Rafaela Pirola

Fitness Model, Brand Affiliate

Rafaela Pirola is a Brazilian sponsored athlete and fitness model. With her popular social media profiles, Rafaela motivates her ever-growing fanbase to strive for a healthy and productive lifestyle.

Rafaela is passionate about working hard, but her stunning figure wasn’t easy to attain.“For me to stay lean, I have to wake up early and do cardio every day. I also train in the gym, at least 5 times per week.” – Rafaela Pirola

Not only does Rafaela train hard, she also juggles a strict meal plan and sponsorship duties with constant traveling. Needless to say, Rafaela’s awesome lifestyle comes with its sacrifices.

But she enjoys doing things her way, no matter how hard it gets at times. Rafaela believes that everyone should find what they are passionate about, and do it every day.

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Athlete Statistics

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Accomplishments

• Fitness Model
• Brand Affiliate

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Training

Doing cardio daily, along with training with weights in the afternoon to sculpt and shape her muscles. This is the basis of Rafaela’s regimen. When she’s looking to lose fat quickly, Rafaela will add HIIT on top of her regular training.

HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training. It’s a form of extremely intense cardio that’s done in short intervals with rest periods in between. Since it usually lasts no longer than 20 minutes, HIIT is Rafaela’s favorite fat burning exercise.

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Stretching

By the end of her workout, Rafaela’s muscles are full of lactic acid. To combat this, she stretches right after training.

This helps her prevent excess lactic-acid buildup, which in turn improves blood flow and nutrient delivery to her muscles.

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Nutrition

Cycling Low-Calorie and High-Calorie Days

Rafaela’s diet generally stays the same throughout the year. Five days out of the week, she’ll eat low-calorie foods to avoid gaining body fat.

On the remaining two days, she’ll do so-called ‘re-feed’ days. This is where she’ll fill up her body with nutrient-dense foods to nourish her muscles and make them appear fuller.

This method enables Rafaela to stay both toned and lean at the same time, without gaining any excess fat.

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Pushing Past Cravings

If she feels a strong craving coming, Rafaela will do either one of these things; drink a flavored protein shake, or drink a lot of tea. From her experience, this almost always does the trick.

However, in cases where the craving persists, Rafaela will listen to her body and eat whatever it is that she craves. She says that while it’s important to keep a strict diet, if her body really wants something, she’ll eat it to her heart’s content.

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What we can learn from Rafaela Pirola

One simple thing to learn from Rafaela Pirola is that fitness shouldn’t be a torture, but rather something you enjoy.

Even though she’s disciplined with her diet, Rafaela gets strong cravings from time to time. At first, she’ll try to combat this by eating something healthy instead of gulping down a cheesy pizza or a chocolate cake.

If the craving persists though, Rafaela will recognize it as a sign from her body that it desperately needs certain nutrients. In these cases, she’ll eat whatever food her body wants.

The main lesson we can learn from this, is that you should never restrict your diet to the point where it’s affecting your health. Prioritize healthy and clean foods, but remember that it’s okay to let loose once in a while. Balance is key in whatever you do.