This article is just as much for me as it is for you. Because even though many of us know what to do when it comes to health and fitness. We sometimes miss the forest for the trees and get bogged down in the inessentials. These fitness reminders should help you get back on track.
1. Drink Enough Water
Drinking enough water helps with digestion, workout performance and preventing headaches (it can prevent dehydration). These are just a few benefits although there are many more.
Regarding how much water, I recommend that you aim to drink 3-4 litres of water per day to start with.
Although how much water you need to drink can be determined by a few other factors
such as:
- Body weight.
- Activity levels.
- Body temperature (if you sweat more you need to drink more water).
But on average 3-4 litres should be adequate for most people.
2. Have A Calorie Target
Are you trying to lose fat? Then you must be consistently hitting your calorie deficit target. If you want to maintain or gain weight you also need a calorie target in mind as well.
To work out your maintenance calories (the number of calories to maintain your weight)
multiply your body weight in pounds by 15.
Done that?
Good.
If you want to lose weight take 500 calories away from the number you just calculated. This should put you in a calorie deficit.
And if you want to gain weight/ muscle add 200 calories to that initial number you calculated. This should put you in a slight calorie surplus.
3. Have A Protein Target
Eating 1 gram of protein per pound of your bodyweight is sufficient for:
- Keeping you full.
- Helping you build/ maintain muscle.
For someone who weighs 170 pounds, this would mean eating 170 grams of protein every day.
4. Limit The Junk In Your Diet Follow The 80/20 Rule
You can absolutely still include any form of junky goodness in your nutrition plan. As long as it’s not the majority of your calories. That’s fine.
I like to give myself the option of eating 20% of my nutrition from any food I like. For me, this is mainly chocolate or Ice cream.
So if you were losing weight and you needed to eat 2000 calories a day to do this, you could eat 400 calories from chocolate or ice cream if you wanted.
But you must make sure that the rest of your calories are coming from healthy whole foods. Foods like fruits, vegetables, lean meats, healthy fats, grains, fish, etc.
5. Make Sure You’re Strength Training 3- 5 times per week with some additional cardio
Here are a couple of programs:
Women’s Program
Regarding cardio, I like walking. It shouldn’t interfere with your weight training as much as high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity cardio.
6. Get 8 Hours Of Deep Sleep Every Night
Sleep is so underrated. Getting 8 hours of sleep will dramatically improve your recovery. It’ll also make training more enjoyable. And everything is just easier when you’re not tired and run down all the time.
7. Don’t Drink Too Much
Drinking too much alcohol can lead to many problems so I try to limit my use to effectively 0 but occasionally I have 1 or 2 drinks. Hangovers are the worst.
But drinking in moderation shouldn’t affect your body composition goals.
Thanks for reading, if you need any extra help send me an email at contact@henrypaget.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
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