

Let’s take a deep dive inside the world of compound exercises and find out why they’re so great at generating such a great calorie-burn bang-for-your-buck.

#1 LOSE MORE WEIGHT IN LESS TIME.

Compound exercises are usually utilized in strength training regimes because they have the upper hand when it comes to doing more in less time.

As opposed to isolated movements that focus on a single muscle group and don’t give you much calorie consumption in the time you spend doing them, compound exercises are different.

They focus on a variety of muscle groups all at the same time, helping you boost intensity at any given exercise, and therefore, increase calorie consumption. Isolated movements that work a single muscle group don’t burn many calories, but they do have their own set of benefits we’ll explore another time.

#2 COMPOUND MOVEMENTS REQUIRE MUCH MORE ENERGY.

Compound movements beat the muscles together and usually require much more rest between sets and exercises. Compound movements also make muscles pitch and require much more energy to perform than, let’s say, isolated movements or cardio.

And what does requiring more energy mean? It means that they burn more calories by default, because they force the body to expend more energy.

#3 COMPOUND MOVEMENTS CREATE AN AFTERBURN EFFECT.

Ever wondered if you can just sit around at home and burn calories? Well, compound exercises let you do that.

When doing compound exercises, or any heavy strength training exercise, you’ll find that your rate of resting metabolism increases, meaning you’ll be continuously burning calories after training in order to recover better.

Fast or intense workouts with high-intensity exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses ensure that your body continues to burn calories after a long workout.

These types of exercises offer a lot of benefits when you incorporate them into your weight loss workout, and adding more compound exercises can help you avoid and manage weight loss plateaus by nudging your body in the right direction, pushing it through stubborn plateaus.

Because compound exercises involve more muscle groups, they can be used to move heavy weights that increasingly overload muscles. This means that incorporating compound exercises in your weight loss routine ends up translating to incorporating strength training in your weight loss routine… which happens to be one of the best things you can do to lose weight faster.

To achieve the best muscle growth potential, you need to burn the most calories at the highest possible intensity. Compound lifts activate the muscles that really pump the heart and burn more calories, making them a great choice for an intense workout.

Simply choose compound exercises to increase your heart rate most of the time, which in turn burns the most calories.

If you choose compound exercises instead of isolation exercises, you burn more calories at the highest intensity. The more muscles involved in an exercise, the more calories you burn and the higher the intensity of the exercise.

If you do shorter workouts, you will also be forced to take less rest between exercises which will help you burn more calories in its own right.

If you want to build strength and burn calories as quickly as possible, you need to focus most of your efforts on compound exercises. If your goal is to lose weight and build strength, make sure your strength training involves at least one to two compound workouts per week.

Mixing exercises allow you to focus on multiple muscle groups at the same time, which helps you burn more calories. Large movements that require more of each muscle group, such as lifting heavy loads, are amazing ways to speed up weight loss and burn more calories.

You can optimize your next weight lifting workout to burn more calories by doing a combination of compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and bench press.

The more muscles you have, the stronger your metabolism gets going, and as a result, you burn more calories during your strength training sessions and after them.

You reshape your body: the more muscular you become and the more metabolic tissue that you have inside your body, the easier it is for you to stay slimmer than someone who only sticks to cardio to achieve weight loss.

To conclude…

Including more compound exercises into your routine can help you strengthen your entire body and burn more calories in less time.

In addition to increasing fat burning, you can also include a larger number of compound exercises in your strength training routine to achieve massive muscle gains and burn even more calories at rest due to the highly metabolic nature of muscle tissue.

Hey Angels and Alphas,

We all know that weight loss strategies require a lot of focus, attention, and dedication.

After all, eating right and exercising correctly aren’t easy things to do, nor are they simple… but what if a few of these weight-loss strategies could be automatic or done while you’re asleep?

Even though you won’t be able to burn off all your excess fat while you’re sleeping, there are a couple of useful hacks you can use that will massively impact your efforts and the results you can achieve while you’re getting your Zs.

In general, humans burn a certain amount of calories during a good night’s sleep – a 150-pound person can burn as much as 400 calories during 7-8 hours of sleep! But there’s also a ton of research out there backing the strategies you’re about to learn and touting them as secret hacks for reducing fat and losing weight… let’s take a look.

#1 SLEEPING IN A COLD(er than usual) ROOM…

While those 400 calories the average person burns during sleep will translate to fat loss if given enough time, science shows us that sleeping in a room with a colder temperature not only helps us get better rest but also boosts our metabolism and changes the way our bodies *store* fat.

A study done in 2014 took participants and tested their bodies after sleeping in rooms with varying temperatures over a period of 4 months.

They found that when sleeping at 18.8ºC, participants displayed a 40% increase in their volume of brown fat and a 10 percent increase in metabolic fat activity. Even though these changes returned to normal after a month of sleeping at a normal 23.8ºC, these changes give us insights into the fact that sleeping in colder rooms forces the body to produce more energy to heat itself, therefore burning more calories.

#2 TRY OOLONG TEA…

Yes, yes, we know drinking caffeine before bed screws up with your sleep quality, but there’s actually one exception.

Oolong tea, according to a study recently published in the Journal Nutrients, is that exception.

Researchers in Japan took a look at the effects of oolong tea consumption when compared to traditional caffeine when it came to energy and fat metabolism. They found that both types of caffeine aided fat breakdown – but oolong tea kept this fat-burning effect going throughout the night, whereas traditional caffeine didn’t.

And most importantly, people who drank oolong tea before bed didn’t have any trouble falling asleep despite the amount of caffeine they’ve just consumed. And while more studies need to be done, oolong tea seems to be very promising as a fat-burning afternoon drink.

#3 PROTEIN BEFORE BED…

Consuming enough protein throughout the day, whether you work out or not, is vital for muscle building and other bodily functions. While some people experience digestive problems if they go for a protein shake in the afternoon (especially if there are added sweeteners,) using a protein that’s free of additives and low in fiber can be a great way to lose extra weight while you’re sleeping.

This is because studies published in Frontiers in Nutrition discovered that protein, when consumed just before sleep, boosted muscle protein synthesis rates.

This means that not only can protein before bed boost your overall exercise results, but it also allows you to build muscle more effectively, and in turn, burn more calories while you’re sleeping.

#4 CHOOSE A BEDTIME… AND DON’T HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON!

Whether you’re sleeping in a room that’s hot or cold, establishing a consistent and productive bedtime schedule is one of the best things you can do for your body… and your weight.

Yes, that includes the weekends. Going to bed and waking up at the same time every night/day not only has a tremendous impact on your sleep quality (and helps you get more restful sleep,) but it also helps your body regulate hormones better.

When you set a consistent pattern into place (and skip snoozing,) the hormones that control how awake or sleepy you can do a much better job of balancing themselves for your productivity throughout the day. Melatonin and cortisol play a major role in sleep duration, daytime alertness, and, you guessed it, fat storage.

That’s why establishing a schedule allows your brain and your body to anticipate sleep correctly and optimize your entire body and hormones for better sleep quality, which in turn helps you make the most out of your sleep and get more restful sleep even if you’re still sleeping the same number of hours every night.

That being said, it’s still what you do throughout the day that matters the most. Creating healthy habits, following a sustainable program, and then using the tactics and strategies you’ve learned to give your progress a little boost is the right way you should be approaching your weight loss goals.

Hey Angels and Alphas,

When you’re on a weight loss journey and you’re sometimes on the border of depriving yourself of your favorite foods, hunger and cravings can make it difficult to not overeat. You chug down a healthy meal at home, and then as soon as you head out to pretty much any destination, you’re instantly surrounded by junk food.

You get hungry, you start getting cravings, and pretty soon, you’re at the local sandwich joint getting a number 9 with extra cheese. How did this happen?

Or maybe you’re one of those people that sticks to healthy foods, but you cook them so well that you find it hard to limit yourself to one portion. It’s okay – we’ve all been there.

But the following 5 strategies can change everything for you – by following them, you’ll learn how to balance the nutritional mess going on inside your body, enjoy your meals more, and keep your appetite low enough while your body is actually satiated.

#1 EAT WHEN YOU’RE NOT HUNGRY TO LOSE WEIGHT

Stay with me here. When you’re really hungry, you overeat. I know this isn’t groundbreaking information, but follow me for a second. When you overeat, you feel full, but then instantly, your insulin levels start going up, causing you to feel very tired, and then very hungry again… so you’re in a constant cycle of overeating.

Instead of trying to beat down hunger, just beat it to the punch. If you eat when you’re not that hungry or just slightly so, you’ll eat less, you’ll eat more slowly, and you’ll tend to not go overboard, resulting in eating less food total throughout the day.

#2 USE CINNAMON AND VINEGAR TO BALANCE BLOOD SUGAR

Forget about sugar – there are countless flavors and spices that can make your food both healthier and more delicious. If you’re looking for some new flavor for your food or noncaloric drinks, try out vinegar. Vinegar has been shown to lower the glycemic index of food (which means you metabolize it more slowly and keep your blood sugar levels balanced,) and it adds an acidic flavor to sauces and salad dressings.

And if you’re looking for that sweet-smelling flavor, add cinnamon to your smoothies and your coffee. Just like vinegar, cinnamon slows down the rate at which food travels from your stomach to your intestine, meaning it keeps you fuller for longer and eliminates the post-meal tiredness.

#3 FORGET ABOUT LIQUID CALORIES AND JUST DRINK WATER

Brain fog and tiredness are just two sensations caused by mild dehydration (that’s easily mistaken for hunger.) On the other hand, juices and sodas are liquid calories that won’t fill you up, and their rapid digestion causes spikes in insulin.

So next time you have to choose between a water and a soda, just choose water and flavor it with lemon, strawberries, or cucumber – just don’t pack your drinks full of calories.

#4 HAVE A LITTLE SNACK BETWEEN MEALS (THAT’S FLAVORLESS)

Seth Roberts discovered this trick, and what he did was he consumed a shot of olive oil or a glass of water with just a tiny bit of sugar between meals.

But you can go with a handful of almonds, seeds, berries, yogurt, anything that’s essentially flavorless – doing this once a day will significantly reduce your appetite and it’s a great addition to many weight loss regimes.

It might sound weird, but there’s a science to it. Doing this apparently can regulate your levels of ghrelin, a hormone linked to hunger, by weakening the connection between flavor and calories.

That’s why the snack must be really bland, and you shouldn’t consume anything else but water for at least an hour prior to and after the snack.

#5 EATING MORE SLOWLY (YES, IT WORKS)

As you’re chewing and swallowing food, there’s a big delay before the moment you swallow it and the moment you get any satiation from it. This delay is usually about 10 to 30 minutes long, and because of it, a lot of us tend to eat way more food than we actually need. And guess what – the faster we eat, the more we tend to indulge, and the more we tend to overeat.

The solution? Chew all your bites at least 20 times. If you just follow this simple rule and stay conscious of it, you’ll be able to eat more slowly and you’ll give your mind the opportunity to catch up with your stomach and make you feel fuller much earlier than you normally would. You’ll also get to enjoy your food more as you get the chance to savor it. It’s a win-win!

Hey Angels and Alphas,

Carbohydrates are the body’s main energy source, and they’re absolutely vital to regulating every bodily process from thinking, to breathing, to high-intensity weight loss training.

Unfortunately, carbs sort of inherited the “bad” label from fats, and now they’re the subject of myths, misalignment, and misinformation all throughout the fitness community.

If you decide to cut down on carbs drastically, this will most likely leave you feeling sluggish and desperately craving sugary and sweet treats.

But the truth is – carbs aren’t created equal. While processed carbs lead to energy crashes and blood sugar spikes, whole food sources are actually amazing sources of micronutrients and satiating fiber.

And with experts recommending about 50% of our calories (on average) should come from carbs every day, you’re probably left wondering – what *are* some healthy options that I can always resort to when looking for an energizing meal?

LET’S START WITH PASTA AND BREAD.

Bread and pasta, most of the time, get a reputation in the weight loss community for being “bad” carbs. But that’s simply not the case. They’re both complex, budget-friendly carbs that can provide our bodies with necessary boosts of energy. That being said, whole-grain options that are packed with more fiber, micronutrients, and not to mention, protein, are obviously superior to white flour products. And even more so, the latter can actually be useful if you need some quick-digesting carbs for your next run.

The key here is to balance these carbs with protein, fat, and veggies, so we can provide a variety of nutrients and keep our bodies satiated and our blood sugar levels stable.

POTATOES ARE ALSO A GREAT PICK.

Potatoes (and sweet potatoes) are easily-accessible, complex, nutrient-dense carbohydrates. They’ve got all the fiber, vitamin C, and potassium you might need, and they’re so versatile it’s crazy. In Casseroles, in salads, baked topped with guacamole, as additions to soups and salads, mashed, there are so many healthy and delicious meals you can create with potatoes, you can write a book about it. And people have!

LET’S TALK ABOUT BEANS

Beans are such a great protein source and a food beloved by weight loss enthusiasts. And they’re a starch. And they’re full of complex carbs. AND they have gut-friendly fiber. What can’t beans do? They’re great in chilies, dips, salads, stews, pastas, soups, tacos, everywhere! Just always make sure to keep an eye on their sodium content and rinse them before you use them to cook your meal.

WHAT ABOUT QUINOA?

Quinoa is all the hype right now – a nutritious seed that has become super popular in the health and wellness community. It’s supposed to be a pseudocereal (?) basically meaning it’s prepared and eaten like traditional grains.

Although it’s a high-carb food, it’s also an amazing source of protein and fiber, as well as being rich in countless plant and mineral compounds. Due to being high in protein and fiber, it’s also very satiating and touted as a weight-loss jewel. Not to mention, it’s gluten-free.

*A NOTE ON MAKING BREAKFAST COUNT

Start your day off right – with a quality carbohydrate at breakfast. Carbs aren’t only amazing when you need to revitalize yourself after a grueling training session, but they’re also fuel for whenever you need it. With combined with the right amount of protein and fat, they each have their place in a great, satiating, well-rounded meal. If you reach for oatmeal with fruit and nuts (or nut butter), or a whole-grain bagel topped with an egg and sliced tomato, you win breakfast – and you win the day.

**WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BE SNACKING ON FRUIT IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT

Fruits are also amazing carbohydrates – they contain natural sugars packed around other healthy nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Apples, bananas, pears, berries, and other portable fruits can become an amazing snack when paired with a handful of almonds or some Greek yogurt.

To conclude…

If you want to keep your body energized, revitalized, and healthy, you need to eat enough high-quality carbs. (High-quality carbs = minimally-processed carbs.)

But as with any nutrient, you have to look at the big picture of what else you’re putting inside your meal. When combined with lean proteins, healthy fats, and more fruits and veggies, you’re basically creating a plant-lead diet that will turn you into a much more lean, healthy individual. With a diet like that setting you up for success, you can even afford to squeeze in the occasional cup of ice cream.

Hey Angels and Alphas,

We’ve all heard of them – the news about the latest diet or trend that promises fast and safe weight loss results. And with obesity being the number one cause of disease and death in the USA and in the world, it’s no wonder there are so many fads and trends popping up trying to teach us how to lose weight.

And with obesity being the number one cause of chronic problems, it’s only logical we go down to the root cause and ask ourselves “well, what’s the main cause of obesity?”

Carbohydrates are the main cause of obesity. There’s a clear correlation between diets high in processed carbohydrates and weight gain. The human body evolved to eat natural, fibrous carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Eating cooked carbohydrates switches your digestive genes into fat-digesting machines and it is not natural for your body to have processed carbohydrates. In the developed world, people eat far more processed (junk) food than is called for in the original diet evolution intended for you.

These extra amounts of starch and sugars rations our muscle cells, causing them to shrink in our evolved design. The result? An overweight skinny person.

Eating less starch and processed carbohydrates really can help you lose weight fast and safe – if there ever was a way.

So next time you’re paying attention to one of these fad diets, which are supposedly going to make you lose weight fast and safe (by starving your body of nutrients and energy,) ask yourself – does this diet tackle the main root cause of weight gain?

And remember, when evaluating the potential effects of any weight loss diet, always go back to these 2 main concepts:

If your diet isn’t working for you, it’s most likely because it’s…

UNNATURAL

An unnatural diet program is defined as one that focuses on foods which we haven’t evolved to hunt, gather, or grow. Unnatural diet programs are often all about creating massive calorie deficits that starve your body of energy.

An unnatural diet program causes muscle tissue loss, and in turn, a slower metabolism. This means that once you go back to your regular eating structure afterward, all those old fat cells will keep repeating the cycle of coming back and disappearing.

Unnatural diet programs often give you an exact point or goal weight to chase instead of outlining a framework for you to adapt to.

They’re all about achieving a specific result in a given deadline, and that’s where the problem with them arises – they’re not natural habits and changes we can apply to our lifestyle to achieve a specific result, but instead are focused on stopping the adapted positive behaviors once the metrical goal is achieved.

UNSUSTAINABLE

Even though unsustainable diets have their roots in being mostly unnatural diets, sustainability has a lot more to do with your mindset than your food choices.

Most weight-loss diets, fads, and programs are all about bringing a few scientists together and use their influence and expertise to create a one-size-fits-all solution that doesn’t take into account your current situation, lifestyle, or goals.

It takes time for a person to adapt to a weight loss program and vice-versa. But the end goal of a sustainable program is to find an approach so friction-less and painless that you can stay on it (and actually even enjoy it.)

So forget about the fad diets, exercise tapes, star jumps and crunches, constant switches from one workout to another, and all the promises of fast and safe weight loss results.

Don’t spend your time and money on trends and programs that don’t take into account the sustainability and holistic nature of a well-thought-out weight loss approach.

Focus on slow changes. Experts all agree that healthy weight loss is about making slow, incremental changes to the way you eat and live.

Forget about shortcuts. People should spend time looking for their personal Holy Grail of diets, and it’s understandable that they have to go through a few bad ones to find it. But most people never leave this cycle, and they always want a diet that’s a quick fix. We’re all guilty of it. We all want overnight success, or at least success in the next 8-15 weeks, or about the length of the average fitness program. But this mentality will only hold us back and make us repeat the same mistakes over and over – don’t let that be you.

Remember it takes time and patience. It could be months before you’re finally where you want to be – it could even take years. But if you find a diet that’s natural, sustainable, and in turn, enjoyable, the destination will not matter because the process is where the real growth is going to happen.

Hey Angels and Alphas,

We know it for a fact – there’s no single diet that works for everyone.

Even some of the most popular diets fail for many people, either because people don’t like them enough to stick to them or they don’t follow them properly. The good news, though, is that you can overcome these issues with some planning and, once you do, you’ll find that your diet works far better than you ever imagined it could.

Here are some expert tips for planning your diet – the backed-by-science way.

#1 Plan your menus throughout the week.

If you set aside some time every week to plan your meals, you’ll have no need to resort to impulse buys or fast-food, and you’ll have no need to fight cravings. If you have a list already prepared, there will be no more thinking about how you’ll make it to the store. Eating meals accordingly (following a pre-made menu) will also make the cooking of your food easy, especially if you have a busy lifestyle and have a tight schedule.

2. When it comes to your menus, keep them detailed and specific.

Make a couple of shopping lists, get the supplies you need, and get to the store. That’s how you pay for your meals. It’s a good idea to come prepared to the store so you can just pick up what you need without having to go back and get more and more of the things tempting you at the store. And make sure you try to buy only what’s on your menu, if possible.

3. Make your menus with easy to cook/prepare ingredients.

You should have enough materials to cook everything that’s on your menu for the week. Make menus with the ingredients you need in a matter of a few minutes, if possible. Get a few opinions on the ingredients you’re going to need for each meal – cooking shows and cooking tutorials online will give you all the more info on how ot make your meals more delicious and less costly.

4. Keep your diet varied and always introduce new healthy options.

You need to introduce variety in your diet. Whether you are following the South Beach Diet or the Mediterranean Diet, you should try adding new fruits, veggies, and healthy options to your diet pretty much every week. We all fall off the diet bandwagon, for one reason or another, and that is pretty much common to the people on a diet. The best way to overcome this is to mix up the meals you eat each week. For instance, the South Beach Diet has a great diet plan that essentially allows you to have three meals of around 400 calories a day, with three snacks of around 100 calories each. This means you never really feel as if you are deprived or as if you need to be on a diet at all.

5. Do not bite off more than you can chew. (Literally)

You don’t have to be a dietician to know that if you deprive your body of a particular food group like proteins, for example, it is going to rebel. And the best way to tame the rebellious part of your body is to eat the food you like in small quantities and go easy on yourself once in a while. Sure, you may be very selective with your diet for the rest of the day, once you’ve had that one splurge, but, on the other hand, if you have a smaller piece of cake or a slice of pizza, you can’t have a huge, fatter piece of cake the next day – not unless you’re planning to go overboard.

6. Make the commitment to stick to your diet!

Getting on a diet and sticking to a diet are two different things completely. You should never think of going on a diet just to achieve a result and then forget about it. Once you’ve reached your desired weight, you can definitely sling your hook a little bit, but defeating yourself is not the answer. Think of your diet in terms of lifestyle changes that will not only get you the body of your dreams, but allow you to keep it. So if you stay on your diet once you’ve achieved your goals, you’re making it a more difficult target to get back on it in the future.

7. Drink lots of water!

Did you know not getting enough water could be a driving factor of obesity? When your body is dehydrated, it becomes less and less efficient at removing waste. It can also make you build up heat – a reaction to water restriction – which can also be detrimental to your metabolism. It is better to drink the recommended 64 ounces a day.

8. Get physical!

The amount of exercise you get should match your calorie budget. The more you sweat, the more you burn calories and fat, the quicker you eliminate those accumulated fat stores. Exercises like brisk walking (but not too quickly), cycling, and swimming are great for you and you don’t have to be a member of a gym to get a fair amount of exercise.

Male fitness is a very lucrative choice of fitness and health professionals alongside those who want to achieve wellness. One of the provisions of fitness for men is the use of fitness apps that keep records of your calorie intake and give proper counsel. They also monitor your progress and encourage the needful strategies to effect a change and build healthy habits.

Furthermore, the apps can log in to some exercise statistics and help create essential goals with strategies to achieve them. Some of these tools can also integrate other apps to integrate the workout schedule and keep a helpful library with unique skills. It also counts your calorie as you eat and produces a comprehensive list to help your workout plan. This article expounds on the best apps at your disposal for Android and Apple apps this year, 2021.

Best Android and Apple Apps for Male Fitness

1.     My Fitness Pal

My Fitness Pal is an excellent choice of the app ahead of many other IT tools as a top publisher tool for many possibilities. Some of the benefits of this app include logging into a restaurant menu to choose foods. It stores up to 6 million food types while integrating some other essential apps and devices to serve users’ best experience.

This app can log not only your food intake but also the rate of your physical activity. Moreover, it can customize these services according to your health needs while helping you stay fit through 350 types of workouts. Users can be sure of fanciful features as reviewed by over half a million other users on the iTunes store. This app is rated as the overall best male fitness app in 2021.

2.     Daily Workouts Fitness Trainer

One of the most outstanding Daily Workouts Fitness Trainer features is the zero cost basic service to committed users. Also, it has home-based workout sessions, which is a beautiful service for beginners who wants to try out. Besides, the users with no assurance of the exact workout length can try out the variable-length option with the freedom to choose the most suitable one.

Furthermore, this app is usable at home for men who can only spare less than 30 minutes to keep fit. So, if you cannot afford the membership registration at the gym, you can enroll for virtual Training through the male Daily Workout Fitness Trainer app. This app’s development also comes with a professionally crafted resource that contains inputs from over 95 workout moves to get into the best shape.

3.     Zones for Training

Zoom for Training is the best choice of male fitness apps that is compatible with the Apple watches. It has fantastic features that more experienced users find very helpful and productive. The app also gives you feedback on the fat-burning activities you partake in and the expected effect on your system.

The Zones for Training app also integrates with the Apple Watch to measure your heart rate and give you appropriate counsel. For instance, the heart rate tracking by the app can measure your cardio fitness and strength level. Using this app at the primary level also demands no payment, while a premium use of the app may require some payment.

4.     Fooducate

Have you been wondered to know all about the nutritional components of a food item? What if you’re able to do that with just a click? Fooducate is your answer as the app can give a rundown about a food’s nutritional data when you scan its barcode. The app users also have access to full-time community support for a better experience than they would have had. It closely monitors your health through the food you take, being an integral part of male fitness.

Meanwhile, it displays the food item’s macronutrient in simple charts with which you can decide on the food. It also has an easy-to-understand food grading system. Since the app’s launch over a decade ago, it has gained prominence as the best app for monitoring your nutritional intake through barcode scanning. Fooducate can tell you if youre taking the right nutrients in the right proportions.

5.     YogaGlo

As the name implies, the app is specially designed for a fantastic yoga experience, where you learn yoga training basics. It is also beneficial to advanced yoga students as it can be tailored to meet different workout needs. At times, the requirements to meet your workout plans may be missing some vital parts like sleep, reduction of stress, or more strength training. The YogaGlo is a critical tool to analyze such needs and guide you accordingly.

The app also connects you with professional yoga instructors who are more than glad to lend you a hand. More so, you can download your favorite yoga classes for offline use without Wi-Fi. Also, the app allows you to collect useful fitness data that are transferrable to other apple devices.

6.     Sworkit

Workout starters who are fresh in the pursuit of male fitness can begin with the Sworkit, which has many customizable workout exercises. For instance, the app allows you to create cardio, strength, fitness, and yoga workouts to suit your daily schedule. Besides, it also allows you to integrate other similar apps towards the same goal. Whereas you can tell it the amount of time you want to workout, and the app automatically creates a helpful plan.

Sworkit does not require you to be in a gym or require any equipment at that. Amazingly, you can connect with professional male fitness trainers in one-on-one, highly productive coaching sessions. Not only can beginners use this app, as users progress, advanced users can also find Sworkit as one of the most profitable apps to use for male fitness. The app is available on Google PlayStore and iTunes.

Conclusion

Other exciting plans are very profitable for male fitness if only the user does due diligence. Some of the other apps include the JEFIT Workout Planner Gym Log, Headspace, PEAR Fitness Coach, and the 7 Minute Workout. Remember that these apps can track your daily physical activity, measure food intake nutritional contents and help you chart a course for your male fitness journey. However, the best way to optimize their benefits is to be disciplined with these apps and start from the simpler, affordable ones to premium services.

Male fitness is an essential part of men’s health and wellness, a good topic for most men. Essentially, men assume they know all they need to know when it comes to health and fitness. However, this assumption may not always be correct in all cases. And before the journey to fitness begins, certain information these men should have at the fingertips.

More so, by understanding their fitness requirements through this information, they can make better plans and harness efforts to achieve them. Below are some of the top tips to engage within the male fitness journey towards a productive end. This article addresses some of the fitness facts that men need to know and integrate to form healthy male fitness habits.

Healthy tips for male fitness

1.     Train your body to be flexible

Men often assume that women are the ones who need to be flexible more than women. But the fact is both sexes need a measure of flexibility to attain fitness. The essence of fitness is not to be able to squeeze yourself into a box. Instead, flexibility makes it easy for the body to remain in shape after it remains in a single position for so long. Parts of the male fitness parts to focus more on include the shoulders, lower backs, and hamstrings.

Otherwise, the muscles become tense and stiff, and it becomes hard to regain the initial position without a squeak. As a result, you may want to exercise your muscles more frequently so that you can stay injury-free, especially injuries that may be due to fatigue and stress. On the other hand, yoga and Pilate classes can enhance your flexibility while engaging the mental aspects.

2.     Take it slowly

The male fitness journey is never a hurry. Therefore, take your time but remain steady and consistent. There is an assumption that men’s competitive spirit on their ego may keep driving them more and more towards the goal. Healthy competitiveness is not destructive, only that if you push yourself too hard, you may cause unintended harm to the body.

Indeed, there are workout exercises that may take a gradual pace improvement, but not all. Therefore, the next time you hit the gym to take on a fitness plan, remember to take it slow. As the saying goes, “slow and steady wins the race.” For instance, in weight lifting, it is not about the speed but the other skills to lift the load the right way. Also, the slower you get with the lifting, the better your chances of carrying it because your muscles have more time to stiffen up.

3.     Get the Muscle building basics right

Many people are often persuaded to build muscles because they saw it in someone else. However, a professional personal trainer puts you through the essential muscle-building tools. The first step in this direction is a complete upgrade of your caloric level, including proteins. As you begin to execute the fitness plan, keep your focus on the more compound and somewhat complicated but related procedures

Remember also that the growth you intend to see in your body and muscles don’t just happen because you are in the gym. Muscle growth also continues outside the gym, which trains the body to execute the plans and stay feet carefully. Besides, as you carefully observe the basic rules, don’t leave out rest in your sessions.

4.     Choose your supplements wisely

After the exercise or workout session, some trainers may recommend taking some supplements to recover swiftly. This boost of your energy level also has to carry other benefits. For instance, in the case of protein supplements, Creatine can supply the needed strength and muscle building proteins to boost the size and strength of that body.

However, after the supplements are exhausted in some other cases, you may have to return to your old self. Therefore, the recommended supplements, in this case, are the natural products that keep you up and running. Peppermint is one of the boosters that male fitness experts recommend to you.

5.     Be creative and innovative

I agree that it can get very tiring when you are undergoing the same routine repeatedly. But that’s more reason why you should always be seeking better and more effective ways of doing things. This step is called innovation. Creativity helps you think outside the box and do things in a way no one has ever thought of or implemented before.

At times, being creative and innovative is not about doing something entirely new but doing them in new ways. At times, these new methods arrive out of curiosity or necessity to do better. It would also be best if you kept the focus on flexibility, strength, and balance as the key areas to improve. Even if you work out on your own, explore different tools, apps, and video training sessions.

6.     Have an all-inclusive approach to fitness

The term “male fitness” encompasses a couple of essential parts of human health, such as physical, emotional, and mental wellness. And to optimize the gains of these recommended procedures, one must acknowledge the need to use draw strength for all three aspects. In other words, without a holistic approach, techniques, methods, and tools may not profit the user much.

On the other hand, with a holistic approach, the man effectively reduces stress through a yoga session. Besides, a holistic approach to male fitness can also help deal with specific ailments with psychological connections. That is, you can reduce stress, bone health, breathing speed, blood flow, and other branches of holistic health.

7.     Take a rest

Resting is another weakness that men often have. Whereas resting itself is an item in the workout plan and program. The rest period affords you to not only relax your muscles but allow them to recover slowly. For instance, your workout schedule maybe likes 3 or 4 times a week, while the other days be used to rest and recuperate.

Failing to rest eventually burn you out, and sap your motivation, which are your treasures to achieve your goal. Also, resting implies that you can recover well enough to start afresh after taking the necessary rest. Moreover, let your resting period be restful. Stay hydrated, feel well and avoid strenuous activities before you hit the gym.

Conclusion

On a final note, you have enjoyed tremendous workout plans towards male fitness from all forms. Don’t forget that these processes are a product of time and diligence. Therefore, be prepared to take the right chances toward achieving your set goal. You would be glad you made the sacrifice.

If you are looking to start muscle building as part of male fitness, this article is for you. Building muscles requires some essential strategies, including special dieting and selective muscle building techniques in a workout. The use of these techniques needs to be systematic enough to produce accurate results under ideal conditions.

Instead of the intimidating feeling that accompanies starting a new adventure, there is a better chance at productive exercises. This article also provides a perfect position to start, which can then progress over time as you approach increased productivity. Below are some of the recommended techniques by professional male fitness experts.

Techniques for Beginners to Build Muscles

1. Make a Stretch very important

Stretching is an excellent part of your entire workout plan or schedule and should therefore not be left out. Moreover, stretching can help remove every possible soreness of the body, including the joints. At least you should take at least 10 minutes to stretch the body after each workout. This step also allows the principal muscle bundles to relax and be restored.

Another way of using the stretching is when you have stayed in one position for too long. It is essential to let the heat off on the day off by just maintaining body stretches alone. Stretching is also very safe for men, unlike women, who can be skeptical about stretches.

2. Eat before and after a workout

You were eating before and after your workout session is one of the surest ways to garner energy for the workout session. The food you take afterward can then be part of the recovery process of the expended energy. In other words, this development can determine how swiftly you can recover from the workout session. Therefore, nutrition can enhance your chances of reaching your goals.

Moreover, as a muscle-building beginner, the male fitness process involves taking care of what you eat. In other words, you cannot afford to take just anything, but you need to plan the food carefully. The duty now relies on taking the right proportion of food. This categorization may involve carbs, proteins, and vitamins as need be.

3. Weightlifting followed by cardio training

There are two categories of weightlifting as exercises: the weight machines and the free weight sessions. However, the latter is superior to the former in that the former is only easier for beginners. Weight lifting as a workout method allows your body to take a proper form but may later demand you to stretch it off. Therefore you can combine the two processes.

Your weightlifting workout can enhance some of your body parts, including your biceps curls, triceps extensions, lateral muscles, and other bulky parts. At the same time, you can assist the process by squatting, bench press, and chest pressing for better. Also, using the weight lifting machine promotes the convenience and comfort that the device brings.

4. Let cardio exercise follow a weightlifting

As a male fitness exercise beginner, learn to do your cardio sessions after weightlifting. Or, if you prefer, you can create a separate session for your cardio exercises because of the required energy for each type of workout. The ability to lift weight depends on the stored energy in your muscles in the form of glycogen, but the cardio session can still use excess fat as an energy source.

When weightlifting comes before cardio, the implication is that you can convert the gained energy in one procedure into another. Overall, you can gain net strength while achieving your workout goals. More so, you must carefully weigh each type of weightlifting that is most suitable for you while obeying the exercise’s general rules.

5. Use a training program or schedule

Exercising or working out is not just a haphazard concept; you need to understand the concept as its expectations. For instance, you don’t just wake up and enter the gym, the way to get the best results involves having a routine or program that you follow diligently. On the other hand, you may consult a professional trainer or an advanced bodybuilder to assist.

The program shows what each workout session contain, their frequency and timing. As a result, when you set your foot in the gym, it is because you know exactly what you have come there to do. When the time comes, as an advanced bodybuilder, you can promote the necessary items that can enhance your chances of male fitness. But for now, stick to what you know.

6. Don’t train every day

It is not healthy to work out every blessed day, no matter the bodybuilding level you do. It doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner, a moderate trainee, or an expert. Do your best to leave out a day or two to rest. Generally, people use a workout plan that involves 3 o 4 days of training per week. This choice is fair as the body needs to recover and develop organically.

Therefore, as a male fitness training beginner, your progress does not rely strictly on the number of times you train per week. If you do it right, your training may remain at the standard rate, and you gain a lot from it. Whatever day you are not hitting the gym or training at home, rest, eat and recover the expended energy.

7. Take lots of protein

Muscle building being the tearing, transforming, and reforming of body muscles, you need to eat lots of protein. Your body tissues depend largely on proteins as the body building blocks and rely on them to create. Apart from creating new cells and tissues to replace the worn-out ones, trainees need to take protein for body component repairs.

Some of the recommended protein food types include eggs, dairy products, fish, milk, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. However, experts do not recommend taking any of these foods within 3 hours before the session starts to avoid constipation and indigestion. Besides, experts recommend taking 1 g of protein for every pound of your body weight. This way, you can outlast many and achieve more significant results.

Conclusion

Muscle building concepts, procedures, and exercises are crucial to your male fitness journey. For one, the process requires taking a systematic approach to growing from a beginner to moderate and, finally, an expert muscle builder. At the same time, the adventure that awaits the diligent trainee is worth much more than the price that is required. Of course, there is always a price for achieving every great thing.

Sugar is an essential element in sports nutrition. Every athlete needs sugar in moderation to maintain blood sugar level, especially during and after exercising. However, excess sugar intake is not healthy for athletes.

As an athlete, eating excess sugar is one of the greatest harm you can do to your body. Aside from the adverse effects, it can cause a major setback in your athletic performance slowing down your career or preventing you from achieving your athletic goals.

To know how much damage excess sugar can cause in your body, let’s look through a few adverse effects of excess sugar in an athlete’s body from a sports nutritionist perspective.

Adverse effects of excess sugar

Excess sugar intake causes several health damages in the body of athletes. These include:

• Increased risk of poor dental health or tooth decay. Athletes who take excess sugar against sports nutritionists’ standard recommendations can have an increased risk of tooth day or poor dental health.
• Excess sugar intake from beverages with very high sugar content can immensely contribute to being overweight. Obesity is a hazardous health problem that can affect the overall performance of an athlete. Although there are a few sports that encourage gaining weight to participate properly but being overweight cannot make any athlete perform at their peak no matter the sports category.
• High sugar intake can also lead to some life-threatening health issues such as Type 2 diabetes.
• Excess sugar intake can also affect your mental health, deprive you of good sleeping hours and cause addictive eating habits. Sport nutrition experts have proved that sugar has a high level of addiction. Most athletes who have been addicted to taking some drinks with excess sugars can find it challenging to stop taking those drinks even when the negative effect on their body is becoming more evident.
• Eating excess sugar from carbohydrate-rich foods is also linked with tiredness after 3o minutes of training and decrease alertness within the first hour.

You must watch your sugar intake if you want to stay healthy and improve your athletic performance. Meanwhile, many athletes facing the addiction of eating excess sugar claimed that it is somewhat difficult to measure the amount of sugar you eat per meal. That may not be true. Here is the good news. Cutting down your sugar intake can be simpler than you ever think.

These Sports nutrition tips provide a detailed guide on how athletes can cut down on sugar intake to stay healthy and improve their athletic performance.

1. Stay away from drinks with a high sugar content

Most of those chilled drinks you take to cool off after training or competition contains a load of added sugar. Most energy drinks, sports drinks, sodas, fruit drinks, and others contribute a whopping 44% added sugar to your body. It should amaze you that even the so-called healthy drinks such as fruit juice and smoothies can contain a mouth-watering amount of sugar. For instance, 450ml of apple juice contains about 49 grams of sugar.

Sports nutrition experts proved that staying away or reducing the number of sugary drinks you take per day can help maintain your weight. Besides, your body does not take calories from drinks the way it does from foods. Hence, taking sugary drinks will neither make you full for a long nor make you eat less.

2. Avoid sauces with excess sugar

Typical table sauces such as barbecue sauce, ketchup, and sweet chill sauce contain a high sugar level. However, most athletes are not aware of this shocking fact. So, next time you are hanging out with friends, be careful not to tick a delicacy with any of these common sauces. Always make sure that you read the label to help you choose the lowest sugar option.

For instance, 15 grams serving of your ketchup can contain up to 4 grams of sugar. Instead of consuming excess sugar in the name of sauces, you can consider the following options to add flavor to your meal:

• Fresh chill: Highly rich in flavor but sugar-free.
• Herbs and spices: Whether you take them fresh or dried, they contribute no sugar or calories to your body. They also have some health benefits.
• Vinegar: Contains no sugar, no calories, and will give your meal a taste of ketchup.
• Yellow mustard: Tasty and free of sugar and calories.
• Harissa Paste: Either you buy it or make it yourself; it will give you a sweet chili sauce feel without sugar.

3. Stop eating sugar loaded-desserts

Sports nutrition does not encourage athletes to eat many desserts because they have little nutritional value and contain a shocking amount of sugar. Excess sugar in desserts can cause blood sugar spikes and can make you feel tired and hungry at the same time.

Another sports nutrition research showed that athletes who eat many desserts tend to have increased cravings for sugar. Cakes, doughnuts, pies, and ice cream can contribute up to 18% of added sugar to your body.

Instead of desserts, you can consider some good alternatives such as fresh fruit, Greek yogurt with fruit or cinnamon, baked fruit with cream, dark chocolate, and a handful of dates.

4. Eat whole foods

Many sports nutritionists recommend whole foods for athletes because they have neither been processed nor refined. Also, whole foods are free of artificial substances such as additives and others. Bread and cheese are simple examples of processed which athletes need to avoid. Eating whole foods will help reduce the amount of sugar you eat.

5. Read labels

Reading labels before consumption is one of the basic rules in sports nutrition. Avoiding sugar-rich foods is not the only way to reduce your sugar intake. You can be deliberate about the amount of sugar you eat per meal by merely reading your foods’ labels to check the sugar content.

However, some food labels don’t differentiate between added sugars and natural sugars. To know whether sugars have been added or not, pay attention to the ingredients lists.

Finally

Sugar can natural or added. You would have to cut down these added sugars in your diets to prevent health problems and maintain a balanced diet. Natural sugars in syrups, honey, and fruit juices can also be harmful to your health if you take them in excess.

Sports nutrition is an essential aspect of the world of sports. It makes athletes stay healthy and wow spectators with sensational, improved athletic performances. Name any successful sportsman in any sports category; I will tell you how much discipline and commitment they put into their sports nutrition to remain at the top of their game. Many athletes who cannot keep performing at their peak for a long time have failed in sports nutrition.

Over the years, I have welcomed many young folks passionate about sport and fitness, asking me what they need to become a professional sports nutritionist. That’s very thoughtful! It’s good to know how to help athletes optimize their athletic performance with proper diets and exercise.

Being a sports nutritionist is a rewarding career for people who love nutrition and enjoy working with active people of all ages. As a sports nutritionist, you will have to work with several professional athletes, gym-goers, and recreational runners at all fitness levels.

Are you wondering how you can become a professional sports nutritionist? Read through this step-by-step guide with professional experiences to achieve your dream career.

Step 1: Enroll for a Bachelor’s Degree in nutrition

Your journey to becoming a professional sports nutritionist start with enrolling in a program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) for a bachelor’s degree in nutrition. This is your first step in achieving your dream career.

Typically, it takes up to 4 – 5 years to complete a degree in nutrition and dietetics. Most people appreciate a sports nutritionist who has a certificate to back up his/her profession. Certified sports nutritionists have higher chances of easy employment compared to those without a certificate.

Typical nutrition coursework includes food science, medical nutrition therapy, counseling, and sports nutrition (as a course). Of course, several programs focus on sports nutrition; you can also enroll for any of them since it is accredited by ACEND. It is also good to get a bachelor’s degree from programs that double focus on nutrition and exercise science. Personally, I recommend that you enroll in such a program so that you can be certified with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Dietetics and Exercise Science.

Step 2: Get experience

Having a bachelor’s degree in sports nutrition will not qualify you to be a sports nutritionist, except you have gained the required experience. You can spend a lot of money getting a bachelor’s degree in sports nutrition, but you won’t be able to practice without the experience.

While you are studying, make sure you dedicate your time to intensive learning and take every opportunity to have full knowledge in dietetics and sports nutrition. It would be a great idea to volunteer your time to join the school sports team to know what it means to manage athletes’ health and performances. You can also volunteer to help in the athletic department to gain more knowledge and experience.

It will also help if you join organizations such as the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association (CPSA) or Sports Cardiovascular and Wellness Nutrition dietetic practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (SCAN).

As a professional sports nutritionist, I recommend that you start gaining experience while you are at your younger age (if you have decided to be a sports nutritionist on time).

Step 3: Apply for a dietetics internship

When you are at the helm of finishing your bachelor’s degree program, start applying for a dietetics internship program. Every nutrition student needs to apply for a dietetic internship program to become a registered nutritionist. While some programs include internships in their curriculum, others may ask you to apply for a separate internship program to complete your undergraduate degree.

During this program, you will have to rotate community nutrition, clinical nutrition, and foodservice administration. Some programs will allow you to work with nutritionists working in other fields aside from these three areas. Since you aim to become a professional sports nutritionist, you can ask to spend more time with sports RD.

Step 4: Write RD exam

After you have completed your internship program, the next step is to write the RD exams. This is the path to your ultimate goal of becoming a registered professional sports nutritionist.

The Commission for Dietician Registration (CDR) is the body that determines your eligibility requirements to write this exam. Once you write and pass the RD exam, you have successfully become a registered sports nutritionist, and you can start practicing professionally. Note that the requirements to get licensed as a nutritionist varies from one state to another. You might need to get other experiences or pay an additional fee to get licensed in some states.

Step 5: Apply for Job as a sport nutritionist

After you become a registered and licensed nutritionist, the next step is to put your knowledge and experience to work as a sports nutritionist. Getting a job as a fresh graduate might be somewhat challenging, but you will have a better chance at interviews if you gain the required knowledge while studying.

If you finish as an outstanding student, you can get a job immediately after completing your internship. Many newly registered nutritionists start their sports nutritionist careers in a clinic. That doesn’t sound right, but working with a sports team or organization may require joining some professional bodies.

Step 6: Gain experience and build networks

Becoming a sports nutritionist requires accruing experience in athletics and other sport-related endeavors. You can start by volunteering to join your local sports teams or find a way to be involved in sport and fitness communities at all levels. The idea is that you need to find an area that needs your sports nutrition expertise and work with them.

You also need to join several professional bodies to help you to secure a job in sports nutrition. Connect with other sports nutritionists, strength coaches, physical therapists, athletic trainers, and other health professionals working with athletes at all levels.

Step 7: Get certified as a sport nutritionist

Once you become a registered nutritionist and have accrued up to 2,000 practice hours in sports nutrition, you are OK to apply to CDR to become a certified sports nutritionist. You can also become a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) when you write and pass a board exam covering sports nutrition-related topics.

Finally

It is not only your certificate that makes you a better professional sports nutritionists; it is much of what you carry as knowledge in the field that separates you from the rest. This is why you should never stop learning to upgrade your knowledge and experience in sports nutrition.

Smartphones do not only perform social functions; they can be beneficial in sports nutrition. The introduction of smartphones has made things more comfortable in the world of sports nutrition. Thanks to the many sports nutrition apps, athletes can now log their nutrition and monitor their eating patterns to ensure they are consistent with their diet plans.

Have you heard about sports nutrition apps before? Do you know how they work? This article contains answers to these questions from a sports nutritionist’s perspective. Here are the seven best sports nutrition apps every athlete needs to know to track their diet plans with a few finger touches.

1. Eat 2 win nutrition

This sports nutrition app is designed specifically for athletes. However, it is also recommendable for anyone who needs to log and track their eating pattern. This app has several cross-over uses and customized meal plans drawn by seasoned sport nutrition experts. This app’s primary purpose is to create a team challenge and group competition and engagement, which is why it is mainly recommended for athletes. However, an individual who cares to monitor his eating habits can still use this app successfully.

Special features

The meal plan on this app is unique and helpful. Experienced certified sports nutritionists practically design them to make healthy eating easier and better for athletes. It gives details on the varieties of foods athletes can eat based on their caloric demands and weight management goals.

One of the features that make this app very interesting is the ability to create team challenges using peer influence as a motivation to make individual athletes improve their eating habits. This app also allows athletes to permit certain people (based on his/her choice) to view, rate, and make strict comments on their eating habits through the pictures of the food.

2. Calories counter & diet tracker

This is another sport s nutrition app that can help athletes maintain a balanced eating habit. It is designed by under Armour “My Fitness Pal.” Most sports nutrition experts regard this app as one of the most detailed nutrition and fitness apps.

My Fitness Pal specially designed this app to provide a well-rounded set of unique features to monitor fitness and track food. Most athletes in the fitness world love this app for this fantastic dual function. This app also offers several features free of charge.

Special features

This sports nutrition app has incredible integrations with wearable fitness devices. It also features a quick restaurant finder, which helps athletes find cool restaurants nearby. This will help athletes find the nearest restaurant after exhausting his or her energy during training or competition.

Another exciting feature of this app is the ability to find a wide variety of fitness classes very close to where the user stands at the moment.

3. Meal logger

This nutrition app provides an excellent and unique approach to sports nutrition. This app doesn’t feature a calories calculator. Users only need to enter in their expected weight and start taking pictures of their foods, after which they will share the pictures within the community of athletes using the app. This nutrition app does not feature macro/micro analysis but very good in logging athletes’ eating habits.

Special features

This app allows you to add a professional sports nutritionist to your network so that they could help track your eating history and provide helpful, professional advice, comments, and feedback. Athletes who do not have professional nutritionists can use the search box to find and connect with a sports nutrition expert in their database.

4. Weight loss diet and calories calculator

Sparkpeople designs this nutrition app for functionality. It has some incredible set of free features that makes sports nutrition easier for athletes. It allows athletes to make social connections with like-minded people with similar healthy eating and weight management goals. Athletes using this app will find other athletes within the app user base to find motivation from other athletes striving to achieve the same goals.

Special features

This app features several short demo videos, some of which address exciting topics like how to perform exercise routines and more. This sport also allows athletes to score points, which helps improve engagement and serves as a motivation tool for users. This app also provides several tips on dieting and healthy eating habits from sports nutritionists’ perspective.

5. Fooducate

This is another excellent sports nutrition app for athletes. It provides several fantastic free features for athletes to log and track their eating habits. This app provides several ways for athletes to stay engaged with other like-minded users that want to achieve similar goals.

Special features

This app offers a unique food grading, which helps users to locate foods easily quickly. Users can access every food item in the app’s database with a letter grade such as A, B, C, E, and so on. This easy food grading pattern also allows users to evaluate any food item’s quality on the database. The user community interaction of this app is super active. You can always have like-minded people to engage with at any time.

6. Coach Noom

Most sports nutritionists recommend this app for athletes for easy tracking. However, this app is designed to connect athletes to seasoned sport nutritionist coaches around. Getting started with this nutrition app, you would have to complete a short survey and then choose the nutritional coach you want to work with. This app is designed to be a tracking tool between the user and the selected nutrition coach.

Special features

This app is among the very few that provide one-on-one sports nutrition coaching services by experienced sports nutritionists. It allows users to have firsthand professional tips from sports nutritionist experts.

7. Nutrino

The designer of this app’s primary goal is to make users choose a diet plan and get food recommendations that suit the selected diet plans. This app also has some basic tracking features, and it’s one of the most straightforward nutrition apps to use.

Special features

This app helps users find the nearest restaurants and also takes into consideration user’s special dietary needs.

Final Words

Sports nutrition apps make it easy for athletes to maintain healthy eating habits and connect with several like-minded athletes with similar goals. Sport nutrition apps are fair means of reaching professional sports nutritionists and can serve as a tracking tool to achieve a deliberate healthy eating pattern.

Athletes don’t have the luxury of time to make food. They have to be on the pitch, either training hard or warming up for a competition. One of the key reasons most athletes end up ordering their favorite foods or eating whatever is available when urgency arises. Meanwhile, eating anything available is not healthy for athletes. Indeed sports nutrition experts have proven that lack of time to cook the right food is associated with unhealthy eating.

Research by seasoned sports nutritionists showed that about 60 percent of female athletes would have loved to cook their foods instead of buying. The report showed that many athletes are looking for ways to cook nutritious meals to give them strength during training and help them recover after training.

To promote healthy eating habits among athletes and make cooking easier for them, this article contains how you make 15 minutes meals with healthy ingredients to help you eat what you desire per time and optimize your athletic performances. The good news is that these meal ideas do not require a high cooking experience to make them. They are quick and easy.

Based on recommendations from professional sports nutritionists, as an athlete, you need to supply your body with the following nutrients:

• Carbohydrates: This will produce the required energy to be active throughout your training sessions and help you restore depleted energy in your body. Foods that rich in carbohydrates include whole grains, fruits, veggies, pulses, and more.
• Protein: most sports nutritionists advise that athletes should eat much protein-rich food for better performance. This nutrient helps you build and repairs your damaged muscles. It also helps your hormones function appropriately and boosts your immune system, preventing you from developing some career-threatening health problems. Foods rich in this nutrient include fish, meat, eggs, pulses, nuts, seeds, dairy products, and more.
• Healthy fats: Fats are good sources of energy more than carbohydrates. Besides their high energy content, healthy fats help your nervous, hormonal, and immune systems function correctly and make them more balanced. Foods that can supply your body with healthy fats include avocado, oily fish, eggs, nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, and more.
• Vitamins and minerals: Vitamins and minerals are also essential elements in sports nutrition. These two essential nutrients are essential in your daily consumption to optimize performance and stay healthy. Calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin B, vitamin A, Vitamin E, and vitamin K are vital nutrients that should always be in your daily meal.

The above-listed nutrients should be in your daily meal if you want to do well at training and recover quickly after training. Here are seven meal ideas that contain all the above-listed essential nutrients in the right proportion to help meet your daily nutrients requirements in your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Where do you start from?

The first step in making these 15-minute quick meals is to fill your cupboard with some minimally processed foods that you use to make these quick meals with lesser cooking time. These minimally processed foods include:

• Tinned foods: These include black beans, chickpeas, sweetcorn, lentils, coconut milk, and tinned salmon.
• Quick cook grains: These include rice noodles, couscous, egg noodles, quinoa, and soba noodles.
• Nuts and dried foods: These include almonds, cashew, dried apricots, and pistachios.
• Pulse sachets and pre-cooked grain: These are useful time savers. You can have these as an alternative to tinned foods. They are suitable for tice, which takes over 15 minutes before it is ready to eat. Some of the regular pre-cooked foods you can easily find around include flavored grain mixes, lentils, or quinoa.
• Sauces and pastes: These provide a quick way to add flavor to your fish, meat, pulses, and tempeh. Sauces and pastes include basil pesto, tamari soya sauce, ginger paste, garlic paste, harissa paste, tahini paste, chili paste, red Thai curry paste, tamarind paste, red chili paste, and more.
• Oils: These include coconut oil, olive oil, and sesame oil.
• Others: Other items you would need include apple cider vinegar, honey, balsamic vinegar, a jar of sundried tomatoes, peanut butter, lime juice, a jar of roasted peppers, lemon juice, and more.

Meals Ideas

Note that this meal is prepared as a one-person dish. You will have to double the quantity if you want to serve two people.

1. Mexican rice with chicken, smoked mackerel, or egg

Ingredients: Pre-cooked wholegrain rice, sweetcorn, black beans, 1 tsp lime juice, 1 tsp chipotle paste, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp honey, ½ avocado, a handful of crispy lettuce, six cherry tomatoes, ready-cooked chicken fillet, or two eggs.

Instructions: 

• Boil the eggs for 9 mins until hard-boiled or warm the chicken/mackerel in an oven for 5 minutes at Gas mark 6/200⁰C.
• Place the rice in a saucepan with 2 tbsp of water and heat for 2-3 mins until the water has been absorbed.
• Chop the tomatoes, tear the lettuce if needed, chop the avocado into chunks.
• Mix the chipotle sauce, lime juice, honey, and olive oil into a dressing.
• Stir the sweetcorn, black beans, tomatoes, and avocado into the rice.
• Slice the eggs, chicken, or mackerel.
• Place the lettuce in a large bowl or on a plate.
• Add the flavored rice, then the eggs, chicken, or protein.
• Drizzle over the dressing and serve. NB You can have the chicken or mackerel cold if preferred.

2. Mediterranean Lentils and Rice (vegan)

Ingredients: Pre-cooked lentils or puy, pre-cooked whole grain rice, brown or green lentils, six stone-less olives, tomatoes, ½ avocado, 2 tbsp roasted peppers, three sundried tomatoes, a handful of French beans, 2 tsp apple cider vinegar, juice of ½ an orange, and 3 tsp olive oil.

Instructions:

• Boil a kettle and boil or steam the French beans for c 7 minutes.
• Place the rice in a saucepan with 3 tbsp of water and heat for 2 mins until most of the water has been absorbed.
• Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes into quarters, the olives in half, and the sundried tomatoes and the peppers into small pieces.
• Mix the lentils into the rice and heat for a further 2 minutes until all the water has been absorbed.
• Meanwhile, heat 2 tsp of olive oil in a frying pan, then add the tomatoes, olives, sundried tomatoes, and peppers and heat gently for 3 mins.
• Slice the avocado and mix the orange juice, 1 tsp of olive oil, and apple cider vinegar into a dressing.
• Add the dressing, avocado, and tomato mix to the rice and lentils, stir together and place in a serving bowl.
• Top with the cooked French beans NB if you dislike beans, try leeks or tender-stem broccoli instead.

3. Chicken or chickpea quinoa with orange and almonds

Ingredients: Pre-cooked chicken or tin chickpeas, ready-to-eat quinoa, red onion, one orange, 2 tsp olive oil, eight almonds, 1/2 avocado, two handfuls of baby spinach, 2 tsp balsamic vinegar.

Instructions: 

• Thinly slice the red onion. Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a saucepan and cook the onion on low heat for 5 minutes until soft.
• Meanwhile, peel the orange and split it into segments, and thinly slice the avocado.
• Add the quinoa and the chicken or chickpeas to the pan with the onions. Stir through 1 tsp of balsamic video and heat gently for 2-3 minutes.
• Mix the remaining 1 tsp olive oil and 1 tsp balsamic vinegar into a dressing.
• Turn off the heat under the pan and stir in the rocket or baby spinach. Allow wilting.
• Place the quinoa mix in a bowl or onto a plate. Top with the avocado slices and orange segments.
• Drizzle over the dressing and serve.

When it comes to female fitness, losing weight and shedding body fats can be a little challenging for the female gender than the other gender, even if they do the same workout routine and follow the same diet.

Why?

It’s due to a lot of factors but generally, nature. Genetics, instinct, habits, etc., play a huge and major role when it comes to why shedding body fats can be a bit harder for women than men. To further enlighten you, let’s take a look at some of the factors that make losing weight a bit more challenging than for men below when talking about female fitness and tips you can follow to fight against the factors causing the challenges.

1. Less body testosterone

Testosterone is produced by both the male and female body, and it is responsible for increased muscle mass and strength, bone mass, fat distribution, etc. but, unlike men, women typically have less body testosterone, and low testosterone in female fitness is known to be a cause of increased weight gain, boost belly fats and makes it harder to lose weight. Higher testosterone, on the other hand, helps men in losing more calories faster, even during rests. Hence, when talking about testosterone in respect to weight loss, the higher, the better.

2. Lower metabolic rate

Women have a lower metabolic rate compared to the other gender, and this is because the female body makes use of fewer calories for the usual body function, i.e., breathing, while the rest of the calories are stored as fats. Men, on the other hand, tend to have a higher rate of metabolism, and the higher the rate of metabolism, the higher the calories you tend to burn. Thus, giving the male gender a higher advantage of burning more body fats easily. As stated above, men have high testosterone and more muscle, which helps them burn even more calories quickly.

3. Gender difference

One of the factors that makes it a little harder is just because you are a woman. For gender differences, we will be talking about exercise habits and pregnancy effects. When it comes to gender differences, stereotypes aren’t untrue, just incomplete. Saying women shy away from some exercises is a stereotype but is true anyway because almost 90 percent does, and the 10 percent that’s left is what makes it a stereotype rather than a fact. Women generally tend to shy away from heavy weight lifting for fear of becoming bulky, while men tend to move closer to those heavy lifts, which helps them maintain muscle while losing fats. Pregnancy effects, on the other hand, are another type of gender difference that causes this challenge. Male don’t get pregnant, female do and during every pregnancy period, body fats and weight is gained. It is always harder to shed off those extra fats immediately after childbirth. Although breastfeeding can help burn a few calories, it won’t do as much as exercising would.

How to Lose Weight

Apart from the factors listed above, there are still several reasons out there that pose a threat to making the process of weight loss the same as it should be for men, but the good news is, there are some tricks you can start doing to lose much more weight than you are doing currently.

1. Eradicate your workout habits

Women shy away from heavy lifting when it comes to female fitness and some other forms of exercise, as stated above, and it shouldn’t be so. Break out of your old easy workout routine and start doing more, sacrifice that light weight for a slightly heavier one, and slowly move up the ladder. Working on building muscle mass is not for men alone. It is helpful for both women and men to boost metabolism. Imagine having a higher metabolic rate than you do now. That would mean burning off more calories, which is the aim, right.

2. Develop a good eating pattern

Knowing what to eat, when to eat, and how to eat is essential when it comes to weight loss and female fitness plans. Women, in general, tend to love junks, while most men tend to shy away from it. This is yet another one of the reasons why women find it harder to burn off calories. It is like this, men don’t take in a lot of calories, but they burn it faster even when doing nothing because of their high testosterone and metabolism rate while women take in more calories without burning enough; hence, the excess fats left tends to move to the hips, thigh, etc. where it becomes even harder to lose. Sacrifice your junk for healthy snacks and begin to eat healthily. Make sure to take the right meal with appropriate nutrients to balance your exercise.

3. Focus on the long term

“Patience is a virtue.” That shouldn’t sound new to you. Exercise is all about long-term results. You can’t have an irregular exercise routine for a week and expect to be fit but, when you dedicate your time and energy to it, you would see results. Studies show that a minimum of 5% to 10% weight loss occurs a year when followed dutifully. So, don’t be in haste. Ensure that whatever you do regarding your female fitness plan is concerning your long-term plan.

Take balanced and healthy meals filled with all essential nutrients such as protein, vitamins, carbohydrates, water, etc. Avoid foods with carbs such as processed carbohydrates and take more other nutrients and supplements when needed.

There are numerous ways women can attain fitness and fat loss. Besides eating healthy and being on a diet, women can visit the gym and spice up their weight loss programs by trying different programs. This makes the female fitness journey more interesting and exciting.

Hitting the gym should not always be too serious and tedious. Some gym houses engage in dance, road walk, swimming, etc as means of achieving the weight loss goals. These exercises not only make for more fun while burning calories, they are healthy and help in proper blood circulation and invigorates the body and mind.

One of these exercises is skipping. Skipping is a very fun, yet intensive way of achieving weight loss and female fitness in general. One of the amazing things about this exercise is that it can be done right in your home and it is very effective in burning calories.

It can be inculcated in your diet and other exercise routines to enhance speedy weight loss and it builds your calves, thighs, stamina, legs, and other parts of your body at the same time. Skipping has also been confirmed to help regulate heart rate and a good cardiovascular exercise.

Skipping does not require a lot of space or equipment. All you need is a skip rope and just enough space to let your rope swing freely. When skipping, endeavor to wear sports wears that’ll allow you freedom to jump, training shoes to protect your legs from the impact of jumping and landing, and a good surface like a gym mat or a carpet that will not let you slip.

This is to prevent the legs from hurting or suffering dislocations or other issues, and to make the exercise efficient and achievable without much stress or difficulties.

In this article, I will share with you 5 benefits of skipping to female fitness and how this fun and seemingly simple exercise can improve fat loss in women. So read on, you won’t want to skip this.

Improves Heart Rate and Blood Circulation

As highlighted earlier, skipping is a cardiovascular exercise. When you skip, the blood circulates through your veins to your heart and other organs in your body at the same rate as it would if you were running.

This helps improve the heart and keeps it working at optimal levels. Skipping also helps to reduce shortness of breath when you climb a flight of stairs or run a short distance. This is because your cardiovascular framework has become used to these exercises and has gained more stamina in the process. Skipping also improves the blood pressure and enhances its effective circulation in the body.

Female fitness goals may be incomplete without this exercise; because asides running and walking long distance, this is one of the other exercises you can do from your home and achieve an efficient heart while improving weight loss.

Builds Your Upper and Lower Muscles

Skipping is a good exercise to work on your calves, thighs, arms, and other muscles. It helps tone these muscles and keep them fit and active. While your arms and shoulders swing the ropes, your legs do the jumping, and so also does the calves and thighs.

Normally, it’ll be painful and sore when you newly start this exercise because of the intensity and due to the fact that the muscles are not used to such activities, but with time, your body adapts to it and it becomes a routine exercise.

Helps Attain Concentration and Balance

Besides the muscular and physical benefits of skipping, it helps to maintain mental and internal balance. It helps to release the endorphins hormones in your body that helps you relax and ease tense moods.

Skipping helps you concentrate better and become disciplined and focused on your goals. Skipping has a way of calming the body and relaxing the muscles after engaging in it. This improves mental focus, concentration, and high levels of balance and precision when you walk, run, or engage in other activities.

Most footballers, athletes, boxers, and indeed virtually every sports person engages in skipping for these purposes.

Improves Weight Loss

An hour of skipping can help you burn over 1000 calories! This is about the easiest and less professional way to improve weight loss and enhance female fitness besides just running. Coupled with your eating regimen, if you’re serious about fat loss, skipping is one of the most effective ways to go about it.

It requires no exact method or know-how and you can do it in your house at your own pace. All you have to do is literally jump ropes to help with weight loss. And what’s more, this exercise is almost all encompassing for female fitness. It works on numerous parts of the body at the same time, saves you the stress of going to the gym, and lets you jump the way you know how to.

Skipping Strengthens the Bones

This exercise increases bone density and strength. It prevents the bones from developing Osteoporosis which is a bone disease that occurs when the body fails to produce enough or strong dense bones. Skipping can help prevent this from happening. However, the intensity and duration must be in check.

You should always regulate your time and intensity to make sure you are not overdoing it and actually causing a problem to the bones. High intensity jumps can affect the density of the bones negatively.

Conclusion

Skipping is an important exercise and weight loss program for female fitness. It is very beneficial to the health and the body. Skipping keeps the body active and sharp to handle tasks and activities, and this exercise can be done right in your home with minimal equipment and skill.

If you have not been skipping as a way to deal with fat loss, you should give it a try. It is almost the same as running, only that you’ll be doing it at home and mostly on a spot.

There are different skipping styles you can inculcate to spice up your routine and make it more fun for you. However you like it, at your pace and style preference, skipping is helpful for you and guarantees faster results than most other exercises. 

There are lots of reasons why women visit the gym. While most people go there to do programs on weight loss, others go for specific programs for some parts of their body. The truth is, for complete female fitness, exercises and fitness programs should include every part of the body. But most times, the best way to achieve this general female fitness is by paying attention to the body part by part as a means of achieving the bigger goal of weight loss and healthy living.

It could be a woman that just recently gave birth and intends to get back in shape by working on her stomach, or one who wants to work on her abs, or even another who is more interested in weight loss programs and thus concentrates on specific parts of her body where she intends to reduce fat.

There is a myriad of reasons and targets why people come to the gym, but whatever your intention is, the general goal is female fitness, a better body, and weight loss.

In this article, we will be talking about how women who want to work on their thighs can achieve the thighs of their dreams following some routines. Working on your inner thighs strengthens your legs, calves, core, knees, and lower back.

Inner thigh workouts are best incorporated into your general exercise routine or as a way to end the session to make sure you attain general fitness. These exercises will also help in weight loss programs as most of them work on your stomach, hips, and body in general.

Some of the best inner thigh exercises to ensure female fitness and attain weight loss are as follows;

Inner Thigh Lift

This is a low-impact exercise that is more focused on attention and discipline. It works the inner thighs directly and is a bit demanding.

• How to: Your starting position is on the ground, laying down on one side of your body and making sure that your head, hips, and heels are in one long plane. If you’re laying on your right side, bend your left leg across your right leg in a way that your left foot is sitting on the floor either in front or behind your right leg. With your bottom leg in a straight position, raise it up and down for at least 10 reps and then switch to the other side.

Squats

This is one of the most popular and best exercises if you’re looking to work on your thighs. It also builds your calves, butt, hips, and abs. Squats help a lot in terms of female fitness and fat loss.

• How to: Squats can be done from a standing position. With your feet a little apart from each other, stretch your hands forward and go down and up with chest and back straight. When you go down, maintain the position for about 3 seconds before going back up. Continue this move for some time and then take a rest. Squats can be performed with or without dumbbells, and you can spice it up to suit your needs.

Jumping Jacks

This exercise is fun and very all-encompassing in terms of what it tends to achieve for your body. It works on your legs and arms at the same time, enhancing weight loss and improving female fitness all at once. This is because this exercise burns calories almost as fast as it does when you go for a run.

• How to: Your starting position is standing with your hands by your sides. Jump with legs open a bit wide with your hands overhead, and then jump your legs back together as you drop your arms by your sides in the original starting position. That is one rep. Repeat this routine continuously for at least 10 reps at one go.

Lunges

Lunges work on your hamstrings, inner thighs, and calves. You can diversify your routine how you like but be sure to follow the basic guides on how to effectively do it.

• How to: Stand with your feet a bit wide apart, about hip size wide, with both hands on your hips. Move one leg a foot forward and lower your body till both your front and back legs are at a 90-degree angle. With the forward leg not crossing your toes, make sure the leg at the back is bent but not touching the floor. Hold this position for about 3 seconds and then switch legs. This routine should be done for at least 10 reps.

Glute Kickbacks

This routine is great for female fitness because not only does it tone the glutes and inner thighs, it helps work on the calves and other muscles in the legs. It can be incorporated in weight loss programs as an effective exercise to burn calories.

• How to: Stand with feet hip-width apart. You can choose to use a resistance band for this routine or not. If you do intend to, the band must be around your ankles or lower thighs just above the knees. You can balance yourself with the aid of a wall or chair. Then with one leg straight, float it upwards behind you in a kickback manner. Slowly drop the foot on the floor. Switch legs and repeat the routine after a few reps.

Conclusion

Inner thigh exercises are so important to general female fitness in many ways. Without the legs, you cannot perform more than half the tasks you perform each day because the leg is what helps us move around, run, ride bicycles, and climb stairs. It is very important these legs are worked on regularly to keep them stronger and sharper to perform more efficiently.

Working on your inner thighs following these routines will not only tone your thighs but will make the legs and muscles in it stronger and better. It also helps in bone density and strength.

If you are interested in weight loss, working on your thighs will be a good way to start because these routines will instill discipline and concentration in you to help with other programs. If you start working and achieving toned and healthy thighs, weight loss will start becoming a possibility in no time.

You can start trying these exercises today from the comfort of your home. You do not necessarily need to go to the gym, and it does not require any equipment compulsorily.