Whenever My clients were not able to came at the gym, they always ask me how can I stay fit or in shape without coming at gym.
I bet, you also asked this Question to your trainer in the past or maybe in the future.
But don’t worry, after reading this article, you will know how you can maintain your body weight, body shape and Muscle-mass and Fat Percentage.
Because most of the time, when you stopped going gym, you will lose all this eventually.
There are three main factor that will affect your body composition, when you are stop going to gym. So, we’re going to talk about all this factor in detail.
I’ll also give one routine that you can follow if you find what to do, if you already take care of this three factors.
Step 1: Not Enough Sleep
I believe, many of us stopped going to gym because we don’t have enough time for workout and I guess that will also affect our sleep routine.
You already know this right? But How sleep influence our muscle, fat and weight.
First, let’s talk about How it affect on maintaining Muscle Mass.
the lack of sleep, also has a significant effect the catabolic hormones, and specifically a hormone called cortisol.
This hormone designed to break down tissue – including muscle tissue – for the purpose of giving the body energy it needs to deal with whatever stressful situation your body has to deal with.
As it turns out, sleep can have an effect on cortisol secretion as well, but if your goal is to increase your muscle mass, it’s not a positive one.
So, here our goal is maintaining our Muscle Mass and it is negative, if you don’t have enough sleep.
Research has shown that when cortisol levels were elevated the following evening by 37-45%, the overall effect of not sleeping enough can seriously hamper your lean body Mass.
Now, see How it will increase your body fat percentage or overall body weight.
There are many factor which should be considered for weight gain but poor sleep is the main one and evidence also shows that when sleep goes down, weight goes up.
There are two main hormone that control your hunger but when you don't have enough sleep then you severely interfere with your body's hormone(Ghrelin/leptin balance) and Increase its level.
According to American Journal of Clinical Nutrition(AJCN), when people have lesser amount of sleep than they should have, they tend to eat more snacks which are unhealthy often times. This increases their caloric intake by 220 calories a day.
The Sleep Foundation suggest Following amount of hours for sleep in order to maintain your body composition and Hormones.
School age children (6-13): 9-11 Hours
Teenagers (14-17): 8-10 Hours
Younger adults (18-25): 7-9 Hours
Adults (26-64): 7-9 Hours
Older adults (65+): 7-8 Hours
So, Maintain your sleep hours, although you can not go to gym, this will Control your weight and fat level, and Hormones.
Step 2: Proper Diet
I know, you all aware that you should have proper diet to maintain your fitness level but most of us failed often time because it is difficult to prepare meal and follow it when we have busy schedule.
But, I’m going to give you some tips which will help you to maintain your weight and fat levels, while you were at gym.
First of all, try to eat food, which contain more fiber, studies found that when people have less amount of fiber in the diet, they will likely to increase weight.
Because many bodybuilder maintain there fiber in their diet, when they are preparing for body. So, try to include fiber-rich foods in your diet.
Some of the fiber-rich foods are all types of fruits and vegetables and Greens beans and legumes.
Second most important thing in proper diet is enough amount of water and sodium level.
A great tool to Maintain weight is to consider the amount of water you are drinking
Our body needs enough water to to flush out all the acid wastes that accumulates in our body. If the acid waste is not removed it will be stored as fat in our cells and you will increase your weight until you don’t start to follow gym routine.
Check out below image to find out the amount of water you need per day according to your body weight.
I saw many people trying to lose their weight in the gym for years and years but failed. The reason is high amount of sodium level in the body. If you have enough amount of sodium in your body then no problem but when sodium level increase your weight may increase.
You can reduce your sodium level by drinking enough amount of water.
if you are not going to gym for months or years, Try to add as much as lean protein in your diet because lean protein is a great for maintaining your muscle mass for several years.
Now, you know how to maintain your diet without following meals.
Third and Final Step is Exercise
I know, you want to stay and home and also want to be fit but it may or may not possible without exercise. So, I suggest you to do exercise only 20 minutes a day and it will help you to maintain all the hormones and body composition.
You can do any type of exercise which will increase your heart pumping, starting with walking. If you find walking for 20 min is hard the do it for 5 or 10 minute then increase gradually and then after try to brisk walking which will burn more calorie and maintain your weight.
You can also do other exercise like swimming, stair climbing, tennis, squash, or dancing. Don’t forget that household activities can count as well, such as intense floor mopping, raking leaves, or anything that gets your heart pumping so much that you break out in a light sweat.
And if you’re a intermediate or advance level bodybuilder or athlete then you can do other exercises like push-ups, pull-ups and squats but only for 20 minutes and no other advance version of it.
Below is the routine that you can follow to maintain your weight at home.
- Wake Up by 5.00 am
- Then eat something like fruits like Apple/Banana/Oats,
- Go for running or any moderate intensity exercise at 5.30 am (Only for 20 minutes)
- Then start to do push-ups, pull-ups, double bar & free squat (If you’re not a beginner and skip step 3 if You’re at an intermediate or advance level ),
- After the workout, try to eat within half an hour time,
- Remember to avoid (oily foods, junk foods, fried foods, sugar items, cake items, chips items, etc)
- Avoid bulk eating, instead go for 6 serving of foods per day rich with fibers
- Try to eat home made foods, avoid hotel/restaurant foods.
- In a free time or 11.30 am to 12.00 pm, eat more of fruits/raw vegetables,
- In Afternoon, eat carbohydrate(brown rice) with lean protein(meat if you non- veg/ if you are veg eat veggies)
- In a free time eat more of fruits/juices
- Evening take light foods with some sort of juices/ fruits,
- Sleep 7 hours a day,
- Most importantly NEVER GIVE UP!
Final Thoughts:
I know, it seems difficult for you to follow last two steps or all three step but trust me these are the easiest one that you can follow.
I didn’t tell you to follow hardcore diet and workout just do some changes that I said and you’re good to go!
If you have any question related to this and found difficult to this just do it everyday because most important thing is NEVER GIVE UP.
Let me know what you think in comment about this steps.
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