New Diet Part II

In this post, I went into some of the results that I got from a new diet I was testing out since last November.

Well, today we're going to get into the details of the diet.

In this post on a forum I frequent from time to time is a layout of what is involved in the diet.

First, a few things about this forum that it was posted on at www.jpfitness.com. It's a great site put on by Jean-Paul Francoeur, who is a great trainer, an excellent businessperson, and just an overall great guy.

It is frequented by some of the most amazing minds you'll ever find in the diet and fitness world. Some of these people are who I learned from and took that knowledge to build the Lean Body Fat Loss Training program. They include guys like Craig Ballantyne, Alwyn Cosgrove, John Berardi, Lou Schuler, and many many more. Including the author of the post that listed the diet, Adam Campbell.

Adam Campbell is currently the Sports and Nutrition Editor for Men's Health. He has in the past been an editor for Men's Fitness as well. He is also a co-author of a great book called The Testosterone Advantage Plan.

Now let's look at exactly what is involved in the diet:

1. Eat as many of these vegetables as you desire throughout the day.

Asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumbers, egg plant, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, peppers, pickles, spinach, squash, string beans, tomatoes, zucchini. Of course, oil-based, low carb dressings are fine for dipping, steaming is great, as well as sautéing with garlic (fantastic for fresh spinach with olive oil).

2. Eat as much lean meat as you want: 90 percent lean beef, turkey, chicken, tuna, salmon (any kind of fish/seafood really). (You can eat bacon, ham, and fattier meat, too, but just for the sake of being politically correct, limit these to one to two servings a day.) Use low-carb marinades and rubs to add variety to things like chicken and beef.

3. Especially avoid high-carbohydrate snacks. That is, anything that would spike your insulin between meals. Instead eat pepperoni or cheese (or better yet, pepperoni sticks dipped in soft cheese! or tuna, etc. Also, eat at 1-2 servings of peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, and pine nuts per day (great snacks).

4. Allow yourself one to two servings (but only at ONE meal) of the following: whole grain/wheat bread, brown rice, sweet potato, oats/oatmeal (In other words, if you want a sandwich for lunch, eat it. If you like oatmeal for breakfast, eat it.)

5. Limit fruit intake to 2 servings a day. Choose from: strawberries, pears, peaches, apples, and grapes.

6. Have as much coffee (with cream or artificial sweeteners), diet soft drinks, and tea as you like.

7. Drink lots of water. Let's say 16 ounces ever two hours you are awake on top of other beverages.

8. Drink (roughly): 15 grams of protein, 45 grams of carbohydrate (high-glycemic like maltodextrin or dextrose) in 12 ounces of water--half 5 to 15 minutes before your workout, and the rest evenly divided every 15-20 minutes of your workout. (This is basically a "Nutrient Timing" principle.)

9. After your workout, drink 20 grams of protein and 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrate. (These numbers are debatable, but I think they'll do the job quite nicely.)

10. Eat eggs and plenty of cheese. Avoid milk most of the time. (If you love it, limit it to one serving a day.)

Sit back and read the above over a few times. In the next couple of days, I'll go into how I've incorporated this into my daily meals and give you exactly the foods that I'm eating to give me the results that I posted here. If you have questions about the diet in the next couple of days, don't hesitate to e-mail me at mike@leanbodyfitness.com and I'll try and clear up any confusion you might have with what is posted above.

Like I stated, this is a great diet and something that I not only think is a great way to lose weight but, is also a great eating plan that you can follow as a healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life.

P.S. This diet is actually going to be coming out into a book in the fall. When it does, you'll be the first to know about where you can get it.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

New Diet Part I

In this post a couple of months ago, I mentioned a diet that I was testing out on myself and was waiting to give my approval or disapproval after I was on it just a little while longer and had some blood work done to make sure there were no harmful effects on cholesterol, glucose, etc.

Well, I'm here to give the results.

First, I've been following this diet 90% of the time (following a diet 90% of the time is the standard that you should be meeting when on a diet. Sorry but if you're only following a diet 50% of the time, then you're not following it) since roughly the middle of November.

Before starting the new diet, my weight was roughly around 170 pounds. I didn't necessarily need to lose body weight but, wanted to lose some body fat since it increased some since I was coming out of a muscle building phase for the 3 months prior.

My new workout consisted of a basic fat loss workout that included strength training 3 days a week for roughly 30 minutes each session and 2 days a week I did an interval workout that lasted roughly 20 minutes a session on a bike.

The results:

Weight: actually dropped to 158 pounds. Lost quite a bit of body fat too as I'm seeing definition around muscle that I've never seen before.

Strength: Has increased quite a bit in all of the big lifts (Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Pullup). I'm creating new records on a regular basis now.

All of these were taken in a fasted state:

Total cholesterol: 146 (down from 166 in June of 2005)

HDL cholesterol (the good stuff): 60 (up from 53 in June of 2005)

LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff): 76 (down from 97 in June of 2005)

Triglycerides: 49 (down from 81 in June of 2005)

Blood glucose: 90 (up from 81 in June of 2005)

Blood pressure: 104/70

Resting pulse: 70

All other blood work was within normal range.

The doctor was happy and I was pretty happy about them as well. These are great numbers for overall health and preventative care for years to come if I continue to follow the healthy lifestyle that I've set out for myself.

So are you ready to strangle me if I don't give you the details of what this diet is all about? Are you anxiously awaiting it's unveiling?

Well, check back in the next couple of days and we'll go over the details. You won't want to miss this.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Why You Need Water

So you hear all the time that you should be drinking water but have you ever gotten the answer as to WHY?

Well, first, two-thirds of our body weight is “water weight.” Blood, muscles, bones and even our brains consist of large amounts of water. So in order to keep those processes functioning we need to constantly be replenishing the water stores in our bodies.

The other benefits of drinking water include:

· Giving you energy (for me personally, that first sip of water in the morning is like my coffee, it’s just perks me up and gets me moving).

· Can keep your skin healthy reduce the amount of dryness you get at various times of the year.

· Flushes out toxins and waste from your body.

· Helps with digestion.

· Can help reduce pain in your lower back (essentially by lubricating the area).

· Helps increase your mental and physical performance at work and at home.

· Can help you lose weight (quick tip: If you drink cold water, you will actually burn calories just by consuming it because your body has to use energy in order to bring the temperature of that water to body temperature).

So how much water do you need? It’s debatable but, what I have found to work best is to go out and buy a liter of bottled water and continue to drink and refill that bottle until you have drank 3 liters spread out over the course of the day. Also, make sure you get plenty of water during your workout. It’ll not only stop you from becoming dehydrated but, it’ll also give you more energy in order to keep your intensity up.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Funny picture I found, just had to share it:



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The Importance of Protein

Okay, I know in the past I’ve said that weight loss is about calories in and calories out. Meaning, if you take in less calories than you are expending, then you’ll lose weight. But, there’s an important piece that is understated, and that is that your body burns roughly 10 percent of its calories by digesting the food that you consume. This is known as the Thermic Effect of eating.

This is where dietary protein comes in. Protein is made up of various complex chemical bonds. When you eat protein, your body cannot immediately use that protein for energy, so it has to use energy to make that protein into energy. It’s easier for the body to breakdown and turn carbohydrates and fats into energy than it is to do this with protein. In fact, it takes 2 ½ times more calories to break down protein than is does to breakdown carbohydrates.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you currently are getting 30 grams of protein a day. That equals 120 calories you’re getting a day from protein (side note: 1 gram of protein equals 4 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrate equals 4 calories, 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories). If you take 120 calories and multiply that by the thermic effect of protein (which is .2), you’ll find that your body has to burn 24 calories just to break down that protein.

So if you bump your protein consumption up to 100 grams a day, after doing the calculation, you’ll find that your body has to burn 80 calories a day just to break that protein down.

Bottom line, start increasing your protein intake and you’ll burn extra calories without even trying!

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Why Progression is Important

Remember when you had your first alcoholic drink and by the time you finished it you were, well, pretty much buzzed, and maybe even flat out drunk? And then maybe after a few days you were sitting down for another drink, and thinking the same thing was going to happen with just one drink. What happened? You drank the same thing, but yet, didn’t get that same buzz or drunken feeling after that one drink like you did before. You now had to drink another, and then maybe even another to get that same effect.

Why did this happen? It happened because your body adapted.

The same thing happens when you workout. When you first get into an exercise routine, your body has never had that stimulus before. So you get sore, lose some weight and even build up your bone mineral density. But, after some time, you notice the scale stops moving, and your body image stops changing. Your body adapted to the stimulus and you’re now at a new plateau.

So how do you get to the next level? You change your workout routine. You add more intensity. It’s simple really. In order to continue to see results, you need to have an overloaded stimulus and you need to progress.

This is what the Lean Body Fat Loss Training does. The first phase you go through a preparatory period that helps your body with an overall conditioning. Then it progresses in subsequent phases to changes in intensity and volume. As long as you keep on the path of a continued slightly overload of the system, and slowly progress upwards with your programs, you’ll continue on your journey to your physical goals.

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Intervals vs. Steady State Cardio Part III

So we've gone over intervals and shown why they are superior to fat loss than steady state cardio.

But, i guarantee some of you are saying, "But Mike, I started walking 45 minutes a day and lost 20 pounds over the coarse of 2 months. Don't try and tell me steady state cardio doesn't work."

Okay fine. You got me. Sort of.

If a person who previously was completely sedentary and didn't do anything other than sit at a desk all day and then came home and sat on the couch all of a sudden decided to start exercising, well of coarse they're going to lose weight. They are doing more activity then the previously were doing. They're burning more calories just by doing that new activity. But, I would still argue that if you lost 20 pounds during that 2 month time period with steady state cardio, you very well could have lost more weight using intervals and only doing them 20-30 minutes 3-4 times a week. Again, intervals win out on the exercise efficiency war.

Another question I'm sure someone is asking is "What about the 'fat burning zone?' Aren't you supposed to keep your heart rate in a certain range in order to burn more fat?"

The fat burning zone is a big myth. I mean think about it. Are you really going to try and convince me that someone running their butt off is burning less fat than someone going at a pace that isn't even causing a break in sweat? Using the logic that slower is going to burn more fat, that means you'd burn more fat sitting in front of the television watching Oprah rather than taking some sprints on the bike.

In the end, your net calories burned is going to be higher when using a 20-30 minute interval session rather than using a 45-60 minute steady state cardio session.

Try it. You'll love to hate intervals but, you'll soon get over that when you see the numbers on the scales dropping from week to week.

www.leanbodyfitness.com