01/30/2014
10 New Rules of Lean Eating
1.- Don’t Eliminate Carbs, Prioritize Them
Reducing the total amount of carbohydrates in your diet is a simple way to accelerate your weight loss. It not only decreases your calorie intake, but it also optimizes fat-burning hormones. The key is to slowly cut carbohydrates back—instead of eliminating them immediately:
1. Foods with added sugar
2. Refined grains
3. Whole grains and starches
4. Fruit
5. Non-green vegetables
6. Green vegetables
2.- Feel Good about Failures
Most people's initial reaction to slipping up on their diet is to internally berate themselves. Bad strategy!
Accept your mistakes, and consider them “learning moments” that will help make you better and stronger.
3.- Spike Your Protein
Protein is good for your fat loss and muscle building efforts, but constantly flooding your body with amino acids—the building blocks that make up protein—can be counter productive. Instead, you need to spike your blood amino acid levels, let them fall, and then spike them again. This is most easily achieved by eating at least 30 grams of protein no more frequently than very 4 hours.
4.- Be the Best at Being Average.
Most failed diet attempts are due to an ill-fated cycle of intense caloric restrictions followed by massive caloric binges. Break this cycle and lose more fat by trying to be average. Strive to have your diet be one that you can sustain forever.
5.- Major in the Micros
Protein, carbohydrate, fat, and calories all matter for your fat loss. But don't forget to pay attention to important micronutrients—a.k.a. vitamins and minerals. These nutrients drive all your body's metabolic processes. A simple multivitamin will cover most of your bases, and serves as an inexpensive insurance policy for your body. But to really optimize your micronutrient intake, you can also supplement your diet with 2,000 IU of vitamin D each day with breakfast, and 200 to 300 milligrams (mg) of chelated magnesium before bed. The former will help with immune function, bone health, and weight loss; the latter works as a muscle relaxant, helping improve sleep and control blood sugar.
6.- Eat Greens First.
The more vegetables that you eat at a given meal, the less total calories you will eat. This is one of the few “eat more and consume less”
Have small salad prior to your meal, and if that isn't possible, eat all the vegetables on your plate before diving into anything else in front of you.
7.- Know the Meal Frequency Math
Remember this formula: 3 +1 = fat loss success. You should eat 3 meals—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—every day, plus one protein-rich snack. On days that you exercise, the protein-rich snack can be replaced with a post-workout drink. This eating framework allows you to eat large enough meals so that you are satisfied, while also aligning your eating habits into a normal social construct so that it’s easily executable. This way you don't need to always be running out for “food breaks” like a smoker does cigarette breaks.
8.- Chew Your Food
Digestion starts in your mouth; not just mechanically, but metabolically. Chewing your food causes your body to preemptively release the hormone insulin in small amounts, leading to better blood sugar control and thus a more optimal environment for fat loss. So eat slowly, take smaller bites, and chew well
9.- Sustain the Effects of Your Workout With Whey
Working out breaks down your muscles, and it isn't until after you've finished that your body starts the repair process. You can further increase your body's ability to regrow muscle following exercise with a fast-digesting, leucine-rich protein such as whey. Leucine is the key amino acid for flipping your body's muscle-building switch. Drink a shake containing 20 to 30g of whey protein directly after your workouts to supercharge your body's ability to recover.
10.- Drink Water and Unsweetened Tea
Sugar-sweetened drinks are the biggest and easiest obstacle to remove in your efforts to get lean. Displace sugar-sweetened drinks from your day by focusing on drinking water and unsweetened tea. Through the unique combination of caffeine, amino acids, and antioxidants, green tea provides added fat-burning and cognitive-boosting benefits. Aim to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water (including tea) per day. So if you weight 180 pounds, you should try to consume 90 total ounces of water and tea.
