  Welcome, ladies! Today, we're diving deep into a common obstacle many women face on their weight loss journey: being under muscled. You might be diligent with your diet, logging hours on the treadmill, yet still struggle to shed those stubborn pounds. Here's the scoop: it's time to shift our focus from just losing weight to building muscle. Let's explore why your muscle mass matters and how it impacts your weight loss goals.
Understanding the Problem: So, what exactly does it mean to be "under muscled"? In simple terms, it's having inadequate muscle mass relative to your body composition. As we age, especially between the ages of 30-50, our muscle mass naturally declines due to factors like hormonal changes, decreased activity levels, and even dietary habits. This decline in muscle mass not only affects our strength and mobility but also plays a crucial role in our ability to lose weight effectively. The Muscle-Fat Connection: Here's the kicker: muscle is a metabolically active tissue, meaning it burns calories even at rest. The more muscle mass you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which translates to more calories burned throughout the day. On the flip side, excess fat tissue does little in terms of calorie expenditure. So, if you're carrying more fat than muscle, your body becomes less efficient at burning calories, making weight loss an uphill battle. The Benefits of Building Muscle: 1. Increased Metabolism: By building muscle through resistance training, you can rev up your metabolism, making it easier to create the calorie deficit necessary for weight loss. 2. Improved Body Composition: Building muscle while losing fat leads to a leaner, more toned physique, rather than simply becoming smaller in size. 3. Enhanced Strength and Functionality: Strong muscles not only support you during workouts but also in daily activities, promoting better posture, balance, and overall vitality. How to Build Muscle and Lose Weight: 1. Strength Training: Incorporate resistance training exercises into your routine at least 2-3 times per week. Focus on compound movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and rows to target multiple muscle groups simultaneously. 2. Progressive Overload: Continuously challenge your muscles by gradually increasing the weight, reps, or intensity of your workouts over time. This stimulates muscle growth and prevents plateaus. 3. Balanced Nutrition: Ensure you're consuming enough protein to support muscle repair and growth, while also maintaining a slight calorie deficit to facilitate fat loss. Opt for nutrient-dense foods like lean meats, fish, eggs, legumes, and plenty of fruits and vegetables. 4. Rest and Recovery: Don't overlook the importance of rest days and quality sleep. Muscles need time to repair and grow, so prioritize recovery to avoid burnout and injury. Conclusion: Ladies, if you've been struggling to lose weight despite your best efforts, it's time to shift your focus to building muscle. Remember, it's not just about the number on the scale, but rather achieving a healthy balance of muscle and fat for long-term success. By incorporating strength training into your routine and prioritizing muscle growth, you'll not only transform your physique but also supercharge your metabolism and reclaim your confidence. Here's to becoming strong, empowered women who can conquer any challenge that comes our way! So, are you ready to say goodbye to being under muscled and hello to a stronger, leaner you? Let's do this together! Coach Kayli
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Blog Post By Kayli Montoya-HustonNASM Certified Personal Trainer & NCI Certified Nutrition Coach L1 and Mindset Coach Embarking on a weight loss journey can be challenging, especially when you're committed to shedding those stubborn pounds but see minimal results. If you're wondering why your body fat isn't budging, you're not alone. In this blog post, we'll explore the top 10 reasons that might be hindering your fat loss progress and provide practical solutions to overcome these obstacles.
Inadequate Caloric Deficit:
Conclusion: Identifying and addressing these roadblocks can pave the way for successful fat loss. Remember, patience and consistency are key. Consult with a qualified nutrition coach or personal trainer to personalize your approach and maximize your results. Your fitness journey is unique, and understanding these reasons can help you overcome obstacles and achieve your body fat loss goals. Welcome to 2024!
As we dive into the new year, let's focus on what really matters for fat-loss. I'm not about quick fixes or fads. It's all about practical steps you can actually stick to. This is my 9th January working in fitness, and I'm often inspired and rejuvenated by the new year too. Many people bash "resolutions," making it feel vulnerable to admit having big health goals for the new year. But you aren't alone. There are plenty of others watching this who want to improve how they look, move, and feel. The number one thing I hear from people at the beginning of each new year is their desire to lose weight, closely followed by wishes to eat "better" and "exercise more." Let’s tackle two out of these three: losing weight and eating better. These are the two things (besides maybe better sleep) that will help you feel better. So here is Tip #1 of the 10 no-nonsense strategies to help you lose fat more easily this year.
Stay strong, Coach Kayli! Here are 3 mistakes every woman over 40 needs to avoid.
Technically, these are 3 mistakes everyone who wants to improve their body composition and get leaner needs to avoid. But women are more sensitive to stress so they can't get away with as much. It's not fair but it does make sense from an evolutionary standpoint. Women are more important to the survival of our species than men. Ya know, the whole baby carrying thing. Anyway, in no particular order... Mistake #1. Fasting or "skipping breakfast" - let's first put to bed the myth that fasting is superior for fat loss. It's not. Fasting isn't even a nutrition protocol. You can fast and do keto, you can fast and track macros, you can fast and eat 10,000 calories per day. The fasting cult followers say that if you condense the feeding window, you're more likely to eat less because there's less time to eat. Certain things sound good in theory but don't hold up to real life application. Fasting is one of them. Studies show that people who fast tend to eat a lot more later in the day and it's easier for them to over indulge. They also report higher hunger and cravings. And there are certain metabolic disadvantages that can occur due to fasting. This is especially true in women over 40 who are more sensitive to stress. Cortisol is highest in the morning and fasting is a stress on the body (lack of energy coming in). During the season of life when hormonal changes are happening, it's not the time to disrupt things even further. My recommendation: wake up and eat within an hour of getting out of bed. Make it a high protein breakfast and a well balanced meal (with some carbs and fats) to reduce cortisol and keep blood sugar stable. Mistake #2. HIIT / Group Classes / Cardio - this is a dose dependent thing but based on experience in working with hundreds of women over the past decade, a lot of individuals overdo it when it comes to this style of exercise. I'm talking about OrangeTheory, F45, bootcamps, HIIT, cardio, etc. Anything where the main goal of the workout is basically a manual "calorie burn" and you often feel rewarded with a pool of sweat on the floor. Now, before you stop doing all forms of cardio, there's absolutely a time and place. Improving your cardio capacity is great for overall health. Sweating is a wonderful thing. However, it's easy to get hooked on the feeling. Or high on believing. Wait, where was I? Oh right.. too much cardio. This style of exercise is not exactly great for your metabolism or hormone health. It's a stressor like any form of exercise (increases cortisol) but it doesn't come with a metabolic advantage like lifting weights does. Because you're getting more efficient with calories each time you do that same workout or form of cardio. That means the calorie burn gets less and less. Not only that, but studies show that HIIT and cardio can drive hunger and cravings up and our bodies also subconsciously move less throughout the day to compensate for the calorie burn that occurred during the workout. My recommendation: this style of training is not great for body composition improvements. If you want to get leaner, do some form of resistance training as the foundation of your workouts. Use cardio in smaller doses and be sure to pay attention to recovery, hunger, and cravings. Notice how you're impacted when you work out like that. If you're training to get better at cardio (like running a marathon or ironman etc) then you'll obviously need a much higher level of frequency. In that case, you better be prepared to fuel appropriately to counter balance the amount of stress you're putting on your body. Mistake #3. Dieting too frequently / too extremely / unsustainably - once again, this is a problem across the board but when you're more sensitive to stress, it becomes an even bigger issue. Dieting is a major stressor on the body. Consider that your results, your metabolic health, and your hormone health are all dependent on having the appropriate resources to meet the demands you place on your body. Food / energy is an important resource. Recovery is a resource. Sleep is a resource. Self-care is a resource. Dieting impacts all of the above. You're removing energy, impairing recovery, making it more difficult to get adequate sleep, and potentially sacrificing self-care. A lot of women get frustrated when they're told to basically starve themselves and then don't see progress. Why don't they see progress? Because the diet is too extreme and your body fights to preserve energy. Think about it like this.. do you really want a fast and effective metabolism when very little energy is coming in? Of course you don't. You'd starve to death quicker. So your body adapts by down regulating metabolic function, suppressing certain systems in the body like immune function, sexual function, etc. The more frequently you diet, the more stress you place on your body. The more extreme your diet is, the more of a stressor it is. The more you try to be perfect, the more unsustainable the results are. My recommendation: diet smarter, not harder. Have a dedicated fat loss phase that lasts about 12-16 weeks (the timeline will be highly dependent on the individual). Keep it very moderate and if you're going to be more aggressive, you better damn well have recovery and stress management on lock. Eat mostly high quality foods and incorporate things you love in moderation each day (or at least each week). Avoid the half in, half out approach where you kinda sorta diet but then indulge and want to keep dieting forever. Unfortunately, these 3 mistakes are insanely common. In fact, they're often all done at once. Almost daily I speak to women who are trying to fast, eat 1200 calories, and are doing a whole bunch of cardio or HIIT. When you reach that season of life when hormones are changing and sensitivity to stress is higher, it's important to focus on some foundational habits that go a long way in your overall health and body composition. Food quality should really be a primary focus. It's incredibly important for hormone health. Walking is like the gift that keeps on giving. Do it frequently. Protein is your best friend. Eat lots of it. Muscle is your metabolic gold. Preserve it. Build it. Sleep and stress management are non negotiables. If anyone gets in the way of your sleep and self-care, you have permission to Will Smith them (is that still a reference? Probably not. But I'm using it anyway). Above all else, prioritize yourself. I just spoke to someone this morning who said that she's spent 45 years of her life putting everyone else first. She said that she's always made financial decisions based on everyone else. Rarely ever herself. Finally, it clicked. She said, enough is enough. I'm worth it and I deserve to be happy and healthy. The most impactful thing she said in our conversation was... "It doesn't do anyone much good if I lack confidence in myself and feel miserable in my own body. I deserve to feel good and look good." Without a doubt. You don't have to put your own goals on hold for the sake of everyone else. Not only do you deserve to look and feel how you want but the people you care about the most deserve the best version of you. And that requires prioritizing yourself. Investing in yourself. And spending your time accordingly. If you don't know where to start, simply ask. I can always point you in the right direction. Much love, Kayli What exactly is your Metabolism & what does it do for you?
Imagine your body is like a machine that needs fuel to run, just like a car needs gasoline. Metabolism is like the engine of that machine. It's the process in your body that turns the food you eat into energy that your body can use. You see, every time you eat something, your body breaks down the food into smaller pieces called nutrients. These nutrients include things like carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Your body uses these nutrients to do different things, like helping your muscles move, your brain think, and even your heart beat. Now, think of your metabolism as the way your body converts these nutrients into energy. It's like a factory inside you that takes in the nutrients and turns them into the energy your body needs to function. This energy helps you do everything from running and playing to growing and even sleeping! The metabolism is always working, even when you're sleeping or sitting still. It's a busy process that happens in every cell of your body. Some people have faster metabolisms, which means their bodies convert food into energy more quickly. Others have slower metabolisms, so their bodies convert food into energy more slowly. Different things can affect your metabolism too. For example, when you exercise, your metabolism speeds up because your body needs more energy. That's why it's important to eat healthy food and stay active, so your metabolism can work efficiently and keep you feeling good. So, in simple terms, metabolism is like the engine that converts the food you eat into energy for your body. It's what keeps you going and helps you grow strong and healthy! 8 Simple Ways to Speed Up Your Metabolism: Your metabolism doesn’t slow down due to age until your reach your 60s If it does slow down it’s due to a significant change in your lifestyle. The most common reason being you lost muscle & your actions led to a slower metabolism. 1. Stop crash dieting.
- Increases appetite + cravings - Decreases energy expenditure 5. Drink ½ your BW in oz of water per day.
Have you ever been told the reason you’re not losing weight is because “you’re eating too little”.
If so, I am also sure you have been told your body has gone into “starvation mode”. Where people tend to explain it, as your body is holding onto all your body fat because you haven’t been eating enough calories. Spoiler Alert: I’m here to explain to you why this is in fact a myth. As everything you hear in the fitness and health industry there is a sliver of truth behind this statement. In fact, I myself am guilty of using this phrase in the past. Thankfully I have continued to learn and research the science of our metabolism. Next let's break down the common definition of “starvation mode”. What is Starvation Mode? Starvation mode is not a scientific term. It is a popular phrase used to imply that when you cut calories too low, your body goes into a protection mode, slowing your metabolism and calorie output so that you stop losing weight. This concept is rooted in your body's survival mechanisms. If you ever found yourself without food for long periods of time, it would not be beneficial for your body to continue to burn calories at a normal rate; instead, your metabolism would shift to preserve as much energy as possible to prolong your life. But starving to death is not quite the same thing as dieting and you will still lose weight in the process of wasting away without food. How Long Can You Survive Without Food? With access to water and electrolytes, your body can survive for quite some time without food, depending on the person and how much body fat you have. Some research suggests that you can go more than a month without food. And in some religions, long fasts are commonly practiced with potential health benefits. Starvation mode is not a real term, but metabolic adaption is, and it’s a known phenomenon. How drastically it affects your weight loss progress is another story. Your body can compensate for decreased calories by slowing your metabolism down as much as 30% through adaptive thermogenesis. But the effects of adaptive thermogenesis are typically short-lived, and for most the difference could be as little as a 5% decrease in basal metabolic rate (BMR), and it does not indicate a damaged metabolism. So what is the verdict? In all of the studies referenced to support starvation mode, weight loss was a factor. And it is crucial to note that any weight loss can cause you to have a lower BMR - since it just takes less energy to move around a smaller object. Why You're Not Losing Weight and How to Fix it If you find that you’ve hit a weight loss plateau, it does not mean you are in starvation mode. Some more common factors are likely at play, including the following: You're Not Tracking Your Food Intake It's pretty impossible to know if you are in a calorie deficit if you aren't tracking your food intake. Before assuming something else is at play, keeping an accurate food diary is the best place to start. Even if you've been tracking, take a look at how diligent you are being with this habit.
You can also use your tracking app to get weekly calorie and macro averages - this is the best way to see how well you’ve stuck to your diet consistently, as well as where you could use some work. You're Not Eating the Right Amount of Calories Typically, if you aren't losing weight, you are eating more calories than you think. Or if you've recently lost weight, you likely have a new maintenance calorie amount and may need to eat fewer calories to continue losing. This is why many popular weight loss plans will use a phased approach to cutting, helping you to stay in a calorie deficit and continue losing weight with incremental calorie cuts. Start by figuring out how many calories you need to eat a day to maintain your current weight and then calculate your new weight loss calorie needs from that starting point. You're Always on a Diet It might also just be that your body needs a break. If you've been dieting for more than a few months, it might be time to give your body time to adjust to your maintenance calorie level. Jumping from one diet to the next and constantly trying to cut calories can do more harm than good. It is much easier to stick to a diet and continue to get results if you understand how to maintain results in the first place. Been on a really low-calorie diet for a while and scared to add calories back in? Try upping your intake a few hundred calories a week to start, until you reach your maintenance level. And then stick to your maintenance for at least a month to give your time to adjust and reset your metabolism. You're Too Focused on the Scale Oftentimes dieters are focused solely on fat loss, but their total body composition is crucial to getting better results and making them stick. Not to mention, if you are cutting calories too low for too long, you’re at risk of losing precious calorie burning tissue - your muscle. Gaining muscle is essentially the opposite of “starvation mode”. Your muscle mass is the biggest determinant of your metabolic rate, and the more you have, the more you can eat and maintain your weight. Plus, muscle is the tissue behind that lean, toned look most of us are striving to achieve in the first place. While muscle growth is typically achieved through weight gain, which would ultimately increase your metabolism even further, it is possible for some people to build muscle in a calorie deficit. But at the very least, you should be focused on protecting your muscle while dieting. To keep your lean mass intact while dieting, be sure to incorporate the following:
What are the Minimum Calories for Weight Loss? While starvation mode may not technically exist, starving yourself to lose weight is still not recommended. A very low-calorie diet may work at first, but it’s likely not going to do you favors in the long run. It can be dangerous for some people, lead to disordered eating habits, and does not typically lead to sustainable results, since most people do not change bad habits once they resume eating again. In addition, extreme dieting is impossible to maintain, causing painful hunger cues, irritability, mood swings, decreased energy, poor concentration, and sucks your willpower dry, all of which makes sticking to a diet that much harder. Instead, stick to a more attainable approach to dieting with no more than a 15-20% decrease from your estimated daily energy needs. Slow and steady weight loss of 0.5 to 1% body weight per week is much easier to keep off and you will be much happier and more successful with a more measured and sustainable diet plan approach. Need help figuring out how many calories you need each day? I’d be happy to help you figure out your starting numbers. Simply click the button below and fill out this short form explaining your goals and I’ll reach within 24hrs! Have you ever gone to your doctor asking about ways to lose weight, and the first thing they tell you is that they have a “magic” pill that will help you lose weight fast? All you have to do is take this pill and eat 1,200 calories a day.
Does this sound familiar to you? Unfortunately, this seems to be common practice. Did you know that on average, U.S. medical schools only offer on average 2.8 hours of instruction on obesity, nutrition and physical activity counseling. That sure doesn’t seem like much time dedicated to nutrition to me, but then again, this isn’t normally why we see our family doctors. They are great at many other things but sustainable fat loss isn’t one of them. I have been training and coaching for almost 5 years now and I have had many clients seek my help after having gone through extreme dieting and pills prescribed by their doctor. They dropped a lot of weight fast, but then gained it all back and then some after stopping the pills! For 99% of people, 1,200 calories is way too little to be consuming. Our bodies need that much energy intake just for basic needs, things like breathing and to operate our internal organs. Our bodies are extremely capable of adapting though. This is what has kept us alive for so long. We have survived countless famines throughout history. We used to be hunters/gatherers and only ate when we made a kill or forged and found food. There would be a feast followed by many days of not eating while searching for more food. How did we survive??? We survived because of our bodies ability to adapt. Our metabolisms would “learn” how to run off lower calories and would “slow” down our metabolisms. Meaning we could survive off less food and when we did find food again it would store it as body fat in case of emergencies when there would be no food. Nowadays we rarely have a problem finding food, in fact, we have the complete opposite problem. You can find something to eat on every street corner! We are constantly tempted. Okay, back to why eating 1,200 calories is “wrecking” your metabolism. As described above, our bodies don’t understand that you want to look better in the mirror or drop a couple pant sizes. Your body only knows it isn't receiving enough nutrition to survive long term. So it does its job and lowers your metabolism to keep you alive! I’d say a thanks is in order haha. So rather quickly after eating only 1,200 calories you will notice you are no longer losing weight like you were in the beginning. At first it just slows, then weight loss all together stops. You’ll notice other signs too: constant hunger, cravings, moodiness, poor sleep, skin issues, and women can lose their cycle. This is our body's way of saying, “Hey! I need some nutrition, damn it!” So most of us cave. We go back to eating just like we were before and gain every single pound back. We have to find something sustainable to lose weight, because we will have to continue it to keep that weight off. Enough of the negative. Now, let me share some ways I help my clients lose body fat and keep it off! First, we want to do as little as possible to elicit the most amount of change. Stay with me here. I want my clients to keep eating as much as possible during their fat loss phase. During the first week, we will figure out what their maintenance calories are (what they need to eat to stay at their current weight.) Once we find this number, we will lower their intake by just 250-500 calories max. You will start to see fat loss from this amount. A sustainable fat loss rate is around 1-2 pounds per week. If you are losing more than 2 pounds per week you are not eating enough to keep your metabolism in a healthy place. After a few weeks, their calories may need to be lowered again to keep seeing results but this is why we start high so we have room to make adjustments along the way. Next, I will have them incorporate resistance training 1-2 days per week. Resistance training is proven to build and preserve muscle on our bodies. The more muscle we have on our bodies, the more calories our bodies will burn at rest. It will keep our metabolism “higher.” Plus, I believe you may find yourself to look more aesthetically pleasing with the added muscle. Last, and definitely not the least. . . We program in periodization. This simply means we don’t want to stay in this fat loss phase for longer than 8-24 weeks depending on their size and how much fat they want/need to lose. There needs to be times where you go back to eating at maintenance again or even in a surplus to get your body back to a healthier place. Yes, you may put a few pounds back on but if done properly, it won't be much. If you try to rush the process and stay in a fat loss phase for a long amount of time you will end up “slowing” down your metabolism and end up gaining all the weight you just lost and sometimes more! If you still have weight to lose, you can always go back into a fat loss phase after spending some time in a maintenance phase. The key takeaways here are:
I hope this helps you in your fat loss journey and if you would like even more guidance, I have a few spots opening up soon in my online coaching. Shoot me a DM and let’s talk about what you are struggling with the most right now and see if I can help. |
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