Before I started my fitness journey, fitness was just confusing. It was a guessing game. “I’m going to start jogging and see if I lose weight, if I don’t lose weight, I’ll blame it on gaining muscle and If I can’t see the muscles, I probably just need to jog some more”
Ps. I HATE the before pic… The things I do for you. Smh. Lol
Now it is clear as day. There are simple truths that will save you from the madness that fitness has become. Understanding these will give you the foundation to build a great lifestyle and see results. I know the title says 10… I only have 7 but 10 just sounded cooler. haha
- What you eat is not key for your weight, it is ALL about the calories
- If a bag of skittles has 250 calories, and you need to burn 1500 calories a day to lose weight; Then eating 6 bags of skittles a day for 2 weeks WILL MAKE YOU LOSE WEIGHT
- Don’t get me wrong, what you eat is so important but you cannot manage your weight without paying attention to how much you eat ie how many calories you eat.
- There is no way to manage your weight except by managing your math:
- Calories measure the energy in a food like lbs/kg measure weight
- Calories burned > Calories eaten = weight loss
- Calories burned =Calories eaten= weight maintained
- Calories burned < Calories eaten= weight gain
- Calories eaten: The food you eat
- Calories burned:
- Natural body functions- You burn calories just by being alive!
- Cardio exercises
- Cardio exercises like running, jumping jacks, burpees, treadmill, stationary bikes and others will burn calories and build your stamina/endurance
- Don’t rely on them to build muscles or give definition like strength training. They may build some but not as effective as strength training
- Strength/resistance training does NOT burn calories
- Resistance training results in muscle building and definition
- So six packs, “toned” arms, a firm butt, defined legs etc
- Includes Pushups, sit ups, weights, squats and you can find others in my video blogs
- Strength training will make you “hard”. So if you have a lot of belly fat and you keep doing only sit-ups… you will only make your belly pouch hard. The muscles under will get tighter but it doesnt lose the pouch. The best approach is to do both cardio and strength training exercises.
- Good Food = Good Nutrients = Good Health
- This is where what you eat is important
- Carbs, Proteins, Fats, Minerals and Vitamins
- Each of these perform very specific functions in the body and fitting them into your diet is just as important as trying to manage your weight. Visit makkoy.com for details
Now that you know this, stop letting people confuse you with weird theories. Focus on your lifestyle change and don’t make this a crash diet. It is so much more sustainable when you understand why you are doing it. Let’s do this!
I think u looooked way gorgeous when u were slightly curvier, yes a bit of the belly needed to to be toned!!! Nothing the good old plank cannot do…but now you look a bit sickly, ur head looks slightly bigger than ur body…increase your calorie intake to stabilise or add some muscle…ur blog has a long way to go but keep going!!!
Lmao! Tanya. I love your comment. Hilarious. The thing is I absolutely love the way I look now. If you go through the blog, you’ll realize that my look was not my motivation for fitness. My health and lifestyle were. Losing some weight and building some muscle were the cherry on top 🙂 So I am excited about the progress so far. I should say when the before pic was taken, you couldn’t tell me nothing! I was fine as hell and body to die for and I have to say the same stands right now;) It’s about loving yourself as you are and not letting people define you or tell you what to look like. The quest for a better me is personal. Hope that makes sense. Thanks for visiting the blog hun!