| How to Lose or Gain the Wei'ght You Want in 7 Easy Steps
Part 3
by Frederic Patenaude
To read part one of this article, follow this link.
To read part two of this article, follow this link.
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In our previous lessons, I showed you how to determine your goals based on your body fat percentage and how you want your body to look. In this issue I'm going to give you action steps you can follow in order to achieve that.
Step 5: Master the Calorie Game
Your next step for achieving your ideal physique is too master the calorie game. First of all you have to understand the ÒrulesÓ of the game.
It's really all a matter of calories in/calories out.
Calories are just a measurement of the energy content of food. In any food, there are 3 types of nutrients that provide calories - nothing else does.
Those are protein, carbohydrates and fat. Everything else (vitamins, minerals and so on) may be necessary for the body - but it doesn't provide energy or calories.
To reduce your body fat percentage, what you need to do is basically use or expand fewer calories than you consume in your diet! Again, it's a matter of calories in/calories out.
Watch Out for This
A problem most people have is that they try to control their wei'ght by either going on a starvation diet, or by stuffing themselves beyond what the body can digest in order to gain a few pounds.
Instead, you want a steady approach. If it took you years to get to where you are, you can't expect immediate results!
A good rule of thumb is that you should not go below your basic requirements for calories. The way to determine that is to take your ideal wei'ght in pounds (this can be approximate, as we have seen in previous lessons) and multiply that by 10.
This will give you the minimum number of calories you should consume every day.
For example, if you think you'd like to be at about 150 pounds, then 1500 calories is the minimum you want to consume every day. If you go below that number, you will face enormous difficulties because your body will literally give you huge hunger signals to eat more.
In the Perfect Health Program, we go in details to understand how exercise and food can affect your wei'ght, and how to design a program for achieving your ideal physique.
For today, I'd like to give you a basic approach you can follow that will help you achieve your goals without counting calories.
Step 6 - Design Your Program
Raw Diet for Wei'ght Loss
If your goal is to get thinner, and if you're a woman, have a wardrobe full of size-4 clothes! - then I suggest the following basic approach.
A raw food diet will help you tremendously, as long as you understand the following:
- Concentrated foods and high-fat foods such as avocado, nuts, seeds, etc., should either be completely eliminated or kept to a minimum. Unless you are very active and exercise one hour every day, you don't need the extra calories in those foods. A maximum of half an avocado, or a few teaspoons of nut butter a few times a week is all you need.
- It is possible not not *release* wei'ght fast or even gain some while eating a lot of fruit. The reason is that fruit is still a good source of calories in the raw diet, so if you consume more calories in fruit than you spend in your daily activities, then you will keep storing more fat.
- Vegetables (greens, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers) contain very few calories and can be an important part of your diet. Eat them before or in-between meals to curb hunger.
- Green smoothies are excellent because you get the fiber and nutrition of low-calorie vegetables, and enough fruit to meet your basic needs. They should be the basis of your diet.
- Physical activity will play an important part in your success, but for getting started it doesn't need to be anything more than walking if you are not in good shape.
Raw Diet for Wei'ght Gain
If your goal is to gain some wei'ght, then your approach will be different of course.
1- You need to engage mostly in strength-training activities, such as weightlifting, to increase muscle mass.
2- Minimize other sports and activities that are mostly cardio activities, such as running or cycling.
3- Eat sufficient calories to support muscle growth.
4- If you'd like to gain some additional body fat (which could be the case, but likely not - as explained in our last articles), then you'll need to also increase your caloric intake.
5- During the first few weeks, I also suggest that you track your food using an online tool such as www.fitday.com to make sure your are consuming enough food while not overeating fat.
As for diet and gaining muscle, I recommend a raw or raw-based diet that is less than 20% fat. Ideally around 15%. Here are some recommendations:
- Eat 3-5 meals a day. If you have trouble digesting enough food at one meal, then have 5 smaller meals a day instead.
- Eat fruits than are calorie-rich such as bananas and mangoes, and avoid low-calorie fruits such as apples and pears.
- Use your blender to make smoothies. Consider investing in a high-quality blender such as the vita-mix.
Next week, in our final lesson in this series, I will give you basic raw-food based menus you can follow in order to reach your ideal physique. I will also talk about the most important step: getting the motivation to succeed!
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