so guys, what did you eat today?
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginYou all remember Torben with his training logs and workout challenges. I thought it was a great idea and think it's time to add my own knowledge now. In this case I won't be talking about working out, but about NUTRITION. I did not only leave exercise for what it is because Torben already did that, but also because NUTRITION IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR OF A HEALTHY LIFE AND MAKING YOUR BODY LOOK BETTER.
GENES:No, it's not genetics that makes you fat, skinny or muscular. It's first of all nutrition, and ofcourse also exercise. Yes there are 3 basic body types and the ectomorph obviously is skinnier and longer while the endomorph looks a big bigger, but THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOUR GENETIC CODE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE to lose fat and gain muscle (or for some gain fat and gain muscle). And with this I also don't mean you should be sporting two hours or even an hour every day and feel hungry all day, it doesn't even mean you have to leave out fast food.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:Let's start with myself, I must admit I have pretty good genes and have always had a healthy youth (parents didn't cook alot of fast food and I have always been doing sports). But, last year, I started doing calisthenics. I started without even knowing what to do, but the internet has a incredible amount of information. I started eating healthier and now even tracking my macro nutrients; I am still gaining muscle and losing body fat.
pic might be me, or it might be not. Let's just say it's me.
This doesnt involve counting calories or any extreme changes to your habits yet, but its a GREAT way to start off.
1)DONT DRINK YOUR CALORIES: drop all soda's, juices, sweetened drinks etc... and drink WATER. Milk is OK as long as you keep it to a minimum. Eating your calories will fill you up much more and you will end up being satisfied with much less calories.
2)DRINK MORE WATER: if you feel hungry, drink two glasses of water before each meal. You will consume less and hey what the heck, water is the most important part of your diet! A lot of people underestimate the amount of water they drink.
3)CONSIDER SMALL BUT IMPORTANT DIET CHANGES: were you about to eat french fries with mayonaise and a glass of coke? Consider baked potatoes with ketchup and water, or at least diet coke.
4) EXERCISE!!!!
workout: cardio vs strenght?Strength training! Yes, it doesn't matter if you are male or female. underweight or overweight. Do strength training!
but why? Well, let's start with the obvious: if you do strength training you will build more muscle than when you do cardio. This is because cardio only fires the 'slow-twitch' muscle fibers, these are able to do a fairly light work for a very long time (they are aerobic). When you do strength training you will both fire your slow and fast twitch muscle fibers; these last sort of muscle fibers can have a very high force output, but gets tired faster.
So, why would I wan't to build muscle? Because muscle ise the most metabolically expensive tissue in the human body. It takes between 50 and 100 calories a day to only keep 1 pound of it alive, for both men and women, even if you are in a coma living like a plant. Increased muscle mass lets you lose weight without putting extra effort in calorie counting and food selection.
The second reason: Strength training burns MORE calories than cardio. Not only during the exercising, but also because of the metabolism boost AFTER your workout (for as long as 48 hours). I won't use too much words on this and make the images do the talking:
source: You Are Your Own Gym (Mark Lauren)
Ofcourse, this doesn't mean to never do your cardio again. Your heart needs exercise too and nobody wants to be that guy that can't even run for 10 minutes. Do 30-60 minutes of strength training everyday, except on rest days, when you will do cardio.
I know there aren't many, but to all women: don't be afraid to build muscle. You don't have to be scared to become a monster with huge arms and abs, women are just not able to build that amount of muscle without permanent dedication and ofcourse 'roids.
THE BASICS:nutrition: macro'sBuilding muscle and losing fat is very easy: if you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. If you eat the same amount of calories as you burn, you maintain your weight. If you eat less, you will lose weight.
If you are trying to gain weight (bulking), you will need to do strength training to use those extra calories to build muscle. If you are trying to lose weight (cutting), you will need to do (yes again) STRENGTH training.
Important is that when you cut, you don't eat too little. You will feel tired all day and you won't be burning fat anymore, but muscle! Remember that when you are losing more than 1 pound of body weight per week, you are going too fast.
STARVATION IS BAD! Your body will push the fail safe button and your metabolism will slow down, you will burn more muscle than fat because your body will try to store as much fat as possible in order to survive times of hunger and start cannibalizing your dearest muscle tissue. You will feel horrible, your diet will fail and afterwards you will eat and regain everything you lost, plus interest. Because of the same reason, spreading your calories over 6 meals/day is also a better idea, because your body will never feel like it has not enough nutrients so it won't start storing fat for the next period of 6 hours without food.
Watch the following video's and you will have yourself your perfectly safe, custom designed and rather easy diet.
Intermittent fastinghttp://www.youtube.com/user/fastingtwins?feature=watchMYTHS:'spot reduction'You see it in all the magazines and late night tell-sell (consumer group: desperate fatties that are still awake at 3 am because they don't have a life). 'Do you want to get strong and visible abs?' just do sit ups and burn all that excessive fat on your abdominal area. Ofcourse, they will offer you machines that even make you lose that fat without a lot of effort. NO NO NO, uninformed people spend millions every year on these absolutely useless machines.
The body decides how it will distribute the fat over your body, all you can do to get rid of love-handles or man-boobs is to reduce your total bodyfat by doing more aerobic exercise and by eating less. It is not possible to do spot-removal of fat despite the million dollar industry which tries to sell a gullible public one “love-handle remover” after another!
So how to reduce your fat? Yes you guessed it, exercise (cardio or strenght) and nutrition: exercise a bit more, eat a bit less, drink your water and sleep! Abs are made in the kitchen, not (purely) in the gym, the only reason some people don't have this much wanted '6-pack' is because they have some fat over it.
The myth that you can remove fat in focused areas by doing special exercises is not new. The vibrating belts of the ’50s were promoted for fat removal around the mid-section. Its just not possible to focus fat removal on a particular area, surgery is the only way to do spot-removal of fat deposits. There are some drugs (like AZT) that cause the body to redistribute fat and focus it in the mid section but as far as I know, nobody has been able to do this in a desirable fashion.
FOOD TIPS:post workout meal:source: 'You are your own gym' by Mark Lauren
Chicken/turkey breast
Fish (tuna, salmon, halibut)
Lean beaf and veal
pork loin
Cottage cheese, certain other soft, medium or hard cheeses (just look on the back of the package at the nutritional values)
greek yoghurt, Skimmed milk and low-fat yoghurt
Tofu
Eggs
Beans
Nuts and seeds (pumpkin, squash, and watermelon Seeds, peanuts, almonds)
macro nutrients in different foodsyour cheap and healthy shopping listrecipes remember not all of these are good for cutting! Bulking also needs good recipes! DO NOT EAT WITHOUT COUNTING MACRONUTRIENTS
chicken recipes:
beef recipes:
fish recipes:
yoghurt recipes:
egg recipes:
salads:
also pretty awesome with apple and raisins
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginsauces:
bulking meals:
oatmeal:
sweets:
trivia:
beef chart:
spices and tastes:
LINKS and GOOD SOURCES:IfItFitsYourMacros:
http://iifym.com/ (but the links in the second video will do perfectly fine as well)
MyFitnessPal:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com//fit/ (NSFW!!!):
http://boards.4chan.org/fit/scoobysworkshop:
http://scoobysworkshop.com/ and his youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/scooby1961calisthenics pdf files: 'Never gymless' / 'You are your own gym' / 'Overcoming gravity' / 'The underground guide to warrior fitness'
