Friend/client/gym buddy etc: ”Jen, I want to lose weight”
Me: "Umm you sure bout that? What I think you mean is you want is to lose body fat and look a bit more defined/"toned", am I right?"
When you begin your fat loss journey the main goal is to lose fat (obviously). What you also need to do is preserve as much of your current muscle mass as possible. Without it you get smaller but you won’t look ❌ particularly defined or different. This is because it’s your muscle that gives your body shape and structure, along with that tight and "toned" look many aim for.
It important that your strength training takes priority over you cardio.
???????? Strength training will help you preserve muscle and burn ???? fat, compared to just doing cardio. Typically just cardio you will not always loses just fat, but you will be very likely to lose muscle as part of process. Which is exactly what you don’t ❌ want.
Muscle isn’t just important from an aesthetic stand point...
???????? You need muscle to help keep you as metabolically healthy as possible.
???????? To keep you strong.
???????? For bone strength.
So as you can see ???? it's so important to do what you can to keep as much as you can for life‼️
The nutrition part of the puzzle is pretty simple, create a SUSTAINABLE deficit, remembering your eating adherence is essential for success. If you go into it too restrictive for too long, you will be far more likely to end up derailing and ending up back at square one. The tortoise always wins the race!
Nutrition Tips:
???????? Ensure you eat adequate protein to max out on muscle preservation. It's also essential to help maintain overall health and keep you feeling satiated.
???????? For the rest of your macros, eat mainly nutrient dense foods but it’s perfectly ok to have a sprinkling of the less nutrient dense stuff too.
In fact, not implementing extreme restrictions or labeling foods with labels such as clean, dirty, good, bad etc will help make your adherence a lot easier and keep your relationship with food healthy too!
But before I wrap this up, just FYI, I’m not in anyway demonizing cardio. It should be absolutely included in your training. I’m simply saying if you want to keep your muscle and lose fat don’t make it a priority and lift some weights!
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