Lifestyle Steps
- Sleep. Start waking up without an alarm to see how much sleep your body needs, then try to get that every night, or most nights. Less sleep equals higher cortisol, the stress hormone which promotes insulin for energy instead of fat, and lowers natural human growth hormone. Not good.
- Exercise. 3 to 5 times a week is great. Any form of exercise depending on your goals: walking, running, lifting weights, sport, anything that gets your heart rate up and oxygen flowing. Work out first thing in the morning (within 45 minutes to an hour of waking up) for 300% increase in fat burning. Our metabolism is running quicker first thing in the morning. Also, working out in a fasted state, with no food in your body, burns more fat during your workout, which is why morning workouts are attractive. Tip: In order to get the most out of your workout, put your mind in the muscle and focus on flexion. Two people can be working out, doing the same exercise for the same amount of time, but the one who focuses on putting his mind into the muscle is the person who will get extraordinary results.
- Don’t eat for 2 hours after working out. Then, your body will use fat for energy. If you get enough protein in a day, you won’t have to worry about muscle atrophy.
- Intermittent fast, 16-18 hour fasting window. Eat all your calories, just restrict them to a particular window of time, 6-8 hours. Fasting increases natural human growth hormone, which promotes muscle growth and preservation. There are many other benefits for fasting you can research on your own.
Macros
- Protein – .8 x lean body mass = grams of protein per day. Get an estimate of your body fat percentage, and subtract it from your total weight. Protein is dependent on muscle and bone mass, not fat.
- Carbs – Stay under 20-50g of carbs a day. This is the most important step, so you can enter a state called ketosis and become keto-adapted so that your body’s go-to energy source is fat. I recommend doing more research on ketosis and the ketogenic diet.
- Calories – Find your basal metabolic rate (BMR) with this calculator (http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html). If you workout 3-5 days a week, consume your BMR or 100 to 200 calories above depending on workout intensity and how quickly you want to lose body fat. If you don’t work out, consume 200 to 300 calories under your BMR for the same results.
- Fat – Equals the difference between your calories needed for the day (from previous step) and calories obtained from protein and carbs. 1g of protein = 4 calories, 1g of carbs = 4 calories, 1g of fat = 9 calories.
Example:
My BMR is about 2,000 calories, and I work out 6 times a week, my goal is to shred fat and keep muscle, and my total weight is 185. I have about 15% body fat, so that means my lean body mass is 85% of my total weight. 185x.85=>157.25x.8=125.8 ~ 126g protein.
Total daily calories: 2,006
Protein: 126g (x 4 = 504)
Carbs: 20g (x 4 = 80)
Fat: 158g (x 4 = 1,422)
Follow this diet for a month, and you will see results no matter what.