Nutrition Program Guide.

Nothing is easier than losing weight. The only hard part is making the decision to start.

Lose weight.

If you need to lose a lot of weight, it is often because you reach for food at the slightest problem. This means that you have another problem: your weight and the health problems that come with it. In that case, you need help. It will not be possible on your own. Some associations or groups offer diets where you can eat a little bit of everything, but in limited quantities. That will be good at first. At some point, when you want to go further, you will also have to evolve. But you need help.

If you only have a few pounds to lose, probably from some excesses in restaurants, going out or a lack of exercise, you don't have to do much except avoid unhealthy food and excessive amounts, and it is certain that some exercise will help you achieve your goals.

In fact, to lose weight, all you need to do is eat as little as possible.

To dry out.

There is a big difference between 'cutting' and losing weight. With 'cutting' you only lose fat and try to lose as little muscle mass as possible. And actually this is what many people would like, because it looks good in the mirror.

In contrast, 'dry training' requires more discipline and organization.

But controlling your diet is the only sustainable long-term solution.

How to dehydrate?

If it is not possible to gain muscle mass naturally without also gaining some fat, there is a risk that when losing fat, some muscle mass will also be lost. However, it is necessary to try to lose as little muscle mass as possible, because muscle burns fat. So the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. Since fat is an energy reserve (calories), you have a greater chance of burning it if you lose less muscle mass.

How do you do that?

Your basal metabolic rate is key. If you take in as many calories as you burn, your weight will not change. If you take in more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. But if your diet contains fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

Be careful though! If you give your body too few calories, instead of drawing on its reserves, there is a risk that it will react badly, become cautious in the long run and eliminate parts of your body that cost energy, namely muscle tissue. However, that is not what we want, since muscle burns fat. If we have less muscle mass, we will burn less fat.

So your calorie intake should be slightly below your basal metabolic rate, but not too much.

What is the correct value?

Because everyone is different, in terms of body type, life experience, occupation and stress level, it is important to start with a specific number of calories as a baseline.

How do I calculate the start of my diet?

During a normal day, you take a piece of paper and write down everything you eat: the foods and also the amount for each meal. You also write down the weekend splurges, the drinks, etc. Once you have written everything down, look at the number of calories for each food (you can find this quite easily on the internet). Add up the total calories for all the meals of the day and you will know how many calories you eat on average per day.

Now notice what effect this way of eating has on your body: Do you gain weight? Do you gain fat mass? Do you lose weight?

Based on this, you take a number that is slightly lower (maximum 200 calories) and now you know how many calories your body needs in the beginning to get lean.

Building your diet.

Once you have the number of calories that your diet will contain, you now need to plan each meal. In each of these meals you should include proteins, carbohydrates and, to a lesser extent, fats.

Proteins.

Regarding proteins , you first need to know how much your body needs. At this level you need to judge whether you are athletic or sedentary.

If you are sedentary, you can start with 1 gram per kilogram of body weight. If you are a strength athlete, you can go up to 3 grams. You should then divide the amount of protein you have determined over at least 6 meals (this can be more, depending on the required calorie intake).

Example:

Let’s take an example: you are a man, an athlete who trains 5 times a week in the gym. You weigh 85 kilos and are 1.70 meters tall. You are 38 years old. Your abs are not visible and your goal is to make them visible. You have calculated your calorie intake approximately and you currently consume 3200 calories per day. But on the weekends you let yourself go a little when you go out, which is why you have a little belly, but not excessively.

So now we're going to start around 3000 calories, but of course we're going to remove the excess of the weekend and the snacking in front of the TV in the evening.

You estimate that you need 2.8 grams per kilogram of body weight because you don't want to go all the way to the max and you don't want to go too low. So you need 2.8 x 85, which is 238 grams of protein. You divide this 238 grams over 6 meals, so 39.6 grams per meal.

Is it really important to have the same amount of protein at every meal? No, not necessarily. Meals like breakfast or right after training will be more suitable for protein intake than, say, a snack.

But the total should be about 238 grams without too much imbalance between meals. After the quantity is decided, you now need to choose the quality.

Which proteins?

• White meat
• Lean cheese
• Protein of egg
• Protein Shakes
• Fish
• Low fat yogurt
• Lean beef
• Legumes

Carbohydrates.

Based on your taste, choose the foods you like the most by calculating the protein and calorie content. Now you also have to add carbohydrates . Choose carbohydrates with a low glycemic index. In other words, slow carbohydrates:

• White or whole wheat pasta (depending on the person)
• White or whole grain rice (depending on the person)
• Quinoa
• Oatmeal or breakfast cereal
• Sweet potatoes
• Rice waffles or corn waffles
• Whole wheat bread

For each meal, you will have carbohydrates, but also vegetables (fruits and vegetables). As for fats, first see how much your diet provides. If the number of calories is lower than what you expected, you can add omega 3 and 6. If you are only at the level of calories, do not add anything. On the other hand, right after training, you can consume fast sugars: dates, honey, figs, sweet drinks, sweets...

Once you have put together your diet with its 6 meals, your post-workout meal with its fast sugars, you are ready to start your progress.

Change your diet whenever necessary!

NOTE! This diet is a start! It will remain valid as long as you make progress. You should check your progress weekly or every 15 days. With each stagnation, you should reduce calories and be very gradual so as not to lose too much muscle mass. You can also follow a diet with two or three different regimes. This will give your body a boost on higher calorie days and make sure it goes down well on lower calorie days. In this way, you prevent your body from getting used to a routine.

Duration of a drying period.

The result will certainly not be visible immediately. Do not look in the mirror every day, do not step on the scale every day. There will never be much change in one day and that can be discouraging. Instead, make an evaluation once a week or once every 15 days with objective criteria such as weight, dimensions and fat percentage with a suitable pair of pliers.

The duration of the cutting is mostly up to you! As long as you are not satisfied and are willing to continue your efforts, you can continue. But in general, a competition cutting can last from 3 to 6 months if the athlete is not in too bad shape.

Difference between women and men?

Women tend to accumulate fat around the hips and buttocks, while men are more likely to accumulate fat around the abdomen. In general, it is easier for a man to lose fat than for a woman, given the higher presence of testosterone in his body. However, the principles remain the same. Give your body slightly fewer calories than your daily needs.

However, female hormones do play a role, and fluid retention is a more important factor in women. It is also more difficult to remove subcutaneous fluid from the tissues than fat itself. Therefore, a small blood test at the beginning of the diet can warn you of deficiencies and difficulties that you might encounter: an abnormal level of aldosterone can prevent you from getting a well-defined appearance. Do not forget to check this.

Forbidden foods.

In general, all processed foods are forbidden during a diet period and even more so during cutting. Of course, grandma's delicious meals soaked in butter are also forbidden.

Sauces.

They should be avoided unless you make your own sauce, based on vegetables, herbs and low-fat yoghurt. You should just include it in your daily calorie intake.

Soft drinks and fruit juices.

They should also be avoided. Most of them contain added sugars. As for fruit juices, they are absorbed much faster than whole fruits with their pulp. Diet sodas do not contain sugars, but sweeteners. However, they also have an effect on your body. They can cause some people to retain some fluid. Some people also say that they stimulate sugar cravings, but that is not true for everyone. The psychological factor plays a big role in sugar cravings. You can think that you need sugar and only think about it. If an occasional can of diet soda can help you, it can be worth it and prevent you from giving in.

Sugar.

Of course, it should be avoided. Except right after training. Outside of that time, do not consume it. If you are addicted to sugar, chocolate or pastries, the first 15 days can be critical. You will have to wean yourself off and that can't be easy. After that, your cravings will disappear. To help you in your fight, a small supplement of chromium can help you.

Dairy products.

Whole milk contains 3.5% saturated fat. Skimmed milk 0.5%. However, it contains just as many nutrients such as calcium, vitamin B2 and B12, but especially proteins. It would be a shame to miss it. Especially since skimmed milk contains far fewer calories than whole milk. Milk is often criticized for having the reputation of thickening the skin. No scientific basis has ever supported this theory. No research has ever proven this. Yet many competitors abstain from milk, believing that they will look more muscular on stage. However, this exclusion only takes place in the last months of preparation. And the perverse effect of this elimination of milk is that the preparation of these athletes, promoted via social media, encourages amateur athletes to avoid milk all year round. It's a bit like your idol doing a handstand every morning and in order to become as strong as he is in sports, you force yourself to do the same. There's not much in common.

Fashion trends influence athletes a lot through social media. Milk has not had a good reputation lately. That is why many people have cut it out of their diet. However, this does have a downside: your body produces a special protein called lactase to digest milk. This is an enzyme that is produced in the intestines and digests lactose. If you stop consuming milk, it is possible that over time your body no longer produces lactase and you become lactose intolerant. Some scientists believe that the digestion of lactose is in our DNA, which explains the growing number of people with lactose intolerance. Who is right? Maybe they are both right to a certain extent?

Margarine and butter.

There is a lot of advertising for margarines that are supposed to replace our traditional butter more efficiently. However, margarines are essentially hydrogenated oils that contain trans fatty acids. These fatty acids are very bad for cholesterol, contrary to what the advertising for this product claims. Butter does not contain them, but contains more saturated fatty acids than margarine, which are also bad for healthy cholesterol levels. Butter is natural, margarine is highly industrially processed. Butter stimulates the male hormone.

So what do you choose? If you are cutting, neither. Not because they are bad, but because they are high in calories and if you consume these products, you will have to eliminate more important foods to maintain the same caloric intake. Nowadays, margarine manufacturers try to minimize the trans fat content of their products. That is much better than a few years ago. But it remains too high in calories to be interesting in the case we are talking about.

If your goal is only weight loss, choose oils for your culinary preparations: olive oil is a good choice, canola oil has a good ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, walnut oil...

In contrast, palm oil and coconut oil are excessively rich in saturated fats and therefore less healthy for the body, contrary to what current advertisements promote.

Light products.

If you want to stay serious and follow your diet well, it is better to prepare your own food instead of leaving it to the industry. The advertising for light products is very well done, but I advise you to look carefully at the labels before consuming these types of products. Many contain too much salt or sugar. Although some are acceptable in a diet, others should really be avoided. For example, "light" camembert contains only 11% fat... So take the time to check what you are buying!

Cheese.

They contain proteins, vitamins but often also a lot of calories. If you can include low-fat cottage cheese in a diet for weight loss or cutting, then hard cheeses should be avoided and others should be avoided or avoided. Their calorie intake is high and can be difficult to fit into a diet without eliminating essential foods that are necessary for the proper progress of your body.

Alcohol.

Alcohol should be avoided in any diet! It only provides empty calories and even disrupts the proper functioning of your sugar and protein intake. Not to mention the side effects of excessive consumption, of course. You have also heard that red wine is good for your health. In fact, it is the tannins that are good for your health. But the alcohol it contains compensates the level of good effects of red wine with an equal level of bad effects. So, if you are on a diet: NO ALCOHOL!

The discharge-charge.

This concept is used only for athletes who participate in bodybuilding or fitness competitions. The goal is to remove fluid from the tissues when the person shows a faded appearance in the last week.

Discharged.

Now we will enter a 3 day period where almost all carbohydrates are eliminated (10% of calorie intake), protein intake is increased, hydration is increased, and extra salt is added.

This approach will deplete your body of its glycogen stores, especially since you will continue to train (long series and circuits). In addition, your body will also get used to eliminating excess water. The salt will retain some of the water in the subcutaneous tissues.

Reload.

During the loading phase, we increase carbohydrates to 90% of daily caloric intake, eliminate salt, and reduce water intake to a minimum on race day. Carbohydrates need water to be metabolized, but you only give your body a small amount. Therefore, it will use what is available, namely subcutaneous water. The salt is no longer there to retain water in the tissues, so the muscle will draw on this "subcutaneous water". Since you have been deprived of carbohydrates for 3 days, the body will overcompensate and "blow up" the muscle with everything you give it. A well-charged muscle looks full.

So losing weight is easy with a little willpower. Making a "cut", on the other hand, is a delicate maneuver that requires more willpower, more seriousness and can also take longer.

Conclusion.

Losing weight is easy with a little willpower. Making a "cut", on the other hand, is a more delicate maneuver that requires more willpower, more seriousness and can also take longer.