The 4 Essentials To Weight Loss, Weight Gain, and Healthy Nutrition
There is a huge amount of misinformation out there when it comes to weight loss, building up, and staying nutritionally healthy. Today, I’m going to set the record straight. Here’s the lowdown on what it really takes to lose weight, gain muscle, and stay healthy…
1) If you take in more calories than you expend, you’ll gain weight. If you take in less calories than you expend, you’ll lose weight. (Here’s a calculator to see how calories you need to maintain your weight. Eat 500 calories less a day, and you’ll lose a pound a week. Eat 500 calories more a day, and you’ll gain a pound a week.)
Make sure the calories you do eat have a positive effect on the body. To do this, avoid eating “empty calories.” Things like candy bars, popcorn, and essentially all processed foods. Try to eat a diverse collection of foods, meaning meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and some bread. Once you do that, you should notice an immediate and positive change in the way your body feels, and your energy level.
2) Getting the heart pumping will increase your metabolism.
Walking daily, jogging, light swimming, etc. are all good for you and will help keep you in shape. However, to really give you that extra boost in increasing your metabolism and getting fit and strong, throw in some short, hard workouts. That means a couple of times a week, instead of going for a jog or a long walk, try sprinting as fast as you can around the block a few times, or swimming as fast as you can. Do you feel more out of breath than ever? Good, that means it’s working.
3) You don’t have to eat 6 meals a day to gain weight and muscle.
To gain muscle, you need to workout and you need to eat a lot of nutrient and protein heavy food. You need a large calorie intake, but that doesn’t mean your day has to revolve around food. Try waking up to a large, 1500 calorie breakfast since you’re most hungry then. (When I was on a weight-gaining track, for breakfast I ate bread and butter, eggs with cottage cheese , a shake with bananas, strawberries, ice-cream, milk, whey protein, and vegetables. With a glass of water, of course.) Then eat a large lunch and supper, and feel free to snack in-between. You’ll get in all the protein, calories, and nutrients you need, without having your life revolve exclusively around food.
4) Diversify your diet.
To make sure your body absorbs the food you eat properly, you need to get all the proper nutrients. To do this, eat a variety of different vegetable, fruits, meats, nuts, and some bread. Eating a variety of different foods in moderation will start making you not only look better, but feel better too.
Essentially, eating a variety of healthy, natural foods, mostly cutting out junk food from your diet (except for those special occasions), and keeping up a daily routine of physical activity will help ensure that you look and feel great.
[Sometimes, the biggest motivation for staying in shape and eating healthy, is thinking of the things you'll be able to do. Leave a comment here and share with the community about what helps you keep motivated to stay in shape.]
-Rafi
June 14th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Are there different calorie requirements at different ages? Is it harder to lose weight after age 40? Thanks. Awesome site.
June 14th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Lisa,
There are definitely different calorie requirements at different ages, and at older ages you usually need to take in less calories per day. If you click the link in the post to the calorie calculator, you’ll see that it adjusts for age.
Is it harder to lose weight after age 40? Yes. That being said, there’s no age where you can’t improve, and there are a ton of guys and gals over 40 who are in amazing shape.
Not only that, there are some older people who were never in shape who become more athletic at age 50+ than they were at 30. Is it harder? Yes, and consistency and hard work is key. Albeit, while it may be a bit harder, you’re also probably wiser and more disciplined than you were at 20. So I’d say it breaks just about even.
-Rafi
June 16th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Interesting article, you point out that you eat a breakfast with 1500 calories when trying to gain weight. Will the excess calories not be stored as fat if you did it this way, plus from what I hear eating three big meals will play havoc with your metabolism.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Keith,
When on a weight-gaining track, especially when you’re trying to gain a lot of weight like I was, there’s no way to avoid putting on a little bit of fat on the way. That being said, a lot of bodybuilder sites out there encourage guys to completely cut out cardio when they’re putting on weight. I completely disagree, and kept up cardio, including swimming for up to 2 hours per session 3 times a week. Therefore I had to adjust my diet for more calories.
I still gained a relatively small amount of fat with the weight I put on, and the second I stopped gaining I lost it pretty fast. (I admit that part of the reason for that is because my natural build leans towards being on the slim side.)
As far as your metabolism goes, for someone without medical issues, there’s no substantial proof that I’ve encountered thus far that eating multiple meals a day is better or worse than eating three big meals a day. You should do what works for you as long as you make sure to keep it healthy.
-Rafi
June 18th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Great Site. Very helpful.