The best project you’ll ever work on is YOU!
Whether this is your first year of college or one of your last, back to school often means a lifestyle change – meals on your own, late night munchies while studying, and weekend “festivities.” With that also comes a few extra pounds of unwanted body fat…
Maybe you have accumulated a little bit of extra, unwanted weight, or maybe you just want to be sure that you don’t. Either way, there are a few things you can do starting today.
The basic premise of weight loss is burning more calories through your daily movement than you are taking in by you daily food consumption. Seems simple enough, but if you’ve ever tried losing weight before, you know that it can be a little harder than that.
1. High Intensity Interval Training
You’re going to have to get that heart rate up to burn calories. In order to burn a lot of calories, the intensity of your exercise needs to be physically (and probably also mentally) demanding for you.
High-intensity interval training will get your heart rate up and keep it up. We are talking about small 6 to 12 minute bursts here. On a nice slow jog, your heart rate will increase at first, but slowly decrease over time because of the low level of intensity, ultimately burning less calories.
I don’t know about you, but I am very busy. I would much rather spend 12 crazy, intense minutes pushing really hard doing several different movements than 45-60 minutes on a boring treadmill or elliptical.
We also want to make sure we are doing exercises that use multiple muscle groups and multiple joints. Total body movements like squats, pull ups, and burpees will burn more calories than single muscle/joint exercises like bicep curls or leg lifts.
2. Lift Heavy Stuff/Strength Train
The more muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn daily, whether you’re working out or not. Which is why we want to build lean muscle mass. Maintaining your muscle mass is far more expensive calorie-wise than maintaining body fat.
Your muscles need the energy, which will increase your metabolism as your body burns extra calories breaking down carbohydrates and fat to provide energy.
Plus, who doesn’t have stress in their life from room mates, homework, bills, jobs, and grades? Lifting heavy stuff will definitely help relieve some of that stress that builds up throughout the day. It is so satisfying to lift heavy stuff and put it back down – there is such a feeling of accomplishment!
Next, we need to take a look at what we are fueling our body with – our food intake. 200 calories from a Twinkie is not the same as 200 calories from a bowl of steamed veggies. Admittedly, eating healthy either on campus or at home cooking for one can be a challenge.
3. Eat Whole Foods
Don’t approach food and fat loss with the mindset of “dieting.” Dieting has the connotation of restricting food. And what happens when we are told we can’t have something? We want it even more. It’s a set up for failure.
You know that if you want to lose weight, you should be burning more calories than you’re eating. Skipping meals is NOT the way to do that though. Your body needs fuel, especially now that you’ve embarked on high intensity and strength training.
If you’re looking to lose weight, you have to take in the right kind of fuel. If you don’t eat enough of the right stuff when you work out, your body will have to take energy from your muscles, which hurts your metabolism.
If you aren’t getting enough calories, your body will go into starvation mode and hoard all the fat – which is the exact opposite of what we are trying to do. We don’t want to necessarily restrict the number of calories, but we do want to make sure that they are coming from excellent sources – whole foods.
Avoid sugar, flour, starch and processed foods. Your food should have an expiration date. Food is not meant to live on a shelf forever. If it walked the earth, swam in the ocean, or grew from the earth – eat it.
Every day you want to try to take in around 30 percent protein, 30 percent carbs, and 40 percent fat. When eating carbs, make sure they come from the right places – sweet potatoes, squashes, and fresh fruits. You’ll want to avoid breads, pastas, and foods with added sugar.
An active person (someone who works out three to five times per week) should aim for one gram of protein per pound of body weight. When you work out, you break down your muscle tissue. Your body depends on that protein in order to rebuild that muscle even stronger.
And remember that lean muscle mass is an important key to increasing your metabolism. On top of all those advantages, protein tends to be very satiating, meaning you will be hungry less.
The important thing for people to understand is it’s not the fat intake that’s the problem. It’s usually that they are taking in far too many simple carbs.
Finally, we want to be consistent with our workouts and our food. We want to have some sort of accountability to stick with this new lifestyle so we can maintain it long term. We want to make sure that all of the changes we have made are something we enjoy so we can stick to it.
4. Consistency/Accountability/Maintainability
We want to find a way to make working out fun and something that we look forward to doing each day. We want to make sure we’re doing different workouts every day, not just because of the eventual plateau if you do, but also because you don’t want to neglect certain muscle groups.
Targeting all of your muscle groups will lead to building more total muscle and that will lead to more calories being burned and a faster metabolism.
Find a system that works for you to get to the gym consistently. Set goals for yourself. Find a meal plan that you can stick to. It takes 21 days to make something a habit. Stick it out.
Keep a journal to track your workouts, your food, your moods, your struggles, and your accomplishments – big and small. It will be worth it every day – stick it out and see those changes.
If you’d like to see what a good program, solid nutrition, and accountability can do to help you, consider signing up for a FREE Consultation below.
We’ll talk about your goals, how to reach them, how to maintain them once you get there, and whether we’ll be a good fit for you. No strings, no obligations, just an honest look at where you are and how we might help.
Click below to learn more about Fighting the College 15 Pounds and to sign up for your FREE 30 minute Goal Setting Consultation and 60 minute Trial Class.
