Checklist for Body Transformation

Dietary Checklist 

    5-6 meals a day

• Burn more calories through increased meal frequency (digestion burns calories)

15-20 grams of protein women and 20-30 grams protein per meal men at a minimum.

• Burn more calories through macronutrient manipulation. The thermic effect of protein is twice as high as the thermic effect of fat or carbohydrate — and it adds up.

  Protein for breakfast

• Load up here. First 30 grams are strictly for immune support.

1-3 litres of water

• At least spread out through the day. Any other drinks should be 0 calorie containing drinks. I try for 1 gallon (almost 4 litres of water). 

 
Omega 3 fats daily.

• That can be in cooking oils or supplements. Olive oil, mixed nuts, and flax seeds or flax seed oil. At least 6 fish oil caps daily.

Complex carbs only after exercise.

• No starches: pasta, bread, rice, corn unless the meals follow a workout.

12 – 15 servings of veggies per day (1 serving = 1/2 cup)

• 2-3 servings per meal

Daily Calories 

• Eat close to your metabolic rate.  Easiest way is to take your body weight and multiply by 10. Do not drastically cut calories. Raise calories as activity and metabolism raises.

• Don’t “cut” calories. Create a deficit between the metabolism (calories burned) and intake (calories consumed). This deficit can only be closed by "borrowing" from the body's energy stores — i.e. your body fat.

Exercise Checklist

At least 1 hour of exercise per day

• We are shooting for 7 hours exercise     per week. That includes weight, aerobic cardio (walking, cycling) and anaerobic cardio ( interval type training)

Intense cardio training (at least 15 minutes) 3 to 4 X a week.

·       Burn calories through metabolic disturbance (increased activity levels and EPOC,or Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption).

weight training  (at least 45 minutes) 3 x 4 per week

·        As part of your 1 hour a day of exercise.

• Burn as many calories as possible through resting metabolic rate. Lean muscle is metabolically active, so building muscle or at least maintaining it is extremely important.

 Recovery

·        Not just proper sleep; yoga, massage therapy. meditation etc. These utilized daily to combat stress and prevent injury.

Where would we find you?

If I didn't know you but had to meet you at your gym, where would I find you?  In the weight room, step class, pool, cardio machines, spinning class or maybe the yoga studio.  What if I asked what your exercise goal was, would this help me find you?  Chances are I would be looking for you in all the wrong places. 
Most of my clients come to me for fat loss, energy gain and lean muscle development.  When I look to see what they have been doing to reach this goal in the past they seem to be performing counter productive exercises and practicing low calorie nutrition habits.
Women tell me that they want to tone (I hate this term) and lose fat. So I would look in the weight room to see what strength interval workouts they were performing, but instead find them in an hour long 'spinning class'. Spinning is an inefficient way to lose body fat.  Spinning will increase the storage of intramuscular and subcutaneous fat in the hip and thigh areas to provide a more readily available source of fuel for the muscles.  "But I sweat", they say. Sweating is a poor indicator of work, I know people who sweat reaching to the bottom of the fridge. 
I'm not picking on spinning! This is just an example of people who want a result but are misinformed on how they should get there. The same goes for yoga for fat loss, pilates, doing long duration treadmill or elliptical work for fat loss. It is counter productive.
Strength and interval resistance training is far more efficient. Mix up your training modalities and use low rest intervals with proper weight and volume to stimulate lean muscle growth and most importantly, fat loss mobilization.
So you may go to the gym 4 days per week and say I don't need a personal trainer. If you don't know where you are hormone deficient, what ratio of lean to fat mass you are, or what your daily micro-nutrient breakdown is (carbs, proteins, fats), then seeing a personal trainer for a proper assessment and program maybe just what you need.
TopShape Mike