Burn Body Fat Fast

Fast Fat Loss - The free book that helps you look good naked.

2008-07-23T04:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who come by the blog more often it may have seemed that I have abandoned it since the last post in the burn body fat fast diet series posted on May 30, 2008.

The reason I have not posted in such a long time is because I've been very busy with work lately.

Until I find the time to write other posts (this time a series on training) I leave you with something else:

http://fast-fat-loss.blogspot.com/

http://fast-fat-loss.blogspot.com/ is another blog authored by me that contains a work in progress fat loss book. I included all the chapters written so far. What I want from you is to read it and to add feedback, suggestions or just to say Hi! under the form of a comment.

Your feedback is important to me as I will use it to tweak the content and approach. When we consider it is good enough, then I will make it into a pdf version that will be distributed for free.

Also if you like it and decide to use the plan to lose some body fat than you can ask me more in dept questions and I will happily answer then for you to the best of my knowledge.

Who wants to help me help other people be making this reliable information on fat loss freely available?

Made you curios? Why don't you take a look right now?
You can read about: The basics of fat loss, Nutrition and Fast Fat Loss - Introduction, How many calories you need to be eating to lose fat loss, How to adjust your calorie consumption for safe fat loss, Where to get your calories from and how to eat your food for maximum fat loss so far.

Lets thing I want to mention is that the blog will undergo some improvements in the near future - I will add inspirational pics, interlink the posts more cleaver so you can move through it more swiftly maybe even change the theme if I find something that make reading easier.

Using the guidelines and super foods to create your meals

2008-05-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

This is post is the sixth in a series of 7 posts aimed at detailing the official burn-body-fat.blogspot.com nutritional plan. More info about the series here. Also, make sure you check out:

The concept behind The Burn Body Fat Fast Nutritional Plan
Super Food List part I
Super Food List part II
Dietary guidelines for the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - part I
Dietary guidelines for the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - part II

At this point, you should have a clear understanding of the guidelines and should be able to use them to make everyday meal choices.

To make it even simpler for you to get started, what I’ve done is take the guidelines and use them to make 2 meal templates: a typical non-post-workout meal and a post workout meal template.

The non-post-workout-meal (any meal of the day except the one following a weight training session)

Protein Source	#1
Protein Source	#2(optional)
Vegetable Carbohydrate Source	#1
	#2(optional)
	#3(optional)
	#4(optional)
Fruits	#1(optional)
Added good fats*	#1(optional)
	#2(optional)
	#3(optional)
Water or green tea or Herbal tea

* As mentioned earlier, the fats have no precise timing; you can eat them with any meal you like as long as you get good fats daily.

The post-workout-meal**

Protein Source	#1
Protein Source	#2(optional)
Other Carbohydrate Source	#1
	#2(optional)
	#3(optional)
	#4
Vegetables	#1
	#2(optional)
	#3(optional)
Water or sports drink***

** Do not eat fats with the post-workout meal as exercise, as you will find out in later chapters, increases fatty acid oxidation and we the body to burn exclusively stored fatty acids.

*** Sports drinks should be consumed during training. Also take into account they are calorie containing drinks and that if you drink them the body has to burn those calories as well.

Now, all you have to do is include food from the super food category and you are all set to go.

Eating between 1 to 5 servings of each supper food per week will help you reach optimum health, performance and body composition. But if you don’t have access to or don’t like eating some of the food listed there is no problem.

Below, you will find a more detailed super food list.

Category	Sub Category	Super Food	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5
PROTEIN	*Lean Meat*	Chicken Breast
		Turkey Breast
		Lean Beef Meat
	*Fish*	Salmon
		Tuna
		Cod .etc
	*Dairy*	Low Fat Cheese
		Low Fat Milk
		Low fat Yogurt
	*Eggs*	Omega-3 Eggs
	*Supplements*	Protein supplements
VEGETABLES	*Salad*	Romaine
		Lucette
		Watercress
	*Cruciferous Vegetables*	Cauliflower
		Cabbage
		Brussels Sprouts
	*Other*	Tomatoes
		Celery
		Cucumbers
		Mushrooms
		Carrots
		Peas
		Spinach
LEGUMES	*Beans*	Kidney Beans
		Navy Beans
		White Beans
OTHER CARBS	*Grains and Cereals*	Whole oats
		Whole wheat bread
		Long grain rice
		Whole wheat pasta
	*Other*	Potatoes
	*Other*	Yams
FATS	*Monounsaturated Fats*	Mixed Nuts
		Olive Oils
		Avocados
	*Polyunsaturated Fats*	Fish Oils Supplements
	*Polyunsaturated Fats*	Flax Seeds
FRUIT	*Berries*	Blueberry
		Strawberry
		Raspberry
	*Citric*	Oranges
	*Citric*	Grapefruit
	*Other*	Apples
		Bananas
		Other fruits

A Nutritional Plan that helps you Burn Body Fat Fast.

2008-05-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

I decided to make a hub page where you can have easy access to all the info regarding the Burn Body Fat Nutritional Program.

You can see it, following this link:
A Nutritional Plan that helps you Burn Body Fat Fast.

Also, the hub page has some extra stuff you won't find on the blog and will be updated frequently.

What are you waiting for? Check it out. The answer regarding fat loss that you are seeking are just a click away.

>> A Nutritional Plan that helps you Burn Body Fat Fast. <<

Here is a preview of the hub as of may, 29, 2008 for those of you that do not want to visit it there.

A Nutritional Plan that helps you Burn Body Fat Fast

Dietary guidelines for the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - part II

2008-05-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

This is post is the fifth in a series of 7 posts aimed at detailing the official burn-body-fat.blogspot.com nutritional plan. More info about the series here. Also, make sure you check out:

The concept behind The Burn Body Fat Fast Nutritional Plan
Super Food List part I
Super Food List part II
Dietary guidelines for the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - part I

Guideline #4: Any carbohydrate that does not fall under the categories of vegetables and fruits should be eaten only with the meal following an exercise session

The non-fruit and non-vegetable carbohydrate category includes:

* Carbohydrath starchy foods: bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, oats and cereal grains
* Simple sugars:
* Table sugar and anything that contains it: juice, soda, cake, cookies etc
* Sport and recovery drinks

For optimum body composition, your best bet is to remove the simple sugars completely and stick only with starchy carbs post workout.

If you were to eat foods from this category with non-post-workout meals, what would happen is that because of their high glycemic index, they would drastically increase insulin and blood glucose levels, negatively affecting glucagon levels causing the slowdown or stop of fatty acid oxidation.

But when ingested post workout they replenish glycogen stores.

Bottom line: No exercise, no carbohydrates other then fruits or vegetables!

Food type	Food timing	Foods included
Fruits and vegetables	With each meal	Vegeatbles Fruits
Starchy carbohydrates	Eaten with the mini-meal following a workout	Whole grain breads, pasta, rice; potatoes, yams, cereal grains
Simple sugars	Eaten only during or immediate after exercise (if at all)	Sports and recovery drinks, soda, fruit juice, table sugar and anything containing it.

Guideline #5: Be sure to include healthy fats in your daily diet

In a previous I mentioned that adding healthy fats (omega-3 and omega-6 rich monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats) to your diet as well as balancing the saturated fats to monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats ratio and eliminating trans fats from your diet are all critical steps toward improved health and body composition.

Read my earlier post My fat friend eats a low fat diet to find out the advantages of increasing protein intake.

Aiming for a fat intake consisting of:

* 1/3 saturated fats
* 1/3 monounsaturated fats
* 1/3 polyunsaturated fats

Would help you achieve all the three goals above.

Although it might seem hard, balancing your fat intake is quite easy.

The amount of saturated fats you need is coming from animal fats (the fat in eggs, dairy products and meats that you are eating) so you don’t have to worry about them.

So, basically, all you need to do is focus on supplementing your intake of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Adding monounsaturated fats is as simple as using olive oil for salad dressing, eating mixed nuts and avocado. You can supplement you polyunsaturated fats intake by flax seeds, vegetable fats and fish oil supplements to your diet.

Cooking your meals yourself, using the super foods and this guidelines almost guarantees that you will be eliminating the majority of trans fats from your diet.

Now, a word on fat intake timing. As long as you get your daily requirements it doesn’t matter when you eat the healthy fats. The only time you want to keep fat intake low is immediately after exercise because the fatty acid oxidation rate increases post workout and by keeping fat intake low we are encouraging the use of stored fatty acids for oxidation.

Food type	Food timing	example
Saturated fats	none	Animal fats
Monounsaturated fats	none	Olive oil, nuts, avocado
Polyunsaturated fats	none	Vegetable fats, fish oil, flax seeds

Guideline #6: You should not drink calorie containing beverages

Water should be the only fluid you drink.

Alcohol, soda and all types of sugary beverages, including fruit juice, should be eliminated as they provide “empty calories” (calories without nutritional value). If you must drink something other then water then you can have some tea as long as it is not sweetened with table sugar.

A few things that you should know about water, but probably don’t:

· Every physiological process in the body requires water

· Without enough water, the body can’t perform it’s metabolic processes (including fat mobilization and oxidation) as efficiently as possible

· dehydratation decreases endurance, strength and physical performance.

In order to make sure you get enough water, drink between 8 – 10 glasses of water per day. That is about one glass every 2 hours whether you are thirsty or not. During workout sessions, you should drink a glass of water for every 30 minutes of exercise.

Dietary guidelines for the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - part I

2008-05-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

This is post is the forth in a series of 7 posts aimed at detailing the official burn-body-fat.blogspot.com nutritional plan. More info about the series here. Also, make sure you check out:

The concept behind The Burn Body Fat Fast Nutritional Plan
Super Food List part I
Super Food List part II

Guideline #1: Eat every 3-4 hours

Eating once every 3-4 hours is the most important change you can make to your diet.

Research has shown that the habit of eating about every 3.5 hours will help you:

maintain consistent insulin levels
reduces the possibility of binge eating
helps better assimilate nutrients while keeping energy levels constantly high

more so than the standard 3 meals per day eating plan.

Done correctly this practice will no doubt raise your resting metabolic rate and help your body “burn” fat more efficiently.

By now, the most frequent questions that come to mind are:

How many meals should I be eating?

The answer is easy – divide the time you are awake by 3 or 4. For an adult person 8 hours of sleep per night should be enough. This leaves us with 16 hours awake. So if you are up 16 hours a day, eat 4 to 5 meals. You should eat your first meal as soon as you awake. Your last meal should be roughly 2 hours before bed time.

Another thing that I want you to get out of your head is the misconception that eating before bed time will make you fat. That won’t happen, I promise.

How big should a meal be?

On this program the word “meal” doesn’t have the same meaning as it does on a 3 meal per day plan.

The amount of food you are eating is much smaller then the amount of food you would be eating at a traditional meal. So, basically, you are not serving a meal. But, you are not snacking either.

To clear the confusion over what you are actually doing I like to use the term “mini-meal”. Keeping the word “meal” suggests that we are trying to keep every feeding balanced while using the word “mini” implies that portion sizes are greatly reduced.

Each time you have a mini-meal you get the chance to improve your body or make it worse. Follow the remaining guidelines to make sure you are moving in the right direction.

Guideline #2: Eat protein with every mini-meal

The benefits of increasing protein intake above minimum required quantities have all ready been mentioned in an earlier post, so I won’t go into details again.

Read my earlier post Increased protein intake, faster fat loss? to find out the advantages of increasing protein intake.

By making sure that each of your 4 or 5 mini-meals contain some source of protein you are taking full advantage of the positive effects adequate amounts of protein have on:

Metabolism (increased metabolic rate & increased thermic effect of food etc)
Muscle mass (spares muscle mass during dieting and aids muscle recovery and synthesis)
Body fat levels (improves the glucagon to insulin ratio, allowing more fat to be oxidized thus helping reduce body fat levels.)

Food Type	Food timing	Exemple
protein	Eaten at every mini-meal	Lean meat, fish, eggs, dairy, protein supplements

Guideline #3: Eat vegetables and/or fruit with every mini-meal

Their low glycemic index, high fiber and mineral content makes fruit and vegetables the best carbohydrate choices for any mini-meal.

The importance of a mainly low glycemic diet for reaching optimum body composition has already been argumented, so we won’t go into details here.

Read my earlier post Carbohydrate selection and the insulin to glucagon ratio to find out how eating a low glycemic index diet helps you burn body fat very fast.

UPDATE ( May 09, 2008 ): You can read part II of the Dietary guidelines for the burn body fat fast nutritional program here.

Super Food List part II

2008-04-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is post is the third in a series of 7 posts aimed at detailing the official burn-body-fat.blogspot.com nutritional plan. More info about the series here. Also, make sure you check out:

Setting up the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - Part I
Super Food List part I

6. Beans

Beans are low calorie foods that contain a lot of protein, fiber and iron – crucial elements for fat loss. Almost any types of beans will work (black, white, kidney, lima) as long as they have not been refrigerated (refrigerated beans are usually loaded with fats).

7. Whole grain breads and cereals

Grains like wheat, corn, oats, barley and rye are made up of three parts: the germ, the bran and the endosperm.

The bran is the “shell” of the grain, the part of the grain with the most fiber content.

The germ is the smallest part of the grain, yet is has the most nutritional power, containing protein, oats and vitamin B. The endosperm makes for the bulk of the grain and is almost nutritionally void.

When grains are processed and refined, the bran and germ are tossed out while the nutritionally void endosperm (starch) gets transformed into pasta, white bread, white rice – just about every whey product and baked good out there.

It is important to always choose products made with all the parts of the grain – whole wheat bread, pasta, long-grain rice – so you can be sure you are getting all the nutritional advantages that these foods can provide.

8. Mixed nuts

Nuts are good for you because they are high in protein and monounsaturated fats.

Almonds, because of their high content of magnesium, are considered to be the best you can eat. Serving size is a handful. Extra magnesium intake enhances physical performance and the body’s muscle synthesis capability.

A word on smoked and salted nuts – their high sodium content ( increase blood pressure) makes them a bad choice!

9. Olive, canola, peanut and sesame oil

Their high content of monounsaturated fats and vitamin E helps lower

cholesterol levels and helps boost the immune system.

Always make sure that these oils are not refined (undergone hydrogenation).

Hydrogenated vegetable oils, trans fatty acids and margarine are very bad for you and should be eliminated form the diet.

10. Fresh Fruits

Fresh fruit carry powerful levels of antioxidants (all purpose compounds that help your body strafe off health disease, cancer etc.).

Fresh fruit are also packed with minerals and vitamins. Their low glycemic index makes them excellent carbohydrate choices for non-post-workout meals.

Super Food List part I

2008-04-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

This is post is the second in a series of 7 posts aimed at detailing the official burn-body-fat.blogspot.com nutritional plan. More info about the series here. Also, make sure you check out:
Setting up the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - Part I

The following list contains the best choices you can make with regards to food selection.

For every piece of food mentioned you will find listed:

The type of nutrient it is
It’s role in maintaining optimal health
Other things you need to be aware of

1. Lean Meats

Meat is a source of protein. The reason why lean meat is preferred is because of it’s low content of saturated fats.

Chicken and Turkey
Chicken and turkey meat (skinless and boneless) are two of the leanest meats you can find. Besides being very lean, they are also packed with vitamins and minerals: vitamin B6, zinc and iron.

Beef
Beef is another classic muscle building protein. Beef is the top food source of creatine – an amino acid compound that increases energy levels and protein synthesis.

The thing you have to look out for when buying beef is it’s saturated fat content, some cuts having more saturated fats then others.

Below is a chart with the caloric value and saturated fats content for different cuts of beef.

	Category	Cut of Beef	calories	Saturated fats (gr)
1	Lean Beef	Flank Steak	aprox 55 cal per 1 oz	2-3 gr per 1 oz
		Ground Beef
		Roast Beef
		Tender Lion
2	Medium fat Beef	Corned beef	aprox 75 cal per 1 oz	5 gr per 1 oz
		Ground beef (not marked extra lion)
		Prime Cut

Choose lean and extra lean beef cuts and you will be ok.

Pork

Pork is not recommended because of it’s high content of saturated fats.

You should avoid: sausages, bacon, cured meats, ham and fatty cuts of steak like T-bone and rib-eye.

Fish

Fish is a great choice because it’s a good source of protein. Also, fish meat contains a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids while containing little amounts of saturated fats.

Because of it’s rich omega-3 essential fatty acid content, fish should be a part of your diet.

Fish like salmon, tuna, cod, rough are all great choices.

Also, needless to say, you should try to eat fresh fish as much as possible. If you have to resort to canned fish, make sure they are water packed. This way you avoid the extra calories and saturated fats from oiled packed fish and/or other forms of packing.

2. Eggs

The protein in eggs has the highest biological value of protein of any other food. What this means is that it provides the body most of the amino acids it needs. Eggs are also a source of vitamin B12, essential for fat breakdown.

For a long time doctors and nutritionists advised people to avoid consuming eggs. The reason for this recommendation was that 2 eggs contain enough cholesterol to put you over your daily recommended value. Later research has shown that dietary cholesterol levels have a very little effect on blood cholesterol levels.

Some of the cholesterol can be cut out by removing the egg yolk.

You can best take advantage of the complete found in eggs by consuming mainly egg whites with the occasional whole egg.

3. Fat Free or Low Fat Dairy Products

Dairy products are a good protein source and contain high amounts of calcium. Adequate amounts of calcium are critical for building strong bones and fighting osteoporosis.

Also, A University of Tennessee study has found a link between calcium consumption and weight loss, people with high calcium intake losing twice the amount of body weight compared to those on low-calcium diets.

Based on these results, low fat yogurt, low fat milk, low fat cheese and cottage cheese can play an important role in your fat loss efforts.

Also, I recommend low fat milk as your primary source of calcium. Because it is a liquid, it takes a larger space in the stomach giving a sensation of satiety.

4. Protein Supplements

While your food intake should come from high quality whole food sources most of the time, during times when you can’t eat them, protein powders can be used to compensate.

The best protein powders are those containing milk protein isolate, whey protein isolates or rice protein isolates.

5. Green Vegetables

Green vegetables are packed with vitamins and minerals that help neutralize free radicals (molecules that accelerate the aging process) and fight against cancer, heart disease, stroke, obesity and osteoporosis.

Also, they are a critical part in your body changing diet. Their low caloric density, high fiber content and low glycemic index help keep insulin levels stable, making them great carbohydrate choices for non-post-workout meals.

The best vegetables are:

Spinach
Cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, brussele sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage
Salad: romaine, arugula, watercress
Tomatoes
Celery
Cucumbers
Carrots
Peppers
Peas
Mushrooms

An important detail is how vegetables are cooked. Deep frying them or covering them in heavy sauce is a big no-no. Preferably use alternative methods of cooking like: boiling, steaming or grilling.

Update (April 30, 2008): part two is available Super Food List part II

The concept behind The Burn Body Fat Fast Nutritional Plan

2008-04-27T05:25:00.000-07:00

This is post is the first in a series of 7 posts aimed at detailing the official burn-body-fat.blogspot.com nutritional plan. More info about the series here.

In previous posts I gave an overview of some pretty complicated science – hot the body reacts to different meal compositions, why most of the time more protein is better, why some fats are essential while others should be removed from our diet and so on.

Some people find scientific facts to be interesting but, by this point, many readers still don’t have a clue about how to set up a diet.

For those of you that have problems understanding the complex underlying mechanisms I have very good news:

While the theory is complicated it’s put into practice doesn’t have to be!

As a matter of fact, the simpler the nutritional plan is, the better.

The burn body fat fast nutritional plan is a effective and simple to implement nutritional program that focuses on improving body composition, general health and performance (strength, speed, stamina and the like).

Before we get to the actual meal plan, a word on how it is set up and how you should use it.

The burn body fat fast nutritional plan was created with three most important considerations in mind:

1. What to eat

Instead of restricting your food choices, this meal plan will teach you to focus on a hand full of good foods – super foods – that will fulfill your core nutritional needs.

The reasons why this diet is not very restrictive are:

100% commitment is not required on this diet for optimal progress. As a matter of fact, the difference in results between 100% commitment and 90% commitment is negligible. So, 10% of the time you get to enjoy so called “cheat meals”.
This is not a crash diet. This is a long term nutritional plan designed to improve your health, appearance and performance. Variety is a factor that can make or break a diet. The great number of foods choices possible guarantees that the diet isn’t lacking in that health variety so important for long term maintainability.
Spend most of your time incorporating the super foods in your diet and you won’t have much time for the food on the “bad food” list. Eating meals built on the super foods will satiate your tastes and cravings and keep you from overeating the dangerous, fat storage promoting, foods in your current diet.

2. When to eat?

What I have done is take the complex subject of nutrient timing (which was covered in previous chapters) and devised a template system that makes it simple for people to get nutrient timing right.

The template is created through a series of guidelines on how the different nutrients are to be eaten. As you will read these guidelines you will notice that they are pretty straight forward – no rocket science required. Don’t let their simplicity fool you – these guidelines DO manage to put in practice all the theory presented in earlier posts.

3. How much to eat?

In order to establish how much you should be eating we will use a iterative process that involves changing the diet based on the results of previous changes and goals.

Announcing the burn body fat fast nutritional plan (diet)

2008-04-27T04:31:00.000-07:00

A short time ago I mentioned in a previous post that I want to start a fat loss clinic.

Some people showed interest so I started working hard on creating a fat loss program.

I am happy to announce that I managed to finish the nutritional plan (diet) part of the fat loss program and will be posting it in the next couple of posts.

Because it is rather long (it is a complete fat loss diet) I decided to divide it into more smaller posts.

The posts will be as following:

update May,02,2008 - I will be linking to the articles from these post as soon as they are posted

1. Some background and info on how this nutritional plan is set up and on what it will help you achieve.

2. List of "super foods" I recommend - part I
3. List of "super foods" I recommend - part II

4. Guidelines on how you should eat the super foods - part I
5. Guidelines on how you should eat the super foods - part II

6. Building an eating plan using the super foods list and the guidelines.

I won't go into much detail here as the first post in the series will clear everything up.

What do you thing about my intent to offer a complete fat loss nutritional plan (at least 19.99$ value for free)?

Sorry for the lack of activity

2008-04-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

I recently started my own business and have had little time to update the blog.

But fear not, things are starting to move along nicely and next week or so i will start adding content again ;).

Also, during this start-up I started to turn back to my old ways and gained a bit of fat back and need to lose it. To make fat loss more fun, I am thinking of starting a fat loss clinic.

I need to find 5 people that want to lose body fat.

I will help you with the diet, training and offer support all the way until you reach your goal .

The only thing I ask in return is to make this clinic official on the blog - with pictures (before/after), measurements, thoughts etc so as to spark more peoples interest in this blog.

The reason I am being so generous is because I truly believe that this blog contains very good info and I want to help people.

[rant]
You got to face it, the net is full of fitness blogs that are nothing more then publicity for some lame books or created only to rake in AdSense earnings. No substance, no originality.
We need to put a stop to this! Together we can fight back. If you like the material on this blog, help spread the word. I alone can't fight the fitness spammers but with your help we can win!
[/rant]

[rant update]
Just now I visited a Website that promised to help you get ROCK HARD SIX PACK ABS. I took a look at it, but did not want to buy and wanted to close the window. A message appeared that a Sales Agent wants to talk to me about a Discount. And I said OK thinking that I could ask for more details and get some of my questions answered.

But after writing a number of queries and seeing the same responses I came to REALIZE THE TRUTH - I was talking to a Automated software [company website here: http://www.intellichat.com/].

People, do you think a person that claims that he /she only cares about helping you do a sleazy thing like that?!

I was talking alone, thinking that someone else is on the other end of the line.

It really is sad what lust for money does to people. :(

So, I repeat myself, don't let these people "steal" (because quality of the stuff they are giving you isn't worth 39.99$ !!!! or even more) your heard earned money.

I'd rather help you for free than let these things keep happening.
[/rant]

So, if YOU are interested in me helping you for free to lose body fat, leave a comment on this post that also contains a way for me to contact you or email me at trif1987 [@] gmail.com requesting more info. ;)

Carbohydrate selection and the insulin to glucagon ratio.

2008-02-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

This post builds on the ground work set up in the How meal composition affects fat loss post. If you haven't read it, I strongly suggest reading it before you go one with this one.

Ok, let's do this. This time I want to talk about how and when you should eat your carbohydrates to stimulate the use of stored body fat for fuel.

The total amount of insulin secreted and the period of time insulin levels stay elevated after a meal is ingested depend on the amount and types of carbohydrates eaten.

Carbohydrate classification and the glycemic index.

Carbohydrates were conventionally classified structurally as simple or complex.
Simple carbohydrates are sugars known as monosaccharides. The term is usually used to describe refined sugars and white flour products. The natural simple carbohydrates are fructose (found in fruit) and lactose (found in dairy products).

Complex carbohydrates, also known as polysaccharides, are nothing more then multiple chain of simple sugars linked together.

This classic distinction leads toward the recommendation of complex carbohydrates over simple ones because nutritionists assumed that a long polysaccharide would take longer to digest than a simple sugar and therefore would lead to a more gradual and lasting blood glucose response with a smaller insulin response.

Although theoretically sound, this presumption is not true for many complex carbohydrates; some complex carbohydrates are digested more rapidly than simple sugars and cause drastic increases in insulin levels.

For this reason, the classic classification was dropped in favor of one that classifies carbohydrates according to how they are processed in the body – the glycemic index (GI).

The glycemic index, put simply, is a scale of how rapidly ingested carbohydrates enter the bloodstream as glucose. The speed at which ingested carbohydrates enter the bloodstream as glucose is one of the factors determining the insulin response.

Some scientists question the glycemic index’s accuracy at predicting the glycemic and insulin responses to mixed meals (protein, fats and various carbohydrates) because it only offers numbers for meals consisting only in a single carbohydrate eaten in a fixed quantity.

A JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) review on this subject has concluded that:

Most refined starchy foods have a high GI whereas non starchy vegetables, fruits and legumes have a low GI.
Eating protein and fats along with your carbohydrates lowers the GI of the individual carbohydrates somewhat but does not change the hierarchical relationship with regard to the GI.

What this means is that, despite initial concern, the GI can be used to predict with reasonable accuracy the glycemic response to mixed meals.

Optimizations to carbohydrate selection for maximum fat loss.

Eat low to medium GI carbohydrates with every non post workout meal.
This will reduce insulin spikes, improving the glucagon to insulin ratio.
Include high GI carbohydrates only in your post workout meal.

Arguments in favor of a low GI diet instead of a high GI diet:

A study by Agus et al (2000) showed that during a short low calorie dieting period a low GI diet does a better job of preserving the metabolic rate and enhancing fat loss than a high GI diet.

A Ludwinget et al (2000) study showed that a 4 month period of low GI eating led to a decrease in body weight in overweight teens while a 4 month high GI eating period had the opposite effect leading to a increase in body weight in test subjects.

The same Ludwinget et al (2000) study associates low GI diets with
- better nutrition
- increased satiety/ decreased hunger
- fat loss

How meal composition affects fat loss

2008-02-09T05:17:00.000-08:00

Insulin and glucagon – the unsuspected keys to successful fat loss

Insulin and glucagon play important metabolic roles.

Insulin is a storage hormone, promoting the storage of glucose as muscle and liver glycogen and the storage of dietary fat as triglycerides in the adipose tissue.

Glucagon is a release hormone. It triggers the release of stored fat and the breakdown of glycogen into glucose.

Insulin and glucagon are inversely pared hormones – when one is high the other is low. For this reason storage and release do not occur at the same time. Which process occurs at any given time depends on the insulin to glucagon ratio:

insulin levels are higher then glucagon levels => glucose and fatty acid storage occurs
glucagon levels are higher the insulin levels =>triglyceride release and glycogen breakdown occurs

For optimum fat loss glucagon levels must be, most of the time, higher then insulin levels so as to maximize the amount of triglycerides “broken down” and used for energy production.

The exception to this rule is the post workout state. Engaging in demanding physical activities leads to the depletion of glycogen stores. The aim of your post workout meal should be to increase insulin levels so as to promote the storage of dietary glucose as glycogen (replenish glycogen stores).

How does meal composition affect the insulin to glucagon ratio?

Kelly Monaco swears she is using my tips to look like this.

Insulin is secreted as a response to increased blood sugar levels. Blood sugar levels are increased after carbohydrate consumption so insulin is super sensitive to carbohydrates.

Glucagon is secreted as a response to a decrease in blood sugar levels. Also, glucagon production is stimulated by protein intake.

Studies made on how meal composition affects the insulin to glucagon ratio have concluded that:

After a mixed meal containing carbohydrates, protein and fats both insulin and glucagon levels rise but the insulin raise exceeds that of glucagon.
After a protein and fat rich meal containing little or no carbohydrates, glucagon raises much more then insulin.

Based on these conclusions, you should make the following optimization

Include protein with every meal and limit the amount of carbohydrates eaten at every non post workout meal.

to make sure that a good amount of body fat is mobilized and "used for fuel".

My fat friend eats a low fat diet

2008-01-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

Many people still believe that in order to get fit you have to eat a low fat diet.

This article is for them. While it is true that some types of fats are associated with health problems, removing fats completely from your diet is catastrophic both to your health and fat loss attempts.

This guy eats low fat. Can't you tell it's working?:P

It is time to clear up some myths about fats. Read this article and find out the truth about fats and how adding certain kinds of fats to your diet is not only beneficial but even critical to your well being.

Types of fats

Fats come in three basic forms: saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Plus, nowadays there is a new artificially manufactured fat present in food called trans fat.

Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats

Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are considered to be the “good” fats. The reason they are considered good is because they are sources of essential fatty acids: omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Essential fatty acids

All fats are composed of fatty acids. Some can be synthesized in the body while others cannot. The ones that cannot be synthesized in the body and therefore must come from the diet are known as essential fatty acids (EFA). There are two essential fatty acids:

Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) – member of the omega-3 fatty acid family
Linoleic acid (LA) – member of the omega-6 fatty acid family

EFA are required by every cell in the body on a daily basis for synthesis purposes (used to build cell membranes). The body’s need for EFA outweighs the need for protein and other nutrients considered to be essential.

Omega-3 fatty acids

The essential omega-3 fatty acid, alpha-linolenic acid:

Promotes eye and brain development
Improves immune function
Helps prevent abnormal heart rhythms

The other two omega-3 acids are docosahexanoic (DHA) and eicosapentalnoic acid (EPA).

Some of the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids are:

They reduce blood cholesterol and triglycerides levels
Lower the risk of stroke, heart attack and hardening of arteries
Improve immune response, brain and glandular system functioning

The best source of omega-3 fatty acids are fish, especially cold water marine fish.

Also, dark-green leafy vegetables and some plant-derived oils (flaxseed oil, canola oil, soybean oil, walnut oil etc.) contain omega-3 EFA.

Omega-6 fatty acids

Linoleic acid (LA), the essential omega-6 fatty acid is responsible for lowering total blood cholesterol levels as well as low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol levels.

The main sources of omega-6 EFA are vegetables and oils.

Although omega-6 EFA consumption is important by itself, some scientists feel that the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 acids is important as well. While most tissues require a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 between 5 to 1 and 3 to 1, the average person consumes these fats in a ratio of 20 to 1 or more.

Increasing omega-3 consumption, while controlling omega-6 intake, is an important step towards improved health and body composition.

Saturated fats

The main sources of saturated fats are animal products, including milk and dairy products.

Saturated fats are considered the “bad” fats because:

When there is a deficiency of EFA in the diet, this are replaced with saturated fats in the cell structure. Using saturated fats to create cell membranes disrupts proper cellular function.
A large intake of saturated fats leads to increased cholesterol levels, contributing to heart disease.

Because of their implication in many health problems, you should lower saturated fat intake.

Besides lowering saturated fat intake it is also important to shift the ratio of polyunsaturated fats to saturated fats. A 1997 Van Marken, Lichteenbelt et al study shows that there is a direct correlation between the polyunsaturated to saturated fats ratio and the metabolic rate, a higher polyunsaturated to saturated fats ratio leadind to metabolic increase (22% increase in the TEF and 3% increase in the resting metabolism).

Trans-fats and hydrogenation

Trans fatty acids are chemically altered monounsaturated fats found in partial hydrogenated foods.

Hydrogenation is a process used to prolong the self life of products that has the downside effect of making healthy unsaturated fats act like saturated fats in the body. When fat is hydrogenated, the process destroys the EFA. Consuming food cooked in hydrogenated oils can lead to a deficiency of good fats while simultaneously increasing saturated fat (and fats that behave like saturated fats in the body) levels.

Most margarines and any vegetable based oil or fat that stays solid at room temperature contain trans fats as they have undergone hydrogenation. Also most supermarkets, fast food, bakery products and snacks contain hydrogenated oils.

Also, it is worth mentioning that a 1998 Harvard University report mentions that a 2% increase in calories coming from trans fats can increase the risk of coronary heart disease by as much as 97%.

For the reasons above, we should try to remove completely all trans fats from our diet.

Increased protein intake, faster fat loss?

2008-01-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

Before laying out the guidelines for optimum protein consumption, let’s take a moment to examine what happens when not enough protein is consumed and to address the question of “How much protein does an active person need?”

How much protein does an active person need?

Protein has a mainly structural purpose in the body; the amino acids that result from the digestion of protein are used for the synthesis of non essential amino acids and other various compounds (different hormones, cell components etc.).

Besides the small amount of amino acids floating around in the blood stream and in the muscles, the body has no “real” storage mechanism for amino acids.

Because of this, it is critical to supply through your diet the amino acids the body needs for synthesis purposes. Failing to do so causes protein deficiency. When in a prolonged state of protein deficiency the body reacts by breaking down muscle tissue and, eventually, organ tissue to provide for it’s basic amino acid needs.

Now that you now what happens when the body is protein deprived, let’s tackle the issue of what is the minimum amount of protein a person needs to ingest in order to prevent muscle and organ tissue wastage and eventual death.

Before we talk numbers, a quick word on how protein needs are measured. The technique used to measure protein needs in different populations is the nitrogen balance technique.

The technique involves measuring the amount of nitrogen ingested (found in protein sources) and the amount eliminated through urine, sweat and feces.

When nitrogen coming in is equivalent to the amount being eliminated then there is nitrogen balance. What this means is that you are eating enough protein to prevent muscle and organ tissue breakdown but not enough to support the “building” of additional muscle tissue.

The results of studies conducted on nitrogen balance suggest that an amount of 0.8 g of protein per kilogram of body mass should be consumed by sedentary people in order to maintain nitrogen balance.

As for minimal protein need of active people:

A Rennie et al (1999) study showed that undergoing new training programs leads to a short term increase in protein needs and that this increase does not persist in the long term.
A Butterfield and Calloway (1984) study suggests that chronical training leads to increased anabolic efficiency (more efficient protein use) therefore reducing the minimal amount of protein needed to maintain nitrogen balance. What this means is that active people may need less then the 0.8 g protein per kg required by sedentary people. The amount suggested is around 0.65 g protein per kg.

Now for the actual optimization part

In the section previous section I’ve indicated that studies suggest that a intake between 0.65 and 0.8 g protein per kg of body mass is enough to maintain nitrogen balance.

Protein Powder- a great way to supplement your protein intake.

The amount of protein that is recommended as being optimum, when fat loss is the main goal, is between 1.5 and 2 g per kg.

Some people find these recommendations excessive because, after all 2 g per kg is 2.5 times more then the minimal amount recommended (0.8g per kg). These are the same people that have a limited view of protein, considering it to be a macro nutrient that provides nothing beyond preventing protein deficiency. A better understanding of how protein fits into one’s dietary strategy will erase this fear out of the heads of even the most skeptic people.

Studies made on the effect of increasing protein intake have showed that there are clear benefits to increasing protein intake. Some of the benefits are:

Increased termic effect of food.
The digestion, absorption, storage and oxidation of all nutrients require metabolic processing. The termic effect of processing protein is roughly double than that of carbohydrates and fats. So eating protein is termogenic and leads to a faster metabolic rate. This translates to greater fat loss when dieting.
Increased glucagon production.
Protein consumption increases the glucagon to insulin ratio.
Increased IGF-1 secretion
Protein supplementation, above minimum needs, has been proven to increase the IGF-1 response to exercise and feeding. IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone related to muscle growth. Increased IGF-1 levels while dieting translate to better muscle sparring.
Improved weight loss profile
A 2003 Layman et al study has revealed that reducing the carbohydrate to protein ratio from 3.5-1 to 1.4-1 has the following benefits:
- increased body fat loss
- spares muscle mass
- improves satiety
- better blood glucose management
Increased nitrogen status.
Diets high in protein cause a strong positive nitrogen balance. This coupled with proper exercise leads to the acceleration of muscle growth.

The multiple benefits listed above justify the suggested increase of protein consumption to 2 g per kg or even above.

Further Reading

Warning: Light weights and high reps won't tone your muscle

2007-11-09T23:28:00.000-08:00

LuckeyStoke has nice muscle tone!

After years of being told that high reps increase muscle tone, I'm here to tell you to take the opposite approach. Read on to find out why it is actually heavy weight/low rep training that tones your muscles.

The question most asked by novice trainees is: “How do I get the firm and toned body I always wanted?”

The answer they will likely receive to this question is: “If you want to tone do light weights and high reps.”

But guess what… your personal trainer or good intentioned friend is wrong!

Read on to find out why light weights and high reps don’t tone your muscle and what should you do for excellent muscle tone.

What is muscle tone anyway?

Muscle tone is residual tension in a relaxed muscle.

What this means in layman terms is that even when a muscle is relaxed, nerve impulses from your brain stimulate the muscle fibers within it to contract; so the muscle is in a constant state of partial contraction which keeps it firm, healthy and always ready to use.

So, basically, you already have a certain amount of muscle tone.

How can I improve my muscle tone?

Because, as you learned earlier, muscle tone comes from neurological activity increased muscle tone is not the result of a physical transformation of the muscle but rather an increase of residual tension in the muscle as a result of the nervous system being more alert.

Again, what this means in layman terms is that in order to increase muscle tone you must increase the tension in the muscle. Lifting heavy weights generates higher tension in the muscle than light weights therefore should be practiced for muscle tone.

But if high reps/light weights don’t work, how come I feel so hard and toned after such a workout?

Good question!

The way muscle fibers work is that they can contract on their own but need energy to de-contract. The energy compound that relaxes the muscle is known as ATP.

High reps exhaust ATP in your muscle which leads to a temporary hardness (due to impossibility to de-contract) also known as the pump which is just temporary muscle tone.

But won’t training hard bulk me up instead of tone my muscle?

This depends on the volume of work (number of sets and reps) performed.

The key to getting strong and hard (toned) without the added bulk is to train heavy but keep the volume low.

How you should train and how low is enough is the subject of a upcoming post, so I won’t go into details here.

I realize that just this single post is not enough to convince you to give up on the idea that high reps = high tone that you’ve been indoctrinated in all of this years but I hope that at least it got you thinking a bit.

Until next time!

Maximize exercise after-burn: Secrets of burning body fat fast (I)

2007-11-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

Just pick up any modern fitness and bodybuilding magazine and chances are that you will find a “new” exercise program that will “greatly accelerate” the post workout fat burning rate.

Although well intended these programs most of the time lack scientific evidence to back them up and lead people in the wrong direction as far as what needs to be done in order to maximize post workout fat burning.

[fine tune your fat burning furnace with this simple trick below]

The purpose of this article is to present what exercise after-burn is, what factors influence it and to present a couple of scientifically back up programs that maximize post workout calorie (fat) consumption.

What is Exercise after-burn and how does it occur?

The exercise after-burn also known as “excess post workout oxygen consumption” (EPOC) basically is the amount of calories expended by the body (above resting levels) in order to return itself to the pre-exercise state.

The total amount of calories consumed depends on the duration and intensity of the exercises performed.

The intensity in an aerobic exercise bout has the greatest impact on EPOC.

The higher the intensity, the greater the post workout caloric expenditure.

Studies suggest that given sufficient aerobic exercise intensity, exercise duration becomes an important factor influencing EPOC.

Also, several studies have concluded that intermittent aerobic exercise bouts (interval training) elicit a greater EPOC response when compared to continuous exercise bouts (steady state cardio).

Although there appears to be variation in individual responses, the positive news is that any additional caloric expenditure following exercise can add up over time and may contribute to long-term weight management.

Some evidence-based exercise options to maximize the exercise after-burn are presented below.

Exercise Program Suggestions to Maximize the Exercise After-burn (EPOC)

1. Tempo training: continuous, aerobic exercise at a high-intensity (70-85% VO2 max or 80% of your maximum heart rate) for a period of 30-60 minutes (Smith & McNaughton, 1993).

2. Long slow distance training: continuous, aerobic exercise at a moderate intensity (60-70% VO2 max or 70% of maximum heart rate) for a period of 60-80 minutes (Withers et al., 1991).

Why training with weights is a must.

2007-11-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

In the fitness world, there are very few things all people agree upon; the fact that, no matter what your goals are, strength training should be a part of your workout is one of them. And for a good reason too.

Some of the benefits of weight training are:

1. Burn more body fat.

The short term benefit of weight training is that it burns calories while you do it, at a rate of about 150 calories per 30 min.

If you compare this with cardio, which can burn up to 500 calories per 30 min, you may be tempted to skip weight training and do the cardio.

Why not do this? Because of the long term effects of weight training; research has shown that post workout increases you Basal Metabolic Rate by as much as 20% for up to 48 hours after the workout.
So a person that has a BMR of 2000 calories will burn an extra 400 per day besides the ones consumed working out. Cardio does not have this effect.

2. Reshape your body.

Weight training leads to stronger muscles and joints which have a drastic impact on posture.
Also, weight training increases your lean muscle mass, decreases body fat levels and tones your muscles.
From my experience, proper posture, toned muscle and low body fat levels make everyone feel better about their appearance.

3. Helps perform every day tasks more easily.

Every day tasks like grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, pushing a car, which we do not give to much attention to, require all muscle strength, power, endurance, balance and flexibility.

Weight training improves all of these.

You are convinced? Good!
Now let’s see how we can set up a strength training program that accelerates fat loss. (we will discuss this in a further post).

5 Things you can do NOW to start losing body fat.

2007-10-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Imagine this situation:

You are wrestling with the same 10-30 pounds for years. You’ve tried everything out there, from no fat to high fat diets, low carbs, high carbs, you name it but only managed to lose a few pounds here and there.

Every time you look in the mirror you don’t like what you see - you know it’s time to get serious about losing body fat but are not prepared to make a major dieting effort.

If that’s the case with you, then I have some good news – you don’t have to make an major dieting effort in order to lose fat.

In fact, the trend in the fitness world has shifted from complex fitness solutions that turn your lifestyle upside down (and for that reason are hard to follow) to focusing on thing you can incorporate into your life style with ease and act on NOW!.

Below is a list of things you could do to start losing body fat now:

1. Don’t touch that first piece.
Everybody knows that you can eat any kind of food and still don’t get fat as long as you eat in MODERATION. But let’s face it – some types of food you can’t just eat in moderation. One cookie or a hand full of chips will do for you? If not; if you can’t stop there it is better to avoid those types of food altogether.

2. Spread your calories over the entire day.
Most people have the following eating pattern: one or two light meals during the day and a HEAVY dinner. Geese’s! At night you are the least active (with the exception of night jobs) so you burn the least amount of calories. The extra calories from the large dinner are stored as body fat.
So, make breakfast your largest meal and dinner the smallest. Chances are that you will be burning the calories eaten during the day so minimal amounts of them will be stored as fat.

3. Fill up on fiber.
Because fibrous carbs have low calorie density and at the same time “fill you up” so you don’t feel hungry they help you lose fat, so they should constitute the bulk of your carb intake.

Fibrous carbs are: Asparagus, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Cucumber, Green Beans, Green peppers, Mushrooms, Onion, Peas, Salad (lettuce, romaine), Spinach, and Tomato.

4. Drink water.
Without enough water the body can’t “burn” body fat as efficiently as normally.
When dehydrated, the body tries to hold on to as much water as possible. When this happens, the body’s waste products can’t be eliminated and the kidneys become overwhelmed. At this point the liver starts to help remove these waste products, neglecting its own job which includes using stored body fat for energy.

5. Get Moving.
This is the most simple and most effective fat burning secret. Exercise, besides the fat that burns calories, increases the metabolism and develops lean muscle mass, also boosts your self-esteem, increasing the probability that you will do more things in this direction (losing the fat).
Running outdoors is a very pleasent activity and can help you quickly burn the fat!

For the best results, combine aerobic (walking, riding a bike, treadmill etc) with strength training.

Deciphering the Color Cod.

2007-10-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Did you know that the color pigment of different vegetables can give you valuable information about their nutritional value?

Continue reading to find out how the main 5 chromatic categories of fruit and vegetables impact your general health.

Color Category: White.
Found in: bananas, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions and garlic.
Benefits: Reduces cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Color Category: Red.
Found in: melon, strawberries, apples, cherries, tomatoes, and radish.
Benefits: Prevents Alzheimer disease and increases blood flow.

Color Category: Green.
Found in: Kiwi, spinach, broccoli, cabbage.
Benefits: Protects bones, teeth and eye sight.

Color Category: Blue and Violet.
Found in: egg-plant, prunes, blueberries, blackberry, raspberry and grapes.
Benefits: Improves your capacity to remember things, reduces cancer risk.

Color Category: Yellow and Orange.
Found in: oranges, grapefruit, peaches, mango, pineapple, carrots and corn.
Benefits: Stimulates the immune system and reduces the risk of eye sight problems.

You can combine them any way you like as long you make sure you eat at least 5 portions per day and at least 7 portions per week of fruits and vegetables from every Color Category.

A portion is 1 cup for raw vegetables and fruits and 1/2 cups for cooked vegetables and fruits.

Who else wants to discover how to build a diet that forces your body to burn more fat?

2007-10-23T08:23:00.001-07:00

If your main goal is losing fat what you should know is that if your diet is no in
check then no amount of exercise or supplements will help you reach your goals. A balanced diet is the base on any fat loss program – have a weak base and everything will crumble.

Also, you should know that a lot of people misuse the word “diet” – a diet is not a 12 week quick fix, it is “food or feed habitually eaten”. What this translates in is that if you want lasting results you should change your core eating habits. Most diet books fail to get this point across and the ones that do fail to offer a way to re-engineer your diet simple enough so that every one could use it.

Building a diet that forces your body to burn fat is a very simple process.

I. Revise your food list.

You should aim to be eating only natural, unprocessed, fresh and nutrient rich foods. Once you eliminate junk food from your diet you will see immediate results: you energy levels will skyrocket, you won’t have as many cravings as before, you will look and fill better.

The foods that you should be trying to eliminate are:

Fried foods (fried chicken, French fries etc.)
Bakery Products (cookies, Biscuits, doughnuts etc.)
Refined Vegetable Oils
Margarine
meat fat, dairy fat and palm and coconut oils
all refined sugars and white flour products
Fats Food

The foods you should be eating:

Protein sources: chicken breast, turkey breast, fresh fish, lean beef, egg white, milk.

Starchy carbohydrate sources: potatoes, brown rice, whole wheat grains, oatmeal, beans, pasta.

Fibrous carbohydrate sources: asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, green papers, carrots, mushrooms, onions, peas, salad, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach.

Fresh fruit: grapes, oranges, apples, raisins, strawberries, grapefruit, melon.

Good fats: Avocado, Almonds (dry roasted), Oil (olive & canola), Salad dressing (light), Peanuts, Walnuts.

Another thing that needs special attention is the way the food is cooked.
Always roast, broil, grill, sauté and stew your food.
Avoid food that is deep fried.
NEVER cover your food in butter and high-fat sauces, because you will be adding tones of extra calories to your food without even knowing. This highly overlooked fact often makes or breaks a successful fat loss diet. I know that food can be very dull without this but let me ask you this: Is giving up these a price too much to pay for building the body of your dreams?

II. Revise the way you eat your food.

1. Spread your total calories for the day over 4 meals.

2. Make your first meal the largest one and your last meal the smallest.

3. At every meal you should consume a lean protein, a starchy carb and a fibrous carb.

4. Eat the majority of your carbs in the first part of the day.

III. Devise a meal template based on the way you should eat your food.
I devised this menu template that follows the rules listed at .II.

Meal 1 – Lean Protein (small serving), Starchy carbs (large serving), Simple carb (fruit) or Fibrous carbs (vegetables)

Meal 2 – Lean Protein (medium serving), Starchy carbs (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables)

Meal 3 - Lean Protein (medium serving), Starchy carbs (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables)

Meal 4 - Lean Protein (large serving), Starchy carbs (small serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables), good fats.

IV. Combine the menu template with the list of foods you should be eating and you have 4 healthy, fat use promoting meals.

A little tip for those that do not know how to evaluate what a large portion or small portion should look like.

I look at my food plate like it was a pie chart.

At Meal 1 what I do is I set a piece of fruit on the plate and then mentally divide the remaining empty space in 3 (almost) equal sized spaces then fill 2 of them with some starchy carbs (it is a large serving) and the remaining space with some protein source from the list.

At meal 2 and 3 I divide the plate into 6 equal sections then I fill 2 out of 6 with a protein source, 3 out 6 with some fibrous carbs and the remaining 1 with some starchy carbs.

It’s very simple, no?

V. Increase your water intake and eliminate all other beverages.

This is the diet make – breaker. All liquids except water are calorie dense and provide empty-calories (no nutritional value). Never drink your calories!
You can find more information on the importance of water for fat loss here.

Are you taking advantage of the best fat burning and performance enhancing “supplement” in the world?

2007-10-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

The substance I am about to present to you can when consumed, almost instantly, accelerate fat loss, promote muscle development & strengthening and prolong aerobic capability.

Think I’m talking about an illegal performance enhancing drug? Think again.

In fact, besides the fact that it is legal, chances are that you are already using it, but not in correct amounts. Still don’t know?

It is WATER!

Now, you may say that: ”You aren’t telling me something new. I knew that I should drink between 8 – 10 glasses a day?” Ok, maybe you knew but tell me do you drink that much water a day? Probably not, I know that I didn’t before I started trying to find ways to reduce my body fat level.

What you should know about water is that:
• Every physiological process in your body depends on water.

• Dehydration decreases endurance, strength and physical performance.

• Without enough water the body can’t “burn” body fat as efficiently as normally.
When dehydrated, the body tries to hold on to as much water as possible. When this happens, the body’s waste products can’t be eliminated and the kidneys become overwhelmed. At this point the liver starts to help remove these waste products, neglecting its own job which includes using stored body fat for energy.

• Water is especially important on moderate to high protein diets. Processing protein produces much metabolic waste that the kidneys can’t remove completely without enough water.

• Drinking lots of water does not make you retain water. In fact the body only retains water when it does not receive enough water.

• Water is the only zero calorie liquid and the only one that properly hydrates you. You should not drink any other liquids for the two reasons above.

The best way to figure out the amount of water you should drink per day is by reporting it to your Total Energy Expenditure – you should drink between 1 ml and 1.5 ml per calorie consumed.

(Water intake in liters) = (total energy expenditure) X (1 or 1.5)

Anyway, do not drop water consumption below the recommended 8 to 10 glasses per day (that’s about 2 liters per day).

The importance of goal setting

2007-10-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

What is the number one reason for failing to lose body fat?

I’ll give you a hit: It’s not a lack of knowledge regarding dieting and exercising.

If you answered “failing to set clearly defined goals”, then you got the answer right!

You see, the great challenge for people isn’t to find the knowledge but to take action on it. Goals fill this gap.

It’s not enough to wish to change. You must define state and set a deadline for the wish in order to transform your dream into a goal. A goal with a purpose is the fuel that propels you forward.

"The strangest secret in the world is that you become what you think about.”
- Earl Nightingale.

Earl Nightingale is right that you become what you think about so instead of telling yourself every day that you can’t do it why don’t you imagine how you would like to look, set a deadline, make it a goal, write it down and read it everyday.

Also, when you have a goal you will be more focused and determined. See the guys and gals wandering around the gym like they don’t know what to do next. These people have not set goals for themselves and it’s very likely that they been gym members for a long time but still they haven’t improved a bit.

How to set goals?

1. Set some long time goals. Ex: By next year I want to lose 30 pounds of FAT.

2.Set some short term goals. Ex: I want to lose 5 pounds of FAT this month!

3.Set measurable goals. Ex: I want to increase my bench press by 20 pounds!

4.Set Realistic deadlines. You can’t lose 30 pounds of fat in 30 days! (no matter what some claim)

5.Make sure you don’t have conflicting goals. Example: You can’t gain 15 pounds of muscle while losing 15 pounds of FAT. Put emphasis on your main goal = either lose Fat or build Muscle.

6.Write them down. Until it’s not on paper it is only a wish not a goal.

7.Read them to yourself every day. Program your subconscious for success.

The basics of fat loss

2007-10-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

The only way to lose fat is stated in the law of weight/fat loss also known as the law of energy balance:

“In order to lose weight you must use more calories than you eat every day.”

A calorie is a measurement for a form of energy – heat.
The food you are eating releases, when digested, an amount of energy (heat). So each type of food has a caloric value.

The total amount of calories that you consume in a day is the sum of the caloric values of the foods eaten on that particular day.

Calories are also used as a measurement for the amount of energy stored in the body as adipose tissues (fat) or glycogen (stored carbohydrates).

The amount of calories that you use in a day is also known as your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and consists of:
• The calories used for normal bodily functions like digestion, circulation, eating etc. – your Basal Metabolic Rate.
• The calories used while performing physical activities.

What happens when your total energy expenditure is greater then the number of calories eaten is that a caloric deficit appears. The body, in an attempt to reach energy balance, must tap into stored fat for energy – calories are released from body fat and used for energy.

Using body fat for energy (because of the caloric deficit) leads to lower body fat levels and, implicitly, weight loss.

(Total energy expenditure) – (Calorie intake) = (Caloric deficit)

If you know a bit of math (and I bet you do), you would clearly see that the calorie deficit can be created/increased in 3 ways:
1. Increasing total energy expenditure above calorie intake
2. Decreasing calorie consumption below total energy expenditure
3. At the same time decrease caloric intake and increase energy expenditure

The obvious pick between the three is number 3.

So if you want to lose fat what you should try to do is decrease your calories and increase the amount of exercise.

Weight Loss VS Fat loss

2007-10-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

The mistake that most people do, when they want to start a exercise program and diet, is to think that the bad shape their body is in is caused by a excess of weight.

With this idea in mind they go on crash diets that produce a lot of weight loss at the begging. The problem with this crash diets is (and if you were on one previously you would know I'm right) that after a period they stop working and that the weight lost is gained back. Some people even end up weighing more at the end of a crash diet that they weighed when they started.

These people failed because they failed to determine that -excess body fat - is the true cause of their problem and not their weight.

Your total weight is the sum of:
- your muscle mass
- body fat amount
- water weight and the weight of the food you ate.

When you go on a crash diet the weight you lose is water weight and the weight of the food you ate. It is logical that when you start eating again you will rapidly gain it back. And, after that period of starving you could be eating way more than before, increasing your body fat. For this reason, stay away from books that promise Weight Loss.

Now Back to body fat.

What you should know about body fat is that it is less dense than muscle: 1 pound of fat has the same volume as 3 pounds of muscle. What this translates into is that if even if you remained at your current weight but replaced all the fat with muscle, you would look completely different.

There are situations where a person’s weight stayed the same during the diet but he replaced all of the fat with muscle mass and so, even if he weighed the same, his appearance changed completely – he reengineered a blob of fat into a lean, chiseled physic that is turning heads and demanding respect.

So, the clear winner is BODY FAT!
Lower your body fat level and you'll have the body you want, guaranteed.

Book

2007-10-20T00:41:00.001-07:00

Your going to love this surprise!
Can back to the blog in a few days, maybe it will be here waiting for you.