This week the ADOFitness trainers will be addressing topics we get asked a lot of questions about. This week coach Trista discusses how sleep affects weight and weight loss.

One of the biggest factors in progress that I am always discussing with my clients is sleep! During sleep is when our bodies go through a lot of healing and repairing, it is just as vital and eating and exercising. It impacts our immune system, hormones, appetite, and cognitive function. Now how does sleep connect with the number on the scale? Well many things can cause the scale to increase even when you’re doing everything right and following your plan to a T. One of the biggest culprits is lack of sleep. Most people need at least 7-8 hours, however if you get under 6 hours even once, this can cause the scale to increase. The reason this happens is your body is stressed and is producing a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is not inherently bad, we need it for survival, it is when it is chronically elevated is when it starts causing health problems. In a typical day our levels rise in the morning and decrease by nightfall preparing the body for sleep, if your body does not receive adequate rest, this will cause you to hold water and even look bloated. The good news is usually one nights lack of sleep is a quick fix. Catch up on sleep and the next day you’ll shed that water retention and the scale will come back down.

However, if you are consistently sleep deprived, your cortisol over-production will become chronic and weight loss efforts will be hindered. Other hormones such as Leptin is decreased during sleep deprivation. Leptin is a hunger suppressing hormone produced by fat cells and signals satiety to the brain, while the hormone ghrelin (produced by the stomach to stimulate hunger) is elevated causing increased appetite.

Sleep deprivation can also affect glucose tolerance (your body’s ability to recognize glucose in your blood and pull it into the cell to fuel activity) with all of these metabolic contributors in play, you’re more likely to over eat while craving high carb, high fat foods. The problem here is your blood sugar is more likely to stay elevated when you aren’t efficiently utilizing glucose because your body is under stress. Our metabolism actually slows down, as well as our digestive processes. Individuals who may experience constipation will see their condition worsen during sleep deprivation. One of the best things you can do when trying to achieve weight loss is make sure you make sleep a priority! This is especially important if you are dieting and training when your body needs time to recover. The scale isn’t everything but it will cooperate in our favor (other factors aside) if we give our bodies enough rest!

This week the ADOFitness trainers will be addressing some of the most common things we get asked about. Coach Joey explains how fat intake is vital for hormonal health, brain function and more.

Fats are one of our primary energy sources and an essential nutrient for our bodies. Fats do a lot for us in terms of our overall heath. They help aid in weight management, absorbing nutrients, supporting our immune function, regulating body temperature, as well as brain function and hormonal balance.

I am going to touch base on a few thing that healthy fats provide us and that I am often asked a lot by clients. First and foremost is hormonal balance. Clients will often tell me that they haven’t had their cycle in months or sometimes years. Due to being on extreme diets from either their own judgment of thinking fat is something that needs to be avoided to see results or someone coming off of a prep from a coach that had them eating very minimal to almost no fat at all in their diet.

Eating enough fats is one of the MOST important things you can do to balance out your hormones naturally. Many don’t know or realize that certain fats, including cholesterol act as antioxidants and precursors to brain molecules and transmitters, which is very important for our overall health. When you are on a low fat diet you risk missed cycles that can lead to infertility. Some hormones that get affected the most by a low fat intake is testosterone, estrogen and Vitamin D. Yes vitamin D is a vitamin but our bodies utilize it more like a hormone then actually a vitamin.

The next thing I want to discuss is our brain function. I have had clients tell me during their preps with former coaches or diets that they have experimented with that they feel “off” or can’t really think clearly. Almost like their brain is “foggy”. This doesn’t surprise me if you are eating a very low fat diet when the brain is made up of fat and requires a steady stream of fatty acids to perform optimally. Believe it or not, cholesterol levels being very low can be often worse at times then having high cholesterol due to the role of it helping the brains function of neurons and neurotransmitters. In laymen terms that is basically saying fat is needed for your brain to have help you think more clearly, have abstract reasoning, attention/concentration, executive functioning along with word fluency.

Their are many more areas of concern when someone’s diet is lacking in fat. Some include heart health, having a higher risk of insulin resistance which can lead to diabetes, gut related problems and even can cause you to have a higher risk of anxiety and depression.

Some healthy saturated fats to consider including into your diet are plant based vegetable oils like sunflower oil, salmon, nuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds and avocado. Unhealthy saturated fats that should not be consumed in excess include french fries, fatty meats and foods that are packaged like chips or cookies.

As you can see fat isn’t such a bad thing after all. Everyone is different in terms of what their fat intake should be. Which is why you should do your research and also consider hiring a coach to help you reach your goals and get to a fat intake that is going to work for your body.

This week the ADOFitness trainers will be addressing topics we get asked a lot of questions about. This week coach Tara discusses why keeping your sugar intake down is important for fat loss.

This is a question I get asked a lot about, especially with clients wanting to start a flexible dieting plan. They see these people on IG chowing down on donuts and ice cream, and even ice cream filled donuts! They think, “Wow, now this is a plan I could stick too!” But flexible dieting isn’t all about how many donuts you can fit into your week, and keeping track of your sugar intake is still very important to not only fat loss but your overall health in general!
Research has shown that people with a higher sugar intake are more susceptible to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, fatigue, high blood pressure, and cancer. So by eliminating a lot of processed sugars you are also lowering your risk for developing these conditions. If you are trying to keep your body in tip top shape and be the healthiest you can, eliminating more processed sugar is going to be important.
Sugar is basically an empty calorie, as Im sure you all have heard before. It has also been known to have very little effect on satiety (how full you feel from the calories you eat) which in turn can make it very difficult to keep your intake down while working towards a fat loss goal. If you are in your off season, that is another story. You have more wiggle room with your macros being higher, which will allow you to fit in treats so much easier.
If your macros are already getting low though the last thing you want to do is eat foods that won’t make you feel full and cause you to become ravenous (we’ve all been there). The best thing to do is to eat foods that are going to fill you up when your hunger is high. The best foods to chose would be low glycemic carbs, carbs that are packed full of fiber and will help keep you from feeling energy deprived.
Sugar intake is all about balance. Having some sugar is definitely not going to kill you, but to much of anything can have negative affects. So try and keep in mind what your goal is and plan your day accordingly.

Can you burn more calories by eating more frequently through your day? If you’ve been in the diet/fitness world for a little while, you probably will have heard about the Thermic Effect of Food (or TEF). Basically this means eating food burns calories because your body has to “work” to break the food down. You may have heard “10% of the calories you eat get burned” and “high protein diets are the best for fat loss”. But is that true for everyone/all the time? There’s more to the story. Especially if you’re relying on bars and shakes for your protein!

TEF is the measurement of energy above your resting metabolic rate associated with the digestion and absorption of the food you eat. There are going to be important factors influencing how high this measurement rises overall. Because it’s not just in the first hour or so after you eat that your body is impacted by TEF, it’s over the next 5+ hours. TEF is even positively influenced by exercise, both resistance training and cardio. Higher protein meals ARE going to result in higher TEF, and in relation to exercise. 30% higher than a low protein meal in relation to exercise. And a low protein meal is going to have nearly 100% greater impact on your metabolic rate in relation to exercise verses not eating at all.

Now, one important factor for TEF is your body composition. And I would also argue, gut health. Though the research studies don’t always agree across the board, common understanding of late is that the leaner a person is, the higher their TEF will be. But the favor is comparing a lean individual vs an obese individual. It’s not a specific to say, a competitor on-season vs off. Though many people find that anecdotally, they perceive a greater TEF and higher metabolism closer to show or their leaner state. One important factor to recognize than in MOST (not all) cases, a leaner individual will have healthier gut bacteria and digestive process as compared to an obese individual. See our previous @ado_fitness article on fiber for more Information on how digestion impacts body fat.

I would argue the biggest factor in your TEF is going to be the amount of WHOLE FOOD in the meal. It’s been shown that the TEF for a whole food meal is close to 47% higher than a processed food meal. And that’s not even comparing eating a whole food meal like say, chicken and vegetables vs a protein shake. That’s comparing a whole food healthy sandwich vs a processed junk sandwich of similar macro structure. If you think logically here, your body must work a lot harder to break down whole foods than it would to absorb already broken down/processed sources. It’s fantastic to be able to work in “junk” or “treat” foods into your macros, you are sacrificing a certain amount of net calorie burn by opting for that meal vs a “clean” or “bro diet” meal. Not to mention, nutrient profile!
If you are struggling to burn body fat, the take aways for TEF to get the edge on fat loss is as follows:
– Your biggest factor is going to be total calories per meal. As the higher the total calorie intake of the meal, the higher the TEF. This may stand for an argument in favor of intermittent fasting for those who need to be on VERY low calorie diets for health reasons.
– Next is going to be whole food vs processed food
– And finally, higher protein meals vs low protein meals.
– Whole food, high protein meals are going to be the most satiating. So for those on calorie restriction, limit your liquid and processed meals. For those who struggle to be hungry enough to consume your protein intake requirements, use more liquid meals.

This week the ADOFitness trainers will be addressing topics we get asked a lot of questions about. This week coach Joey discusses sodium.

First of all let me start off by saying sodium is not a bad thing to have in your diet daily. In fact, not getting enough sodium can be just as harmful for you as eating too much. Your body needs sodium in order to function – it plays a vital role in regulating blood sugar, maintaining blood pressure, proper blood circulation, and plays a role in your bone density.

With all of these positive benefits, it’s hard to believe that salt can actually be dangerous for you. Most people use common table salt to add flavor to their meals, but this is not true salt. Table salt is manufactured and processed; in order to make it, naturally occurring salt is heated to over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit which causes over 800 of the naturally occurring minerals to be lost. Many synthetic chemicals are also added to table salt, which in some instances can actually cause the salt to be toxic. Ingesting too much salt will cause a rapid spike in your blood pressure, can cause you to retain fluid, and can exacerbate chronic illnesses such as diabetes and gout.

So how can you get your body’s daily requirement of sodium while avoiding all of the negative consequences? Instead of using table salt, use naturally occurring salt like Himalayan or Sea Salt. These kinds of salt are harvested and allowed to dry naturally in the sun, without adding any chemicals to them. It’s also important to track your intake of sodium. You can do this using a macro-tracking app, like MyFitnessPal or MyMacros. Every food you eat contains some sodium, especially processed foods, so adding even more may cause you to have too much in your diet. The American Heart Association recommends keeping your daily sodium intake under 2300 mg. However, everyone responds differently to different amounts of sodium ingested. If you think your sodium intake needs to be adjusted or have questions it is always helpful to have a coach to guide you along with a proper nutrition plan.