Lost 1 kg of fat and gained 1 kg of muscle in 1 month doing yoga
Learn how I lost 1 kg (2 pounds) of body fat and gained almost 1 kg of muscle in a time span of 1 month doing yoga and eating healthy.
Okay, so I cannot attribute all of the fat loss to yoga. I’m also on a pretty "clean" diet that involves eating (or drinking) lots of fruits and vegetables and minimizing the amount of processed foods that I eat. A good book on the latter topic is "In Defense of Food".
So today I had a weigh-in and took body fat measurements. While I’m not doing yoga to lose weight, I thought it would be nice to find out whether it has had a positive effect on my body composition. And I was surprised to see that it had…
Food plan for weight loss
Incorporate these 3 tactics into your food plan and accelerate your weight loss.
You are what you eat. A large part of losing weight lies in your diet; approximately 80% of it.
That is why people can lose weight by just swapping foods and not exercising. The rest should come from exercise to expend excessive calories eaten.
But there is more to just eating the right foods when it comes to losing weight. You also need to keep the insulin spikes in your blood in check. As you may already know, too much insulin is counterproductive for weight loss.
How many hours does it take to digest food?
Learn how long it can take for your body to digest food you eat and how this may affect your weight loss efforts.
The amount of hours it takes to digest food depends on what you eat and when you eat it.
Generally, a meal takes about 3 – 4 hours to leave your stomach and then another 2 – 3 hours to pass through your small intestines. By the time the food is out of your small intestines, you can consider the digestion finalized.
Depending on what you eat, it may take your body longer or shorter to digest food. For example, if you at lots of fats to your food, it would take your body longer to digest the food than if you ate carbohydrates.
Cutting calories to lose weight – fat, carbs, or protein?
This article outlines an effective strategy for cutting calories to lose weight by taking macro nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, and fats into consideration.
A simple formula to lose weight is: Consume less and expend more. What this means is that to lose weight you must move or exercise more and eat less food. Both these things are measured in the amount of calories; calories you eat and calories you expend through daily activities.
But have you ever asked yourself exactly what kind of calories you should not eat or eat less of?
Food consists of 3 major (or macro) nutrients: fat, carbohydrates (or carbs), and protein.
Each gram of fat consists roughly of 9 calories, while a gram of carbs or protein contains 4. So logically, if you want to aggressively cut calories, the first things that you should drop are foods that contain bad fats, because each gram of fat you cut will reduce your daily calorie intake by 9 calories. I say "bad fats" because there are also foods that contain "good fats" which can actually help speed up your metabolism so that you lose weight faster.
Why is body composition important to weight loss?
Body composition is an important measure you can use not only to track weight loss gains, but also to determine how fat you really are. Learn why body composition is important and how you can determine what your body composition is and then use it to set weight loss goals.
What does body composition mean?
Suppose there are two women, both step onto a scale, and you see that both weigh the same amount. But for some reason one of the women is a size 18 and the other is a size 12. How can this be?
The reason for this is simple: Their body composition is different, and a scale alone does not tell the whole truth of what your body is made up of.
The size 18 woman is carrying more fat than the size 12 woman, but the two women still weigh the same amount, because fat is lighter than muscle, so you need more of it to make up the same weight as a certain amount of muscle would.
The size 12 woman has more muscle (and less fat), but because muscle is heavier than fat, she winds up weighing as much as the size 18 woman, who is carrying a lot of fat on her body.
Body composition gives an indication of two main components of your body: Body fat and muscle (lean tissue).
The more body fat you have (so the fatter you are), the less muscle you’ll have, and vice versa. And by knowing what your body composition is, you can conclude whether you’re relatively lean or relatively fat.
Body fat is measured as a percentage of your total body weight. For example, if you measure your body fat percentage and you wind up with 20%, it means that the rest of your body – 80% of it – is composed of lean tissue.
And if you know what your body weight is (in kilos or pounds), you can calculate exactly how much fat and muscle you are carrying on your body.
How to take girth measurements on your body
Circumference or girth measurements is one of two essential measurements you can take to determine whether or not you're making progress on your weight loss program. Learn how to take girth measurements on your body.
Girth measurements are one of two measurements to take when starting a weight loss program. The other measurement is body composition.
However, before you can take girth measurements, you need to buy a good measuring tape. One that is made of linen or plastic should do. Once you’ve got a measuring tape, the next step is to properly and consistently measure your body.
Running and weight training – which is best for weight loss?
Running and weight training can both be used to lose weight. Learn why each is an effective form of exercise to lose weight and how you can determine for yourself whether you should weight train or run more.
Running and weight training to burn calories
The secret to losing weight is simple: Burn more calories than you consume.
Where burning calories is concerned, if you weigh approximate 150 pounds (68 kg) and do some form of resistance training for 45 minutes, you’ll burn approximately 261 calories. Running will help you burn about 414 calories.
From the preceding we can conclude that running is one of the best exercises for weight loss and getting into shape.
To increase the amount of calories you burn on a daily basis, you must look for ways to increase your BMR while at rest. Here is where weight training might be more beneficial than running.
One way to increase your BMR is to pack muscle onto your body. And a quick way to pack muscle onto your body is by training large muscle groups.
Program that counts calories of what you have eaten
Learn what to look for in and what a program that counts calories of what you have eaten should provide you with for you to be successful at losing those pounds of body fat you want to lose.
When it comes to losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle, there are 3 levels of nutrition that you need to consider:
- Calories
- Macronutrients
- Micronutrients
The amount of calories tells you how much energy you’ve consumed. Macronutrients are the amount of grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat you consume. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals you consume.
If you want to lose weight, there is no doubt about it, you need to eat less calories than you expend. It’s that simple.
Basic strength building workout routine
This article lists 13 exercises in a basic strength building workout routine that you can perform 3 times a week with high intensity to increase strength in the muscles of your entire body.
Building strength is all about doing the least amount of sets and reps, but with the highest possible intensity and going all out so that the muscles are completely tired and you cannot perform another rep. If you can perform another rep after doing a set, you have not given it your all.
A good example of progression in building strength is given in Using a pull chin-up bar and progressive overload training to increase lats strength where I went from not being able to do a single chin-up to performing several reps unassisted.
When performing high-intensity training and fatiguing muscles to the max, you need to pay special attention to:
- Exercise form – perform each exercise with the best possible form; do not jerk the weights up or use muscles that you should not be using to do a particular exercise.
- Exercise execution speed – perform each rep slow enough to really tax the muscles you’re working.
- Weight – the weight you use for an exercise should be heavy enough to fatigue the muscle before you do 6 reps, which is the ideal amount of reps for building strength.
Once you’re aware of those 3 basic things, you can move onto putting together a basic strength building workout routine.
Will I still get into running shape if I walk during my runs?
Learn why it is not necessary to run without stopping during a running workout for it to be effective in burning fat and getting into shape.
The short answer to this question is: "Of course you will!"
Unless you’re training to compete in a half marathon or marathon, the goals of running to get into shape are:
- Conditioning your heart and lungs to work more efficiently in transporting oxygen throughout your body.
- Burn body fat by trying to stay in the fat-burning zone.
Once you understand the two goals mentioned above, you’ll also understand that it is not necessary to continuously run during your runs to be able to get the effect you desire, but that it is very important to not allow your heart rate to drop below your fat-burning zone if you incorporate walking breaks during your runs.