Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#166 - Exercise That Burns The Most Calories, Tips For Eating Out Without Ruining Your Diet & More
1 Playsin 14 hours
If your goal is fat loss and building a fit and muscular body, this episode breaks down how to stop overcomplicating the basics. We'll talk about ways to train smarter and make good nutrition habits easier to stick to.
- Find out which types of exercise burn the most calories and practical tips for burning more calories.
- Learn how to find a simple protein target and when going higher makes sense.
- Learn how to pick the right weights, when it makes sense to go heavier, and the most important thing when you want to maximize building muscle
- Learn when is the best time to swap out exercises to keep making great progress in the gym
- Learn practical tips for eating out and still staying on point with your diet
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Fit-ish Project
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Lathan Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. Before we get into the weekly episode, just a reminder to leave a review if you can and have not done so yet. Continue to help get this show out to more people. That helps out tremendously. Continue to share this with people you think may get some value from it. Just to help people feel better, look better, live longer, better, healthier lives. That is the goal of this show. And I appreciate your help in doing that.
Q&A: Exercise and Nutrition Questions
00:00:33
Speaker
The topic for this week, it is time for Q&A. We got five questions this week. So we will dive right into these. The five questions we're going to go over, which type of exercises burn the most calories, how to figure out how much protein you need,
00:00:47
Speaker
figuring out the right weight to use for an exercise how often should you be swapping out exercises and lastly how can you track calories if you're not the one preparing food these are all really good solid questions so let's get right into it which types of exercise burn the most calories When thinking about this question, I would assume that the goal of this person is they want to know for a fat loss reasons. So they have fat loss goals. When you think about a fat loss goal, you already know you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat. There's two ways to do that.
00:01:20
Speaker
You can eat less food or consume less calories, or you can increase your activity or exercise more. So the classic eat less, move more. We all know that. it is very important to understand that nutrition is always going to be the bigger lever to pull and the simplest example i can give you is it takes you five seconds to turn down that second piece of dessert maybe that piece of cake that might be 500 calories and when it comes to exercise it may take you an hour to burn off 500 calories so thinking about a one for one trade when it comes to burning off calories for food is just not a very good efficient use of your time. And so thinking about it in that way, i don't think it's super helpful. But the fact of the matter is being more active, burning more calories, exercising more, all those things are going to help with fat loss schools is going to help with maintaining your weight, staying lean, all those different types of things. And so exercise certainly does help.
00:02:17
Speaker
But just don't over index for how much you think exercise is going to play a role in burning off calories, because I know just from talking to a lot of people whenever they have certain fat loss goals, their first thought is typically i need to get in the gym four or five, six, seven days a week. I need to work out a ton. I need to do a bunch of cardio in order to burn a bunch of calories. And while again, that stuff is going to help, it's not going to help quite as much as doing something like dialing in your
Personal Exercise Routine and Calorie Maintenance
00:02:44
Speaker
diet.
00:02:44
Speaker
To give you a little bit of context, I'm currently running around 40 miles a week, which is approximately six hours of cardio across the week. I lift four times per week, anywhere from about 45 minutes to an hour. So that's another four hours of exercise. And then on average right now because i run so much and i'm up and moving around coach fitness classes that sort of thing i get roughly 18 000 steps in my day and with all that activity 10 hours of activity between cardio lifting weights 18 000 steps a day i can maintain my weight right now which is right around 205 pounds at anywhere between about 3 800 calories all the way up to 4 000 calories which is a lot
00:03:26
Speaker
But the average person is not working out 10 hours per week. And so you really have to understand that if you're the average person and you're working out maybe two hours, three hours, maybe four hours a week, like you're lifting weights two, three, four times a week, maybe you're doing a little bit of cardio here there, you're getting your eight to 10,000 steps per day, you're probably going to fall closer in that 2000 to 3000 calorie range, which is still a decent amount of calories.
00:03:53
Speaker
But if you're not dialed in with your nutrition, it is still very easy to overeat and not be seeing any sort of fat loss progress happening or even have trouble maintaining your weight at that calorie amount if you're not dialed in with nutrition.
Cardio Calorie Burn Explained
00:04:08
Speaker
I mean, you add in eating out a couple nights a week you add in drinking alcohol two or three times per week you add in some extra snacking some bigger portions that sort of thing and it's very easy to overeat that calorie amount so again understanding exercise definitely does help but it is not the main priority back to the main question what exercises or what types of exercises burn the most calories cardio is going to typically burn more calories in the same amount of time versus something like your traditional weightlifting. And so these are going to be some of the activities that you will burn the most calories in per minute. So think of things where you are typically really leg heavy things, things that are more intense, things that use a lot of big muscles. So things like running,
00:04:52
Speaker
jumping rope, using a stair master, rowing, swimming, cycling, all those things where you're using your legs really heavily or using legs and other muscles are typically going to be burning the most calories.
00:05:04
Speaker
Still, it's not a crazy difference in the course of a week. And to put some numbers on this, if we think about lifting weights for an hour, you may burn somewhere in the range of 300, 400, maybe 500 calories if you're going super intense and you're just getting a lot of volume done within that hour.
00:05:21
Speaker
If you think about doing something like moderate cardio for an hour, let's say like an effort level of like a five or six out of 10, you might burn somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 to 800 calories, which is a little bit more. It's a couple hundred extra calories.
00:05:34
Speaker
And then if you're doing something really highly intense for 60 minutes, let's say you burn 800, 900,000 calories, maybe
Balancing Cardio and Weightlifting for Body Goals
00:05:41
Speaker
even a little bit more. So something that's like really intense, like you're playing basketball or you're doing like a really hard CrossFit or like high rocks or high intensity style of workout, you're running really intensely for an hour, you might burn 1000 plus calories, which again is a little bit more than you would for lifting weights.
00:05:58
Speaker
But if you think about that across the week, most people are not doing this every single day, they may do some of these things a couple times per week. So somebody may lift weights, three times per week, they may do some sort of cardio two or three times per week. And so they're burning a few extra calories by doing cardio and those sorts of things regularly. But overall, you're still not burning a crazy amount of calories more than you would if you were just like purely lifting weights and so the practical recommendation when you're thinking about this is not so much to think about okay should i just go run a ton because it burns the most calories or should i just go jump rope for an hour every single day because that's going to help me burn the most calories i think that's the wrong way to think about it because again back to this question most people want to know what's going to burn more calories because they want to lose fat they want to lose weight
00:06:48
Speaker
and when you want to lose fat or lose weight, you care about your body composition. So you don't just want to lose a bunch of weight, you want to actually look more lean, more toned, more athletic. And we all know that if you want to look that way, you need to have muscle.
00:07:01
Speaker
And so it's important to focus on also lifting weights, you shouldn't just go and do a bunch of cardio, because that's what's going to burn the most calories. Because if you just strictly do cardio, probably not going to look the way that you want to look. So From a practical standpoint, you want to make sure that you're lifting weights. And then if you do want to burn a few extra calories and get some of those other benefits that you get from cardio, then adding in cardio a couple times a week all the way up to maybe four or five, six times per week, if you really want to do that, you burn some extra calories is something that you can absolutely do.
00:07:32
Speaker
But again, thinking about cardio, the best way to burn the most calories is to pick something that you're going to do consistently. So if you don't like running, trying to run intensely four or five, six times a week is probably not a good idea because you're just not going to do it.
00:07:47
Speaker
Or trying to pick some sort of cardio like swimming or cycling or whatever and do that four, five, six, seven times a week. You're not going to do it if you don't like it. So the most important thing you can do is to figure out a form of cardio that you actually enjoy doing. For me, i really like playing sports. And so basketball was always a big cardio thing for me. And then I kind of got into cycling a little bit, like riding bikes. I like doing that. And then more recently, in the last three years or so, I got into running and now I run quite a bit.
00:08:17
Speaker
and the reason i'm able to stay consistent with those things is because i actually genuinely enjoy doing them and it helps a lot to find something that you can actually enjoy for your practical recommendations if you are a person who wants to burn more calories the key is not to just find the exercise or the type of exercise that burns the most calories but find something that you will actually consistently do and so for the average person wanting to lose some fat wanting to look better, wanting to look leaner, wanting to look more toned, lifting weights three to four times per week, doing cardio two, three, four, all the way up to five or six times
Staying Active Beyond the Gym
00:08:53
Speaker
per week. If you can recover from that and you can be consistent with that, it's something you can do. But then I think a bonus thing that not a lot of people really think about is just getting more active outside of the gym. and I think this is really underrated for a couple reasons, because again, most people just aren't going to do cardio five or six times per week. Like most people don't enjoy doing cardio that much. They don't want to be out running for an hour. They don't want to be on the treadmill or the Stairmaster or the elliptical at the gym for an hour every single day. They would much rather be doing things that they enjoy doing. And so getting activity outside of that structured cardio or gym time can be a great way to burn some extra calories and stay more active. So getting more steps in your day, whether that's going on some little walks throughout the day.
00:09:39
Speaker
finding ways to just move outside of the gym can be very, very beneficial. So finding just different ways to move, whether it's doing yard work, whether it's playing with your kids, whether it's going for little walks, whether it's doing whatever sort of little hobby that gets you up and moving, that is going to probably be a little bit easier to be consistent with on a regular basis than trying to do something like a hard hour of cardio six days a week. So that would be my practical recommendation and my tips around this. There's definitely exercises that burn more calories than others. But the main thing is to find something that you're actually going to be consistent with.
00:10:13
Speaker
Question number two, how do I figure out how much protein I need when I see different recommendations all the time?
Calculating Protein Needs
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think this can be overcomplicated and just based on the amount of information out there, you see different sources. Like for a long time, you would see people talking about you need to get at least one gram per pound of body weight. And then more recently, you see people saying like 0.6 or 0.7 grams per pound of body weight And then you'll also see some people saying you need to be even higher than that if you really want to maximize those benefits like getting even more than one gram per pound of body weight so it's kind of tough to know where you should be but if you look at a lot of the scientific studies you'll see somewhere in the range of about 0.6 2.8 grams per pound of body weight gives you a very very large majority of the benefits
00:11:00
Speaker
So that's typically what I recommend, right smack dab in the middle. I always say, try to aim for at least 0.7 grams per pound of body weight. And I used to always say one gram per pound of body weight, but the more and more that I looked at the studies and different things like that, it looks like 0.7 grams gives you a ton of those benefits. and The reason that I like 0.7 for a lot of people is that it just gives you a little bit more flexibility for other types of foods. Because if you're aiming for that one gram per pound of body weight, for some people that's a little bit more difficult to get and it doesn't leave quite as much room to have some of that other stuff. But if you're getting that 0.7, it gives you a little bit more room for some of the carbs and fats and different things like that now there are certain instances where you probably are going to want to shoot for that one gram per pound of body weight maybe even a little bit more so certain situations like if you're in an aggressive diet like you're in an aggressive calorie deficit where you're just eating a lot less calories it would make sense to shoot for more protein so you can make sure that you're not losing a bunch of muscle mass while you're in that aggressive diet or in that aggressive calorie deficit
00:12:04
Speaker
Somebody who's already pretty lean in trying to lose a little bit more fat, say like 10%, 12% body fat, and they're trying to get down to even lower, you're probably gonna wanna have a little bit more protein.
00:12:15
Speaker
People that are very active, just because you're wearing down your body, breaking down your body a little bit more, it might make sense to shoot for it a little bit more protein. That's not gonna be a bad thing. People who have big appetites, and this is me, like I like to eat a lot, like i like to eat big quantities of food and having more protein in your diet can i actually help you to manage your hunger a little bit better. It's a lot harder to overeat on protein. And so that's something that I do quite a bit. And if I find myself being hungrier, I just try to increase my protein a little bit because if you're eating 200 grams of protein, that's a lot of protein, especially for people who aren't used to getting tons of protein. Like when you really start to strive for that one gram per pound of body weight, it's a lot of food. Like it's just a lot of protein. It's going to help to manage your hunger a little bit better, keep you more full and satiated and just stop you from overeating so much. And so that can be a good strategy or people who are actually trying to gain weight or trying to bulk put on muscle, then it might make a little bit more sense to aim for that one gram per pound of body weight to get a little bit of extra protein.
00:13:17
Speaker
So the practical tips with all this, 0.7 grams is kind of the low end that I always mention to people to shoot for. And then if you want to work up to that one gram, you're gonna cover your bases if you're somewhere in that range. So for the...
00:13:30
Speaker
Example of a person who weighs about 200 pounds, that's about 140 grams of protein. If you're aiming for that 0.7 grams up to about 200 grams of protein, if you're aiming for that one gram per pound of body weight, if you're somewhere in that range, most of the time and being consistent with it,
Strength Training and Protein for Muscle Building
00:13:44
Speaker
you're going to get a ton of those benefits. And the last thing that I would say about this is people talk about high protein diets all the time. And yes, they are important. But when it comes to building and even just maintaining muscle,
00:13:55
Speaker
they come in second and it's not even close to strength training. Like strength training is the most important thing if you want to build or retain muscle. So just because you're eating a high protein diet, if you're not focusing on strength training, if you're not really pushing yourself in the weight room, then you're not going to get those muscle building effects. And you might not even be able to retain the muscle that you want to retain depending on your goals, if you are not focusing on any sort of strength training. So When thinking about this whole question, yes, high protein diets are important and you want to make sure that you're focusing on those for a number of different reasons. But a lot of people eat high protein because they want to have more muscle, they want to build muscle, they want to retain muscle. And if that is the case, you need to also make sure that you are prioritizing strength training and that should be your number one priority with this high protein diet coming in right there in second place.
00:14:45
Speaker
Third question, how do I know how much weight to use for an exercise?
Selecting and Increasing Weights
00:14:50
Speaker
And secondly, when do I know i should go up in weight? This is a pretty good question. So the thing that you need to understand with this, especially for most people's goals is they want to build muscle.
00:15:02
Speaker
And if you want to build muscle, it's actually pretty simple. You just need to make sure that you are taking your sets close to muscular failure. And I always say within one to two reps shy of muscular failure,
00:15:13
Speaker
It's actually closer to three reps shy of muscular failure. You can still build just about as much muscle as you could taking it to complete failure. But most people just watching people train, they don't really get close to muscular failure. So I always say take most of your sets one to two reps shy muscular failure and then take some of your sets all the way to muscular failure just so that you know that you are really pushing yourself and what that's looking like. Because if you think that you're getting close to muscular failure, and then let's say you take a set all the way to muscular failure, and you get five extra reps, well, now you know that you can start to push a little bit harder. So the key is, whenever trying to build muscle, you want to be really pushing yourself and trying to get close to that muscular failure, knowing and understanding that
00:15:57
Speaker
The weight itself doesn't matter all that much outside of just a way to track progress and make sure that you are continually progressing over time. But if one day I go in and I use the 40s on, let's say, bicep curls, and then the other day I come in and I use the 30s, as long as I'm getting close to muscular failure,
00:16:16
Speaker
within that one to two reps shy, I'm still getting a good muscle building effect, a good muscle building stimulus. And so you don't need to stress out too much about the actual weights that you're using, as long as you're really pushing the intensity hard, if your goal is to build muscle. But it does help from a tracking and progressing standpoint to just know if you are slowly getting stronger over time, because again, that's going to be a good sign that you are building muscle, getting stronger, all those good things. So to give you a tangible example to like really nail this point home let's say your program says you have dumbbell bench press on your program and it says you're going to do three sets somewhere in the eight to ten rep range so this is my first exercise of the day i think that I'm going to go in and I'm gonna grab the 50s to do my working sets so before getting into my working sets i might do one or two warm-up sets. So maybe I'll grab the 30s. I'll hit 10 reps with that. I'll rack those up. I'll wait 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 60 seconds, something in that range. Then I'll do one more warm-up set. So I might grab the 40s and I'll do quick set of five of those. And then I feel good. I'm ready to go. So I'm going grab the 50s. I'm going to hit my three sets. So let's say on the first set, I get 10 reps. On the second set, I get nine reps. On the third set, I get eight reps. That is a perfect range, perfect weight for me to hit because I'm in that eight to 10 rep range and I was getting close to muscular failure on all three of those sets.
00:17:39
Speaker
I wouldn't go up and wait. So to answer the second part of this question, when do you know to actually increase your weight on an exercise? I personally wouldn't go up and wait until I hit all three of those sets at 10 reps. So once I'm able to hit three sets of 10 reps, clean, good technique, under control, then I would come in. And then the next time I would use the fifty five s That's a super simple way that you can just make sure that you're progressing and you don't have to overthink it too much. It's just really easy way to follow and a really easy way to make sure that you're not doing too much, grabbing too heavy of weights, that sort of thing. And so the big take home message is as long as you're getting close to muscular failure, you're going to be in good shape.
00:18:20
Speaker
with your goals. And so if you come in on one day and you have to use a little bit less weight, as long as you're pushing it to that muscular failure, you're going in good shape. Or let's say that you come in and you grab a heavier weight, but you're not able to hit that top end of the rep range. It says to hit eight to 10 reps, but you're not getting all the way to that eight, nine, 10 reps. Maybe you're only getting six, as long as you're getting close to that muscular failure. you're still going to be in good shape. So you don't have to overthink it too much. And that's the really nice thing when it comes to building muscle or when it comes to your goals around hypertrophy. As long as you're really pushing the intensity, getting close to muscle failure, you're going be in good shape.
00:18:55
Speaker
The second question goes pretty well with that
Customizing Exercise Routines
00:18:58
Speaker
previous question. And it is, how often should I swap out exercises? So you can really run certain exercises in your program for very, very long periods of time. And a lot of the exercises that you do will become staples in your programs.
00:19:14
Speaker
The thing that I really focus on is like, do I like these exercises? Do these feel good on my body? And am I able to continue to progress these exercises? And if all three of those things are yes, then I may keep an exercise in my program for weeks, months, sometimes even years. like I've been doing pull-ups in my program for years at a time and they never really come out of my program. I've been doing... dumbbell shoulder presses in my program for a really long time for years I've been doing some sort of RDL in my program for years and so a lot of the movements will just become staples and then you'll just so tweak little variations here or there at different times just to maybe add in a little bit of variety or maybe add in some sort of variation that is going to give you a slightly different stimulus that doesn't maybe beat up your body quite as much and so To think about this, like when should I swap out an exercise? Here's some questions that you can actually ask yourself.
00:20:07
Speaker
When it comes to this certain exercise, is this exercise getting stale or do you actually still like this exercise? You look forward to doing them. The answer is no. If they're not getting stale and you still do really enjoy this exercise, then you can probably keep them in there. Second question you could ask yourself is, are they starting to wear on your body? Are they starting to cause bunch of fatigue or maybe beating up your joints a little bit?
00:20:31
Speaker
So for an example for this, like when I was younger, I used to do a lot of barbell exercises, like I would do a lot of back squats, a lot of front squats, a lot of deadlifts, different things like that. Now in my 30s, I don't use those exercises quite as much just for the simple fact of when I do those, it just... feels like it caused a little bit more wear and tear on my body. Like back squats just don't feel as great as they used to when I was younger. And so I rarely ever do back squats. I don't even do front squats a ton anymore, even though I actually really do enjoy those.
00:20:59
Speaker
I just feel like the cost to benefit ratio of those for me at this point in this time, just doesn't make a lot of sense. Like I don't want to feel beat up for the next day or the next two days. Like I don't want to feel my joints being kind of achy when I run or play basketball or just walking like in my everyday life. Like I don't want to feel those things. Like it's not worth it to me to do those exercises. And since there's so many different exercises that I can use to get the same benefits that I could get from that particular back squat or front squat, it just to me right now, it doesn't make sense to not use one of those other exercises.
00:21:33
Speaker
The third question you could ask yourself is have I hit a plateau with this exercise, which this is kind of one that you have to be a little bit careful about because oftentimes people will think they've hit a plateau, but as you get more advanced in the gym, seeing progress just takes longer. So when you come into the gym originally, like when you're a beginner you're going to see progress pretty much from workout to workout and then as you start to get stronger as you start to progress as those newbie gains start to wear off you may not see progress for every single workout and instead it's like week to week you may be going up an extra rep a little bit of extra weight and then as you start to get really advanced you might not see progress for a month like it might take you a whole month to add a couple reps to an exercise or add five pounds to an exercise or something like that and so
00:22:19
Speaker
just making sure that you're actually in a plateau with an exercise before you say, oh man, I hit a sticking point because this workout, I didn't go up. I hit the same amount of reps for the same amount of weight. That doesn't necessarily mean you're in a plateau based off of one workout or one week or maybe even a couple of weeks. But if you've gone a long period of time and you don't really feel like you are making much progress in a certain exercise, then maybe you are in a plateau and it could be a good time to throw in at a different variation. So some practical recommendations for this, for smaller exercises in your programs, I swap these out personally quite a bit more. And the reason that I don't mind doing this, like let's say things for like biceps or triceps, or maybe even like some shoulder stuff like lateral raises, smaller muscle groups that really don't beat you up too much or don't cause a ton of fatigue. Like it's not a big deal to swap these out. And so to give you an example, I might do like cable curls one week. And then the next time I come in and hit biceps, I might do Dumbbell bicep curls and then the next week I might do some other sort of variation and so when it comes to smaller muscle groups I don't mind swapping out stuff that much as long as again I'm getting close to that muscular failure.
00:23:24
Speaker
In focusing on building muscle and just really pushing the intensity I can swap those things out a little bit more and not have to worry quite as much about that. But when it comes to bigger exercises, I like to keep those in longer and just swap out variations every so often. The reason for this is because with bigger exercises, let's say with like a squat or a bench press or a deadlift, something like that, there's much more technique involved and it's much more skill based. And there's also like a neurological component to it. So if you're constantly changing these every couple of weeks, you don't actually know if you're getting stronger. It may just be that I switched from
00:24:01
Speaker
front squat to a back squat every two weeks and my weight went up right away but that could just be because you're getting better at that movement because you haven't done it for a while so you're going to see those gains right away and so for these bigger exercises to me it makes a lot more sense to keep these in for at least four weeks but typically a lot longer than that it could be six weeks eight weeks even 12 weeks where you keep some of these bigger exercises in there so you can actually make sure that you are progressing on these things and so Bigger exercises, I like to keep those in the program for at least four weeks for smaller exercises. You can change those out if you would like to. But again, the big thing, just thinking about where these exercises fit in for you and asking yourself some of those questions can help you to figure out whether or not you should be swapping in or out different exercises. Again, I think the big thing, the big take home message with this is you don't need to be switching out tons of exercises. You don't need to be doing different exercises every single workout. And in fact, if you are doing different exercises every single workout or every single week, it's probably not a very good program because it's very hard to know if you're actually progressing, if you're switching
Tracking Calories When Dining Out
00:25:04
Speaker
exercises that often. So keep exercise in your program until you feel like you need to change them or you need some variety.
00:25:10
Speaker
That way you can make the best amount of progress possible. And the last question of the day, how can I track calories when I'm not the one preparing my own food? For example, when I go out to eat and they don't have nutrition menus.
00:25:24
Speaker
This is a good question. This is a question that I had from a client of mine. And so if you're out of a fat loss phase, I typically don't worry about tracking. lot of times when I go out to eat or have different things, like I'm still going to look at the menu regardless, just to kind of see where it is. It might not necessarily change my decision. But I still like to know like when I'm going out to eat, how many calories is in something, if it's readily available or you can easily find it. like I just would like to know if I'm eating 1,000 calories or if I'm picking a meal that's going to be 2,500 calories. And so it's typically something that I'll look at. But if I'm not in a fat loss phase and I can't find it easily, where I'm not like super focused in on tracking things, then I just won't worry about it too much. It's not like I'm doing this all the time.
00:26:08
Speaker
If you're out of a fat loss phase and you can't find it like, or if you're eating things that aren't prepared by you and you don't know how many calories are in those things, like, I think there's a time and a place to just not sweat it and not worry about those things too much. But let's say you are in a fat loss phase or you are really wanting to know how many calories you're consuming. One thing you can do is just estimate it. So to the best of your ability, you could type these in on your tracker app, on your MyFitnessPal or whatever you use to track calories. type in whatever food you're having. Obviously, it's going to come up with a lot of different options and they're going to be different calories.
00:26:42
Speaker
I typically like to pick one that's on the middle to higher end just so that I know that I'm giving myself a little bit more leeway because if you're going in and you type in whatever food it is and you're always picking the lowest option, there's probably a good chance that you're going to be eating more calories than you would like or more calories than you need.
00:27:01
Speaker
But if you're picking somewhere in that middle range or that higher range, then you're going to give yourself a little bit of a buffer so that you're not thinking that you're eating only a couple thousand calories in the day but in reality you went in and you picked every single low calorie item that you typed in and so you're underestimating how many calories you could be eating by a thousand calories and so rather than do that i like to pick something that's somewhere in the middle to the higher end of the calorie range based on the options that it shows again this isn't going to be perfect but it at least gives you some sort of an estimate
00:27:32
Speaker
Some actual practical strategies that you can use for this that I really like to use is based around calorie
Calorie Management Strategies
00:27:38
Speaker
cycling. And it's simply just like budgeting calories ahead of time for situations like this. So one of them that you can use and that I've had clients use in the past that they really like is to use the OMAD method, which just means one meal a day.
00:27:51
Speaker
So let's say that you know that you are going to be traveling or you're on the road or you're going out to dinner and you're just going to have a really nice meal. You're going to have a couple of drinks. You might even have a dessert appetizer like, you know, you're going to be eating 2000, 2500, 3000 calories in one single meal. One thing you would do is just basically fast. And that's just going to be your single meal for that day.
00:28:10
Speaker
For some people, this works really well. For other people, this does not work very well. Like I personally don't like doing this, but I've had other clients who they don't mind not eating that day and just having that one meal and they're good with that. And that strategy works really well for them.
00:28:23
Speaker
Another thing you can do is just to, instead of eating three meals in a day, is just skip one. So by skipping a meal, you're basically going to bank yourself somewhere in the neighborhood of 400, 500, 600, 700 calories by not eating that meal. And so now you're just banking those calories to use for your let's say you're going out to eat for your dinner that day so now instead of having only 700 calories now is since you skipped that meal and now you have 1500 calories for that meal and the third option that you could use is you're still going to eat your three meals throughout the day one of those meals maybe you're going to be eating out or whatever or eating at a friend's house or something like that but you don't necessarily know how many calories you're going to be eating but you just assume that you're going to be having more calories than you typically would just have
00:29:06
Speaker
protein and a fruit or a vegetable at your other two meals, and that will save you some calories that way. So by doing this, if you're having some sort of lean protein and just a fruit or vegetable, you're going to keep your meals, your other two meals for the day, super low calories. So you might only have 300 400 calorie meal for breakfast and lunch. And then let's say you go to dinner at a friend's house or you have a bunch of extra calories that you banked for that day. So those are just some really simple, easy, practical strategies that I personally like using whenever I know that there's going to be some sort of event coming up where I'm going out to eat or something like that, where I just want to be a little bit more mindful about how many calories I'm taking in. Those are simple little things that you can start to use and start to play with to make sure that you're keeping your calories in check.
Conclusion and Coaching Availability
00:29:51
Speaker
And with that being said, that is our five questions. If you do have a question for the future, you can always just shoot me a message. I like doing these episodes and just diving a little bit deeper and answering questions that I get from clients, getting questions from social media, getting questions from you guys. And so if you have questions, again, you can always shoot those to me and I'll answer those on a future episode.
00:30:11
Speaker
The one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes if you want some help with your fat loss or muscle building goals and want some help doing that, some accountability, all that good stuff. But I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.