The days of questioning what you should do to change your body composition are over. Follow any or all of these 6 simple, effective tips to help improve your body composition and you will be more likely to keep your body fat lower for life. Losing weight/body fat properly takes time and effort. Stay patient and consistent while trying to enjoy the process.

1. Get your nutrition in check

Surprise, surprise! Nutrition is single-handedly the most important aspect of fat loss. You have the opportunity to make 3-5 good nutrition decisions a day. You also have the opportunity to make 3-5 bad decisions a day. Understand that if you mess one up, it’s ok; just get right back on track with the next meal. Do let yourself fall in the trap of thinking “I messed up this meal might as well start fresh tomorrow”. Keeping a nutrition journal tracking food and beverage intake has been shown to be very effective at improving daily choices. Regardless of what nutritional parameters you follow (high carb, low carb, high fat, low fat, Paleo, Keto, and Intermittent Fasting) being in a slight caloric restriction is the one common thread. Find something you can be compliant with as that is the most important aspect of any nutritional change. Try to avoid the thought of cheat days or meals and just find a plan that allows you to live life and enjoy yourself. This is how long term change occurs.

1. Get stronger

This may not be as glaringly obvious as the previously mentioned tip. However, if we are trying to increase metabolic demand, then strength training is the way to do it. Studies show that we may burn calories for up to 72 hours after a rigorous strength training workout. So this means that you will need to lift relatively heavy.  Also, we would like our bodies to be fuel “inefficient” (using a lot of fuel/calories), the stronger you get, the more each and every rep will take out of you (using more fuel). Whereas, in low-intensity steady-state cardio (LISS) you become very fuel-efficient (using minimal fuel), because of the aerobic state of the activity over long periods of time and lack of recovery during the activity.

1. Gain muscle mass

Pretty simple concept here. The more muscle you have, the more fuel you use every day, regardless of exercise or other activities. Simply said, more muscle mass raises your metabolism. This concept will also give you a bit more “room for error” on the nutritional aspect in regards to carbohydrates. This does not mean you have to look like a bodybuilder. As we train and our body fat goes down our muscle mass should slightly go up. It is very difficult to build enough muscle mass to look big and bulky so try not to worry about that aspect.

1. Use big compound movements

Keeping things simple, compound movements use multiple joints working together to perform a movement. The big movements are Squats, Deadlifts, Press, Bench, Chin-ups; to list a few. We like to use these movements because they train/use a lot of muscle mass, over a long range of motion, therefore creating a significant usage of energy/calories. When trained appropriately they will burn more calories and help build more muscle mass when compared to a single joint movement like a bicep curl or leg extension. These compound movements are also great because they help you be more efficient with your time in the gym, you can get a great workout in 30-45min if needed.

1. Use HIIT training

As previously stated LISS or “low-intensity steady-state” cardio is not as good for fat loss as many believe.  You become very efficient at burning calories and therefore will not burn as much “fuel” as compared to using HIIT or “High-intensity interval training”. With HIIT training you should be going at 90-100% effort for no more than 30 seconds with about 2 minutes of rest between efforts. This type of training has been shown to preserve muscle mass, whereas LISS has been shown to reduce muscle mass in individuals in a caloric deficit. Now it is true that you burn a larger % of calories from fat in LISS training but the overall total is so much lower when compared to HIIT, that LISS is still not superior. Example:

1. LISS for 1 hour, you burned 500 calories and 80% are from fat. 400 Fat calories burned
2. HIIT for ½ hr, you burned 500 calories, and an additional 500 over the next 48 hrs due to recovery and 50% are from fat. 500 Fat calories burned.

1. Don’t overdo it, but stay consistent

Lastly, you should likely not be training hard every day. Very few people are advanced trainees and therefore need to be training hard 6 days a week. Take 2-3 rest days every week, 3 or 4 training days a week should be just fine.  If you are training every day and stressing your body too much this can backfire causing injuries, training motivation loss, and be detrimental to fat loss. Sometimes more is not better, smart consistent training is better! Similar to nutrition, compliance/consistency is KING.

Hopefully, following these tips helps boost your results and you can start to make some small changes in your life/training to ensure long term fat loss. Stay consistent with your nutrition and training and you will be amazed at what you are capable of.

For help in reaching your goals, email us to set up a meeting with one of our certified personal trainers. Our team of trainers offers a variety of workouts and fitness classes designed to help you achieve your personal goals. Email support@gofreedomfit.com to get the ball rolling.