The 5 Components of Body Composition Change – Part 1
Most people who start thinking about changing their clothes wonder exactly where they should start. There are 5 main components to body composition change: nutrition, cardiovascular exercise, supplementation, resistance training with weights, and professional assistance. It is very important to understand why we focus more on body composition than weight. The fact is NO ONE knows how much you weigh except you and your doctor and NO ONE cares. Therefore, it does not matter what you weigh; what matters is how you feel and how you look in your clothes. That is all! These 5 components focus on just that. Trust me.
Today we are only going to deal with the first and most important component and that is Nutrition. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to gain weight, lose weight, or stay exactly where you are; nutrition is critical. 75% of how you look is what you eat.
Here are the basics. Initially, HOW you eat is much more important than WHAT you eat. These are today’s tips:
* More than 55% of your calories should come from carbohydrates
* Less than 30% of your calories should come from fat
* Your protein intake in grams should be 80% of your body weight in kg (to determine your weight in kg, divide your body weight in pounds by 2.2)
* Consume less than 2,400 mg of sodium per day
* Eat every 3 hours while you are awake (every time you digest you burn calories)
* Eat more times, not more food
* Portion Control: Your body can metabolize a certain number of calories in one sitting. The metabolic process involves digestion and energy use. Anything your body doesn’t metabolize will be stored as FAT.
* You CAN eat before you go to sleep, eating before you go to sleep does not make you GAIN weight, and Eating more is the BEST way to lose weight.
Check out my portion control guide below:
Beef, poultry and venison
One serving = 3 ounces About the size of a deck of cards or 2 cassette tapes
Fish, shellfish and molluscs
One serving = 3 ounces About the size of a checkbook
stars
Two servings = 1 cup tennis ball-sized rice or pasta, scoop of ice cream
One serving = 1 pancake is the size of a compact disc (CD)
One serving = 1/2 cup of cooked rice is the size of a full cupcake wrapper
One serving = 1 piece of cornbread is the size of a bar of soap
One serving = 1 slice of bread is the size of an audio cassette tape
One serving = 1 cup of cereal flakes is the size of a fist
Stay tuned for Part 2 – Cardio Exercise
