Nutrition School: Weight and Fat Loss

Weight and fat loss help! I know so many of you come to teamRIPPED for just that. And teamRIPPED already has tons of resources about weight and fat loss help. As we enter the new year and lots of people starting new programs, it’s time we went back to Nutrition School.

Weight and Fat Loss Basics

At a very basic level, weight and fat loss comes down to an extremely simple model. Think of a balance. On one side you have all the calories you burn in your daily activity (just breathing, work, kids, exercises, etc). On the other side you have all the calories from the foods you eat (breakfast, lunch, dinner, the handful of M&Ms you just took, that Coke at lunch, the bag of pretzels while watching TV, etc). If the calories from the food and drink you consume outweigh the number of calories you burn each day, you GAIN weight. Conversely, if the calories you consume are LESS than the calories you burn in a day, you WILL lose weight.

Now obviously one day of bad eating won’t cause you to gain 15 lbs, but in the same way, one day of good eating won’t get you ripped. It’s a long running average, and we know it. Over time you’ve slowly put on weight. Each day your intake outweighs your output of energy and you add fat. What teamRIPPED is about is tipping that balance in our favor! You can win your weight and fat loss journey! 

The Aspects of the Weight and Fat Loss Balance You Control

Your Energy Output

I am going to keep this mostly about nutrition, but one important part you control is your energy output. You may not be able to have a really active job, but you decide if working out and exercising each day is important to you. You get up and push play. You are the one that makes time for it.

You can also go out of your way to add even more activity to your day (helping that side of the scale). You take the stairs, turn off the TV and go for a while, pick up a hobby, or even just play more with your kids! You decide.

Your Food Intake 

I can’t, can’t, CAN’T stress this enough! Your nutrition is the most important piece of the puzzle! Even with added activity, you can easily out eat your exercise. That is why we spend extra time with nutrition.

So we carefully plan and track what we eat. This is called “nutrition tracking”. You know how much you are taking in so you know that side of your balance. If you are eating 3,000 calories and you are losing weight, you know that you are burning more than 3,000 calories a day. But the only way you know that for sure is if you track.

Start by setting up a calorie goal for weight and fat loss. I even have a handy Calorie Calculator for weight and fat loss. It assumes you are doing a Beachbody workout (those added calories are accounted for). But this will give you a calorie target at a deficit to set your balance towards weight and fat loss.

Pick a tracking tool – MyFitnessPal.com or MyMacros+

MFP and MyMacros+ are nutrition tracking tools that you can have as apps on your smartphone so it’s always with you. They are easy to use and has a HUGE database of food entries. You can search by brand name, restaurant, etc. It’s all there.  You can also use the barcode scanner and it will plug the nutritional info in for you. With MFP – YOU DON’T NEED THE PREMIUM VERSION EITHER! You can still set up your macro percentages with the free version.

Track your food.

This is where you actually have to record what you eat. It needs to be more exact that grabbing a handful of this or take. It can be counting items (18 almonds for example), measuring food with measuring cups, and even weighing food on a kitchen scale. If I weigh out 10 oz of chicken, I know I am getting 10 oz. I plug that into World Fit or MFP and I know exactly how many calories and grams of protein and fat I am getting. Here’s a great resource for more on nutrition tracking tools.

Set up your World Fit or MFP for Fat Shredder. This is a P90X term for 50% protein, 30% carbs, and 20% fat. It is the best for fat loss and maintaining muscle. See how to set up your MFP for fat loss here. As long as the food you’re eating fits in your budgets each day, you are set. You are the one that has to make sure you hit your budgets!

Nutrition School: Are you still in the class?

Now if you’ve been with teamRIPPED for a while, this shouldn’t be Earth shattering. You know it. I preach it! There are definitely finer points but this can really get you started. Just track your food for your calorie goals and protein/carb/fat goals. Then DO IT CONSISTENTLY!  You want to build up a big running average in your favor. Keep that balance tipped towards fat loss!

Are you ready for more schooling on nutrition for fat loss (and any other goal for that matter)? I have the place to go! Just click below, class is still in session!

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