If you have a good trainer, the first thing they should ask you is, “How’s your diet?”. If they don’t, they in my eyes they aren’t a well rounded trainer. It has been proven that dieting is 70% and exercising routine is 30% for an overall body workout. Just like how we think before spending money, people need to start to think before they put food in their mouth. Garbage in, garbage out as George Carlin would say.
Burning Calories and Gaining Muscle is a Numbers Game
Since when we were kids, we all were taught that eating three meals a day was healthy, and society pushes those three meals everywhere, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Usually when you go out to eat they give you BIG portions, and the food looks so good we eat all of it. The more food you eat the more calories you consume, and your body can only use so many calories in a day. If you eat to much food your body stops burning after the amount it needs daily and starts storing fat in your body. The average person is only supposed to consume 2000 calories a day, anything more then that your adding fat to your skeletal muscle and on organs in your body. So it turns into a numbers game with burning fat/calories, or gaining muscles/calories. The key is to meet in the middle which is a very hard and strict process.
To burn one pound of fat you have to burn 3500 calories. So lets say you run on the elliptical for 40 minutes, which is burning 400 calories, and then your doing some dumbbells or weights for 20 minutes, which is burning 165 calories, thats a total of 565 calories your burning a day. Now lets say your doing that for 5 days a week, thats burning 2,800 calories, thats 800 calories shy of losing a pound in one week. But lets say your dieting is 1500 calories a day versus 2000, so you cut down 500 calories a day, thats 3500 calories in a week, thats a pound of fat gone right there from dieting alone! So now add in your weekly workout and you will burn more fat and gain more muscle. Its all a numbers game. Just like the stock market, your body is the same way. Its a machine, and unlike the stock market, you can tell it what to do.
Workout Diet
To get your body in fat burning mode you to need to eat every 2-3 hours and eat 5-6 small meals and snacks a day. But never stuffing yourself, but never letting yourself get hungry. I would also drink water continually throughout the day. By doing this your keeping your metabolism going and continually working to burn food and never storing food into fat. Eat more fruits and vegetables, and cut out the potato chips, ice cream, and cakes. You can cheat one day a week and have a slice of pizza, or a piece of a cake. But remember its all about your food calorie intake. No soda or carbonated drinks. Diet Coke is fine it has 0 zero calories. But stick to water at all cost.
At first your like WHAT! Eat 5-6 meals a day I cant eat that much. But you already do eat that much by having a BIG lunch or a HUGE dinner, when you can break it up more into smaller meals. If you go to grocery store and eat out less, then you can make your meals at home. And have fruits with you at all times, as a snack at work or wherever you are. Just as we invest in our life to have fun, go on vacations and have a nice dinner somewhere. Its only fair that we should do the same for our body, in what we eat, and how we are maintaining our nutritional lifestyle.
Kalev Jaaguste is a top Vancouver personal trainer who has developed 3Dimensional Personal Training. Check out his free workout videos at KalevTraining.comGuy’s Workout Diet
Breakfast: Two eggs, or 1 cup of oatmeal or cereal
Mid-morning Snack: protein bar
Lunch: tuna wrap or chicken and salad
Mid-afternoon snack: protein shake (post workout), protein bars
Dinner: broiled fish or chicken, brown rice, vegetables, and salad
Evening Snack: protein shake
Zuzana Light is a Certified Personal Trainer and host of a the daily fitness show BodyRock.Tv check out her free workout videos from BodyRock.TvGirl’s Workout Diet
Breakfast: one eggs, or 1 cup of oatmeal or cup of fruit, cereal
Mid-morning Snack: 1 slice whole wheat toast with almond butter and sliced bananas
Lunch: tuna wrap or chicken and salad
Mid-afternoon Snack: apple, almonds, peanuts, raisins
Dinner: steak, broiled fish or chicken, brown rice, vegetables, or salad
Vitamins & Supplements
A good, wholesome, well-balanced diet provides a spectrum of vitamins and minerals in addition to the basics of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Even when eating well, a quality multi-vitamin formula can act as a nutritional insurance policy. Other beneficial nutrients may be difficult to obtain from food sources alone. The following list provides details on many important nutrients.
Creatine Monohydrate – Lets get to the basics, Creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in vertebrates and helps to supply energy to muscle. Creatine is naturally produced in the human body from amino acids primarily in the kidney and liver. It is transported in the blood for use by muscles. Approximately 95% of the human body’s total creatine is located in skeletal muscle. The rest is located in the brain or heart. Creatine supplements are sometimes used by athletes, bodybuilders, and others who wish to gain muscle mass, typically consuming 2 to 3 times the amount that could be obtained from a very-high-protein diet. The gradual approach is taking 5-10 grams per day. CLICK HERE to Purchase
Whey Protein – Whey protein is a mixture of globular proteins isolated from whey, the liquid material created as a by-product of cheese production. Whey is essential in the bodybuilding world today because of its ability to be digested very rapidly. This allows the protein to become available for muscle building very quickly. Most commonly it is used after workouts to help increase levels of amino acids in the blood, which is taken up by the muscles to ultimately increase mass. In addition, during exercise, whey helps open up blood flow by inhibiting an angiotensin converting enzyme; an enzyme which originally constricts blood vessels, and allows better flow of nutrients to necessary areas to help repair and rebuild muscle tissues. CLICK HERE to Purchase
L-Glutamine – Glutamine has been studied extensively over the past 10–15 years and has been shown to be useful in treatment of serious illnesses, injury, trauma, burns, and treatment-related side-effects of cancer as well as in wound healing for postoperative patients. Glutamine is also marketed as a supplement used for muscle growth in weightlifting, bodybuilding, endurance, and other sports, yet there is still no scientific evidence of its “muscle-growing” properties. Glutamine is a protein synthesis. It prevents your muscles from being burned from working out in order to provide Glutamine for other cells in the body. The gradual approach is taking 10-15 grams per day. CLICK HERE to Purchase
Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) – According to studies that targeted the effects of conjugated linoleic acid on the belly firmness and fatty acid composition of genetically lean pigs, the supplemental CLA usage had a positive effect on the improvement of belly firmness and may provide a nutritional solution to carcass fat and belly firmness problems. Dr. Michael Pariza, who conducted research on CLA with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reported in August 2000 to the American Chemical Society that “It doesn’t make a big fat cell get little. What it rather does is keep a little fat cell from getting big.” The gradual approach is taking 3.4 grams per day. CLICK HERE to Purchase
Vitamin D – is critically important for bone health. It facilitates the absorption of calcium from the intestines. Unfortunately, many American adults do not get enough Vitamin D. Levels may especially be low in the elderly, in those who are housebound or inactive, and in those who live in northern climates. Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin from exposure to sunlight, and is also found in eggs, butter, liver, fatty fish, and milk. Being exposed to 10 to 15 minutes of sunlight just a few days a week without wearing sunscreen can help to meet your Vitamin D needs. The gradual approach is taking 800 I.U. per day. CLICK HERE to Purchase
Fish Oil – is oil derived from the tissues of oily fish. It is recommended for a healthy diet because it contains the omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), precursors to eicosanoids that reduce inflammation throughout the body. Fish do not actually produce omega-3 fatty acids, but instead accumulate them from either consuming microalgae that produce these fatty acids. Omega-3s provide many wonderful benefits including the promotion of mental1 and immune health, and they can also be good for your heart. Researchers have found that those who consume fatty fish one or more times a week have a lower risk of having a fatal heart attack. The gradual approach is taking 500-1000mg per day. CLICK HERE to Purchase
Saw Palmetto (GUYS ONLY) – Used by Native Americans as a food and medicine, saw palmetto today leads the way for help with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Saw palmetto extract has been suggested as a potential treatment for male pattern baldness. Some believe that Saw Palmetto prevents testosterone from converting into DHT. DHT disrupts the normal operation of the hair follicles thereby causing hair loss. Theoretically if DHT is removed from the equation hair should regrow. The gradual approach is taking 320 mg once daily. CLICK HERE to Purchase
* All the supplements are provided by GNC. Click on the link next to supplement you like to purchase. GNC sets the standard in the nutritional supplement industry by demanding truth in labeling, ingredient safety and product potency, all while remaining on the cutting-edge of nutritional science.
DISCLAIMER: The above parties are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any injury or health condition that may occur through following the opinions expressed here. Consult with your physician or nutritionist before starting any exercise or diet program.