This past week I had the pleasure to attend (virtually) the annual National Academy of Sports Medicine(NASM) Optima Conference and take classes focused on training, nutrition, and health! NASM is the organization I have my education which makes me a Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, and what I have built my coaching and the Sweat, Love, and Macros brand on! I’m happy to continue to learn and grow and (most importantly) SHARE what I think the MOST IMPORTANT and applicable things are for YOU to reach your fitness and health goals!
Below I share my big takeaways and have also linked the presenters information if you want to go check them out yourself! And if you have any questions on these notes or need guidance on your own fitness journey then please feel free to email me 🙂
Favorably Altering Body Composition
Nutrition can change the body faster than exercise. If nutrition isn’t honed in, making body comp progress will be harder.
If in muscle building phase and you ‘re also gaining body fat, instead of cutting calories if body fat is happening, add in aerobic work.
You can maximize muscle building with proper diet, training, and adding in Creatine can be safe and aid in muscle building.
What’s my intent as a coach for training? To help clients gain strength & lose fat so that they enjoy their life feeling feeling powerful
It’s important to make sure you’re maximizing your health for muscle building and fat loss, you can’t be effective if you’re always sick or injured from under eating and over training. Eating enough and training smart will always be optimal for results.
Vitamins everyone should take: C, D, Calcium, and omega 3. A Mutlivitamin can have all of these.
Vitamins are especially needed for lower calories or those excluding food types like on keto or those who practice vegan or vegetarian or dairy free nutrition strategies.
Presentation by Neal Spruce owner of DotFit. https://www.dotfit.com/category-cid-508.html
Training women over 40
Preserving muscle mass is important. If you’re not building it, you’re losing it after 35 (leads to slower metabolism which will make fat loss much harder)
It’s important to focus on balance for those newer to training. Using bosu balls or single leg or arm workouts with lower weights to improve balance and core strength can be a great strategy.
Machines can be easier for those who are more frail.
Pelvic floor strength can help with wanting to drink with more water so there’s no accidents.
Presentation by Keli Roberts. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keli.robertsfitpro/
Diet Breaks & Re-feeds
Protein should be high because it has the highest TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) meaning that it takes more energy for the body burn through Protein so we burn more calories digesting Protein compared to Carbs and Fats.
TEF goes down with less food/calories.
Leptin is the satiety hormone (it lowers in weight loss which builds up hunger, this is why taking diet breaks & re-feeds can be effective for long term weight loss strategies)
Ghrelin is hunger hormone, it gets a bad rap but is a sign of healthy hormones.
Diet refeed 1-2 days at maintenance with the other 5-6 days being in a calorie deficit. I call this the “5/2” split with my clients and I talk about it more here! https://www.instagram.com/p/CGVdt-DjQrw/
Diet breaks for 2 weeks at maintenance and 2 weeks at deficit
Best to increase carbs on higher days
Presentation by Dr. Guillermo Escalante. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctorgfit/
Diabetes Prevention
1/2 the US population will be obese by the year 2030. Obesity is the highest factor becoming type 2 diabetic
How did we get here: Inactive (convenience) + Processed foods (highly palatable)
Holistic health can help change this
Poor sleep can increase hunger (Get sleep help here 😉 https://sweatloveandmacros.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sleep-tips.pdf )
1 bout of exercise every 72 hours can help improve blood glucose levels.
Simplifying nutrition with focus on moderation and not restriction to avoid yo-yo dieting and giving up.
Achieving optimal blood glucose concentrations is “easy” by just focusing on:
-be active at least 30 minutes in 72 hours (every other day best)
-Good sleep and stress reduction
-change construct of food, moderate not restrict carbs, table sugars and added sugars should be kept an eye on, more protein and healthy fats
Wiser choices can lead to a healthy lifestyle and lead to a better future.
People need to be proud of every effort and step made, and use it as momentum to push forward for more progress!
Presentation by Tony Ricci. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fightshape_ricci/
Exercise, Stress, Hormones and Inflammation
Stressors in life can manifest itself through anything. Having small dose of stress to adapt (like in exercise) can be good, but the inability to recover from stress is our demise. We are too constantly stressed in modern life.
Stress leads to us reacting with fight or flight stress response. Blood clots faster under fight or flight stress response, it is a defense mechanism for if we’re hurt & bleeding, but terrifying for “normal” stresses.
We also increase bladder glands when stressed.
Overtraining and not allowing enough recovery leads to lessened immunity.
Men have more visceral fat which is why they have higher likelihood of heart disease
We’re too stressed so unable to adapt. If you’re chronically stressed and inactive, fat gain will be easier.
Visceral fat can increase inflammation to lead to heart disease
Cortisol and stress in small bouts is healthy, allowing us to recover is healthy.
Appropriate stress must have also appropriate recovery. Deloads and proper sleep are important. (Learn about deloads here: https://www.instagram.com/p/By1XcogjnxE/ )
Presentation by Fabio Comana. NASM bio: https://blog.nasm.org/author/fabio-comana
Nutrition for Cognitive Optimization
Sleep is the one time during the day that we can rest our brains to rebuild cells.
Refined carbs cause quick rush for insulin spike which leads to brain fog and breaking down cells quickly (not bad in moderation). More inflammation in the brain is bad because it breaks down brain cells.
Brain is 60% fat, replenish with omega 3’s
Omega 3’s slows down aging of the brain.
Omega 6’s are common which is why we have to be proactive with omega 3’s
Arthritis and inflammation can come down from omega 3’s
Choline in eggs is great! Runny eggs can have better choline transmission
Presentation by Michelle Ricker, RDN. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellericker/
Dietary Strategies for Cardiovascular Health
Reducing sodium doesn’t matter much unless you already have cardiovascular disease
Minimize processed red meat (pepperoni, deli meat, sausage) Go for unprocessed red meat (lean steak, wild game )
Optimal protein is fish like high fatty fish omega-3 fish like salmon or tuna.
Many nutrition strategies can fall into these categories for minimizing cardio vascular disease with the focus being to get to a healthy body weight and include veggies and lean protein.
Presentation by Brad Dieter. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brad.dieter/
Other Fast Fat Loss Facts
Keeping the weight off: NEAT is important! Helps SO much with keeping lost weight off, less energy and body mass means we burn lesss calories. Reverse dieting is not the rule if neat is not bumped up too. meaning more daily movement
Optimal Protein is 1g/ lb of body weight BUT if it’s not enjoyable then ranging from .7-1g if ok
Sleep Science: sleep is SO important, rec is 7-9 hours but some can do less and be ok if they have high quality sleep,
Poor sleep can hinder fat loss when it leads to: altered glucose control, lower testosterone, abnormal cortisol release
Did you find this post helpful? Comment below or contact me
Do you feel like you need support in order reach your fitness goals with balance? Having an outside perspective to keep you focused on the big picture of health and fitness (which is WAY more than just the scale) can be extremely helpful and it’s actually one my most rewarding passions to help women with this!
Check out my 1:1 coaching services to work with me on making fitness work with your life instead of consuming your life. Finally drop the “All or Nothing” Mentality and learn to be strong and balanced for life!
*This post was created by Ashley Cates who is not a Registered Dietician or a Medical Professional, nothing said should be taken as medical advice or replace any advice given by a Physician. This information does not in any way intend to diagnose or treat any health condition/disorder. The information provided is based on Ashley’s education and experience and shared with the intent to help and not harm.