The 3 Things You CAN Do to Get LEAN Now.

"Weight loss" as a term, annoys me.

You're not trying to 'lose weight', you're trying to lose FAT and GAIN muscle - that's right GAIN. Since everyone is always keen to jump on the FAT loss train starting January 1st, here's my top 3 recommendations for new clients and patients trying to get lean.

1) Throw away your scale. Yep. You heard me, toss it, bedazzle it, I don't care, just get rid of it. It's just going to frustrate you. While you're gaining muscle, the number will go up, or stay the same. If you're exercising AND eating right, your scale ALONE is useless. In combination with other data, a weight measurement CAN be useful, but for you, everyday, at home, NOPE. There are more effective measures of your success including waist circumference, waist to hip ratio, bio-electrical impedance analysis and skin-fold calipers are more effective, accurate ways to measure your success and your health risk/benefit as you make changes.

2) Eat Fat - it doesn't make you fat. Yes, any nutrient in excess can make you fat, because excess nutrients get stored as fat, but fat alone, as a molecule, in your body, does not necessarily get stored as fat 100% of the time. It can be used for energy, it's used in all of your cell membranes and some fats are an integral part of your brain's health. Friendly fats will help regulate your satiety, keeping you more full, for longer, and keep your brain from thinking you're starving via the hormone leptin, which in turn helps to regulate appetite.

3) Prioritize Protein - make sure every meal and snack has a source of protein. That's meat, fish, eggs, beans, nuts, protein powder... and I'm not just saying this because I like to lift weights and I think protein is cool. You need protein for every enzymatic reaction in your body (there's a LOT), you need it for your immune system (all your antibodies = protein!), you need it for your MUSCLES.

There you have it! Those are usually the first 3 things I'll tell my patients/clients to do when they embark on a body composition change process. OF COURSE exercise is going to be part of the plan, but let's save those suggestions for next time...