I don’t know about you, but I’ve hit my breaking point. Being cooped up at home is the absolute worst. To make it worse, it started snowing again, only after one day of beautiful 70-degree weather. The gyms are closed, parks are closed, the world is closed.

But hey, there is always something to learn in any given situation. As good as it feels to vent, I need to be careful because that venting can turn into too much complaining. And complaining only leads to a negative mindset.

I don’t know about you, but life is a real b**** when you have a negative mindset.

So I need to focus on the positives. We need to focus on the positives. The positive here is that something can be learned. And what I’ve learned during this time is that there is not better time to create new habits than when the world is shut down and you have more time on your hands than you know what to do with.

Having said that, here is what I want to share with you today: there is ALWAYS something we can be doing to keep ourselves leaner and healthier. And, the better we are at keeping ourselves leaner and healthier during crappy times, the easier it will be to stay leaner and healthier in the best of times (when the gym opens back up).

So let’s dive in. Here is how you can stay lean during quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #1: DIAL IN YOUR NUTRITION

Dialing in your nutrition means many different things to many different people. For you, dialing in your nutrition may mean figuring out how to curb your cravings. Maybe it means you need to practice better habits, like chewing slower and putting your fork down in between bites. Heck, maybe you just need to reduce your sugar intake from 200 grams per day to 180. Whatever it looks like, I am willing to bet there are some practices and behaviors that overlap from person to person.

Protein is a very familiar nutrient for the gym rats out there. But it must be a very familiar nutrient for you, too. Protein can help you stay lean during quarantine for many reasons. Protein is satiating. Protein helps you feel fuller for longer, thus causing you to feel less hungry throughout the day. Protein builds and preserves lean muscle tissue which is a main contributor to the amount of calories you burn in the day. Right now, being more sedentary than you usually are, you are at a high risk for losing muscle especially if you are not continuing your resistance training. Eating more protein can help you hold on to that muscle of yours. Protein also has a high thermic affect. This means that your body burns more calories breaking down and digesting protein than any other nutrient. Replacing excess carbs and fats with a little more protein may do you some good.

Too many people just don’t eat enough protein. It is one of the very first things I address when I begin working with a client. Unless you’ve already addressed this and are focusing on making an improvement, I’m willing to bet you’re not eating enough protein. For relatively lean individuals, I recommend .6-1g of protein per pound of body weight each day. For overweight and obese individuals, I recommend .3-.6g of protein per pound of body weight each day.

Protein can help you stay lean during quarantine.

Addressing your micronutrient intake would also be a good thing to do during this time. No, you don’t need to diligently track your vitamin and mineral intake each day, but work to incorporate more fruits and vegetables that are nutrient dense. Start with one big serving (two fist fulls) of greens per day and build from there. Greens offer an incredible amount of micronutrients that we need for a healthy life and most of us simply don’t get enough of them.

Take time to analyze your highly processed food intake. Yes, your “healthy” protein bar is a highly processed food. Our bodies simply don’t do well with a lot of highly processed foods. You should aim to have a diet that is mostly (at least 80%) comprised of whole, natural foods. What I mean by “whole” and “natural” is that it previously came from the ground or previously had a face before it became the food you were about to eat. There should be minimal change from A to B during processing. For example, it is very common to get organic cereal because it has more natural ingredients. However, there was still a ton of processing that occurred to turn the ingredients into cereal. Oats would be a more whole and natural alternative. Find ways you can begin to minimize the highly processed foods in your diet, and replace them with whole, natural alternatives.

Like I said, dialing in nutrition is going to look different for all of us. Maybe you’re not great at creating healthy meals and you need to toy with some recipes. Maybe you eat too many damn Oreos a day and you need to reduce it by two Oreos per week. Whatever it is, now is the time to create new, healthy behaviors that turn into habits. Those behaviors will help you stay lean the quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #2: PERFORM RESISTANCE TRAINING

I’ve beaten this dead horse too many times, but it needs to continue to be beaten.

Resistance training is hands down the best form of exercise for your long term health. It is also the best form of exercise when it comes to keeping you lean during quarantine.

Resistance training keeps your muscle protein synthesis elevated, meaning you can retain and perhaps even build muscle, even when you’re away from the gym. The muscle you build from resistance training can help you burn more calories in the day, helping you keep a leaner body year-round. Many other health benefits can be seen from resistance training as well. By manipulating your rest between sets, tempo, and more, you can tap into the cardiovascular benefits, improving your heart health. By increasing your rests between sets, going into lower rep ranges, and increasing the amount of weight you lift, you can tap into the amazing strength benefits that resistance training has to offer. Resistance training is really a Jack of all trades. But this Jack is a master of each and every one of them.

I know your gym is closed, and you may not have access to the equipment your gym offered. However, that’s not stopping you from getting quality resistance training workouts in. You can use your body weight and a set of bands to test and challenge yourself more than ever before. Sure, your bodyweight may not provide as much resistance during a push up as a 200lb barbell does during a bench press, but putting a band on your back and under your hands while implementing one or a combination of these tips will certainly help.

Slow down. Slowing your tempo down during your exercise can add more intensity and resistance. Instead of doing a regular push-up, spend five slow seconds on the way down, and five slow seconds on the way up.
Squeeze. Getting a connection to your muscles and feeling them squeeze is one of the best things you can do to take your home workout to a new level. Instead of moving your limbs and hoping to feel something in your muscles, be intentional. Squeeze your muscles first in order to move the weight.
Hold. Adding an isometric hold in the middle of the movement will intensify the signal your muscles are receiving. Sure, you may only have a twenty-pound dumbbell for goblet squats, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it very challenging. At the bottom of your squat, maintain tension and squeeze your muscles as hard as you can for five seconds.

You may be away from the gym, but now is NOT the time to say f*ck it. Now is the time to grab those bands and test those muscles of yours.

Resistance training will help you stay lean during quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #3: GET TO STEPPIN’

As far as I know, no one is standing outside your door, prohibiting you from walking around the neighborhood. And if they are, no one is keeping you from walking around your house. Now is the time to make a habit of getting more steps in.

One of the main reasons we as Americans have such a hard time staying leaner year-round is because we don’t move enough. We’ve set up our lives to be so sedentary that we actually have to go out of our way to get activity. The average American only gets about 5,000 steps in per day, which is extremely low in my opinion. For someone that weighs 160lbs, 5,000 steps is about (and this is a rough guesstimation as there are many factors that play into this) 218 calories per day. 10,000 steps per day for that individual is about 435 calories per day. You many not think that is a huge difference, but that adds up over the course of a week, a month, and a year.

Making slight improvements to your step count can be the difference between and overweight version of you, and leaner version of you.

Seriously.

Sure, walking may not be a strenuous, bad-ass form of exercise, but those small improvements in steps compound over time to make a massive difference the the health of your body. Start making better habits by first figuring out your avg. step count currently. Whatever it is, aim to increase it by 1,000. Once that new target becomes a habit, increase it by 1,000 again.

When life gets back to normal and you’ve created a healthy habit of walking more, you’ll catch yourself going outside of the office for a walk before you head home instead of going to happy hour for another 500 calorie margarita. And your leaner self will thank you.

Steps help you stay lean during quarantine.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Whatever you need to address in your health, fitness, and nutrition, now is the time. Here is what you can do to stay lean during quarantine:

Eat enough protein and focus on your greens. .6-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight for relatively lean individuals will do the job. Aim to get one big serving (two fistfuls) of greens per day.
Do some resistance training. Help your body have an easier time getting leaner by testing your muscles, and testing your strength. Don’t workout to get sweaty and burn calories. Workout to get stronger.
Get your steps in. Whatever your average is right now, start by increasing it by 1,000 and build.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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