Summer is around the corner, and things are starting to heat up, which you know what that means – time to shed that winter layer you added from indulging in all of those holiday treats and focus on your summer weight loss plan. While hoodies may have been your wardrobe of choice for the past several months, it’s time to strip away those layers as well as the fat to showcase your hard work in the gym.
This article will highlight five key things you need to focus on in order to maximize your summer weight loss and get you ready to turn heads on the beach and around town.
Let’s get started!
1. Nutrition is KEY
Nutrition is truly the key to getting yourself aligned with your summer weight loss goals. With all of the sayings that “Abs are made in the kitchen” and “You can’t out-train a poor diet” is 100% the truth. It all starts with what you’re putting in your body on a daily basis. Put in junk, and it’s going to be difficult to see much, if any, progress from your effort.
If you have issues losing weight and summer weight loss has never ended well for you, it may be time for you to start tracking your nutrition. Downloading a free app like MyFitnessPal onto your smartphone may be precisely what you need to get the results you desire.
You want to know exactly what you’re eating on a daily basis to ensure you’re in a caloric deficit. Simply guesstimating your nutrition rarely works for anyone. You need concrete data that shows you where you are and that you can track not only your nutrition but also your progress when it comes to summer weight loss. Are you seeing results? No? Then you need to reduce your calories. On the right track? Keep pushing forward until you plateau. Then make the necessary changes by eating fewer calories until you see the numbers dropping again.
Weight loss is really a game of math and numbers. Eat fewer than your maintenance in order to lose weight. Eat more than your maintenance, and you may gain weight. It’s really not any more complicated than that.
2. Hit the Weights… HARD
A big mistake that many people make when they are trying to achieve summer weight loss is that they neglect their resistance training and put more of their focus into their cardio sessions. If you’ve been of that very same mindset, forgoing your weight training can actually slow down your progress.
In order to continue burning the maximum number of calories per day, you’re still going to want to maintain high levels of lean muscle mass. Muscle burns calories all day long – even while at rest. Everyday functioning demands energy, and the more muscle mass you hold on to while dieting, the better. Not only that but when you hit the weights hard, your body needs to use energy in order to help repair the broken-down muscle fibers from your training session.
All in all, keep your resistance training the same as when trying to bulk. Using high reps instead of an 8-12 rep range will not get the job done. You’re going to want to continue utilizing a hypertrophy style of resistance training.
Hit each body part anywhere from 1-3 times a week (depending on your workout split and how many days you want to dedicate for resistance training).
3. Run on Fumes with Cardio
While some people can get away with very minimal amounts of cardio to achieve their summer weight loss goals, most people will find themselves on the other side of the spectrum unless they have a revving metabolism and their nutrition is spot on. You also have people who swear by fasted cardio.
When it comes to what cardio is best, you might be better flipping a coin and go with whatever lands face up. Some people can utilize a low-intensity steady-state form of cardio (LISS), while others only see results with high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
Which is right for you? Honestly, without working with you one-on-one, it’s hard to say which form will provide you with the best summer weight loss results. Start with one and track your progress. If you don’t see any changes to your weight and fat loss, try the other form. You’ll need to play with the duration as well.
15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes are all typical lengths of cardio sessions. As you get past the 20 and 30-minute duration, most people will generally only go that long when engaging in a form of LISS, such as walking or riding a bike. If you want a great way to fit in a HIIT session, try it outdoors where you can sprint on a track or field to make it fun while also taking in some fresh air and getting outdoors to enjoy the weather.
4. Get Enough Sleep
We both know you aren’t getting enough sleep. How do I know that? Because a large number of Americans suffer from poor sleep cycles. What’s the cause of this? There are many reasons, but one of the biggest is that we aren’t planning when we go to bed. We stay up and Netflix all night, we try to catch up on work from the day or around the house, or we scroll for hours looking at our social media feeds to see what people we don’t even personally know are doing.
The bottom line is that you need to be getting at least seven hours of sleep per night. If that means going to bed earlier, then that’s what you need to do. Maybe it’s completely turning off all electronics, so you aren’t tempted to lay in bed and use your phone or tablet?
If you aren’t getting enough sleep, you risk raising your cortisol levels (a stress hormone) which can cause you to hold onto body fat and even promote the storage of body fat – which is the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.
Not only that but if your cortisol levels rise, ghrelin (a hunger hormone) can also start to climb, which can cause you to be hungry more often and can lead to overeating. And let’s not forget that lack of sleep also hinders your muscle recovery. Less sleep means you’re not allowing your muscle adequate amounts of rest in order to effectively rebuild torn-down muscle fibers and help them come back bigger and stronger.
As you can see, not getting enough sleep can be extremely detrimental to your summer weight loss progress and results.
5. Leverage Your Supplements
Last on our list of tips to help you maximize your summer weight loss are supplements. We should make it clear that supplements are not an end-all, be-all solution. You’re still going to need to put in the time and focus on the other four tips mentioned in this article. There is no magic pill or secret weight loss solution out there. It comes down to you putting in the time and being dedicated to achieving the results you desire.
That being said, there are some supplements and specific ingredients that can help fast-track your progress. For instance, many people use a pre-workout supplement to get through an intense workout. According to our customers, Nitraflex is one of their favorites and provides them with the pump, energy, focus, and recovery they want when training. Well, there’s something we want to share with you! Now, GAT Sport has a new version called Nitraflex Burn.
Nitraflex Burn is an all-inclusive formula that combines the power and potency of a strong pre-workout with the fat-burning potency of a thermogenic. The precise combination provides you with the best of both worlds when trying to achieve summer weight loss.
The new formula found in Nitraflex Burn includes patented ingredients like Nitrosigine® and CaloriBURN®, while also containing key ingredients to help boost testosterone, increase strength, heighten focus, and maximize energy production to get you through the most grueling workouts.
If summer weight loss is your number one priority, Nitraflex Burn should be at the top of your supplement must-have list!