Why Focus on Nutrition?
This of it this way. Your ability to lose fat and gain muscle is directly related to what sort of food you put in your body. If you provide your body with plenty of good fuel and little junk, then you will find your systems able to transform themselves with greater ease and speed. If however you don’t give your body enough fuel and gunk up the pipes with bad food, then all your exercise will stall out as your body struggles to recreate itself.
After all, what you are trying to do is change your body composition, and while exercise is crucial for this process, it serves only to break down your muscle fibers. What your body does to heal itself and grow bigger is where the body change takes place, and the amount of protein, fat, and carbs in your system at that point are what will determine how much muscle you gain – and how much fat you lose.
That is why it is essential to follow a comprehensive meal plan that determines not only what you should eat, but how much of it. Too many calories, regardless of their quality, will result in fat, while too few will result in energy crashes.
During the Workout
When you step into your trainers and press play, you might think that you are now only going to have to fixate on the workout itself. The music begins, the trainers begin to rev you up, and all you want to focus on is lifting weights and breaking a fantastic sweat. However, that’s not right! You need to be aware of your energy levels throughout, especially as some of the Les Mills workouts can last up to an hour or more. If you don’t take your nutrition and fueling needs seriously, you can crash during your workout as you run into what people call ‘the wall’, and lose your ability to push on at your hardest.
What does that mean for you? It means you need to make sure that you are following the Les Mills nutrition plan, eat a decent snack at least thirty minutes before the workout, and then have a quick source of energy close by for during the workout so that you can refuel. This can be anything from a power bar to a gel pack, and you need to also make sure that you stay decently hydrated throughout.
Meal Plans
Of extreme importance is following the Les Mills meal plans. Too many people think that they can dive right into the workouts and begin pushing their bodies to new levels of intensity without changing what they eat. They don’t reflect on the fact that their previous nutritional plans are what got them into trouble and overweight, and often they simply don’t want to change what they eat, because food can serve as a source of comfort and security.
However, if you are to realize real changes you need to ensure that you are eating correctly. The first step lies in figuring out how much you should be eating, because establishing the correct amount of calories is crucial to getting your body to lose fat while still building muscle. This figure is determined in the Les Mills meal plan by taking track of your gender, weight, activity level and more.
Once you know how much you should be eating, you need to determine what your goals are: do you want to lose weight, or gain it? Then you need to start following the meal plans, as these will help you get on track and eat exactly what you need to get ripped. This is actually the hardest part of the workout, as too many people fixate on the exercise and forget to put as much time and energy into their food as they should.
To ensure that your meal plans are a success follow these tips: you need to plan each week out in advance. Make sure you have purchased all the ingredients ahead of time, and are well stocked ahead of time to make each meal. Prep the meals that require a little more work, as often the prospect of cooking can make people groan and give up. Finally, be sure to throw out all the junk food in your house before you get started, because that temptation will surely trip you in the long run.