One of the biggest misconceptions about becoming more lean is that you have to exercise more.

Many of us have heard the phrase “Your diet makes up 80% of your results” but still many people ignore this and decide to spend more time in the gym.

Not only is more exercise NOT necessary but more exercise can make it harder to lose weight.

If you want to become more lean the better way to go is to dial in on your “Macros” or Macro-Nutrients.

What Are Macro-Nutrients?

The 3 Main Macro-Nutrients are Protein, Fat and Carbohydrate and ALL of them are required for the human body to function properly.

The trick is to consume the right “types” and the right “amount” of each one to achieve your ideal amount of fat and muscle.

The Trick To Weight Loss

Since most of us have at least a little extra weight, I want to focus on specifically how to dial in the macro-nutrients to achieve weight loss.

And fortunately for us, Mark Sisson from MarksDailyApple has already done the hard work of figuring this out for us in this comprehensive article!

I’ll save you some time and get right to the important Weight Loss stuff.

For Weight Loss, you really want to focus on your Carbohydrate intake.

So how many Carbs are ideal to achieve weight loss?

Below is the info direct from MarksDailyApple.com which gives us the parameters for Carbohydrate intake:

0-50 grams per day: Easy, effortless weight loss for any and everyone. Diabetics and the severely obese may find it useful to remain in this zone, while others might employ it now and then to jumpstart weight loss or break a plateau.

50-100 grams per day: Steady, gradual weight loss. This is the sweet spot, in my opinion. You can still enjoy a wide variety of foods and lose weight slowly but surely.

100-150 grams per day: If you just want to maintain, I recommend this level. Hardcore athletes may want to increase them a bit, but your average Primal exerciser and eater will maintain supreme leanness, health, and performance at 100-150 grams per day.

150-300 grams per day: Steady, insidious weight gain. It’ll creep up on you. Just look around next time you’re at a high school reunion – people gain weight at this level without even realizing it.

300+ grams per day: Unless you’re an extreme endurance athlete, 300+ grams of carbs per day will inevitably show on your waistline. Tragically, the average “healthy” American diet reaches this carb count pretty consistently.

So as you can see, we want to keep our Carbohydrate intake to under 100 grams per day (on average) if we want to lose weight (fat and excess water).

How To Track Your Carbs For Weight Loss

OK so keeping our Carbs to 100 grams or less per day (on average) will lead to weight loss.

So how exactly do we figure out what to eat each to stay under 100 grams?

In my next article I’ll show you specifically how to track your Carbs quickly and easily using a free online tool.

The post The Right Amount Of Carbs For Weight Loss first appeared on Renegade Dad.

The post The Right Amount Of Carbs For Weight Loss appeared first on Renegade Dad.

Here’s what Matt had to say…

“With a two year old and a new business demanding my attention, it’s been hard to make staying healthy a priority.  But, a while back I found suggestions at Renegade Dad that helped me get the momentum I needed to get started.  Tim’s protein shake recipes and whey protein suggestions made the notion of changing my eating habits more fun, especially with the pumpkin pie whey protein shake.  Eating just one of these shakes a day gave me the energy I needed for my two year old daughter and helped me loss 22 pounds in about 7 weeks.  This sure beats spending a half hour making a so called slow-carb omelet and bean meal at 5 in the morning!”

– Matthew Campbell

Why The Protein Shake Solution Works So Well

The beauty of this solution is in it’s simplicity.

All you need to do is replace one “processed carbohydrate meal” each day with a Protein Shake for at least 3-5 days per week.

What is a processed carbohydrate meal?

Any meal containing processed grains like bread, cereal, toast, muffin, bagel etc.

Foods like these are loaded with highly processed carbohydrate which convert to glucose (sugar) in our body and cause insulin to spike.

When insulin spikes it tells our body to hurry up and store the extra glucose in our body and store it as FAT.

If that wasn’t bad enough, highly processed carbohydrate also cause our body to store extra water.

So what you get is a perfect recipe for  increased weight and increased body fat.

Not good!

Protein on the other hand helps to lose weight. Read this article to learn how.

And carbohydrate from natural, whole food sources like fruits and vegetables do not cause insulin to spike as much as highly processed carbohydrate from foods like bread, cereal, muffins and therefore less glucose (if any) is stored as fat.

How Matt applied the Protein Shake Solution

Matt decided to replace his usual breakfast (Bagel, Toast, Muffin, Cereal Bar) with a Protein Shake.

Matt decided to start this routine using the Pumpkin Protein Shake recipe since he thought this sounded pretty darn tasty.

Then after establishing a consistent routine with this shake each day for about 2 weeks, Matt then decided to try some other recipes that I had posted to the site to change things up a bit and not get bored.

Fast forward 7 weeks and Matt has lost 22lbs!

Why The Protein Shake Solution Works So Well

I’m sure this solution seems too easy and because it seems too easy, you may not think it really works that well.

But that’s simply not true.

This strategy is so powerful because it’s simple and it’s based on sound principles of health.

All we are doing here is replacing unhealthy foods with healthy foods.

But the key is making it very simple and easy to eat the healthy foods each day instead of the unhealthy foods

And that is how you create healthy habits.

Complex strategies lead to failure. 

Simple strategies lead to success.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a quick, easy and natural way to lose weight, I highly recommend you give this solution a try. So far a number of the Renegade Dad members, friends and family have achieved tremendous weight loss with this solution and I am confident it will work for you too.

The post Success Story: How Matt Campbell Lost 22 pounds in 7 Weeks first appeared on Renegade Dad.

The post Success Story: How Matt Campbell Lost 22 pounds in 7 Weeks appeared first on Renegade Dad.

Sorry I took a little break 🙂

Alright, this is an exciting topic because most people probably wouldn’t think Fat would actually HELP to LOSE WEIGHT!

Most people think fat will make you fat.

If you eat fat then it becomes fat in the body right?

Not true.

How Does Fat Help You Lose Weight?

Well there are several ways but one of the biggest reasons is because Fat is very satiating.

It helps us feel full.

And when we feel full we tend to eat less.

Why Does Fat Not Make You Fat?

Fat is fuel for the body.

Our bodies are designed to use fat to function properly.

“When our bodies function properly everything else just takes care of itself….we lose weight, we burn fat and our body is able to heal itself better.” – Click To Tweet

But wait before you go crack open that jar of Skippy Peanut Butter because for fat to work the right way it’s gotta be the right kind of fat!

All Fats Are Not Created Equal

Just like all proteins are not created equal and all carbs are not created equal, all fats are not created equal.

The fats we want to include in our diet are “healthy” fats.

I’m talking about fats from things like….

• Butter from Grass Fed Cows
• Coconut Oil
• Avocados
• Fat from “Healthy” Animal products like Beef from Grass Fed Cows, Pastured Pork and Wild Salmon

Aren’t Nuts A Healthy Source Of Fat?

A lot of people hear that nuts are healthy and they go tear into a jar of peanut butter or slam down a few handfuls of almonds.

While nuts and nut butters do contain healthy fats, I personally limit the amount that I consume.

I treat them more as a “splurge food” rather than a staple in my diet because I have noticed through my own experimentation that eating nuts or nut butters frequently causes me to gain weight and not feel so fantastic.

Maybe it’s because the high Omega 6 content of nuts can throw our Omega 3 and Omega 6 ratios out of whack?

Maybe it’s mycotoxins in the nuts?

Maybe it’s the high caloric content?

I’m not sure exactly but I don’t need to be exactly sure.

I know from my own experience that keeping nuts and nut butters to a minimum keeps my weight and body-fat percentage right where I want it.

This also makes a lot of sense from an evolutionary perspective.

Our hunter/gatherer ancestors probably weren’t gathering 5 handfuls of nuts each day.

And they really weren’t going through the trouble of smashing them with rocks for 12 hours to make nut butters.

They probably would have used that time more wisely like getting sleep or hunting down something of more substance like a Bison.

How To Eat More Healthy Fats

Here’s a sample of what I do sometimes …

• Sunday Morning Breakfast with the Family: 
  1. Bulletproof Coffee
  2. Scrambled Eggs (from Pastured Hens) topped with Butter from Grass Fed Cows
  3.  Side of Bacon (from Pastured Pigs)
  4.  Side of Sausage (from Pastured Pigs)
  5. Alkaline Shake

• Sunday Lunch:
  1. Salad with some leftover bacon from breakfast, hard boiled eggs and vegetables like peppers, carrots, cucumbers

• Sunday Dinner:
  1. Tri-Tip Grass Fed Steak topped with creamed broccoli
  2. Steamed Broccoli topped Butter from Grass Fed Cows

Doesn’t sound so bad right?

Weight loss doesn’t have to be so painful.

Forget the “low fat” muffin and chow down on some tasty healthy fat for breakfast.

If you want to lose weight without exercise you need to start eating real food and that = more healthy Fat!

The post How To Lose Weight Without Exercise Part 3: Eat More Fat first appeared on Renegade Dad.

The post How To Lose Weight Without Exercise Part 3: Eat More Fat appeared first on Renegade Dad.