Tips: Kari Putnam personal trainer, Austin, TX

Re-Imagine Fitness

Your Subtitle text

Tips

There are three key factors to successful weight loss: resistance training, cardiovascular exercise, and a healthy diet. Cardio promotes utilization of stored fat for energy and builds a strong heart and lungs. Resistance training increases lean muscle mass, helping to increase metabolism. It also increases bone density. A consistently healthy diet is necessary to achieve weight loss. The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. With no change in dietary habits, a person can work out every day and not see results. Nutritious food helps repair and strengthen trained muscles.

Helpful Suggestions

To lose weight, caloric output must exceed caloric input. Exercise more and make healthier food choices.
Understand that starting new habits takes time and patience. Never "beat yourself up" over eating too much or eating "bad foods." Simply start the next day fresh. Do your best to keep to your nutrition and exercise goals. Sustaining a positive outlook helps to avoid letting a small slip turn into more than it is.
Keep a food diary. Writing down what we eat keeps us accountable and honest. Count every drink, sweetener, sauce, anything added to food. It all contains calories. Websites like thedailyplate.com make it easy to record foods and their caloric values.
Watch portion sizes. Try to eat 5 mini-meals a day. Eating smaller portions throughout the day boosts metabolism and keeps energy levels steady. Don't eat until your stuffed. Eat enough to be pleasantly full, but not bursting at the seams.

Every day you need a balance of carbohydrates, fat, protein, water, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

The recommended daily caloric breakdown suggested by the Physiology of Sport and Exercise is carbohydrate: 55%; fat: 30% or less with less than 10% from saturated fats; protein: 10% to 15%. The suggested protein intake for adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight.
Protein intake is higher for athletes. Bodybuilders require 1.7 grams per kilogram of body weight each day. Endurance athletes need 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight each day. Although athletes require more protein, the percentage is still 10% to 15% of their daily caloric intake, because their overall caloric intake is higher.
The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) recommends 96 ounces of water each day. Just a 2% loss of water results in a drastic decrease in exercise performance. An interesting fact from the Physiology of Sport and Exercise states that "a water loss of 9% to 12% pf a person's total body weight can lead to death."
NASM recommends a person's daily diet include minimum 25 grams of fiber.
Did you know alcohol contains 7 calories per gram? That is only 2 calories per gram less than fat. Plus, it interferes with the metabolic breakdown of food. Drink mixers like fruit juice, cream, and cola add even more calories. Alcoholic drinks are packed with calories. Rethink your next cocktail.

Make Healthy Food Choices

Think of food as fuel or energy for your body. What you eat should make you feel good and energized.
A serving of protein is 4 ounces - approximately the size of a deck of cards.
1 Egg equals one ounce of lean meat. To keep eggs low-fat, only eat the egg whites. Don't eliminate yolks altogether. They have nutritional value. Try one whole egg with one egg white to help cut back on fat and calories.
Eat lots of vegetables. They are good for you. Veggies add bulk and are a nutrient-dense food. It is important to get our daily requirement of vitamins, minerals, and fiber from fruits and vegetable. Vegetables are carbohydrates. Your brain needs them for energy.
Eat fruit. It is nature's dessert. Fruit is full of vitamins, fiber, and water. Include berries on your grocery list. Put them on top of low-fat plain yogurt or in a bowl of high-fiber cereal for breakfast.
Avoid saturated animal fats and hydrogenated oils. Read food labels. You'll be surprised at how much hydrogenated fat is in food - even foods we think are healthy, like nutrition bars.
Here is a list of heart-healthy foods: nuts, avocados, beans, fish, flaxseed, oranges, and soy. These foods can help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol - the "bad" cholesterol.
Avoid simple sugars, meaning food containing table sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or too much sugar of any kind.
Avoid refined foods. Eliminate pretty much everything made out of a box. Canned foods are usually high in sodium, which can make you retain water, and they have little nutritional value. The only canned item I recommend are beans. Rinse them first, before adding them to soups, salads, or salsas.