As the holiday season approaches, we all begin to remind ourselves what we are thankful for: friends, family, and our bounty of opportunities. Thanksgiving is also a time for endless amounts of delicious, home cooked comfort foods. Now while the food is my favorite part of coming home for Thanksgiving, I have fitness goals that I also need to keep in mind. Thanksgiving only comes once a year, so I ENCOURAGE you to enjoy all the delectable food on your table this Thursday with your loved ones. But this day does not have to ruin your fitness progress either! I wanted to offer some helpful tips to avoid completing sabotaging all the hard work you have put in towards achieving your fitness goals, whether it is steadily losing body fat, watching your sugar intake, or trying to cut weight for a competition. Here are my top 5 fit tips to help you enjoy a guilt-free Thanksgiving and keep moving in the right direction.
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In my last blog post Why Females Should Lift Heavy, I briefly talked about the ways lifting has transformed my body by decreasing my body fat and increasing my lean body mass. I wanted to elaborate more on the benefits of resistance training for those of you looking to lose body fat. The answer does not lie solely in endless elliptical or 30 minute ab classes at your gym. I am going to hopefully convince you to give strength training priority in your workout routine by the end of this post.
So to lose weight, we all know we need to increase our energy expenditure (that is, more calories must be burned than calories consumed). Therefore, it would be wise to burn as many calories as possible during the time we dedicate to working out each day. For simplicity, burning calories can happen in two ways: directly and indirectly. Direct energy expenditure is exactly what you think it is: the calories you burn running on the treadmill, or performing X hours of exercise to burn X amount of calories. Indirect energy expenditure, on the other hand, isn’t quite as obvious. This is dictated by the amount of lean muscle mass you have, and is also know as "resting metabolism." The important thing to take note of is that your indirect energy expenditure is the bigger contributor to overall caloric expenditure. Getting the “metabolism up” is the key to shedding a substantial amount of body fat. Because lean muscle mass allows us to increase indirect expenditure, shouldn't we focus on increasing our muscle mass? Yes. So now you ask, how do I accomplish this? The answer is simple: WEIGHT TRAINING AND ADEQUATE PROTEIN CONSUMPTION ARE THE TWO OF THE BIGGEST FACTORS FOR INCREASING LEAN MASS. This is going to be the most personal and passionate entry I have written yet. Very often, I get into a conversation with another female about why I do olympic weightlifting and how I got into lifting in general. After I give my little back story, I explain the vast benefits of introducing heavy lifts, or just lifting in general as a female, into their workout routine.
Common responses I hear to my recommendation are: 1. They don't know where to begin/what to do 2. They are scared they will get injured/it will make an current or past injury worse 3. They don't want to be too muscular, just want to lose weight, or "get toned" To this I say: 1. Anyone can begin and it is fairly easy to find & begin a reliable lifting program 2. Lifting will make you stronger and if done with proper form will prevent many injuries 3. I have lost more weight (specifically body fat) while lifting than I ever have from running like a hamster on a treadmill, and I don't look manly Lifting has changed my life in so many great ways. It has strengthened not only my body, but my confidence, determination, and a sense of self-idenity. In this post, I am going to go over the many reasons why females should lift more weight and the common misconceptions about lifting uneducated or ignorant people latch onto that dissuades girls from swapping the cardio machine for the squat bar. |
Meet LeighannI am a 26 year-old competitive Olympic weightlifter who loves to learn and talk about anything involving nutrition and exercise. My passion is to help others live at their full potential as a future surgeon of the 2018 medical school class. The journey towards health & happiness looks different for everyone, but I hope to help guide and inspire you, wherever you may be on yours. Welcome to my healthy food & fitness blog! Archives
October 2014
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