Maria Rita Penteado is walking her dog – in her workout gear. In a new social media post the bodybuilder flaunts her washboard abs in shorts and a tiny tank while getting her steps in with her pooch. “Don't let fear try to imprison you. The powers of the mind that made you shine. Free yourself from yoke, burden of sorrow. You are the dawn of the solar age,” she captioned the Instagram photo. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
1. No Extreme Diets
You won’t find Maria on a crash diet. “There’s only so much body fat one can burn in a week, no matter how hard they diet,” she writes in a post. “Extreme diets will led mostly to muscle tissue loss because it puts the body under an “emergency” state, and it’s more convenient for the body to get rid of lean tissue than energy-storage tissue aka bodyfat.” They are also “not sustainable and, once you go back to eating a little bit more, the body will rebound and add even extra weight, as a form of safety response in case the emergency situation (extreme dieting) happens again,” she says. “Nobody doesn’t know you are extremely dieting on purpose. It thinks it’s a survival situation and it will always look for ways to compensate the loss to make you safer (more storage, you can survive longer in case of starvation). It does that also by lowering your metabolism, which messes everything up even more.” Her solution? “To reeducate your eating habits and have a nutrition plan that works for your own personal needs. Something sustainable, a lifestyle. It will require commitment and patience with the process.”
2. Stay in a Calorie Deficit to Lose Weight
In another post she explains how diet is mathematics. “Unless you have a metabolic issue (which the great majority does not have) the rule is pretty simple: Eat less than you burn: Lose Weight, Eat more than you burn: Gain Weight,” she says. “In fitness, and in life, when you don't give your best, that means that you don't believe in yourself. Save aside metabolic issues, the majority of people are simply eating too much and don't have a customized plan for their needs. They don't know how to do it and end up crashing on the diet and rebounding and then messing it all up, or simply eat more than they think, due to not tracking it, not being prepared or a lack of real willpower.”
3. Keep Upping Intensity
Another recommendation from Maria? Keep upping intensity. “Intensity is something that is adjustable to absolutely every levels of conditioning. She explains that unless you up levels, you won’t improve. “Same goes for weight training: if you are a healthy individual, can lift 10 lbs and keep lifting 5 lbs, you won't improve.”
4. Building Muscles
Building muscle is key, says Maria. “Muscles are what SHAPE the body. Getting fit is not only about being light on the scale. If you don't have muscles, you won't have nice shape,” she writes in a post. “Muscles are more valuable than MONEY. As we age, our capacity to build muscle declines, but it's never too late to start. The "I'm too old for this" is an invalid excuse. Like money, the earlier you start saving and invest, the better, the same goes with building muscles.But if you started later, you will still reap the benefits and see your quality of life improve exponentially, having more strength and energy to do the things you love. Muscles = health. Health = quality of life. You may have money, but if you don't have health, you can't enjoy it. Invest time in building muscles and being healthy so you can live life to the fullest.”
5. Walking
As demonstrated in her recent post, Maria spends a lot of time walking her dog. Going for a daily walk can be a game changer in terms of exercise, especially at a brisk speed. One study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that walking at a brisk pace for about 30 minutes a day led to a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia and death, compared with walking a similar number of steps but at a slower pace.
