The importance of physical fitness cannot be emphasized enough. In today's society that is moving towards a more sedentary lifestyle, there is a greater need than ever to increase the daily activity level to maintain both cardiovascular fitness and body weight.
*If you’re eating 10-12 calories for every pound of body weight it would be hard NOT to lose fat. Most people stuff their faces every 2-3 hours to “crank their metabolism” or “stoke the metabolic fire,” and end up eating way more calories than they need.
*Eating less is challenging. That’s why most people look for another answer. Consuming just 2000 calories per day requires some discipline and suffering. But then so does anything else worthwhile that you’d want to accomplish.
*When you’re not losing fat the way you want to the solution is pretty simple. Eat less food.
*The added side benefit, in addition to the fat loss, is that your gut health will improve and you’ll feel better than you do now.
*When you cut calories too low your thyroid will shut down and losing fat will become very difficult. One easy way to monitor this is by taking your temperature when you wake up. If it starts dipping way below normal you’ll know you’ve royally fucked your metabolism.
#At that point the best thing you can do is crank your calories through the roof for a few days, or even weeks until you get back to normal. Nothing else will help.
Speaking of trendy diets…
*Some people buy into the no carb bullshit. They cut carbs and assume that they’re good to go and there’s nothing else to worry about. Unfortunately, the low/no carb diet isn’t as much fun as Dr. Atkins made it out to be.
You can’t just eat pounds of bacon and mayonnaise with reckless abandon and think that you’ll magically end up ripped.
#Fat contains calories; nine per gram to be exact. At the end of the day total calories still matter, and if you’re eating more than you burn you’re never going to get ripped.
#Please don’t mistake this as my advocating a low fat diet. That’s just as bad, if not worse, than eating too much fat.
#About 20-30% of your calories should come from healthy fats like pastured egg yolks, wild caught salmon, grass fed beef and coconut oil to ensure optimal health. Just be careful about going overboard with it and thinking that low carbs automatically leads to single digit body-fat.
*You still need to keep a handle on things like total calories.
*When you want to get ripped it’s always better to chew as many of your calories as possible. The very act of chewing and digesting solid food burns more calories than drinking shakes does. Most physique competitors cut out shakes when getting ready for a show. Take note and learn the lesson. One small one after a workout is okay but I wouldn’t be slugging down three a day.
*Nuts have a lot of calories that can add up quickly. When dieting for fat loss you’re better off filling up on nutritionally dense foods that don’t pack a lot of calories, like green vegetables.
*Not too many people can eat ten almonds. Most people eat ten handfuls. That can easily put you over your daily limit.
*Nuts can also be problematic for a lot of people, especially those with digestive or auto immune issues. As Paleo Solution author Robb Wolf has noted, nuts should be used the same way you use condiments- sparingly.
*When you want to lose body-fat the first inclination is often to crank up the reps and cut the rest periods. I actually have no problem with fairly low rest periods.
*But not if you’re used to resting three minutes between sets and all of the sudden cut them down to thirty seconds because you decided it was time to get shredded you’ll be in trouble.
*That never works. All that happens is your weights start plummeting on every exercise and you get weaker and smaller.
*When dieting, the primary role of strength training is to maintain muscle mass.
*That is the single most important thing.
*If you’re trying to lose 10-20 pounds of body-fat without losing all your muscle mass in the process you should use strength training as a way to maintain size and strength. So the same principles that helped you get big and strong apply when dieting.
*Traditional forms of cardio are largely useless for fat loss.
*But useless is even okay, it’s when it starts to be counterproductive that we have a real problem. Excessive amounts of cardio lead to an overproduction of cortisol which leads to more abdominal fat and numerous health problems.
*If you want to do cardio that won’t actually hurt you and could do you some good, go for a long walk.
*After that you should be doing some form of strength training to maintain your muscle mass. When you have those to things dialed in you’ll want to add in some type of sprinting or sled work. There is nothing more effective for fat loss.
*See all wide receivers, defensive backs, sprinters, soccer players, etc. for proof. Two or three 10-30 minute sprint or sled sessions per week will be enough for most people.
*When you get stressed out your body produces a hormone known as cortisol. This increases body fat storage if it’s not controlled. Most people are stressed out all day long which means their cortisol levels are always high. That leads to an increase in bodyfat even if your diet and training are perfect. So make sure to take the time to de-stress, mediate, laugh, do something fun and try not to take things so seriously. Stress management is overlooked key in fat loss.
*When you’re short on sleep your insulin sensitivity decreases and your cortisol goes up. Both things lead to less than optimal fat loss.
*You also miss out on the critically important Growth Hormone boost that comes each night during deep sleep. If you want to lose more fat you have to get more sleep. Most people will ignore this and some of you are probably reading this at 2am. Unfortunately this just might be the most important thing on the whole list.
Most fitness trackers perform two distinct functions: logging workouts and monitoring everyday activity. When you’re logging an actual workout, the meaning of fitness is pretty clear. On a run, for example, your wearable is tracking your running fitness: how far, how fast and possibly your heart rate zone. But with daily activity monitoring, which typically tracks movement, standing, climbing stairs and sleeping, it is less clear exactly what kind of fitness is being tracked, or how this will benefit the user. The problem here is that the term “fitness” is a nebulous concept meaning different things to different people.
Would you like to:-
*Decrease your risk of disease?
*Feel better physically and mentally?
*Look better?
*Help avoid injuries?
*Keep doing activities you enjoy throughout your life?
Regular physical activity will help you do these things. Physical activity is essential to prevent and reduce risks of many diseases and improve physical and mental health. It can even help you live longer—research from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine indicates that regular exercise can add up to five years to your life. Physical activity also keeps you in shape so you can enjoy leisure activities and safely perform work and home chores. It offers great mental and social benefits as well. The Lancet released a series of studies that attribute positive outcomes to physical activity, including “a sense of purpose and value, a better quality of life, improved sleep, and reduced stress, as well as stronger relationships and social connectedness.
*Anxiety, stress, and feelings of depression
*Developing many preventable conditions, such as high blood pressure, coronary heart diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, colon cancer, and obesity Dying prematurely
*The authors of the Lancet studies even suggest that the sedentary lifestyle so common in our culture is more deadly than smoking. They also believe that 6-10% of the world’s non-communicable diseases (such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain kinds of cancer) are caused by physical inactivity.
1. Be healthier
2. Increase your chances of living longer
3. Feel better about yourself
4. Reduce the chance of becoming depressed
5. Sleep better at night
6. Look good
7. Be in shape
8. Get around better
9. Have stronger muscles and bones
10. Achieve or maintain a healthy weight
11. Be with friends or meet new people
12. Have fun
#Physical activity reduces risk for eight conditions According to the Centers for Disease Control, exercise can reduce your risk of:-
*Heart disease
*Stroke
*High blood pressure
*Type 2 diabetes
*Obesity
*Depression
*Breast and colon cancer
*Osteoporosis
#Many of the declines in fitness with age are due to lack of use, not just the normal aging process. Here are some more important benefits to highlight:-
1.Helps with Walking- Research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reports that the lack of exercise, even simple walking, increases the risk of future problems with getting out of chairs or climbing stairs
2.Helps with Muscle Loss- Researchers funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have been studying the factors involved in gradual muscle loss since 1988. Sarcopenia, or muscle loss in the elderly, is a condition which starts around age 45, when muscle mass begins to decline at a rate of about 1 percent per year. Resistance or "strength" training has repeatedly been shown to be a safe and effective method of reversing this condition.
3.Fitness is More Important than Weight- A study done at the University of Pittsburgh and recently published in Preventive Medicine revels that elderly women should worry more about exercising than about controlling their weight in order to prevent their physical decline. That exercise produced a much greater return in the health of the participants than did a controlled diet.