Learn how proteins, carbohydrates, and fats play vital roles in fueling your body and how tracking them can optimize your health and fitness goals.
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Manipulation of body composition is a common goal in a variety of pursuits, but how do we accurately and objectively measure and track changes over time? Body composition devices and techniques offer a solution here. However, people often place undue confidence in both the accuracy and precision of body composition values that they get from techniques that are regarded as high-quality.
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Have you ever considered the benefits of committing to weighing your food? Whether you're looking to shed a few pounds, gain muscle, or simply develop healthier eating habits, precision in your nutrition can be a game-changer. While it may seem like a daunting task, weighing your food can yield remarkable advantages, especially when combined with regular exercise.
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Have you ever wondered if training on a low carb diet could be beneficial for overall endurance performance? Enter the "Train Low, Compete High" strategy: an approach where athletes manipulate carb intake during training to push metabolic boundaries and heighten glycogen usage thresholds. By staying low-carb during training and refilling glycogen before events, athletes might delay tapping into these energy stores, theoretically enhancing endurance. But how substantial is the evidence?
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In my work, both at the hospital and with my clients here at BIN, it really strikes me how much emotion and guilt surround the foods we eat, making us “good” or “bad” people in any given moment. We've been conditioned into a world that treats food as an "indulgence" to be restrained, instead of something we literally need to survive, live our best life, and yes, achieve the goals we want to achieve, whatever they may be. So, how do you break that cycle of guilt when everyone around you, in the media, on the internet, and maybe even in your own circle, is pushing that on you?
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Why do we care? How our intake can add up. Where should my levels be? What about supplementation? Can I still salt my food? What should I change?
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Meal planning is a powerful tool that can transform your cooking routine and make your life so much easier. By taking a little time to plan ahead, you can save valuable time and energy throughout the week, reduce stress, and ensure that you're nourishing your body with balanced and delicious meals. In this guide, we'll dive into the art of meal planning and provide you with practical tips and strategies to help you become a meal planning pro.
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Navigating through the overwhelming amount of nutrition advice available can be a daunting task. If you have specific goals related to body composition, weight loss, or improving your food choices, it may be time to consider hiring a nutrition coach. Working with a professional who understands the intricacies of nutrition can provide you with the guidance, accountability, and support needed to achieve sustainable success. In this article, we'll explore the reasons why hiring a nutrition coach can benefit you and help you make an informed decision about taking that next step towards a healthier and happier you.
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If you have ever struggled to lose or gain weight, I guarantee you have at some point heard the advice:
“You just need to eat more/less than you burn”
The person that typically says this kind of thing most likely also holds the belief that being overweight or having obesity is a result of pure laziness or a lack of morals. At the surface level, this advice is correct. However, it is correct in the same way that going to a football game and telling the head coach of your team “Hey pal, you just gotta score more points than the other team and you’ll win” is correct. Correct, but very unhelpful and lacks any understanding on what contributes to the scoring of points.
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In the world of health and fitness, there's a lot of emphasis on exercise, nutrition, and supplements. But there's one crucial factor that often gets overlooked: sleep. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more exercise, more supplements, or a new diet plan will be the solution to your health and fitness goals. But the truth is, without enough sleep, all those efforts may be in vain.
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Many people are quick to blame nagging health issues on their food habits and often rightfully so. But they’re more likely to pin it on over-eating when often the root of the issue is actually the opposite. Under-eating is VERY common. We’ve conditioned ourselves to believe that eating less = better life. The truth is that’s not always true. I know, I KNOW, this is the opposite of what you’ve believed your whole life! Eating too little is just as unhealthy as eating too much.
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While I'm not proud of it, when I first started losing weight, I was 100% into cut mode every day 24/7. I didn't have the slightest clue as to what a real maintenance period was, because I thought that was something you only did once you reached your ‘goal weight’. I also didn’t realize I was doing more harm than good by trying to be in a straight deficit for a majority of the year. Maintenance is where so much of the magic happens; habits are built, there’s more flexibility with food choices and social gatherings, cortisol levels are lower, and energy is higher.
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We know the statistics. The majority of our clients come to us with fat loss as their main goal. Before joining Black Iron Nutrition, many have tried every diet under the sun. Keto. Paleo. Intermittent Fasting. Carnivore. Vegan. Vegetarian. They’ve tried other nutrition companies – and have found themselves on dangerously low calories. And while we won’t deny that they saw results initially – they weren’t able to sustain their results in the long-term. Many end up right back where they started.
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When we start making nutrition changes, I think we all start looking for “progress”, and that’s fair! Progress photos and measurements are so useful, but we CANNOT overlook our mental progress. We can't only feel good about ourselves when we’re eating all the “right” foods, or when we’ve seen progress in the form of a smaller waist. If we’re solely focused on eating “healthy” and “good” foods all of the time, and then hate ourselves the second we eat something “unhealthy,” I’d argue that’s not very healthy at all.
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It is really common to see clients mention in the first few weeks or months of working with a nutrition coach that they’re disappointed when they see the scale go up.
From experience, many clients come to a nutrition coach chronically dieting, eating in a caloric deficit, or undereating for longer than 3-6 months. It is imperative that they reverse diet back up to at LEAST their maintenance calories and spend at least 3-6 months eating enough food to boost their metabolic rate. This will allow them to lose more weight effectively in the future. Your metabolism slows down when you eat lower calories, so as calories increase, your metabolism should increase as well.
I had a friend ask me this question the other day and it led me to understand that most of us really want weight loss to happen as fast as possible. But in order to lose weight quickly, it’s often not going to happen in what I would consider a “healthy” way.
There are so many “diets” out there that have you restrict so many calories that you no longer have the energy to exercise; high fat, no carb, meal replacements, you name it, it’s out there. And about 95% of the time my clients tell me they have tried some, if not all of these kinds of diets. They come to me worn out from it all.
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My best piece of advice to anyone looking to start up their nutrition journey with a coach is to keep an open mind. I mean, you're likely seeking help because your way hasn't worked for you in one way or another, right?
Things that I have new clients really hone in on in the first few weeks include:
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My face when a client says they are upset they “only” lost half a pound this week 😡
The toughest part about being a nutrition coach is getting clients to buy in on a few ideas.
Me when I try to explain body neutrality…
A body is just a body. It doesn’t have moral value. It changes as you change. There’s nothing inherently good or evil about it. I used to think I had to constantly, aggressively love my body- if I didn’t feel that way on a day, I felt like I was failing or not being “positive” enough.
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We talk all the time about how consistency is king/queen, but if you’re someone who is struggling with consistency you might be missing out on the piece that comes right before it: TRIAL & ERROR
I get it, you just signed up for a coach and you’re ready to GET. TO. WORK.
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