How to Stay Skinny This Christmas! | Avoid Putting on Weight Over The Holidays!
With the festive season just around the corner, a worry on a lot of
people's minds will be about putting on weight during the period, but that's not right! Christmas should be enjoyed to the full with Family and Friends! So how can you both enjoy and make the most of Christmas without packing on the pounds? Here's How To Stay Skinny This Christmas!
I will reveal all these secrets here in my Ultimate Guide to Staying Skinny This Christmas!
1) Don't Leave it Till January!: Firstly then you need to get yourself into the right mindset. The worst thing you can do is to just think about to yourself 'I will just start a fitness plan in January'. All you are doing is pushing yourself further away from where you want to be. You are also leaving yourself with much more to do! So don't make this mistake and get in the mindset that it starts here and now, not in January!
2) Knowing Your Calorie Limit (TDEE):
To not put on fat all you need to do is not eat over a certain number of calories everyday. This number varies from person to person depending upon sex, age, activity levels etc but everyone has a a number of calories of which if they eat more than this they will put on fat. That's kind of the basic principle of weight gain, eat more calories than you burn off and your body will store the excess. This number is your Total Daily Energey Expenditure (TDEE) and is basically the total number of calories you burn in the day. So all you need to do is not eat over that number of calories. If you want to work out this number (your TDEE) then head over to IIFYM.com to calculate.
3) Flexible Eating: This then ties in perfectly with Christmas and is what I advise, which is if your goal is to not put on weight, then all you need to do is to not go over that calorie limit. It doesn't really matter where those calories come from. So if you want to enjoy say a great big slice of cheesecake or chocolate brownie, this is fine as long as you don't go over that calorie limit! Flexible eating then is definitely the way to go to ensure that you still enjoy the festivities of Christmas!
4) Balancing Your Calories!: Essentially then all you need to do to not put on any weight is to not go over your TDEE. So here's where the balance comes in. If for example you know you've a Christmas party to go to where you know you'll be eating junk food, drinking alcohol etc this will obviously involve a lot of calories being consumed which normally would push you over your TDEE. What you need to do then is to plan for that 'cheat night' essentially, by eating fewer calories during the rest of the day. This will then work towards balancing out those cheat calories later in the day and lessen or negate the effect of those calories. For example, if I know that I'm having a big cheat night as described above I will plan ahead by consuming fewer calories the day before and also during the rest of the day of the cheat meal. This then as I've said balances out all those naughty calories. So if you can start thinking of the calories that you consume in that way then it will be highly beneficial for you in staying lean!
5) Don't Forget About the Calories in Drinks!: This one is going to upset a lot of you! But drinks really can be a silent
killer when it comes to controlling your calorie consumption! For example there are 180 calories in the average pint of lager! That is crazy! And since your body doesn't have to do much work to digest liquids, those calories are all just pure calories entering your system! Even though drinks you may consider healthy, like fruit juices contain a large number of calories in every glass. So they are calories that you wouldn't usually think about.
So when you are drinking alcohol try and stick to spirits mixed with diet soft drinks for the best calorie option. Throughout the day opt for water, tea and coffee as your main drinks as opposed to sugary soft drinks and juices.
6) Keep Active! Another way to balance out those additional calories is simply by increasing your physical activity levels. This can be anything, from hitting the gym for an intense workout, to just walking into town as opposed to driving. I always think if I know I'm going to be having a lot of calories this is what I always do, I just try and be as physically active as possible throughout the day to burn off some of those calories! This will once again negate the effect of those additional calories on fat loss!
I also use the extra calories in my diet as a positive by using them to fuel extra powerful workouts! If you are eating a lot of food, your muscles will be full of glycogen and therefore energy. So use this to your benefit and push yourself harder than you have before!
7) Get Your Exercise Done Early! This has been a big one for me!
I think about all the things I've already mentioned this blog and decide I will go get some cardio in to offset the binge eating. But I keep on saying to myself the doomed phrase 'I will go in a bit'... NEVER WAIT TILL IN A BIT!!! Trust me it will never happen! So my advice would be get up and get it out of the way straight away. Not only will it freshen up your body and wake you up, but you will have already burnt off a load of calories and will have got the metabolism firing!
8) Use High Intense Interval Training (HIIT)!
For me this is my favourite
way of burning a load of calories in a short time span, which will as I've said balance out those extra calories you'll be eating. If you don't know what HIIT is, it's basically cardio whereby take for example running on a treadmill, instead of the typical jogging at a medium pace for 20 minutes, you instead sprint for 1 minute, followed my 1 minute at walking pace and repeat this for say 20 minutes.
This really pushes your body to the limit and spikes your heart rate repeatedly, burning a ton of calories in the process. Not only this but there is an after-burn effect with this as well whereby because it pushes your body so hard you actually continue to burn extra calories in the hours after the workout. So this really would be great to do on the morning of a day where you know you'll be eating some naughty food later on!
9) Weight Training!! This one could be a blog post all on its own, but don't just think of this balancing act with calories as purely your food and cardio. Weight training burns lots of calories too! In fact in the long run it is much more effective for long term results! So don't focus purely on cardio, keep on doing or start for that fact a weight training programme lift heavy and hard and you will burn a load of calories that will help balance out the excess food consumed! If you need help with your training plan we do a Free Training Plan on our website.
10) Be Careful of Snacks!! Snacks at Christmas time are yet another silent killer!
Many of us don't really think about snacks as having that many calories because it's 'just a little snack'. But really when you're snacking on things like nuts and crisps you could actually be accidentally consuming a meals' worth of calories before you've even eaten your meal! So I would always check the calorie content of every snack that you are eating before you start munching away! If you want some lo calorie snacking options, check out my Blog Post on it.
11) Intermittent Fasting! This is something that you can try if it suits you but this one really can be the saviour of your Christmas diet! Intermittent Fasting (IF) is where you have one eating window everyday, usually an 8 hour window, where you can consume calories. The rest of the time then you have to stick to water and black coffee! The idea is that by giving yourself that large amount of time without any calories your body has to burn fat for energy. Also by limiting the amount of time that you are consuming calories, you massively decrease the chances of going over your calorie limit (TDEE) as it is much harder to eat say 2500 calories in 8 hours than it is in a full 14 hours that you are awake. There are also many other health benefits associated with IF which I will explain in a new blog post coming soon!
Simply... It Is All About Energy Balance! Expanding on my earlier point really of how this is all about the number of calories you burn in a day vs number of calories consumed in the day. As simple as that! Don't want to put on weight? Well then don't eat more than your TDEE, or burn some extra calories to make up for it. All the tips that I have given in this blog are all just different tactics designed to achieve that same common goal.
Hopefully then you take on board all that advice and it helps you to not pack on the pounds this Christmas!
Oh...
... And Merry Christmas!!
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