To lose fat, the number one thing Personal Trainers should promote is a safe and effective calorie deficit; numerous nutritional strategies can be used as vehicles to achieve a calorie deficit.
It’s worth mentioning that carbohydrates are not evil; in fact, they’re brilliant and essential for our bodies; any good personal training course would tell you that. However, carbohydrates are the most over-consumed macronutrient; instead, it’s advisable for both health and physique to consume more protein and fats.
Here are our Top 3…
Intermittent fasting (IF)
This strategy is where you consume all of your calories in a set period (i.e. 12pm-8pm) and then fast for the rest of the day.
There are different approaches to intermittent fasting, with the most popular being an 8:16 split, meaning you consume your calories in an eight-hour eating window and fast for the other 16 hours of the day.
The concept is that you’ll be eating fewer calories since you’re squeezing them into a narrower timeframe instead of consuming them throughout the day.
Carbohydrate cycling
Carb cycling is a dietary approach in which you alternate carb intake daily, weekly or monthly. Eat carbs when you need them for fuel, and your body will burn them up. Otherwise, all you are doing is storing up extra calories. It is commonly used to lose fat, maintain physical performance while dieting, or overcome a weight loss plateau. For example, in week one you might only eat a low amount amount of carbohydrates, whereas in week two you would eat a moderate amount of carbs. So, the average over the weeks would be a lot lower than if you didn’t cycle your carbohydrates.
Low carb (carbohydrate)
A low-carb diet restricts the amount of carbohydrates you eat (i.e. <300 calories of carbohydrates consumed daily).
Low-carb diets, especially very low-carb diets, may lead to greater short-term weight loss than do low-fat diets. This is because the body burns its way through the reduced dietary carbs and into the glycogen stores; the water attached to the glycogen is lost as well resulting in the phenomenon commonly known as losing water weight
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