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Nutritional Choice of the Month - February 2009:
“Fat Loss Webinar”
As I mentioned recently in my blog (http://pcconditioning.blogspot.com), I had the opportunity a few weeks back to attend a fat loss webinar. It was put on by a mentor of mine, Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey Strength and Conditioning Coach, Mike Boyle. Coach Boyle had a series of slides where he discussed fat loss both from a nutrition and exercise standpoint. Interestingly enough, it further imprinted on my mind that it is nutrition that is the limiting factor with people. I knew this was where people continued to struggle the most, but this webinar made me realize how much the fat loss struggle is more nutrition than anything.
Of course exercise plays a role, but when you look at the big picture, I’d probably say fat loss and optimizing body composition are roughly 60-70% nutrition based. In other words, you can work out all you want, but if you really want to see improvements, you simply have to eat really well. While this is not shocking news to many of you reading this, I will admit that the longer I am in this field, the more I realize it’s nutrition I need to work more on with my clients. Whether it is my clients or anyone for that matter, I still see too many people working out hard, yet eating like crap.
The funny thing is that nutrition, overall, isn’t even complicated. Notice, I didn’t say it was easy. It definitely is not. It’s certainly challenging not to indulge in convenient foods like pizza, fast food, or whatever your weak spot is. I just think people sometimes need to be walked through the tenets of a sound nutrition plan and additionally what exercise protocols should be followed for adequate fat loss. Here are some of the tips I’ve learned not just from the webinar, but from mentors over the years along with some great literature:
- Vegetables, fruit, lean protein, and fish oil should be consumed regularly
- Strength train regularly as muscle is “metabolically active,” thus expediting weight loss
- Invest in a heart rate monitor to track your interval conditioning
- Steady-state cardio is continuing to be found less effective than interval training
In summary, bring the time of your “cardio” down and the intensity up. Integrate good quality interval conditioning and pair it with challenging strength training total body routines. Consume lean protein, plenty of water, fibrous carbohydrates and good fats. See, it’s pretty simple. Challenging, yes, but simple.