Eating Healthy: A Mom`s Get Lean Diet

Fitness could be quite intimidating sometimes. If we add a diet to it, things can really become tough to handle. Because we want to help in overcoming some of the fears you may have, here are a few useful insights that might be helpful in your quest of leaving a healthy lifestyle after birth.

Most mommies who are new when it comes to weights will feel overwhelmed as soon as they step inside of a gym. There so many going on and it is quite hard at times to know where to start.

How Many Calories to Consume?

If you have not been calculating the calories you consume by now, then you have been making a rather big mistake while being on a diet.

You probably hate this as much as any other woman out there, but being aware of how many calories you consume could make a huge difference between failure and success.

However, you shouldn`t worry yet! We do not really expect you to take the calculator and sit around looking at various formulas for this particular aspect.

Keep in Mind your BMR

As soon as you find out your basal metabolic rate, it is essential that you don`t forget it.

If you consume more calories than your basal metabolic rate, then you`ll either gain body fat or lean mass, depending on how much you eat.

Still, if you eat under your basal metabolic rate, you will lose weight. So, you have to make certain you`ll adjust your meals accordingly.

As most women are interested in toning up, it`s recommended to consume 20% under your basal metabolic rate in order to gain definition around your waist, glutes, arms and legs.

Remember your NEAT Expenditure

This mistake is quite common.

Most of you will not have even heard of the term NEAT by now. This will be “non-exercise activity thermogenesis” expenditure, and comes from various things like fidgeting, walking or typing on the keyboard.

While it isn`t going to “make or break” any goals you may have, it is always good for you to be aware that you may be burning more calories than you in fact think. – Read more!

However, there`s also an issue: as you reduce the number of calories you consume, you become somehow lazier without even knowing. So, you will reduce the miles you walk and just take a taxi or something. Or you may simply stop fidgeting without being aware.

So, if you manage to keep up your “non-exercise activity thermogenesis,” then you will reach the perfect weight and size faster as well.

You Are Able to Build Lean Muscle in a Deficit of Calories

Yes, this is right! You are able to add lean muscle to your legs and butt, while losing your overall body fat.

You may have thought that`s impossible to achieve, but it is been very well documented in lots of research, and the term you are looking for is body re-composition.

Now, we won`t tell you that you will go from the 18 size to an 8 while adding muscle mass. But you may lose 1 – 2 inches around the waist while adding a little shape as well.

How You Should Use this Specific Diet?

This specific eating plan example was designed particularly having your own goals in mind. During such a plan, the entire goal is to shift the method of eating to get rid of fat without feeling like you have cut calories.

So, while you will eat less, you will be concentrating on foods that have more dense nutrients, making you feel fuller and, therefore, making the whole process much easier than you would imagine. More essentially, you will be supplying the body with the food type it needs for reshaping and burn fat.

For this particular purpose, we have designed a 4-meal-a-day plan which can be applied to just about any type of schedule out there. We have chosen 4 meals as it is a real-life option for most women with busy lifestyles. Frequently, eating often becomes rather tough and it isn`t easy to schedule, while consuming fewer meals may result in binge-type eating which kind of undercuts the goals. – More info!

Still, you could follow this particular plan as highlighted, but you can also make tiny changes which will let you consume just enough meals to fit your needs. From a scientific point of view, it isn`t how frequently you consume food, but instead what you consume that makes the whole difference.

This particular meal outlined in the lines below highlights an ideal eating day for any woman attempting to get lean. We have laid down the meal breakdowns and calorie targets for those who enjoy doing calorie math. And if you are interested in really adjusting based on activity levels and your type of body, this should be the way to do it.

But let`s be honest! The truth is that no one is a fan of counting calories. You should instead consume food depending on your hunger cues and then adjust those results accordingly.

Related: How Long Does It Take for Kegels to Work?

One Note Regarding Portion Size

Remember that instead of using grams or ounces, we prefer using probably the easiest metric there is: your hand. For instance, for women is recommended 1 palm-sized chicken portion.

This is best as the hand usually scales with the size of the body. If you are bigger, obviously you consume more food, according to the size of your hand. Instead, if you are smaller in size, you consume less food, again, according to the size of your hand.

Breakfast

• 3 eggs.
• 1 cup of spinach.
• 1 slice of sprouted grain toast.
• 1 tablespoon of almond butter.
• ¼ cup of mixed berries.
• 1 glass of water, black coffer or green tea.

Lunch

• 4 oz of tuna.
• 1 cup of chopped peppers and cucumbers.
• 1 tablespoon of guacamole.
• 1 sprouted of grain wrap.
• 1 cup of small carrots.
• 1 glass of water, black coffee or green tea.

Mid-Afternoon Quick Snack

• 1 scoop of protein powder.
• 1 cup of spinach.
• ¼ cup of strawberries.
• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil.
• 8 ounces of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
• Ice cubes.

Dinner

• 4 oz of chicken.
• 1 cup of asparagus.
• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.
• ½ cup of quinoa.
• 1 glass of water.

Supplementation

• A proper multivitamin that will cover all your bases.
• Vitamin D.
• Fish oil.
• A powder that can be used before workout to get you energized and improve endurance for your physical exercises.
• Amino acids.
• A recovery powder that you should use after your workout.

You`ll most likely get to like MRM supplements and start using them no matter if you are practicing physical exercises or not. Most of the company`s products are quite safe to use regardless if you are pregnant or nursing.

How to Gain Lean Muscle?

Do you want to get lean and lose fat? Here are a few steps that can help you achieve exactly that.

Workout with Weights that Will Challenge You in the 6 to 12 Repetitions Range

Adding some lean muscle, also known as hypertrophy, can be achieved using weights that challenge you in 6 repetitions. Hypertrophy represents the process of increasing the cell number within a specific tissue or organ, therefore improving the overall size of that specific organ or tissue.

If you start training with higher repetitions, you surpass this particular stage and train these muscles for endurance and not really for gaining lean muscle.

Workout at Least 3 Times per Week Using Weights

Muscle development happens through adaptation. You have to stress these muscles frequently enough in order to elicit the response of adaptation. These muscles will get bigger and stronger, because of the stress put upon them. Workout has to be challenging as well.

Consume Enough Protein

Protein represents the building block regarding muscle tissue (of course, among other few tissues within your body). When you`re working out hard enough, you have to make sure you`re consuming sufficient protein to help with recovery and repair of the cells of your muscles if you want to achieve hypertrophy.

Protein will aid keep you a lot fuller for a longer period of time and it provides a thermic effect, which means that it needs extra calories to digest, so it is good for loss of fat as well.

Decrease the Carbs Intake, but Don`t Get Rid of Them Completely

You cannot burn fat if insulin is present and each time you consume carbs and sugar, the body will release insulin. Still, carbs are great for your brain fuel and it`s also the favorite source of energy of your body and muscle recovery, so don`t get rid of them entirely.

The best possible period of time to consume carbs is when you are working out – before as well as after a training that challenged you.

Consume more Vegetables

Not only veggies are full of nutrients and low in calories, but they have an increased thermic effect as well, which means lots of energy ready to digest (especially if consumed raw or as close to raw as possible.

Consume Enough Food

Among the biggest mistakes made by women is not consuming sufficient food for their body to be fueled and their lean muscle gain and fat loss goals to be assisted. You need to have your meals at regular times full of protein, a few carbs, a lot of vegetables and some really food fat. You`ll only slow down your metabolism if you`ll starve yourself. – Click here!

Sleep Enough

Lots of women don`t offer too much importance to rest or sleep. However, if you do not rest enough, you aren`t able to function as you should and 2 negative outcomes can happen.

The first will be that you won`t be able to function at your right potential. The second one will be that when you feel tired, this kind of messes with the hormones and you`ll find it harder to resist not to give in to your cravings.

Don`t Overdo with your Workout

If you want your body fat to be lowered and add some lean muscle in the mean time, too much cardio isn`t productive, especially if you are talking about cycling or running. Muscle wastage happen when doing lots of cardio for long periods of time, so you may want instead to try a few sessions of short and high intensity exercises. Then only do moderate session for longer time intervals just as the last option.

The goal should be to always do as few cardio-based exercises as you possibly can if your target is body re-composition.

Hide your Scales

When you attempt to change the composition of your body for the better, you gain lean muscle and decrease fat weight, so you might be able to notice a big drop on your scale. Still, you`ll most certainly notice it in the mirror or how well the clothes start fitting.

Have Patience

It isn`t easy to mess with body re-composition – you should aim for 3 months. If you`re interested in a quick loss of weight, you`ll find yourself losing more muscle tissue than fat, which is a lot more precious.