New Year, New You
Fitness Challenge
Basics
In this post, i am going to cover all of the basics before we officially begin our start to a healthier happier lifestyle! I will teach you how to calculate how many calories you should be eating depending on a few different factors such as your age and whether you want to lose, maintain, or gain weight. I will also be letting you girls know how my posts will work and what material they will contain. Located on the side bar to the left is a January Fitness Plan. it is an easy to follow basic workout plan consisting of Cardio Days, Focus Days, and Rest Days. I will cover more about those later in this post. I recommend going to that calender page and printing it out so you have a easy to view guide of how much and when you should be exercising to get the results you want. I hope you join this journey with me and I can not wait to see what we all accomplish this year! Enjoy!
A Look at Calories
Lately I have been hearing the term "don't count your calories." So I decided to look into it. Turns out, counting your calories basically builds a plan and timeline for what you are trying to accomplish and achieve. By knowing how many calories you should intake you will then know, if you are trying to lose weight, how many you should cut back on and how many you should burn in your exercises or if you are trying to gain weight, how many more calories you should add. There is an easy formula for counting how many calories you should intake each day. You start by calculating your BMR (655 + (4.35 x kg body weight) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age) = BMR) Next, decide which exercise group you are in (Group A - little to no exercise (BMR x 1.2) , Group B - light exercise, 1-3 times per week (BMR x 1.375), Group C - moderate exercise, 3-5 days per week (BMR x 1.55) , Group D - active lifestyle, intensive workouts 6-7 times per week (BMR x 1.725)) Multiply your BMR by the number according to your group. This number should be the amount of calories you should intake to MAINTAIN your current weight. If you would like to LOSE weight, subtract 500 from that final number. You can either cut these calories as a whole from your daily intake or you can divide it in half, eat 250 less in calories, then burn 250 in your workouts. By doing this you will loose up to 2 pounds a week. To GAIN weight, do the same except ADD 500 Calories to your daily calorie intake. By knowing how many calories you should be eating and burning each day, you can then look at your diet to decide how you would like to disperse those calories. I will be posting recipes with certain amounts of calories to make it easier to place them into your healthy eating daily plan. I will also post nutrition blogs teaching you about carbs, sugar, sodium, vitamins, etc. to help us better understand what we are putting into our bodies.
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Fitness Plan Overview
When I developed the Fitness Plan Calender, I wanted to make sure it was doable for even the busiest of people! This year is all about making time to better yourself. You may be extremely tried but pushing through that days workout will be the best feeling in the world knowing you were able to push yourself to get it done for yourself! Now I split it up to where your main workouts are during the week, this is what works best for me, but every person is different so feel free to make changes according to your schedule. Each week I will post a group of workout plans for the week. I will add a Cardio, Legs, Abs, Arms, Back, and a quick five minute or less workout for when want something fast and successful! On Rest Days, I would recommend trying to still stay lightly active whether it is a walk around your neighborhood/park or a morning yoga class. Just something to keep up your energy and get your body used to becoming active. Before you know it, exercising will become a habit. It will be something you wont have to think much about. I want to make exercising fun and exciting for you girls! I hope you come to enjoy exercising as much as I have and I know if we stick to it we will all achieve great results! Happy Sunday!