“I have been exercising 5 days a week for 2 months and I have stopped losing weight, why?”

Well there are several factors that can be sabotaging your weight loss success. Starting with one very large principle: that true weight loss takes into consideration three actions; nutrition, cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. To believe that long term weight loss can be accomplished by only diet or exercise is not realistic. Eventually the body reaches a plateau. This is why many people who only use Atkins, South Beach or other such diets eventually become frustrated when the scale stops creeping down. These diets create a deficit in calories from what your body is originally used to therefore causing you to lose weight, but when your body’s calorie intake equals your calorie expenditure you create an equal balance. This irritating experience can be avoided by making sure to increase the body’s metabolism by exercise, therefore helping you to continue to lose weight. Get a price quote for your own in home personal trainer.

I truly believe there is no such thing as a good diet. The word diet implies that it is a short term fix for a long term problem. Who has ever said, “I am going to stay on this diet for the rest of my life?” It typically is for a month or till they drop 10 pounds. Considering this it is important to make a lifestyle change. As we talked about this last month there is no overnight fix. Over the last 30 years, nearly every 10 someone comes out with a diet that claims one macronutrient a bad guy. (The three main macronutrients being protein, fat, and carbohydrate and some consider water the fourth.) Believe it or not nearly 30 years ago protein was labeled the problem that people couldn’t lose weight, and about 15 years ago it was fat that was the problem and everyone started eating rice cakes and of course now carbohydrates are “bad”. Thus bringing me to the question that if all macronutrients are labeled bad which ones do we eat? All of them… in proportion. Your body needs nutrients from each of these groups to function on a regular basis.

Carbohydrates are used for exercising muscles, this is one of the body’s resources for energy, and helps prevent against fatigue. They also are essential for the brain and central nervous system to work properly. Not to mention they help your body use fat efficiently. Now I do not know about you but I think all of these functions are pretty high on the priority list! Low carbohydrate diets do not supply the body with enough ”energy”.

Fats are utilized during light to moderate exercise such as walking. The body relies on fat as its energy store when you work at this level. Fat also helps the functioning of cell membranes, skin hormones and delivering fat soluble vitamins to the body.

Alright, last but certainly not least, protein unlike carbohydrates does not play as a significantly large source of energy, it typically will only be utilized as an energy source if an individual is on a restricted calorie diet, or do not eat enough. This is not a good thing considering that the body will break down the protein in the body. Protein also influences the synthesis of hormones, antibodies and enzymes, fluid transport and energy as well as muscle development, tissue repair, ligaments and tendons. Protein requirements for exercising individuals are typically 1.2 to 1.7 grams of protein per kilo of body weight.

This all being said, there is not one macronutrient that can or should be eliminated. Each one plays an extremely important role in helping the body not only lose weight and gain muscle but more importantly they help perform everyday functions.

Listed below are several ideas to keep you on the right track of eating well. Good Luck!

1. Know your portions: a serving of rice should be approximately the size of your fist or a baseball, and protein should be the size of a deck of cards.( 7 grams of protein in general are found in 1 oz of chicken- multiply this by 3-4 oz as a serving and you are left with about 21-28 grams of protein)

2. Eat meals at the same time or as close to the same time daily. This helps to keep your body’s metabolism even and should also help with preventing fatigue.

3. Try to incorporate each macronutrient in each meal. (Fat, carbohydrate, protein)

Especially protein!

4. Drink half your body weight in oz of h2o…if you weigh 120 pounds have 60 oz of water…slightly more if you are working out.

5. Try to eliminate white flour…. Do not eliminate carbs. Switch white pasta over to wheat. (Hint: the first ingredient should be whole wheat flour… it should not say enriched.)

6. ATTEMPT: to cut back on caffeine…. Do not panic!…. YES I MEAN THE COFFEE!

7. Eliminate soda. (Even diet)

8. Watch out for tricky liquid calories (sports drinks)

9. And not so tricky liquid calories (wine, alcohol)

10. Limit sodium (soup, deli ham)

11. Limit, ideally cut out processed foods (chicken nuggets, cheez its, gold fish)

12. Limit saturated fats (cake, cookies)

13. Limit fried foods

14. Eat vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables!!

15. EAT breakfast! ALWAYS!

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