Now that spring weather is finally here (for a day or two), you’ve got to discard those sweats eventually, so now it’s time to shift your workout plan into high gear. Whether it’s shedding the winter insulation, adding muscle, or both, you need a logical plan that encompasses weight-training, cardio and nutrition.

You need to be able balance your body’s energy to control your weight. Most people when they want to lose weight will either try to starve themselves or workout excessively and not eat enough.

Starving yourself has several negative effects. First, if the body thinks it’s starving, then it will process carbohydrates, then proteins and amino acids and lastly fat as energy sources. The reason fat is the last thing to be processed is because while 1 gram of carbohydrate and 1 gram of protein equals 4 calories, respectively, 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories. Fat provides the most energy per gram of mass, so when in starvation mode, the body is going to spare fat cells until the end. Why do you think all of these “low carb” diets have popped up? Reduce the carbs and eventually the body has to burn fat, but at what cost?

As a consequence of starving oneself, the body as I mentioned burns proteins and amino acids, the essential molecules for building muscle. Try laying the foundation of a house without any mortar. Such a nutrition plan only strips metabolism-boosting muscle from the body.

Lastly, people that starve themselves eventually cave and binge; and usually not on asparagus and tofu. So, not only have you slowed down your metabolism by tricking the body to perceiving it’s starving, muscle mass has been diminished due to muscle breakdown and fewer calories consumed to repair it, thus lowering one’s basal metabolic rate further. Lastly, when the individual is done dieting, there’s usually a bingefest, with almost all of the calories being stored as fat. And why are 65% of Americans overweight?

Now, rather than doing all of the wrong things I just outlined, here’s what you should do instead. To begin with, always eat upon waking. This is probably the number one thing a person can do to fight weight gain, as counterintuitive as it sounds. Why is this the case? As you sleep, your metabolism naturally slows due to inactivity.
This slowed metabolism can be mitigated if a person has weight trained intensely during the day because upon sleeping, the body works to use energy to repair muscle tissue. This is one of the benefits of weight lifting and why weight lifters can burn more calories at rest than someone who has only done cardio. Furthermore, the body has to utilize a lot of energy to push through heavy weight (breakdown of ATP). Additionally, the body burns through more energy when it breaks down muscle as a result of a heavy training session. These are several reasons why it’s important if you want a hard, lean physique you need to train hard, as well as do cardio and eat well.

By eating early in the morning, your body’s metabolism increases in order to process the food that you have eaten. If a person doesn’t eat until lunchtime the following day, he or she has just given up 4 – 6 hours of an elevated metabolism.

You’ve heard it before, I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, eat several small meals a day. By eating frequently throughout the day, a person will rarely get ravenously hungry, thereby decreasing the temptation to overeat. Also, the body never perceives that it’s going to starve to death, so it will more readily utilize the slow-burning fat fuel as opposed to the glycogen needed for muscles.

Along with eating frequently throughout the day, eat right before and right after you workout. Now, this doesn’t need to be a huge meal, especially for those of you who tend to get sick if you eat too close to working out. Eat just a slice of apple with peanut butter or a piece of turkey or something, enough so that the body does not immediately want to break down its stored amino acids, but instead uses the energy just ingested.

So, as with most things in life, balance and moderation are the keys to success; in this instance balance being the nutritional component to one’s program. Eat several small meals and make them of high-quality; lean meats, not desserts or salty snacks. Eat soon after lifting when you’re body needs the amino acids to rebuild stronger muscles. Weight train a majority days of the week and do cardio as well. Lastly, rest; let your build recover and rebuild muscle with a good night’s sleep, so when you hit the gym again, you will be stronger, more cut and ready for the awesome lakefront this summer.