Eating properly and working out work together to get your body to it’s ultimate state of health.
Getting lean is not about depriving yourself. To get lean, you must eat.
Traditional rhetoric has told us that if you want to weigh less or lose body fat, then you should eat less. And sure, that is true. But how well has that advice worked for the millions of people out there trying to lose weight? That’s because it’s missing 2 other very important components: when to eat and what else you must do to make your body burn fat efficiently.
Yes, by cutting calories you will lose weight. But it will be extremely painful and unlikely to be sustainable. You will be irritable, unhappy, and hangry.
There is a different way to go about eating when you are trying to get lean. And it’s all about using the workout in tandem with your diet. Mission Lean is a useful tool if you want to know exactly how to work out, what to eat before and after each workout, and what other small things you must do to ensure you are building healthy habits for the long run.
Here are the specific things you need to think about when deciding what to eat:
- What you eat before & after your workout matters. Your body must have energy in order to be able to work out at 100 %. Not only must it have energy but it must feel Eating an ice cream sundae may have a lot of calories (for energy)… but it will make you feel sluggish in your workout.
- When you eat before& after your workout matters. You always want to nourish your body – never overfeed it or starve it (both hurt your overall health.) That means staying in tune with how you are feeling and also being aware of your energy expenditure throughout the day.
- The type of workout you do influences the type of food you need to eat. And the type of food that you eat will influence what kind of workout you will have. The two go hand in hand – food is your body’s fuel and if you want your body to have a good amount of energy, you must fuel it in a healthy way.
When you consider these 3 things, you must think in the long term. Eating in this way every day, every week, every year for the rest of your life will get you to a sustainable, lean weight for your body. That’s where you want to be to stay fit, feel good, and be able to maintain these habits indefinitely.
Jon Pearlman is a former standout tennis player at Harvard, ATP-ranked touring pro, and author of The Lean Body Manual. He founded Mission Lean to share his unique formula for lean body fitness and nutrition, an approach that took over a decade to develop and perfect. He is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist.
