Wouldn’t it be a dream if you could actually eat food and lose weight! Most people are afraid of food, preferring to skip meals and rely on hours of exercise hoping this will help them achieve their ideal physique. They spend hours in the gym lifting weights and performing cardio until puddles of sweat form at their feet. Who would think that eating food is the key to their success!!
For the past 25 years, we have had the opportunity to work with 1000s of individuals and their personal weight loss goals. Goals have ranged from individuals with inspirations of becoming professional bodybuilders to those wanting to lose a few pounds to feel more attractive. Each person has their ideal imagine of what they want to see in the mirror.
What works for the professional athlete works for the mother wanting to rid those last few pounds of post-pregnancy weight. Our belief is that food is everything! 80% of your cosmetic goals will be determined by what food is consumed. Eating high quality, clean food is the secret to achieving your weight loss goals. We believe quality in equals quality out! Food determines what you look like, not your exercise choices.
The human body is a complex organism with the ability to heal itself if you feed it proper nutrients. Your body is a fine-tuned engine which requires specific fuels to function. If the fuel is a poor grade, your body does not work properly and if it is not given fuel it stops. Nutrients are involved in all body processes from combating infection, repairing tissue, and even the thought process required to perform its day-to-day tasks. If we do not give ourselves proper nutrients, we can impair the body’s normal functions and cause ourselves harm.
Good nutrition is the foundation of good heath and fitness.
There really is no secret formula or magic pill involved with losing weight. Weight loss is more of a mental task than a physical task. If you can consume food to lose weight, and the mind can stay strong, weight loss is very simple. Weight loss takes discipline, motivation and organization. With our program, we believe that you must consume 5 – 6 small meals over the course of the day.
When the body is fed it must work to digest the food which, in turn, speeds up your metabolism. Starving the body causes it to store fat and slows the metabolism. The type of calories you consume is also crucial to your success. A calorie is not a calorie. We believe in eating food low in fat and low in sugar. We limit refined carbohydrates such as bread and pasta as well as foods high in simple sugars, which would also mean a limited caloric intake of fruit. A good balance of carbohydrates and protein, but limiting fat, is very important to achieving the body that we all dream about.
There is a lot of confusion in the health and beauty industry. Beauty publications, bodybuilding magazines and fitness magazines portray the image that we all strive for, but how do we go about achieving it? Journaling is a very important tool for your success. Keeping track of everything that you consume in a day is a key component. We have found while talking with our clients, that it is very easy to forget the few additional items that are nibbled on during the day. Having to write these things down is an eye opener for most. Journaling helps you to understand why we overeat and what moods set us up for failure. Weighing yourself on a consistent basis is also crucial. The scale is only a tool, just as an accountant, doctor or mechanic would use his tools to do his job. The scale assists in making caloric adjustments for continued weight loss and is not a measurement of success. We believe that food should be weighed and measured so that accurate changes can be made to keep the weight moving in the proper direction.
What do you eat to look like the woman and men we see in the magazines? Carbohydrates supply the body with energy it needs to function. Carbohydrates are divided into two groups – simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates, sometimes called simple sugars include fructose (fruit sugars) sucrose (table sugar) and lactose (milk sugars) Complex carbohydrates include fiber and starches. Foods rich in complex carbohydrates include vegetables, whole grains, cereals and beans. We believe that approximately 50 percent of your calories should come from carbohydrates but we limit bread and fruit consumption. Cereals must be low in fat and sugars, our preference being a hot cereal over a cold cereal. Bread products should not exceed a serving per day. An individual would lose more weight and look better consuming rice and potato than they would if they consume bread. Most people are afraid of starches and avoid potatoes. Starches are not the problem, fats that we add to starch increase our body fat levels. We have had bodybuilders that would consume 10 lbs of potatoes in a day and still have their weights drop to extreme low percentages. Because of the volume of food our clients have to eat, most begin with higher levels of starches to keep the volume of food lower. Starchy vegetables are higher in calories, thus creating smaller quantities of food. As your metabolism speeds up, you get hungrier quicker. At this point, fibrous vegetables are important to give you higher volumes of food. Consuming 80 calories of corn would give a person ½ cup of vegetables but if you were hungry 80 calories of broccoli would give you 2/3 lb of vegetables helping to satisfy your hunger.
Lean protein is essential for muscle repair and provides the body with energy. Proteins that we would consume come from lean sources such as chicken or turkey breast, egg whites, lean fish such as sole, tuna and halibut, lean cuts of beef or bison such as eye of round and whey protein powder. We limit most dairy products but do consume limited quantities of no fat yogourt, cottage cheese and skim milk. We believe that 50% of your total calories would consist of protein, of which 15 – 20 % of this total would be hidden fats.
Most of our clients cannot believe the quantity of food they must consume to lose weight. The majority must gradually increase the calories. They are shocked to find that they are full and satisfied with the volume of food. When you are satisfied, it is less likely that you will cheat on your diet. One reason that people fail on diets is hunger. Our clients are too full to care about eating another bite. They are surprised to find the more quality food that they consume, the healthier, stronger and leaner they become.
We have helped thousands of people lose 100s of pounds over the years. One of our proudest success stories was a dear friend who dreamed of standing on a bodybuilding stage. He trained diligently in the gym but could not lose weight. His weight climbed to an excess of 385 lbs, but his dream wouldn’t die. With discipline, dedication and hard work we helped him lose 165 lbs in seven months giving him the opportunity to live his dream. His before and after photos help to motivate others to succeed.
Three month after giving birth, one of our clients decided that competing would help her lose the weight she had gained while pregnant. The scale had inched its way to 195 lbs. 20 weeks after setting her goal, she stood on stage at a svelte 127 lbs winning the heavy weight female bodybuilding category.
A healthy eating lifestyle is not just for cosmetic purposes. Changing the nutritional program of one gentleman helped to extend his life a few additional years. He passed away last year, but his daughter sent us a tearful email to thank us for adding a few quality years to his life. Eating healthy food helped him to drop weight and make him stronger while he fought his disease.
Life is rewarding when setting personal goals and striving for them. Take each day one step at a time. Set intermediate goals and believe in yourself. Eating to lose weight is the key to success!
Yours in Strength,
IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Donna Logue and Brian Logue
Donna@bodyby24-7.com