Things You Should Avoid For Your Body Transformation
Arnold Schwarzenegger once said: “If it jiggles, it is fat.” Does your body jiggle? If it does, now is the right time to begin your fitness journey and walk down the road of body transformation.
A total body transformation is a gradual process which requires consistency, dedication, commitment and hard work. Nothing in life comes easy, and we must work hard for it. A body transformation requires a complete change in one’s lifestyle, be it resting, eating or working out.
Starting your fitness journey at the right time is very important. You should not wait for your body to bulk up and show signs of health problems. Start as soon as you realize that you need to get in shape.
I weighed around 235 pounds at the height of 5’11 before my body transformation. I had 23% percent body fat because I consumed too much unhealthy food and hardly took part in physical sports. The realization hit me when I saw a picture of myself at a beach when I saw the bulges. I instantly knew that I need to change my lifestyle.
Within a year I managed to come down to 180 pounds with a 12% body fat. During my journey, I made a lot of mistakes and learned from them. Speaking from experience, a total body transformation is a tough process but hey, if I can do it, you can too. However, you need to understand that there are some things that you should avoid for body transformation.
I have compiled a list of things you need to avoid for your body transformation. These will help you during your fitness journey.
1. Do not go on a low carbohydrate diet
Low carb diets aren’t always the best route to go down to, especially if you are focusing on adding lean muscles to your frame. Why? Because when you cut out all the carbs from your diet, you will end up feeling light-headed and weak.
You might feel that this is because you are pushing yourself a little too much but in reality, this is happening because you aren’t eating enough.
While I was on my fitness journey, I did a lot of research about what nutrients the body needs. According to United States Department of Agriculture, active men between the ages 14 to 30 need 2800 to 3200 calories each day to stay fit. The key point here is to limit the consumption of empty calories that have zero nutritional value.
Learning about proper nutrition is a key to improving your training sessions.
2. Do not overburden yourself
When you begin our fitness journey, you are very motivated to lose all your weight and get the perfect physique that you have wanted, as soon as possible. As a result, you may overburden yourselves and push your body beyond your limits.
Research shows that people who do a moderate level of physical activity burn the same level of calories as those who are the most physically active.
You need to understand that it takes time for your body to transition and doing a lot of exercise in the first few weeks may strain your muscles. It is necessary to warm up your body for a week before you start training separate body parts. Lifting more weight or carrying out more repetitions will not get the desired results quicker. It’s the consistency and determination which brings about the transformation.
The famous 80/20 rule states, only 20% of the transformation results from body training, the remaining 80% of the transformation results from the diet. However, it is essential to execute each exercise with utmost concentration and focus so that each time your angle is correct and the right muscle is targeted.
3. Do not stick to just one form of exercise
Doing cardio is good, but forgoing other forms of exercise for cardio isn’t the right way to tone your body. Yes, I understand that a gym may be an alien place to you, but you will get the hang of it once you make it a part of your routine. Sticking to just one boring routine will not give you your desired results. Add various exercises to your work out. Check out a few exercises here to start working out.
Research shows that exercise works as a powerful antidepressant in people. Adding a combination of exercise to workout routine will help build muscles and achieve your desired body fat percentage.
4. Do not take steroids
Make sure you avoid steroids no matter how much you feel the need to take them. Anabolic steroids are utilized for enhancing muscle mass and decreasing fat. Some athletes, weightlifters, and bodybuilders take them regularly to improve their physical performance and build up their bodies.
However, people of all ages and sizes have been known to misuse these drugs, including adolescent boys who may suffer from body dysmorphia, an anxiety disorder where the way someone thinks of their body doesn’t match the way their body looks. Teenagers and young men may take the drugs because they have reverse anorexia. This is when they don’t see themselves as being physically big enough or strong enough.
Steroids definitely is a quick way to gain muscle mass, but it can lead to long-term health implications such as baldness, decreased sperm count, the risk of prostate cancer.
5. Do not go on a crash diet
There is no need to go on a crash diet instead wean off from unhealthy food and add healthy food to your diet. You could start with reducing the portion size. Instead of heating the entire meal at one time, eat half of it and save the rest for another time of the day. Here a few tips on how to build lean muscles through diet.
Although I did have a few cheat meals during the time I was working on my transformation, I consumed them in control. You could add whey protein, protein bars, and energy bars into your diet.
6. Do not give up
Just because someone tells you that they started working out the same day as you did and they managed to lose a lot of weight very quickly, or that they have formed lean muscles, but you haven’t do not lose hope, do not feel like you have failed. You have finally become a person who works out, don’t waste that!
Everyone’s body reacts differently. So just keep pushing, do not envy others; focus on your own results rather than worrying about how well others are doing. You need to keep yourself motivated. To help you get going check out a few transformations on this blog.
If they can do it so can you. To assist you to achieve your ideal weight and physique set a few milestones. These could be losing 2 inches from your waist in a month or walking at least a mile each day. Once you reach this milestone, give yourself a pat on the back and aim further and push harder.
During my journey, I had weak moments. I thought just to quit and go back to my old lifestyle, but then on those moments of weakness, I recalled my goal and that how close I was getting to it day by day. I lifted myself up and never looked back.
Once you deep dive into the journey everything follows smoothly.
7. Do not go for surgeries
There are many surgeries available for a complete body transformation. These are also known as body contouring plastic surgeries. Some of the most well-known procedures are tummy tucking, arm lift surgery and male breast reduction surgery.
Thee procedures do give instant results but are extremely costly, painful and require maintenance. No doubt the procedures are a shortcut to achieve body transformation, but it comes with many side effects. Osmotic diarrhoea, low blood sugar, loose skin, gallbladder stones and food intolerance are some of the common side effects.
Weight loss surgeries and procedures do not come without complications. It is better to bring about a change in lifestyle, eat healthily and exercise rather than bearing the side effects that may come with plastic surgeries.
Here are some tips that you can employ, that will help you in your transformation process:
8. Download Fitness Applications
Everyone owns a smartphone these days. There are some mobile applications available that can help you start working out at home, in the case going to the gym is not possible for you. Some of these applications are; Gym Goal ABC, Fitness Builder, iFitness, Runkeepr Pro.
Also, check out this video which contains the top fitness applications that can help you during your journey.I downloaded free apps on my phone to keep track of my calories, food intake and exercise.
9. Follow Fitness gurus on social platforms
Follow fitness enthusiasts on social media platforms to keep you motivated during your journey. Some of these are Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ben Booker, Gideon Akande and so on.
You might want to look at the different workout and diet plans and select the one that suits you best.
Getting your fitness routine (or yourself) up and running isn’t an easy thing to do. Ask anyone who’s made this lifestyle change, and they’ll tell you that it is difficult to begin. Once you start to see the results, you realize that all the effort was worth it.
Make sure to follow a few tips given in this article, and you are good to go. Got any more tips for us? Let us know in the comments below!
