nutrition

I received complimentary access to the FWTFL program in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. I just completed the second week of the FWTFL program so I wanted to share my experience and what I've learned this week. This isn't quite two weeks for me, as the first week I started a bit late. I was also super sick half of this week, so I skipped three of the workout days, which is not ideal to aid in progress. However, this is real life. It is hard to always be perfect with our eating and exercise, so I think my experience is actually quite typical. Rather than quit the program when it doesn't go just like I planned, I've just started fresh each day. So, here is my FWTFL week two review. Macronutrients 101 The good news is that I have been keeping up on my food tracking and I did work out 3 days, just not the 5-6 I had hoped. One of the important features of FWTFL is keeping track of macronutrients. I mentioned this briefly in my week 1 post, but I should have spent more time on it. In FWTFL week two, I realized I actually did a terrible job of preparing myself for counting my macronutrients because I miscalculated my dietary needs in the pre-first week of the program. FWTFL asks you to create a profile in the MyFitnessPal app. When I set up my profile I ignored the FWTFL suggestion to choose active and only to lose one pound. I set it up as not very active and to lose two pounds. So, my macronutrients (and total calories) were super low. I did lose a few pounds the first week. But, I was starving all the time and it was very challenging to make it the 16 hours fasting window being so hungry. Mid-week, I talked to my coach and she urged me to increase to active and decrease to a one pound loss. My food goals almost doubled so now I'm at a level that is definitely sustainable. I just switched the settings a couple days ago, so now I have to adjust to eating a lot more food. It's actually been a bit challenging. To be honest, I'm still struggling to figure out the macronutrients. I'm so used to eating a low carb diet that I find myself left with only a bunch of carbs at the end of most days. That means, the only thing I can really eat is grains, fruit and veggies at the end of the day, which is not ideal. If you do decide to try the FWTFL program, I would highly encourage you to spend more time on the first prep-week and the first week learning about your macronutrients and figuring out the right calculations for your body. I ignored the FWTFL instructions the first week so now I'm still trying to get on track, which has been tough. Carb Cycling One of the important goals of the FWTFL week two program is learning about carb cycling. Basically, carb cycling just means you change up the number of carbs you eat from day-to-day. Two days a week, you eat lower carbs and the rest of the time you eat your normal 45% carbs. The low carb days were actually super easy for me since I'm so used to eating low carb anyway. I've struggled a lot more with hitting my macronutrient goals on the standard carb days. Goals for FWTWL Week 3 Overall, I have really enjoyed the FWTFL workouts I've done so far. I do appreciate a deeper awareness of nutrition and understanding how my body functions optimally. Thus far, I can't say whether or not the FWTFL plan works or is good for me. I am not far enough in it. Plus, I also struggled so much in the first two weeks to actually follow the plan as written. I'm hopeful in week three that I can finally hit my stride. I want to be more consistent with hitting my macronutrient goals and also getting to the gym every day. I'm hoping that more consistency will help me to start seeing the results I'd hoped for on this plan. I can definitely say that I'm feeling stronger and more challenged at the gym. This has been an awesome side effect so far. I'm just hoping my comfort with the eating plan and my weight loss will also improve this week. Stay tuned for next week's review!

nutrition

FWTFL Week 2 Review: Carb Cycling + Macro Nurients