Why is that when I eat breakfast I feel hungry 2-3 hours later and when I don’t eat breakfast I can make it until lunch without feeling hungry?
Breakfast IS the most important meal of the day. While you’re sleeping your body is fasting for 8 hours, so upon waking, it is essential to feed your body and kick start your metabolism. When you skip breakfast, or any meal for that matter, and eventually eat something, your body stores those calories as fat. Then when you exercise, your body uses the stored energy in your muscles as fuel instead of the fat that has been stored. Now, we all want to at least maintain our muscles if not create more. By skipping meals, you are not building muscle, but using muscle as fuel instead of fat as fuel. So why is the fat stored and not burned? When we do not eat consistently, our body does not know when it will be fed again and therefore stores that fat in case it needs to be used in a time of prolonged starvation. It is the body’s survival mechanism to store the fat to be used for later. To combat this process, we need to create a consistent diet plan by eating every 3-4 hours, which could be 5-6 small meals a day, depending on your schedule. This does take a lot of planning to prepare meals for the day and week ahead, but once you make it part of your lifestyle you will feel more energized and your body will thank you for keeping it fed.
How often should I lift weight or workout in general?
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has guidelines depending on your current level of physical activity and goals.* The general recommendations are:
Aerobic Exercise: 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week
Resistance Exercise: 8-12 repetitions of 8-10 resistance exercises 2 times per week
Flexibility: At least 2 days per week of stretching, holding each stretch for about 30 seconds. This can be incorporated before exercise as a warm up with dynamic movements and after exercise as a cool down with static stretches.
These are great guidelines to start with but don’t be afraid to dabble in areas you like the most. If you like strength training, then lift more. If you like to run, then run a bit more. Overall, be active and have fun! Before beginning any exercise regimen, check with your doctor to ensure you are ready to tackle a new venture.
Should I always do cardio when I workout? What are fun ways to do cardio?
The recommendations in the previous question are for cardiovascular exercise. There are a variety of ways to fit cardio into your daily routine or mix it up at the gym. Exercise can be broken up into 10 minute segments throughout the day. If you have 10 minutes during your lunch break, briskly walk up and down the stairs in your building or go for a 10 minute walk around the block. At the gym, set up a circuit alternating between running, resistance exercise, elliptical, and core exercise. Circuit exercise is beneficial because it combines cardio with resistance exercise and is convenient when in a time crunch. Here is a sample circuit to try next time you’re at the gym:
First get your weights ready so you can easily transition between exercises.
Warm Up – bike/jog/elliptical for 5-10 minutes and stretch – get ready to move!
Jump Rope x 2 minutes
Dumbbell Bicep Curl + Overhead Press x 12
Elliptical x 4 minutes
Narrow Push Up 2 sets of 12 repetitions
Wide Push Up 2 sets of 12 repetitions
Jump Rope x 2 minutes
Body Weight Squat x 20
Lunges x 10 each leg
Run or Bike x 4-6 minutes
Crunches x 25
Bicycles x 25
Front Plank x 30 seconds
Cool Down and Stretch
Have fun and comment with more questions!
@THECOACHCOTA 