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What Do I Need To Know About Transferring Colleges For Sports

If you’re a student-athlete, chances are that lots of careful consideration went into choosing the school that you’re currently attending. But sometimes, you might realize that the school you’re at just isn’t a good fit for you for a variety of different reasons. While you might be alarmed at first, this realization is actually more common than you might think. 

A study from the National Student Clearinghouse estimates that almost 40% of all undergraduates who initially enroll in a four-year institution will transfer schools at least once. And while student-athletes tend to transfer less than their nonathlete peers, there are some sports like men’s basketball and tennis in which athlete transfer rates may exceed those for nonathletes. 

So, let’s take a closer look at the reasons why a student-athlete might want to transfer, explore how the NCAA Transfer Portal works, and learn all about the new NCAA 1-Time transfer rule that starts with the 2021-2022 academic year. 

Reasons Why Student-Athletes Might Want To Transfer 

While most of the undergraduate population transfers for academic reasons, student-athletes are more likely to report transferring for athletics reasons. Some of the top reasons why student-athletes transfer are due to a lack of playing time, a mismatch between their athletics expectations and their experience, coaching issues, and wanting to play professionally in their sport. So, if you’ve found that what you were promised by your coach or your school isn’t the reality when you’re on campus, then you might want to consider transferring to a new school.

Things To Be Aware Of Before Transferring 

While it’s certainly your right to transfer, it’s important to consider all of your options carefully before making any major decisions. Some questions you can ask yourself are: Will the situation at your current school be changing anytime soon? Are there any good reasons for you to stay where you’re currently at? What are the benefits of transferring right now and what are some potential downsides? 

Then it’s important to seek counsel from your family, friends, former coaches and teachers, mentors, or anyone that you believe has your best interest at heart. After those conversations, if you still believe that it’s time for you to move on, then it might be the right move for you to transfer. 

From there, you’ll need to decide which school is the best fit for you moving forward both academically and athletically, learn the transfer and eligibility rules for the NCAA and the new conference and school that you plan to join, and finally apply to be admitted to the school you want to attend. Doing your homework at this stage of the game is crucial. So, before you decide to transfer anywhere, make sure that you completely understand what your future position on any new team will be, learn about any potential new coaches and their coaching styles, and try to collect as much information on the school and its athletics program as you can before you make any major decisions. 

And keep in mind that coaches may look at a transfer student a little differently than an athlete they’re recruiting out of high school. Coaches will want to know if there were any problems, injuries, or attitude problems with the transfer student that they’re interested in. They’re also going to want to make sure that the transfer student will be able to contribute to the team immediately, that he or she is a team player, and that she or he accepts authority. There’s also more pressure on you as a transfer student since you’re the one who needs to find a better situation, while coaches may already have all the players that they need on their teams. 

What Division I Athletes Should Know About Transferring 

Effective since October 15, 2018, the transfer process previously known as “permission to contact” has been changed to “notification of transfer,” according to the NCAA. Some of the benefits of ‘notification of transfer’are that it gives student-athletes more control over the decision to transfer, prohibits the current school from blocking a student-athlete from getting athletics aid at the receiving school, and it creates a transfer portal to identify student-athletes who have notified their school of transfer, streamlining the process. 

The notification of transfer process involves talking to your coach and/or administration about your intention to transfer. Then once your notification of transfer is communicated, compliance will place your name in the transfer portal within two business days. After your name enters the transfer portal, you will receive an email notification, verifying a coach’s ability to contact you. Then you can select the school you’d like to attend next, and you’ll also have the opportunity to receive financial aid. 

However, once your notification of transfer is signed, your current school has the right to reduce or cancel your financial aid at the end of the academic term. And while NCAA rules do not apply any consequences if a student-athlete notifies a school of an impending transfer and then does not transfer, the coach does not have to invite the student-athlete back on the team, and his or her financial aid or scholarship may also be discontinued the following term. 

What Is The Transfer Portal? 

“The transfer portal was created as a compliance tool to systematically manage the transfer process from start to finish, add more transparency to the process among schools, and empower student-athletes to make known their desire to consider other programs,” according to the NCAA. 

Previously in Division I, student-athletes who wanted to transfer had to ask their coach for permission to contact other schools. If the coach denied the request, student-athletes would then have to explain to the athletics director why they wanted to transfer. If the athletics director denied the permission to transfer once again, the student-athletes could make the request to a designated campus advisor like a dean of students. If the request still wasn’t approved after that, the last thing that the student-athletes could do would be to appeal to a committee that consists of professionals on campus and other students. Then those who didn’t receive permission could still transfer, but they couldn’t be offered athletics aid at the new school. 

Once Division I switched to a notification of transfer model for the 2018-2019 academic year, student-athletes became empowered by the change to the bylaw. After student-athletes ask a compliance administration to place their name in the portal, the school has two business days to submit the information. The transfer portal has also become a place for coaches nationwide to search for available players and explore their options. 

How Does The Transfer Portal Work?

As soon as a player enters the transfer portal, his or her transfer profile can be viewed by coaches from every school. The student-athlete’s NCAA ID number, school, sport, and email address will be the only information listed on this portal. After the compliance officer submits the notification of transfer, the student-athlete’s academic and athletics history will be entered to determine his or her NCAA eligibility. 

The transfer portal is sortable by sport, name, conference, division, and school. A coach can also sort by ‘most recent players to enter the portal’ and save names to a “Transfer Watch List.” Each entry also has a “Transfer Tracer” where coaches can find a player’s information. Coaches can then contact the player in order to see if the player is interested in transferring to their school. If a player is interested, schools can then set up visits. 

Players can also place a “Do not contact” designation on their profiles if they already know where they want to go and don’t want other schools contacting them first. The players can then reach out to schools of their choosing. And with the notification of transfer model, student-athletes can receive financial aid immediately at their new school, as long as they leave their current school academically eligible. 

For any high school athletes wondering what the transfer portal means for them, high school players who have signed a National Letter of Intent but have not yet enrolled at the university are not subject to the transfer portal. So, if any high school players want to decommit, they must request an NLI release through the school. 

What’s The New NCAA 1-Time Transfer Rule?

The new NCAA 1-Time Transfer Rule allows all athletes to transfer once in their careers and be immediately eligible. Athletes in five sports, including football and men’s and women’s basketball, were ineligible in the first year that they transferred under the old transfer rules.

The new transfer legislation has led to a surge in the transfer portal as hundreds of athletes are planning on attending a new school and playing immediately. There are nearly 3,000 players between football and men’s basketball combined who are actively in the portal, according to 247Sports. At least one-third of the student-athletes who are actively in the portal are walk-ons. 

Transfer rates have been soaring, and will probably continue to soar, across the NCAA. In men’s basketball, about 40% of players who enter Division I out of high school depart their initial school by the end of their sophomore year. While this is good news for current college players looking to switch teams, it might not be the best news for high school and junior college athletes. That’s because the new transfer legislation has led to an overhaul in some athletics departments, with some programs heightening their focus on current college players rather than high school and junior college athletes. 

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Black History Month: Names You Need To Know

In honor of Black History Month, Six Star Pro Nutrition wants to make sure that you know the names that helped change sports for the better. From the first African-American man to play in the Major Leagues  to the first Black tennis player to ever win a Grand Slam at the French Open, we’re celebrating black athletes who had to endure and overcome throughout their lives. By doing so, these legendary and heroic athletes raised the bar for future generations. Let’s take a look at some of the names that you need to know. 

JACKIE ROBINSON 

Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Prior to that, the Major Leagues had not had an African-American player since 1889, when baseball became segregated. When the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Robinson, they heralded the end of racial segregation in baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. 

At the end of Robinson’s rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he became the National League Rookie of the Year. He led the league with 29 steals, hit 12 home runs, and had a .297 average. Robinson was also an All-Star for six straight seasons from 1949 through 1954, and won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 – making him the first black player to become the league’s MVP. He played in six World Series and helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win the 1955 World Series Championship. He finished his career with a lifetime .311 batting average, was a two-time stolen base leader (1947 and 1949), and was also the NL Batting Champion in 1949. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. 

Robinson was also a standout college athlete at UCLA, becoming the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. Due to financial difficulties, he had to leave college and decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. After two years in the Army, he had progressed to second lieutenant. However, his army career was cut short when he was court-martialed in relation to his objections with incidents of racial discrimination. In the end, he left the Army with an honorable discharge. 

In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number 42 across all major league teams, and by doing so he became the first professional athlete in any sport to have this honor. MLB also started an annual tradition for the first time on April 15, 2004 in which every player on every team wears number 42 in honor of ‘Jackie Robinson Day.’ 

ALTHEA GIBSON

A professional American tennis player and golfer, Althea Gibson was one of the first black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis and became the first African-American woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). 

In the summer of 1950, Gibson became the first African-American to play in the iconic national women’s tennis championships in Forest Hills, Queens, which was the forerunner of the United States Open. She was leading before a rain delay, but ultimately lost the next day when the match resumed. In 1951, she won her first international title, the Caribbean Championships in Jamaica, and became the first black competitor at Wimbledon later that year. 

During her storied career, Gibson became the first black tennis player to be ranked No. 1 in the world, the first African-American to win a Grand Slam title at the 1956 French Championships, and the first black champion in Wimbledon history in 1957, accepting the trophy from Queen Elizabeth II. She also won both the U.S. national championship and Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958. In all, she won a total 11 Grand Slam titles before she retired from tennis. 

On the LPGA tour, racial discrimination continued to be a major problem for Gibson as many hotels excluded her, and country club officials throughout the south and some in the north refused to allow her to compete. She broke course records during individual rounds at several tournaments, but her highest ranking was 27th in 1966. She retired from professional golf at the end of the 1978 season. 

Both Serena and Venus Williams have expressed their admiration for her as someone who paved the way for them. To honor her, the U.S.T.A. made a granite sculpture of Gibson, which can be found on the southeast side of Arthur Ashe Stadium. 

WILLIE O’REE

Willie O’Ree, often called the ‘Jackie Robinson of ice hockey,’ is best known as the first black hockey player in the National Hockey League. When the African-Canadian ice hockey player played for the Boston Bruins for the first time on January 18, 1958, he had already lost 95 percent of the vision in his right eye after getting hit with an errant puck two years earlier. However, if the Bruins would have known O’Ree most likely wouldn’t have been able to play in the NHL, which is why he didn’t tell anyone other than a select few people that he couldn’t see out of one of his eyes. 

O’Ree refused to allow his lack of his vision, or the racial discrimination that he had to endure along the way, to stop him, even though O’Ree has said that he wasn’t aware he was breaking the color barrier in professional ice hockey until he read about it in the newspaper the morning after his first game. 

O’Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2018. Also in 2018, the NHL instituted the annual Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award in his honor to ‘recognize the individual who has worked to make a positive impact on his or her community, culture or society to make people better through hockey.’ 

In 2021, beginning with the weekend of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the United States on January 16th and ending with the conclusion of Black History Month on February 28th, all 31 NHL teams will wear a decal featuring a portrait of O’Ree inside a black and silver shield with a banner above and below reading, ‘CELEBRATING EQUALITY.’ 

BILL RUSSELL

A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and 12-time All-Star, Bill Russell was the centerpiece of the Boston Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA Championships during his 13-year career. Russell also made history as the first African American head coach in the big four sports (basketball, baseball, football, hockey) and the first to win a championship. 

He accomplished these feats in the final three seasons of his career becoming a player-coach for the Celtics, winning 2 of his 11 NBA Championships that way. He also led the San Francisco Dons to two consecutive NCAA Championships in 1955 and 1956, and captained the gold medal winning U.S. National Basketball Team at the 1956 Summer Olympics. Russell and NHL player Henri Richard are tied for the record of most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. 

Russell is widely recognized as the first black player to achieve superstar status in the NBA, playing in the wake of black pioneers like Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nathaniel ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton. He led the NBA in rebounds four times, had 12 consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds, and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. The Celtics retired his number 6 jersey in 1972. 

Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975, the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, was selected to the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971, the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, one of only four players to receive all three honors. He was also enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. 

The NBA renamed the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player trophy in 2009 calling it the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his honor. Then in 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments both on the court and in the Civil Rights Movement. The city of Boston honored Russell in 2013 by erecting a statue of him on City Hall Plaza. Russell managed to accomplish all of this even while fighting an uphill battle against racism his entire life. 

WILMA RUDOLPH

As an Olympic champion in the early 1960s, Wilma Rudolph was among the most highly visible black women in America and abroad. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games winning the 100- and 200-meter individual events and the 4 x 100-meter relay. She also won the bronze medal in the 4 x 100 relay at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. 

Due to the worldwide television coverage of the 1960 Summer Olympics, Rudolph became an international star along with other Olympic athletes like Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali), Oscar Robertson, and Rafer Johnson. She became a role model for black and female athletes and her Olympic successes helped elevate women’s track and field in the United States. 

Rudolph is also regarded as a civil rights and women’s rights pioneer. When she returned to her hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee after the 1960 Olympics in Rome, the city planned a parade for her, but it was segregated. Rudolph refused to participate unless it was integrated, and the town listened. 

Racism wasn’t the only struggle that Rudolph had to overcome. When she was four years old doctors told her that she’d never walk again after she was diagnosed with double-pneumonia, scarlet fever, and polio. She then went on to become one of the most popular athletes of the 1960 Rome Olympics and emerged from the Olympic Games as ‘The Tornado, the fastest woman on earth.’ 

TOMMIE SMITH & JOHN CARLOS

Two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, won the gold and bronze medals respectively in the 200-meter running event at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Smith won the race with a world-record time of 19.83 seconds and Carlos finished in third place with a time of 20.10 seconds. 

After the race was completed, Smith and Carlos received their medals shoeless, but wore black socks to represent black poverty. During their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City, Smith and Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the U.S. national anthem, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ While on the podium, both Smith and Carlos turned to face the U.S. flag and kept their hands raised until the anthem had finished. Smith, Carlos, and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman all wore human-rights badges on their jackets. Smith also wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, while Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue-collar workers in the U.S. This demonstration is regarded as one of the most overtly political statements in the history of the modern Olympics. Smith and Carlos’s Black Power salutes still remain a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement. 

However, as a response, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Avery Brundage, an American himself, deemed it to be a domestic political statement unfit for the international forum the Olympic Games were intended to be and ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the US team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team, which led to both Smith and Carlos being expelled from the Games. Smith and Carlos were then largely ostracized by the US sporting establishment and were subject to criticism. 

After Smith’s track and football careers, he became a member of the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978. In 1996, he was inducted into the California Black Sports Hall of Fame, and in 1999 he received the organization’s Sportsman of the Millennium Award. Meanwhile, Carlos worked for Puma, the United States Olympic Committee, the Organizing Committee of the 1984 Summer Olympics and the City of Los Angeles after his track and football careers. In 2003, Carlos was elected to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. On July 16, 2008, Smith and Carlos accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for their salute at the 2008 ESPY Awards. 

How to Get the Most Out of Your Workout

If you’re taking the time to go the gym, you deserve to get the absolute most out of your workout. There are lots of little things you can do before, during and after your workout to make sure your body is functioning efficiently and you’re training to your maximum.

BEFORE YOUR WORKOUT

First and foremost, eat something. It might seem tempting to go without food before a workout, especially early in the morning. While you might think this will help you lose more weight, it will actually affect your performance during your training session. Eating gives you energy to push through a tough workout.

Ideally, try eating 3 hours to 30 minutes before your workout. This will not only ensure that you’re not still digesting your food when you hit the gym floor, but you also haven’t used up all the calories from the meal. If you don’t eat before a workout, your body might dip into your muscles for fuel, which essentially cancels out all the hard work you’re doing.

Carbohydrates are a great option for pre-workout fuel. When we eat carbohydrates, our body breaks them down into glucose. Your muscles will store the glucose from your carbs, and when you’re working out your body will take from that glucose reserve to help you work at maximum capacity. Some great examples of a pre-workout meal could be oatmeal, fruit or a rice cake.

In addition to carbs, it’s good to consume a bit of protein before a workout, especially if you’re weight training. Lifting weights creates small tears in our muscle fibers. It sounds scary, but your body repairs these micro-tears and builds your muscles to be bigger and stronger than before. However, your body needs nourishment to properly repair – that’s where protein comes in. Try eating protein that’s easily digestible before a workout, like a hard-boiled egg.

You want to avoid eating foods that aren’t easily digested before a workout. This applies to anything with a high fiber content. Since high-fiber foods take longer to digest, they can cause bloating, nausea, gas and stomach cramps during your workout.

Lastly, hydrate! It’s good to be hydrated before a workout, as dehydration can slow down your energy levels and lead to muscle cramps and spasms.

DURING YOUR WORKOUT

A great way to get a little more out of your usual workout routine is supersets. A superset is when you perform two or more exercises hitting different muscle groups in one set without rest between them. For instance, instead of resting after a set of squats for two minutes, jump right into something else, like chest presses.

It’s also common to superset opposing muscles, like chest and back or biceps and triceps. For example, you could superset bicep curls with triceps dips. Opposing muscle groups like biceps and triceps work together to perform a workout – when you’re doing bicep curls, your triceps are still working, there’s just a bigger focus on the biceps. By performing a superset and going straight from bicep curls to triceps dips, you’re getting double the burn for those overlapping muscle groups, which will help those muscles grow faster.

Supersets are a great way to get stronger, faster, but they’re also a great way to make sure your workout is as efficient as possible. You’d be amazed by how much you can get done in 20 minutes when you cut out some of your rest time!

AFTER YOUR WORKOUT

Once again – eat something. You need to make sure your muscles and tissues are properly nourished, so they can repair themselves. Eat foods that are high in protein after your workout, because protein is a must for muscle recovery. Some great healthy proteins to enjoy after a workout include beans and fish.

Eating carbs post-workout is also great, because you need to replenish all that glycogen your body ate up during your workout. Try eating foods that are high in complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates take longer for the body to break down, which is horrible before a workout, but perfect afterwards. Some examples of foods high in complex carbs are nuts, brown rice or whole-grain pasta. Or, supplement your diet with a protein shake, like our 100% Whey Protein Plus.

If you don’t eat after a workout, your blood sugar levels will plummet and you’ll be extremely fatigued. By not eating, you’re also inhibiting the recovery process, which could lead to injury down the road. Something as quick and simple as a protein shake can do the trick. It’s best to eat something within half an hour of your workout, even if it’s just a small snack.

Do your best not to over-indulge after a workout. It’s tempting to eat poorly after a workout, because you feel like “you deserve it.” But, at the end of the day, this can reverse a lot of the effects of your training session. If you must have a cheat meal, it’s better to do it on a training day than on a rest day. But, try and plan it out, so you’re not having a cheat meal after every single workout.

And again, hydrate! If you were working hard, you were sweating – this means your body has lost a lot of hydration. If you don’t hydrate after a workout, you risk low energy, as well as muscles cramps and spasms – even if you hydrated pre-workout.

You officially have all the tools to take your workouts and your results to the max. Keep in mind, these are merely guidelines. You know your body best, so listen to what it needs and act accordingly. Happy training!

Optimizing Your Protein Intake

During my Master’s program, I worked as a nutrition coordinator for several heavy-hitting protein intake studies on trained populations. Between research done at school and personal interest queries, I discovered that the trick is figuring out what to do with all that information available so you don’t lose your gains while drowning in data! This is a worthwhile endeavor because protein provides the building blocks for precious muscle growth and so much more.

For the purpose of this article, I’m focusing on guidance for optimizing protein intake in “trained” active individuals from the latest and greatest International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISNN) position stand. I’ll also share some additional little-known reasons to increase protein intake and provide some anecdotal asides from my experience as a coach and lab rat.

QUICK AND PAINLESS WAYS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR PROTEIN INTAKE

Unless otherwise noted, the following recommendations were taken from the ISNN position stand1.

  • Consume 1.4g to 2.0g of protein per kg bodyweight (0.64g to 0.91g per pound bodyweight) per day to meet sufficient protein intake as an active individual.
  • 3.0+ grams per kg per day of protein (1.36+ grams per pound) intake has been shown to be even more beneficial for improving body composition.
  • Consume an absolute dose of at least 20g to 40g of protein every 3 to 4 hours. (Add more as needed to reach your daily protein intake goal in grams.)
  • Opt for “high-quality” protein sources when you can, preferably whole food protein sources and high-quality supplements that contain all of the essential amino acids.
  • If you can’t always get whole food sources, you can still be optimal by supplementing your diet with highly bioavailable protein sources such as whey protein.
  • Leucine content of 700mg to 3000mg is worth looking for in protein sources and supplements. This amino acid is much more abundant in whey protein, compared to other sources.
  • Post-workout protein increases muscle protein synthesis after resistance training, and can help offset muscle damage and promote recovery in endurance athletes.
  • Whey is an excellent source of post-workout protein since it is fast digesting and easy to take to the gym with you.
  • If you are going to “go over” on your calorie intake for the day, you are best off ensuring the additional calories come from protein to optimize body composition.2
  • Pre-bed casein intake of 30g to 40g can increase muscle protein synthesis and metabolism without contributing to fat gain.

OTHER BENEFITS TO INCREASING DIETARY PROTEIN

  • Increasing protein intake is especially important for adults age 30 and older in order to prevent or delay the effects of sarcopenia (muscle loss).3
  • If you’re injured, preliminary studies have shown that a higher protein intake, in addition to creatine supplementation, can optimize muscle tissue repair and synthesis as well as counteract some muscle atrophy.4
  • Increasing protein intake while dieting has been shown to improve sleep in overweight and obese adults.5
  • Consuming a higher protein diet helps preserve lean body mass, as well as perceptions of satiety and pleasure during energy restriction on a weight loss program.6

ANECDOTAL OPINIONS FROM A COACH AND LAB RAT: OPTIMAL VS. REALISTIC

During my last bikini prep, I was consuming upwards of 3g of protein per kg bodyweight. I’m a tall, large-framed person, so that meant over 230g of protein per day. That intake got me to my goal stage body, but was not sustainable for me in my day-to-day life after my show. I swung hard the other way and noticed a definite shift in my body composition when I was barely hitting 100g of protein per day.

Once I found a happy post-comp medium and started being more mindful of hitting a daily protein intake goal, I saw a shift in my body composition again, and felt leaner and tighter on the same calorie intake after only a few weeks. I pulled calories from my fat and carb intake, and lent it toward protein. People were even telling me, unprompted, that I looked leaner a few weeks after I made the switch. As a preference, I only eat meat one meal a day on average, and I am able to consistently hit about 2g protein per kg bodyweight per day. All of that being said, I encourage you to track your protein intake – make sure it’s within the optimal range, ensure you’re getting high-quality protein sources as often as possible and track your progress! You’ll be happy you did.

References:

1Jäger et al., 2017. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 14(1).

2Antonio et al., 2016. The effects of a high protein diet on indices of health and body composition – a crossover trial in resistance-trained men. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 13(3).

3Morley et al., 2010. Nutritional recommendations for the management of sarcopenia. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 11(6): 391–396.

4Tack, C., 2016. Dietary supplementation during musculoskeletal injury. Strength and Conditioning Journal  38(1): 22–26.

5Zhou et al., 2016. Higher-protein diets improve indexes of sleep in energy-restricted overweight and obese adults: results from 2 randomized controlled trials. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 103(3): 766–774.

6Leidy et al., 2007. Higher protein intake preserves lean mass and satiety with weight loss in pre-obese and obese women. Obesity 15(2): 421–429.

BY AMEY CORSON
SIX STAR AMBASSADOR

Amey Corson is 28 years old and currently lives in Tampa, FL. She earned a Master’s degree in Exercise Science from University of South Florida, is an Air Force veteran, and a pro bikini competitor. She likes to think of herself as a hippie who became a physique enhancement nerd. Typical Gemini.
She has been running her own online personal training business since 2014.

Understanding Your Energy Deficit

BE IN A CALORIC DEFICIT

Everyone has a different base metabolic rate or (BMR). This number is the amount of calories your body burns throughout the day. To lose weight, you must eat less than this number. For instance, if your BMR is 2,000 calories a day, then you should eat 1,500 calories to lose weight. Typically, 500 calories below your BMR is a good amount for steady weight loss. This can take some trial and error. Typically, start high and slowly remove calories from your week-to-week diet.

EAT 1 TO 1.25 GRAMS OF PROTEIN PER POUND OF BODYWEIGHT

A lot of people believe you need to eat a lot of protein to bulk up, but actually, the opposite is true. You can cut back some on protein when bulking, but you should jack up the protein while trying to lean out. You want to keep as much of your hard-earned muscle as possible. You’ll want at least 1g per pound of bodyweight.

DON’T CUT CALORIES TOO FAST

Cutting too much too soon can be detrimental. Far too many people believe that less is more when it comes to weight loss. Cutting calories too low or cutting calories too fast can be detrimental to your weight loss progress. If you’re too low on calories, you will still lose weight, but you will lose a lot of muscle in the process and potentially do damage to your metabolism. Dangerously low caloric consumption is unhealthy and never a good idea.

FOCUS ON RESISTANCE TRAINING

Another huge mistake is focusing too much on cardiovascular exercise. Cardio is a great tool for weight loss, but your focus should be on resistance training. When losing weight, you will inevitably lose muscle. You obviously want to maintain as much of that muscle as possible, to help you burn more fat you burn throughout the day. It increases your metabolism and allows you to eat more without gaining weight. And who doesn’t want that!?

GET AT LEAST 8 HOURS OF SLEEP PER NIGHT

Sleep doesn’t get the credit it deserves for its role in fat loss. The sleep you get per night can make a huge difference when trying to lose weight. Obviously, everybody’s life is different and this is easier for some more than others. But even if you can’t get 8 hours of sleep every night, you should try and get as much sleep as possible.

TRACK AND RECORD EVERYTHING

Tracking your workouts and your food intake is probably the most important thing you can do. While tracking workouts, focus on increasing strength. Even though your goal is fat loss, increasing strength is important for maintaining muscle. Don’t fall into the trap and say, Beacuse I’m trying to lose weight, I’m switching to high reps only.” Keep your weights heavy and your strength up! Recording food has become increasingly easier with the additions of apps like MyFitnessPal. Using these apps allows you to track all your foods and hit your macronutrient numbers, all without having to look it up in other places. Tracking food intake is the single best key for fat loss. You can experiment with all different macronutrient numbers and find what works best for you!

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