By Aaron Boike, B.S. Kinesiology, ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Health Coach
It is finally here! We’ve crossed the line into true summer weather in the past couple of weeks, and with temps in the 90’s and the sun shining nearly every day, we’re all thinking about how to look and feel our best for the warmer weather ahead. Here are three strategies that you can use to supercharge your weight loss efforts and lean out this summer season!
Track Your Nutrition on an App – Nutrition tracking has been my #1 go-to strategy for helping individuals lose weight for years. Now, you might be thinking; “Weight loss is about more than just calories, right?” You’d be totally correct! That being said, there are an abundance of reasons why tracking works so well. In addition, calories DO matter! While eating whole foods will allow you to consume more with less weight gain than processed foods, you cannot achieve long term sustained weight loss with a positive energy balance (aka: more calories in than calories out).
- Nutrition tracking helps you be more mindful of your food intake, leading to healthier food choices.
- Nutrition tracking helps you determine if you are eating a healthy balance of macronutrients (carbs, fats, proteins)
- Nutrition tracking helps us keep calories in check so we can maintain a negative energy balance and lose weight.
Great free apps include MyFitnessPal (my favorite – friend me at BoikePT), LoseIt, and Livestrong.
Cut Sugar and Flour from Your Diet – There is nothing more destructive to a weight loss program than a diet that is high in refined sugar and flour. The reason? Insulin! When you take sugar and flour out of the equation, you’ve taken away the two biggest culprits in our diet that cause your blood sugar, and therefore your insulin to go on a roller coaster ride. When insulin is “spiked” due to an influx of fast digesting carbohydrates (i.e. sugar, flour, white rice, high glycemic fruits), your body shuts down fat metabolism, making it impossible for you to burn fat for fuel. Take these foods out of the equation and keep your overall carbohydrate consumption from whole foods like sweet potatoes, whole grains, low sugar fruits, and vegetables in check, and you will reap the rewards with a leaner physique and more energized body.
Don’t Skimp on Strength Training – We see it all the time…someone switches their focus to a weight loss goal, and we see them drop strength training in favor of cardio exercises. While this can make sense on a surface level, it ultimately doesn’t work out in your favor. The reasons? Metabolism, body composition, and hormones. Strength Training impacts your body’s resting metabolic rate more heavily than cardio because building muscle/recovering from strength workouts takes energy, and maintaining muscle takes energy. This keeps your metabolic rate higher than if you do cardio alone. Strength Training also helps keep your bodyfat percentage lower by adding lean muscle, or at least allowing you to maintain the lean muscle you have while you are cutting calories to lose weight. Studies show that up to 25% of weight loss comes from muscle when it is not stimulated through a consistent strength training program – scary! Lastly, when you strength train, you help to stimulate the hormones that lead to fat burning, and blunt the ones that inhibit it. Strength training has been proven to stimulate testosterone, helping you to rev up your metabolism, and growth hormone, helping you to add lean muscle tone. In addition, people who strength train on a regular basis have better blood sugar regulation, leading to less of those pesky insulin spikes, and keeping the body in a fat burning mode. Aim to strength train 2 or more times per week for peak effectiveness as part of a weight loss and bodyfat reduction program. Already strength training? Look into methods like Tabata and HIIT which can rev up your metabolism even more than traditional workouts.