1) Don't cut calories too much.
This is something that happens a lot as people get closer to their goals, and especially when people hit a fat loss plateau.
But you can't do it.
Here's why.
Among other things, your food intake and energy balance help to control your metabolism (most likely by altering levels of various hormones in your body).
When you cut your calories too much, you probably knock your hormones levels for a loop, causing them to send a collective message to your body that you are not getting enough to energy in...and therefore, that shuts down your fat loss systems.
Here's one reader's account of the pitfalls of an excessively low calorie diet...
"I'm on the weight loss track again. I found I wasn't eating enough calories (1000 kcal/day). Filling up on veggies is good (and I love them), but they don't have the calories. Eating walnuts/almonds helped get me there. Eating 1500+ is where I need to stay to lose weight and keep my energy up. I've dropped about 3 pounds this week."
Holly, using the TT for Women program with great success
With men, I generally cringe when I hear they are eating less than 1800 calories per day. And with women, anything less than 1500 calories per day. So you probably want to stay above those levels, and definitely avoid any sharp, sudden decreases in your energy intake.
2) Don't exercise too much.
For very similar reasons to point #1
Exercise intensity and frequency also help to control your hormone levels. If you over-exercise (i.e. tonnes of cardio everyday, weight training everyday, etc.), then your body doesn't get a chance to recover and keep your hormones at the correct level.
After all, exercise is another form of stress on your body...and you all know how your body and mind can get messed up from too much stress.
Resist the urge to exercise for the sake of exercise. Don't go adding 60 minute stairmaster sessions everyday before breakfast if you're already on a well-designed, consistent workout schedule. That could be too much stress on your body.
Stick to structured, purposeful exercise as found in your TT program.
I've been around the exercise block so to speak, and I often know how much is too much for most fitness levels.
And as I said the other week in a previous email about advanced fat loss, the best way to accelerate your fat burning is by adding in some bodyweight circuits (starting at 10 minutes per day and working up to 20 minutes maximum) done in the morning or evening.
(If you do your regular workout in the AM, do your bodyweight circuits after dinner; otherwise, do the bw circuits first thing in the AM, and then do your regular workout at lunch or later in the afternoon or evening.)
After two weeks, take a break from this routine and allow your body to recover.
Two other things you can do during this two weeks of extra training...
a) Add 10 seconds to the length of each interval.
b) Add 1 set to each of the exercises in the first Superset of the workout.
So now you have more volume, performed at a high-intensity of course, but without over-taxing your hormonal system.
But remember, you should only do this increased training volume for 2 weeks. Then you need to take a break and reduce the training volume to normal - to allow your body to adapt and recover.
3) Eat 8 times per day.
In the past 5-10 years, it's become common knowledge that we should all eat smaller, more frequent meals. In fact, one study from 2005 showed that doing so helped reduce cholesterol and burn more calories than eating 2-3 meals per day.
And so for our advanced fat loss approach, we're going to bump that up to 8 meals per day. Here's how you would do that:
Breakfast
Mid-morning snack
Lunch
Afternoon snack
Pre-workout
Post-workout
Dinner
Evening snack
With each meal and snack (except pre- & post-workout) focusing on lean protein, healthy fats, and fiber-rich vegetables and fruit (for pre- and post-workout, stick with 20g protein and a half-serving of fruit).
Start your day immediately with 2 cups of water, 3 fish oil caps, and 20g of lean protein, and then have your a fiber-rich breakfast. This meal will help dictate your blood sugar for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. So if you blow it on breakfast, you've might actually have blown it for the entire day.
(And if you workout at other times of the day, just adjust the schedule and move about the pre- and post-workout meals).
4) Eat more fiber-rich vegetables at each meal.
Last week I suggested a cup of broccoli at both lunch and dinner (NOTE: I didn't mean that was all you should eat - sorry for the confusion).
Other ways to get more green include eating a green pepper with your omelet at breakfast, or spinach in your salads at lunch, etc.
Aim for 8 servings of green, fiber-rich vegetables over the course of the day.
5) Eat only protein, healthy fats, & fiber between meals.
This would give you a sample snack plan of 20g lean protein (from a quality shake or from chicken breast), 1/2 - 1 oz almonds, some more broccoli or spinach, or an apple. And enjoy some Green Tea at this time as well, of course.
