10 Steps to Better Nutrtion for Fat Loss

Over the course of the next few days I will reveal some very necessary nutrition habits that you should work hard at implementing. Now some of the information may be against what you have learned over the years but the steps work in getting you healthy and lean at the same time! Double bang for your buck!

So below are the first 5 habits:

1) Eat every 2-3 Hours
For most of us we learned that we were to eat three times per day and we would get everything we need. Why do we need to feed every 2-3 hours? Research has demonstrated that eating every 2-3 hours is important for stimulating your metabolism, keeping blood sugar balanced, and will improve your health, performance and how you look! So keep tabs of when your eating and even plan out your day when you will eat and aim for 5-6 small meals per day.

Now usually when I tell people to follow this guideline people have many questions. First, how many meals per day should you be eating? Well an easy way is to just take the hours that you are awake IE:15 and divide by 3=5 meals per day.

Another quest on would be do I eat before bed? Well, keeping in mind the guideline, if it falls with the every 2-3 hours then be sure to have a meal.

Finally, how big should your meals be? Well, the remainder of the nine habits will help in determining that question. Just be sure you take the opportunity to feed the body every 2-3 hours.

2) Have Lean Protein with every Meal
Eating protein stimulate you metabolic rate, improve muscle mass and recovery, and will reduce your body fat substantially. The types of protein you want to ingest will be shared later but just remember to have it at each meal every two to three hours. Not just during those three meals a day that most people follow.

3) Have Vegetables with each Meal
Eat your veggies young man! Those favourite words that every mom tells her kids. Well mom was right and now researchers have finally caught up with mama. Research has proven that vegetables give the multitude of vitamins and minerals (micro nutrients) but in addition veggies have important plant chemicals( phytochemicals) that are essential for optimal body functioning.
An important function the veggies provide (and fruits) is to help balance out the acid levels produced by ingesting protein and grains. It's important to balance these acids with alkaline rich veggies and fruits. Too much acid leads to a loss of bone strength and muscle mass.

So be sure to ingest 1-2 servings of vegetable with every meal every 2-3 hours. Aim for 10 Servings per day as a minimum!

4) Eat Veggies and Fruit at any meal but all other carbs mostly after exercise
Eat all other carbs(simple sugars, sports drinks and starchy carbs such as rice, pasta, potatoes etc.) during or right after exercise. Your body is most responsive to simple carbohydrates after a workout is primed to absorb these carbs. So if you want to eat bread, pasta, rice, sugar, etc. you can but save them only until after you workout. Doing so allows you for this plan to work better as excluding those non-veggie foods is to hard to do and in the long run lead to people cheating and gorging themselves from the deprivation of not having.

So go ahead ingest these carbs in moderation after a workout then for the rest of the day go back to ingesting fruits and vegetables as your carb source for the remainder of the day.

5) Eat Healthy Fats Daily

Ah, that dreaded word, Fat! Well, fat can and is a good thing as long as you eat the right types in the right amounts. About 30% of a person's eating plan should come from fat. However, a person should aim to balance the three types of fat through out the day where they consume 1/3 saturated, 1/3 polyunsaturated and 1/3 monounsaturated. Avoid Trans Fats! (IE:fast food) Doing this will lead to optimal health, performance and improve how you look.

So go ahead eat your fat! Don't be scared. It's fairly easy to do actually. An important recommendation is to supplement your eating plan with fish oil. Everybody should be supplementing with this as fish oil helps protect against heart disease, cancer, body fat reduction, diabetes and many issues we face as a human population.

Below is a list of the different types of fats and the food that have them.

Type of Fat Sources
Saturated Fat
Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Animal fat, peanut oil

Monounsaturated Fat
Fish Oil, Plants and animals

Polyunsaturated Fats
Omega 3 Fats
Plant fats-flax seeds, flax oil, fish oil

Omega 6 Fats
Corn, safflower, soy, animal fat

Trans Fats
Processed vegetable fat


Stay tuned tomorrow for Steps 6-10.