1. WORKOUT
This reach phase uses different workout methods with an adapted diet plan depending on the objectives: weight loss, body toning, mass gain, flexibility gain, endurance improvement, sports objectives such as half-marathon etc…
The duration can be variable again depending on the objectives. For example, for a weight loss I focus on physical, mental, energetic and emotional integrity. In other words, I think that not losing too quickly is a better strategy than the opposite.
2. FOOD INTAKES
After completing the RESET period you are ready for the REACH period. The food which represents a key element in parallel of the objective will be inevitably adapted with the help of the MyFitnessPal app. Different strategies can be used regarding diet. I think it is important to focus on fresh and good quality products (no pre-packaged food for example) as well as variety. At the beginning the important thing is to feel first what your body is telling you: bloated belly, gastric reflux, irritated skin, disturbed sleep, irritability are all signs sent by your body to tell you that what you bring to it in terms of nutritional needs are not adapted. We will use macronutrients to track what you are ingesting: they’re the three categories of nutrients you eat the most and provide you with most of your energy: protein, carbohydrates and fats. So when you’re counting your macros, you’re counting the grams of proteins, carbs or fat that you’re consuming. We will gradually readjust their value according to your feelings. To do this we will use a simple application like MyFitnessPal (Free) you can already know what you ingest and what it brings you.
Here is a little help to start in MyFitnessPal:
1. Sign up and define your goals
When you first sign up, the app asks you whether you want to lose, maintain or gain weight. Get your goals defined and stats filled in now as it’s likely to make you feel more committed. And be realistic.
Next up the app wants to know your Activity Level. For days when you’re not using an activity tracking wearable it’s good for MyFitnessPal to know how active you usually are. Over or underestimating at this stage might mean your calorie allowances are slightly skewed
Next up you need to fill in some basic details about your gender, birthday and current height and weight, all worthwhile info for the app.
MyFitnessPal will now serve up your Weekly Goals and you can choose how much weight you want to aim for each week. In the example below the app is recommending a 1lb deficit each week, generally considered to be the healthiest option. For most people MyFitnessPal will label it as recommended. This doesn’t mean you can’t choose an easier or tougher goal though.
Next, add in your email address and pick a username
2. Log everything
MyFitnessPal is created around the idea that to lose or gain weight you need to account for everything you do.
When you first sign in, the app will run you through the basics of how to upload a food. Hit the plus sign, select the meal, add a food and hit search. You’ll then be served up a lot of different options. If it’s something generic, like strawberries, you should be fine.
If it’s branded, like cereal, it’s a good idea to spend some time scrolling through to find the right brand as there can be pretty huge differences between cornflakes from one brand and another.
Once you’ve found the food, enter in the right quantity. Maybe invest in a small pair of scales to always get weights spot on. Once you’re done, hit the little tick in the top right and the food will be added to your daily calorie intake, which you can monitor from the main screen.
At the end of each day, click the little tick in the top right hand corner of the diary screen. Hitting that will figure out how long it’ll take to get to your goal based on the day. This is really useful as it can give you a kick in the right direction if you had a day of over-indulgence.
3. Set reminders
There are all kinds of things you can do to make tracking the food you eat a bit easier. For instance, you can set yourself reminders that arrive as push notifications on your phone to remind you to log meals. Just head to the three little dots in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and hit More. Then go to Reminders. Tap the plus sign in the top right and then define a reminder, which can be a weigh-in, at particular times of the day (at breakfast or lunch, say) or simply a daily reminder to give MyFitnessPal some love.
4. Add favourite recipes, foods and meals
MyFitnessPal knows how annoying it is to enter everything little thing you eat, so to make the whole process easier you can create special lists of your favourite recipes, foods and meals.
Head to the three little dots in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and hit More and then go to My Recipes & Foods to start adding in your favourite – hopefully healthy – meals.
5. Set nutrient goals
MyFitnessPal, and many other services in this space, are built around the importance of the calorie.
The truth is calorie tracking isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of healthy living or even weight loss. That means it’s well worth redefining your nutrient and macronutrient goals to suit your goals. Head to the three little dots and hit More, then go to Goals and Nutrition Goals.
Hitting Calories & Macros will allow you to tweak your Calories, Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat level goals. What you can see in there now is MyFitnessPal’s standard suggestions, which on the whole are the recommend amounts. But if you want to focus your diet on something a little different, it’s a good idea to start changing these.
Once you’ve figured out what you want your focus to be, you’ll need your main MyFitnessPal dashboard to reflect these changes. After all, there’s no point having calories running the show if you’re on a low carb, high fat eating plan. Head back to the Home tab and then hit the three dots next to Calories Remaining.
6. Record steps
The app is much more accurate if you tell MyFitnessPal how many steps you take and what kinds of exercises you’ve done. You can add all of this in manually but you can also use apps, wearables and even your phone.
Hit More and then go to Steps. Here you can turn off this functionality altogether, use Apple Health to track your steps or head to Add a Device.
7. Sync apps and wearables
It’s not just your steps that MyFitnessPal wants to know about. Rather than clicking Steps, try heading to Apps & Devices. Not only can you sync up different wearables, but apps and devices designed to track other activities, like Cyclemeter, Fitstar Yoga and even fertility apps like Glow.
It works the same as above, just find the app or device you want to hook up to MyFitnessPal, add it and make sure all the different levels of approval are ticked. Sometimes apps won’t play nice with MyFitnessPal but restart them to see if that works.
8. Add exercises manually
If you don’t have a wearable, or use one that tracks steps and not much else, then add in your workouts manually. Go to the plus sign at the bottom of the app dashboard, but instead of selecting food go to Exercise.
You can choose between Cardio and Strength. And, just like adding food, the more detail you can add the better. For example, if you search “Swimming” there are so many different options detailing different strokes. You then need to specify minutes performed and ideally the calories you’ve burned. (I give you a range of calories burned for each workout. A range because it depends on each person, the intensity that may have been applied during the efforts).
9. View your progress, add notes
Watching your weight drop (or rise) can be a huge source of motivation. That’s why you need to make sure you add your stats to weigh in. You can do this by hitting the plus sign at the bottom of the dashboard and selecting Weight.
Over time you can see your weight plotted in the Progress tab, which is good to check in on, but also makes it clear if you need to start tweaking your goals.
You can also make notes if you want to record experiences, keep tabs on your mood or just add in something you’d like to see plotted against your progress.