Mistake #1: Cheat-Meals
There’s no real science behind a ‘cheat' meal’.
The idea is simply to indulge in some food that you have been craving after a big week of restricting yourself. This is meant to reduce cravings, feel rewarded and give yourself a bit of a mental break after eating Chicken & Broccoli all week (sigh).
But if you do this and go out in the weekend to smash back a 2000 calorie ‘cheat’ meal (we all know those feels right!?). However if the meal isn’t tracked, it could blow your weekly caloric deficit out of the water.
“Well I need something Coach, I can’t eat the same food every day and in the weekends!”
Enter the Re-feed day.
A re-feed day is like a cheat-day but with some actual science behind it.
A re-feed day is designed to replenish your Leptin - which is your fat-burning and hunger hormone. After prolonged periods of dieting, this hormone becomes less abundant in the body and a lack of it will make you really hungry while slowing down your results.
Leptin is replenished by high levels of Carbohydrates (mmmmm Carbs).
So a weekly re-feed day should be seen as a high-carb day at maintenance calories.
This is will allow you to; eat more food (all the carbs), while still being able to track it, to ensure it fits within your goals and doesn’t slow down your progress - instead it will only accelerate it, turning you into a fat-burning furnace.
A re-feed day is a measured day which allows you to; indulge in a little more carbs than usual, curb cravings and enhance your fat-burning abilities.
Mistake #2: Liquid Calories
If you’re trying to reduce your body-fat, you are probably eating less food than you would like.
So it’s important not to waste your Calories - you need to be more savvy than this.
Fruit Juice and Soft Drink have pretty much no nutritional value or fibre. If you’re on poverty calories with limited carbs - why waste them!?
For example:
You're a female on 1200 calories who’s trying to get in shape for Summer.
You can have up to 100-125g of carbs per day and 20-35g of fibre is required.
Say a 250ml glass of Juice is made up of 25g of carbs (all sugar and 0 fibre) and is probably about 100-150 precious calories.
That's 25% of your daily carb intake wasted in a glass!
Wiser choices would be:
✔A medium Apple or Banana.
Has similar nutritional value with the added fibre and micro's - Fruit is a form of sugar also (Fructose) but isn't man made and the fibre will help with absorption.
✔ A 350g serve of Watermelon/Rockmelon/Pineapple.
Similar to the above but has the advantage of being made up of mostly water (and being delish)
✔ A big 400g serve of Pumpkin.
Pumpkin is a great plate fuller when you’re on a poverty diet & goes well with a Sunday roast.
✔ 120g of Potato or Rice is also a smarter choice.
If you’re after a heavier, starchier carb source than fruit and again is packed full of fibre and nutrients.
Learn to read nutritional labels to help make smarter choices when you’re trying to lose body-fat. This will help stretch your macro-budget further, while being healthier for your body.
Mistake #3: Believing the Media
Three things that we see in the Media, that you don’t need to do to lose body-fat”
1. Eating "Gluten Free" foods and avoiding Dairy when you are not Gluten or Dairy intolerant
2. Eating Brown Rice/Sweet Potato over White Rice/White Potato, thinking that Low GI doesn't add to your daily intake
3. Eating a "Low Fat" diet
Why?
✔ You don’t need to avoid entire food groups (especially ones that you enjoy) ,just because of the hype in the media. You maybe restricting yourself for no reason and depriving your body of nutrients it needs to function.
✔ Low GI carbs (from brown rice and sweet potato) still count as carbs and go towards your daily calories. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can eat them instead of High GI carbs and not on body-fat.
✔ A "Low Fat" diet is unsafe and counter-productive.
Fats in our diet help with hormone production & optimise performance.
Your body will store body-fat if it senses of a lack of Fats in your diet (We’re sure this is the opposite of what you are trying to achieve here).
