The hardest game to play is to remind oneself that staying lean, packing on muscle and having good body composition matters.
Now for some folks a combination of traits, habits and preferences helps with maintaining good body composition and a number on the weighing scale that coincides with healthy joints and the ability to move well.
1. Think of your basal metabolic rate as falling on a curve. It could be so low that eating what most would think of as an unreasonable amount of food is still far too many calories. Or their BMR is high enough that the client finds it hard to consume enough food to enter the territory if surplus.
2. They enjoy physical activity. And gravitate towards activity choices that makes it fairly easy to maintain reasonable lean mass levels.
3. They don’t enjoy eating. Some people just don’t find most foods appealing. It’s easy for them to eat what they need to survive.
4. They feel full fairly quickly when they do eat. Some folks find it hard to over consume foods.
5. Competitive and motivated. Some folks just don’t need much nudging or reminding to keep their eye on the good body composition prize. They enjoy the rewards of training and eating appropriately. Even if they don’t really enjoy training.
6. They fidget a whole lot and are restless. They compulsively moving around a lot. As insignificant as this sounds, this can add up.
7. Work that requires moving around. Labourers, cleaning staff, working on the gym floor, airport staff and a few other folks are constantly on the move while working. This category can and do undo the unintended benefits of their job by eating too much.
For those of us who do not fall into the above brackets, we need reminders, professionals, counselling, training community, meal preparation, a carefully stocked pantry, constant environmental reinforcement, measurements, report cards and supportive families and friends who tell you that your health and wellness goals are worth pursuing and you being active, leaner and healthier makes life better for you and everyone around you.
Now for some folks a combination of traits, habits and preferences helps with maintaining good body composition and a number on the weighing scale that coincides with healthy joints and the ability to move well.
1. Think of your basal metabolic rate as falling on a curve. It could be so low that eating what most would think of as an unreasonable amount of food is still far too many calories. Or their BMR is high enough that the client finds it hard to consume enough food to enter the territory if surplus.
2. They enjoy physical activity. And gravitate towards activity choices that makes it fairly easy to maintain reasonable lean mass levels.
3. They don’t enjoy eating. Some people just don’t find most foods appealing. It’s easy for them to eat what they need to survive.
4. They feel full fairly quickly when they do eat. Some folks find it hard to over consume foods.
5. Competitive and motivated. Some folks just don’t need much nudging or reminding to keep their eye on the good body composition prize. They enjoy the rewards of training and eating appropriately. Even if they don’t really enjoy training.
6. They fidget a whole lot and are restless. They compulsively moving around a lot. As insignificant as this sounds, this can add up.
7. Work that requires moving around. Labourers, cleaning staff, working on the gym floor, airport staff and a few other folks are constantly on the move while working. This category can and do undo the unintended benefits of their job by eating too much.
For those of us who do not fall into the above brackets, we need reminders, professionals, counselling, training community, meal preparation, a carefully stocked pantry, constant environmental reinforcement, measurements, report cards and supportive families and friends who tell you that your health and wellness goals are worth pursuing and you being active, leaner and healthier makes life better for you and everyone around you.