Back to the Basics
Our society has a real talent at making things way more complicated than they needed to be. “You need protein but also not too much cause #kidneyfailure but make sure you eat your fats but not too much cause you’ll clog your arteries and make sure to eat fruits and veggies except not fruits cause fruits have sugar and sugar makes you fat. OH, how could I forget?? You can’t build muscle using machines, free weights only. But also be safe and only do what you’re comfortable with. Except machines, though.” It’s no wonder people are confused on where to start, terrified of the gym, and try (and usually fail) at every fad diet that comes into existence.
In reality, what we need is very simple: to move a lot and to eat to fuel that movement. That’s it. We need a good balance of EVERYTHING. When we begin eliminating and excluding things, we limit ourselves, make things more difficult, and set ourselves up for failure. *side note: I’m not saying that “not buying Oreos because you lack self-control" is a bad thing. I’m saying that eliminating foods because those specific foods make you is a bad thing. They don’t. A calorie surplus increases body fat. So what we’re diving into today are the simple basics to just get up and get started!
Calories In vs. Calories Out
When it comes to weight loss/weight gain, this is what matters. If you need to gain weight, then you need to eat more calories than you burn. If you need to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. It’s very simple. While there are NUMEROUS factors that affect how much you burn in a day, there isn’t anything that proves this formula to be incorrect. Can highly palatable, highly processed foods increase cravings and cause you to not feel full very long? Of course! But YOU make the decision to keep eating more and put yourself in a surplus. The processed food didn’t make the scale go up (if you’re within your macros); the continued eating outside of your macro goals did. So for starters, track your food for a week and weigh yourself daily for one week. Average out those numbers. Do that for a second week and compare the numbers/averages. You should now have a pretty good indication of what “x” number of calories does to your body weight. And now adjust up or down slightly based on your goals. Somewhere between 500 – 750 calories of a deficit is a solid place to start.
Workouts
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is going too hard too quickly. If you haven’t worked out in 8 years, starting back to 5 days a week for 90 minutes each session isn’t the route to go. You’re already working on tracking food, finding your macros, etc,. The last thing you want to do is also destroy your body by going too hard in the gym. I recommend 2-3 days a week to start and simply “get your feet wet.” Choose a MWF or TThSa workout split, go full body all 3 days, and pick 4-5 exercises to do each day. And then repeat those workouts on their specific day for 3-4 weeks. This allows you to familiarize yourself with the movements and track your strength improvements! When you’re constantly changing what you’re doing, you can’t track your progress. And feel free to start where you’re comfortable! If that’s machines only, great! If it’s bodyweight and bands at home, that’s great too! As long as you’re moving, pushing yourself, and getting a little bit better each week, that’s a victory!
Other Important Stuff
I don’t want this to get too long and y’all to stop reading, so I’ll highlight a few key things:
Drink LOTS of water. Start with half your body weight in oz and go from there! Assess how you feel and adjust. But water is so so so so so important. Make it a priority.
YOU. NEED. SLEEP. Sleep is one of the most underrated tools for recovery, fat loss, and overall feelings of well-being. Your body does all of its best work while it sleeps. I know there are only so many hours in a day, but at MINIMUM, hitting that 5-6 hour mark each night is paramount. 7-8 hours is the goal, though.
Eat a variety of foods. While calories in vs calories out is what matters, there are tools to help with that journey. Such as fiber! Fiber helps with digestion, blood sugar levels, and keeping us full! So while white rice is totally fine as a carb source, you might look at swapping a serving of rice for some fruit! Veggies are also great fiber sources as well as helpful in hitting your micronutrient goals. They’re also typically lower in calories so they can be eaten in high amounts to keep you full without pushing you over your calorie goal. SUPER important when you get months and months into a deficit.
While this isn’t an all-inclusive list, it does what I intended: covers the basics. There are plenty of tweaks that can be made along the way, but following this list at least GETS YOU STARTED. That’s the hardest part. The second hardest part is not quitting once you’ve started. The less overwhelmed you are, the higher your success rate. Find things you ENJOY! Remind yourself that you aren’t going to fix years of damage with a 21-day cleanse. It takes TIME. Use that time to set yourself up for success for years to come by creating solid health foundations.