02 Oct Clean Eating vs Eating For A Goal
Is clean eating enough to help you lose fat? Gain strength? Be lean and athletic? This is a question that I’m asked daily and today we will answer this question once and for all.
So is eating clean enough to help you reach those goals?
In short, no.
For starters, clean eating typically means avoiding sugars, processed foods, maybe bread and junk food. For many people this is a monster step in the right direction and that will most likely help you jump start the process to losing fat and improving health. But clean eating typically only focuses on one element to healthy nutrition: eating onlyhealthy food sources and avoiding unhealthy food sources.
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The result is usually a big drop in sugar, fat and calories that will facilitate some weight loss with minimal effort. But this plan is vulnerable to crazy fluctuations that could halt progression its tracks.
So what happens when you hit a plateau? Or have a specific goal like better energy, faster fat loss or more strength?
Thats when we must understand the difference between clean eating and eating for a specific goal. When you’re eating for a specific goal, you still eat the healthy food sources that constitute “eating clean.” You just have a smarter plan that also entails what portions and combinations of foods you should eat to lead you to reaching whatever goal you want. We call this your nutrition template.
Your template is a simple plan that shows you when you should eat what foods
For most people, 4 meals per day eating every 4 hours is a good frame work to start with.
Then eat the following at every meal:
- Protein: Women: 20-30 g, Men: 40-50 g
- Veggies: 1-2 Servings per meal
- Fat: A little fat at every meal
- Carbs: Customize carbs based on your goals and carb tolerance
For fat loss, maybe only eat carbs one meal per day. For maintenance, multiple meals per day should fuel your training and keep you lean. Then you simply adjust your template based on your progress.
This is a snapshot of a healthy nutrition plan, which ideally would be customized by a nutrition coach like myself to help you not only understand the theory, but learn how to apply it into your everyday life.
But no conversation about losing fat, gaining muscle or improving energy can be complete with mentioning the importance of training.
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Clean eating vs eating for a goal is a lot like working out vs training. Working out helps you burn calories, makes you sweat a little, and makes you feel better. This has benefits, but unfortunately a short ceiling.
Training is having a specific goal like “I want to be lean and athletic,” and having a well designed weight training and conditioning (think: smart cardio) plan that drives you to your goal.
The combination of eating and training for your goal will allow you to get faster results like our trainer Greg did in only 3 months:
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At Faster Fitness, we offer Group Personal TrainingandPersonal Training. Both programs include nutrition coaching and meal plans that help you get faster results. If you’re interested in joining the Faster Fitness Family, or learning more about us, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page.
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