Healthy Habits – How to Improve Fitness for Fat Loss

How do you research foods that improve fitness and cause fat loss? During week two of my fat loss journey, I researched activities that will enhance fitness. The study was based on my observation of other people. You can learn a lot just by watching people.

I placed people into two categories based on their fitness. Subsequently, I attempted to make a connection between people’s behaviors and wellness. Finally, I visited food establishments, parks, stores, and events.

I aimed to discover the behaviors of healthy and fit people. I tried to answer the question: is there a level or type of activity a person must perform to be fit. What I could determine was that healthy people were active, and unfit people were sedentary.

Based on my observations, I learned to lose weight; I needed to eat healthy and be active. But how healthy was the question I could not yet answer? Quantity and quality affect outcomes. So there is a threshold that you must reach for change to happen. 

Foods that cause fat loss by making you full

During week two, I focused on calories. My metabolic resting rate is 1,800 calories, give or take. Your metabolic resting rate is crucial because it is the baseline to which calories are added through exercises and subtracted through food. The best foods to eat are foods with high water intake,  high fiber, and low-calorie foods.

I went to a picnic, and I ate a lot of meat for lunch. I eat meat all the time, but chicken and fish for the first week controlled my appetite but did not kill it. At the picnic, I ate pork, chicken, and beef, which killed my desire for the rest of the day.

I learned from my experience that fresh foods impact the body differently. For example, I found that hunger is non-audio communication that the body uses to let you know when it needs more food. I also found out that certain foods can kill your appetite. 

A taste of the rainbow strategy can improve your fitness and cause fat loss.

As soon as your body gets the food, it needs it stops communicating with you. So this week, I used a food journal because I wanted to track, analyze, and learn from my eating habits.

I also adopted a taste of the rainbow strategy. The strategy is to eat carbohydrates every day from the seven colors of the rainbow (yellow, orange, red, blue, green, violet, and indigo). The colors of the rainbow also make up the colors in sunlight.

My thoughts on the rainbow strategy were that life comes from sunlight, water, and earth. So, I consumed life by eating the rainbow colors, drinking water, and using spices from the earth.

I put a fruit cocktail together with pineapples, strawberries,  blueberries, cantaloupe, grapes, and blackberries each morning. The cocktail provided me with vitamins, energy, and most of my colors each day.

NEAT activities improve fitness and cause fat loss more than exercise

I could lose weight by requiring my body to perform NEAT activities. NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. I used my observations of healthy people to determine what type of activities I needed to accomplish. Also, I notice athletic people like to stand, walk, squat, kneel, play, and exercise.

I found there was a correlation between fat burning, NEAT activities, and exercise. Energy is just like money; if you don’t spend it, it will accumulate as fat. The more you eat, the more active you must be. I completed 16,748 steps of walking for the week. Also, I burned 174 calories walking. I was within 15% of my calorie goal, three out of the seven days. 

The results of my fitness and fat loss journey

After the second week, my waistline was 37 inches, and my weight was 186 pounds. I lost two inches on my waist and four pounds of weight. My results for the second week were impressive. However, the waist numbers were still a little suspicious. I had not started measuring my waist at the same time each week. The world health organization found that processed food and a sedentary lifestyle are the leading causes of belly fat.

How to adjust your fitness and fat loss journey

I begin week three by using the time to track my diet and activities. Adjustments are a big part of weight management. No one approach works for everyone. My body differs from everyone else’s body.

Experts can only provide you with guidelines for best practices. On some things, you could be the rule, and on other things, you could be the exception. You should make adjustments in measured steps to determine if the change is the solution or the cause of the problem.

For example, if you were not experiencing weight loss on a diet and thought sugar or calories were the issues, you would not cut both of them simultaneously. Instead, you would cut the sugar first and observe the results.

If you lost weight, you would accept sugar as the problem and continue to cut sugar until it no longer caused weight loss. You would not cut both simultaneously because you would have no way of knowing which one was causing the problem. By isolating them, one at a time, you can see how they affect weight loss.

You cut calories last. It would be best if you cleaned up your diet before you cut calories. The macros, processed foods, and sugars are cut first and then the calories. The macros, processed foods, and sugars are all forms of calories.

Switching to a better quality of calories causes your body to perform better and burn belly fat. Most people make the mistake of slashing calories first, and once they slash too low, they hit a plateau, and then there is nowhere to go. You do not want to destroy your metabolism by cutting too many calories too fast.