Cardio Training

Consistently eating quality calories is your key to eating better to get a healthy, lean body. Enjoy your food. The main negative with many calorie restricted and fad diets is that you end up hating to eat.


That is no way to live as far as I'm concerned! And, in the long-term, you won't be successful keeping the weight off your body with the "anti-eating" approach.

Cutting calories, eating healthy, burning fat and losing weight can be a confusing process for you.

You won't have it all figured out in 2 weeks time. Experts agree that you are better off making manageable changes to your diet and workout routine. Some of your eating and workout (or no workouts) habits have been developed over a lifetime.

Christopher Sciamanna, M.D., discovered how to do weight managment the hard way: After losing 30 pounds, he described his new, lower weight as "shockingly challenging" to maintain.

He and his colleagues at Penn State University's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center decided to study weight loss maintenance.

Part of their study was to examine results found at the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR). For the past two decades, NWCR has focused on a single group of people. To qualify, they have to lose at least 30 pounds and keep the weight off for at least a year. The findings aren’t surprising. The participants were successful primarily because of the following habits:

--Exercise at least an hour a day, almost every day
--Follow a low-fat, low-sugar, low-calorie diet
--Eat, more or less, the same foods all the time
--Minimize TV watching
--Eat breakfast

With all this in mind, here are 7 ways to eat quality calories:

Note: The old rule still applies: Maintaining daily caloric surpluses (eating more calories than you burn) will cause you to gain weight. You can't eat all you want. You must learn how much and when to eat. Eating quality calories helps you eat nutritiously with less caloric intake. You won't ever be hungry.

1. Don't cut out any of the macronutrients (fats, carbohydrates, proteins) from your diet. Your body needs all three to function properly. Once you have the foundational eating practices figured out, specialized eating tactics like "low-carb days" can be an effective way to burn fat.

2. Drink mainly water and unsweetened drinks like green tea for fluids. This will help you avoid drinking sugary sodas and fruit juices that puts dangerous belly fat on your body. This one change will slash tons of calories every day.

3. Eat enough food to fuel your body for the day's demands of work, activities and exercise. Eat every 3 to 4 hours to keep your energy up and your metabolism active throughout the day.

Many of you have wrecked your metabolisms by eating too few calories during the day. If you have been eating 1000 calories a day for months and months, your body has shifted into survival mode and is storing body fat. And, you must feel terrible!

Although you need to maintain a caloric deficit on most days to burn fat and lose weight, that doesn't mean you have to go hungry.

For instance, my basal metabolic rate (how many calories my body would burn if I did nothing all day) is about 2,000 calories. If I eat 2,000 calories and burn 500 calories through exercise and daily activity, I will still burn fat and lose weight (500 calorie deficit).

If I starve myself and eat 1,200 calories (1,300 calorie deficit) day after day, my body will rebel and store body fat. A 1,300 calorie deficit is too large (severe calorie restriction).

4. Eat carbohydrates. A low-carb diet is not necessarily required to burn fat, although it can be useful in some circumstances. You are better off eating the right kinds of carbohydrates at the right time.

Your body depends on carbohydrates as a primary fuel source (especially during intense workouts). After a tough workout, a post-workout drink with high glycemic carbs and protein will help your body recover and rebuild your muscles. During the day, low glycemic carbs are more desirable.

5. Eat protein with every meal. Animal sources of protein are complete proteins, such as from eggs and lean meats.


Protein keeps blood sugar levels more steady when you have a meal that includes carbohydrates. Protein helps you feel fuller for a longer period (slower digestion). Protein also keeps the hunger hormone (ghrelin) in check so your hunger doesn't spike so high.

Drinking a fast-digesting whey protein drink before and after your weight training workout helps your body repair and rebuild your muscles.

6. Eat enough fiber eat day. Your body cannot digest fiber and there are two forms:

--Soluble fiber dissolves in water and produces a gel-like substance in your stomach. This substance helps digested food move slowly through the small intestine and slows down food absorption and release of nutrients into the bloodstream. Soluble fiber also limits the amount of cholesterol released into the blood. Oats are high in soluble fiber.

--Insoluble fiber cannot be broken down once entering the stomach and increases in size by absorbing water. This type of fiber speeds up foods absorption once it enters into the small intestine. Insoluble fiber cleans your system as it travels through your body.

Eat both types of fiber to help you feel fuller for longer and to help stabilize blood sugar levels. Eating 25-35 grams of daily fiber per day will help fight belly fat. Fruits and vegetables have both types of fiber.

7. Use the replacement method to change bad eating habits. If you don't replace bad foods with healthy foods, you will continue to eat bad foods. You have to eat something, right?! For instance, if you have a sweet tooth, eat more fruits and less candy and sugary desserts.

Start eating better today! Download the program below to help you.

-Cathering Ebeling and Mike Geary are co-authors of the popular ebook, Fat-Burning Kitchen, which shows you how to totally revamp your kitchen to make your body a fat-burning machine. Get it now!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
Sports Fitness Hut
Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs