Simple Tips for nutrition and Dieting.

We're back this week with a new article around nutrition and dieting. 

This one is full of handy, easy to implement, tips to help you achieve your goals. 
As usual this one was written by James Kennedy.

Word Count - 1187.
Time to Read - 9 minutes

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Generally speaking, most people don’t have an issue with gaining weight. They get to eat more food, training feels easier, the weight on the bar is going up and life is generally good. People trying to lose weight tend to go the other way. They’re eating less, they’re tired and training is harder. Whilst this does come with the territory, there are often little things that people do which make losing weight more challenging. Losing weight - and keeping it off - requires more than just a calorie deficit. It requires changing your habits to create an environment where losing weight happens easily, without extra effort on your part. In this article I’ll outline ten mindset and lifestyle tips and tricks which will help you lose weight without completely hating life.
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 1. Set a goal.

 Setting a goal is a strong way to establish lifestyle change. 
However, instead of just picking a target bodyweight or lifting goal, focus on setting a process-oriented goal. For example, instead of setting a target to squat 250kg, set the process goal of squatting twice a week. Whilst it’s important to have targets and goals, by focusing on the process over the outcome you will be more likely to make the changes permanent. Any specific targets or goals you have should be reasonably challenging, but not so hard they seem ridiculous. 
For example, to set a weight loss target, aim to lose 0.5% a week until you reach your target goal. Then focusing on the processes needed to achieve this goal - e.g. hitting your calorie and macro targets - will mean that you will make changes that set you up for longer term success beyond achieving the specific goal. 

 2. Meal Prep.

 The second diet tip is good for anyone, not just those trying to lose weight. Meal prep. Cook all your food for the week in one go at the start of the week. This means that every meal you eat throughout the week will meet your macro and calorie needs. It also means that when it’s Wednesday night and you can’t be bothered to cook, instead of reaching for DeliveRoo or UberEats, you just go to the fridge and pick up a tub of chicken, rice and vegetables. 
From a practical standpoint, meal prep will require a bit of an upfront cost and investment into Tupperware. It will also mean that you have to block out a few hours over the weekend to do the meal prep. On the bright side, you will waste less food and save money per meal (it’s often cheaper, per portion, to cook 8 portions than 2). Meal prep is a great way of driving diet adherence higher. It does require a bit of focused effort, but it will make your life much easier. 

 3. A blender turns protein shakes a nutritious meal.

 Another way to make life easier is to invest in a blender. Buying a blender allows you to turn a protein shake into a low-calorie, nutrient rich meal. There are hundreds of recipes out there which can easily be adapted to your calorie and macronutrient needs. 

 4. Rice cooker.
 
 A rice cooker is the best thing I have ever bought for a kitchen, hands down. The rice cooker allows you to cook a huge quantity of rice in one go, meaning you can prep all your carbs for the week whilst doing your meal prep. For extra nutrition, you can also chuck in a load of frozen vegetables to the rice whilst it’s cooking. 

 5. Drink plenty.

 Whilst the amount of water you should drink will vary depending on the weather, the amount of exercise you do and your weight, drinking plenty of water has numerous health and performance benefits. Even being slightly dehydrated can lead to drastic drop off in performance. Whilst there is no set amount of water you should drink, aiming for at least 2L a day of water will make a noticeable difference to your training.

 6. Consistency is key - but if you go off plan, don’t panic.

 Consistency is the most important factor in influencing whether a diet or training plan is successful. However, that doesn’t mean that going off script is a complete failure. Realistically, life happens. You’re going to go out for a  birthday meal or to the pub with your mates or get a takeaway after a shitty day in work.  Whilst these type of events will mean you are off plan it’s important to not let them spiral. If you do overeat one day or miss a training session, that’s ok. What happens next is essential - don’t use the one missed day become an excuse for multiple days off the plan or a reason to stop altogether. Just move onto the next day and continue making progress. 

 7. Try and get your carbs in near the workout. 

 Nutrient timing has a small impact on the overall success of a diet, however if you are trying to lose weight carbohydrate timing can become more important. When in a calorie deficit, getting some carbs in your pre-workout meal will really help with training performance and make your training sessions easier and more enjoyable. 

 8. Do not go shopping hungry!

 This is a big one. If you are going shopping, make sure it’s just after you’ve eaten. It is much easier to ignore the vast amount of junk food that should be avoided when you’re not hungry. 

 9. Keep NEAT high - aim for 10,000 steps a day.

 Walking has numerous health benefits, both physical and mental. For lifters, walking has also been shown to enhance recovery from exercise and by keeping your activity high, you reduce the body adaptation to being in a calorie deficit. When you are in a calorie deficit, your body responds by reducing your non-exercise energy thermogenesis (NEAT). This is basically how active you are without paying attention. When you’re in a calorie deficit your body responds by reducing NEAT - so you’ll move around less and burn less baseline calories.  Focusing on going for a walk every day helps reduce the NEAT adaptations to dieting, alongside the general health and training benefits. By keeping your activity levels high outside the gym you’ll enhance your recovery, longevity and help regulate appetite, all whilst driving additional weight loss. 

 10. Utilise the 80/20 principle. 

 The 80/20 principle is an aphorism which states that 80% of the results comes from 20% of the effort. In health and fitness this does hold true. Focusing on your major compound lifts - squat, bench, deadlifts (Link these) - and your fundamental nutrition - calories and macros (link) - and getting enough sleep (link) will be responsible for most of your results. Don’t get sidetracked by the ‘one weird trick’ articles. Get the fundamentals right and the results will follow!
 
Conclusion 

 These 10 tips and tricks are small actions which can drastically improve training and diet adherence. By planning ahead and spending time focusing on the areas which have the biggest pay off, diet and training progress will be smoother, with less ups and downs, helping you reach your goals with ease!

 
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