Fitness professionals pig out better than anybody.
This was recently made abundantly clear when I went to Fogo De Chao in Beverly Hills, Ca. In case you don’t know, Fogo De Chao is glorious. It’s a Brazilian Churrascaria and buffet where they bring enormous slabs of meat on giant skewers right to your table. Plus they’ve got a killer buffet line full of all sorts of delicious flavor. It’s a magical place.
But when you’re rolling with a group of 40 strong—like literally, we were a huge group of fitness professionals—things get out of hand.
They literally couldn’t bring the food out fast enough as we destroyed pound after pound of chicken, beef, pork, and lamb. Not to mention the fried plantains, Pao de Quejo (Brazilian cheese bread that’s an unreal kind of delicious), fried yucca, cured meats, cheeses, rice, beans, fruits, salads, and vegetables.
We didn’t stope there. When huge slices of cheesecake and other decadent desserts came to the table, they quickly disappeared.
When we finally left, most of us grabbed chocolates as we walked out the door.
It was outside waiting for our Ubers that somebody said it…
Fitness Professionals Are Such Fat Kids
Scientific observation in the laboratory of all-you-can-eat sushi has proven I eat more than normal humans. One old roommate took that one step further—upgrading humans to horses.
It’s great. (Except for when I go out for tapas. I’ll drop $30 on my food, get home, and still have to make myself dinner.)
And sure, most of the time I’m eating good stuff—lean protein, veggies, and the like. But sometimes I, as I like to call it, go full fat kid…
Snicker pancakes with a package of bacon on the side, bacon cheeseburgers—yes, that’s intentionally plural—with a Krispy Kreme bun, or a whole Little Caesar’s pizza followed immediately by an entire box of Captain Crunch for dessert.
I’m a food lover—plain and simple. And I’m not alone. Every fitness professional I know also loves eating.
But wait.
Doesn’t that seem counter intuitive? To have the body you want, don’t you have to say goodbye to your favorite foods and learn to love eating nothing but boiled chicken, brown rice, and steamed broccoli?
Nope.
It’s completely possible to enjoy eating all the foods you love and have the body you’ve always wanted. Don’t believe me? Just look at all your favorite fitness professionals. They’re living proof that it can be done. And you deserve to discover how.
Spoiler alert: it’s simpler than you think.
Eat Like Royalty, Look Like Gold
Rome wasn’t built in a day. But it wasn’t destroyed in a day either.
People always seem to forget that.
When it comes to having the body of your dreams, one day is not going to make or break you. It’s a process. And it takes time.
A good nutrition program will give you a specific and personalized plan to follow and will get you good results. A great nutrition program will give you the same personalized plan and leave a little wiggle room so that you can indulge in your favorite foods. And that’s when you’ll see great results.
RELATED: I talk all about how to work that wiggle room into your own diet in A Food Lover’s Guide to a Fit Holiday Season. You can get the FREE download here.
I don’t care if you have the most scientifically perfect plan in the world, it doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t follow it.
Adherence is the number one determinant of success. Period. [Tweet that]
You could get better results following a bad plan perfectly than you’d get following a perfect plan badly. Let’s face it, if your nutrition plan doesn’t occasionally leave room for burgers, fries, pizza, cheesecake, cookies, or chocolate covered Twinkies (yeah, those exist), sticking to the plan becomes extremely difficult. I mean, we all have those days where we just need to post up with Netflix and a pint of Vermont’s finest.
But here’s the best part—indulging in your favorite foods can actually help you burn more fat.
Eat More Food, Lose More Fat
Losing weight isn’t always as simple as eating less food. In fact, sometimes eating less will stifle your progress and leave you at an unbreakable plateau. The trick is strategically eating more food. People refer to this in a lot of different ways—a cheat meal, a cheat day, a strategic refeed. Regardless of what you want to call it, it works.
And it works because of a hormone called Leptin.
But Leptin isn’t your average hormone. It’s referred to as a “master hormone” because it controls the production of other hormones that regulate metabolism. Basically, Leptin is the main hormone in control of your fat loss.
When Leptin levels are high, you’re a fat burning machine. When Leptin levels are low, your fat loss slows down to a halt.
A lot of diets out there—you know, the ones where you basically starve yourself—lead to low levels of Leptin. They may work at initially, but it won’t be long before your progress hits a wall. Cheating helps keep Leptin levels high. In turn, high Leptin maximizes fat loss. Plus you’ll enjoy eating your favorite foods while losing more fat. That’s the kind of diet I can get behind.
But you have to be strategic.
This is not an invitation to eat whatever you want all the time. That obviously wouldn’t work. Cheating too frequently can derail your progress.
Start with one cheat meal per week, or if you’d prefer, one cheat day every two weeks. When your fat loss slows down, consider taking it up a notch—two cheat meals per week or one cheat day every week. The leaner you are, the more you can get away with cheating. And the more it’ll help you out. Managing Leptin becomes especially helpful when you’re trying to lose those last few pounds of stubborn fat.
There are just two critical stipulations for your cheating:
– Don’t overeat.
If it hurts, stop. The goal isn’t to force food down. Want pizza? Cool. Full after a few pieces? Don’t finish the whole pie.
– Don’t completely neglect proper nutrition.
You still need to eat the stuff you know you should—fruits, veggies, and protein. Make sure you eat enough of the good stuff while you cheat.
Don’t know how much protein you should be eating?
I’ve got you covered. Click here to find out how much protein you need. I bet it isn’t as much as you think.
Now have at it. Eat more food; burn more fat.
And seriously, if you want to know how much protein you need you should check out that article.